FWWC Readings

[Andrea G]

One of the reasons that brought me to start wargaming, long time ago; was to play through the battles I have read about in books.
I always try to match games and books that portray the battles at the same level.

Recently I was hooked up by the FWWC titles Serbia and East Prussia, but I am lacking good reads about them.

I was thinking to buy:

For Serbia '14: Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 by James Lyon

For East Prussia '14: Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 by Prit Buttar

Are they good choices, do they have the same scale of the games?
Any other suggestion?

[Mowgli]

Not quite on the same "level" of the games, but if you would like to read a common soldier's eyewitness account of the first campaign, I can suggest Egon Erwin Kisch's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Kisch) war diary. To be honest though I don't know if it is even pusblished in English - the english title would be "Write That Down, Kisch!". I've read the original german version (Schreib das auf, Kisch!)

[Lowlander]

Pritt Buttar has been a very enjoyable read for myself have the first 3 of his 4 titles on WW1.
Have just ordered 2 of his WW2 East front titles.
His early hardback editions are getting very expensive.

[Partizanka]

notsure how to delete double post

[Partizanka]

One of the reasons that brought me to start wargaming, long time ago; was to play through the battles I have read about in books.
I always try to match games and books that portray the battles at the same level.

Recently I was hooked up by the FWWC titles Serbia and East Prussia, but I am lacking good reads about them.

I was thinking to buy:

For Serbia '14: Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 by James Lyon

For East Prussia '14: Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 by Prit Buttar

Are they good choices, do they have the same scale of the games?
Any other suggestion?

Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914 by James Lyon looked good and I ordered it after sampling the first chapter. I supplemented  Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 by Prit Buttar  with Tannenberg, Clash of Empires by Dennis Showalter. I'm curious if anyone read August 1914, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and would recommend it?

 

[wildb]

I read August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn when it first came out and I have since bought the Kindle Version. It is a mixture of fiction and historical events and you might not like the non military aspects. It provides many perspectives on the destruction of the Russian Second Army which I found fascinating. There are two other books in the series: November 1916 and March 2017.

[Fog of War]

I hope folks keep this thread up.

I just got :  Implacable Foes -   War in the Pacific 1944-1945 by Waldo Heinrichs , Marc Gallicchio, Oxford Press, 2017.   a long section on the planned invasion of Japan.

[Lowlander]

Bumping the thread back to WW1, Home before the leaves fall by Ian Senior which is published by Osprey is worth every penny. Mainly covers the French perspective and early battles.

[jim pfleck]

I have read the Lyon book and all 4 of Buttar's.

Wawro's book A Mad Catastrophe is a decent read on the Austrians in the first months of WWI. Fall of the Double Eagle is also good (forget author), also focused on Austrian perspective. I am currently reading Showalter's Tannenberg...(and Implacable Foes is fantastic too wink wink.. got that out of the library last summer).

For F14, a book I read recently is called Lost Opportunity by Simon House about the Battle of the Ardennes.

I too like to read what I play and play what I read...

[Mr Grumpy]

Lots of good reads being suggested here, just to add a couple more options...…...

F14 : "The Campaign of the Marne" by Sewell Tyng is a excellent read covering the events in France up to the German withdrawal from the Marne, very easy reading, clear maps (very important) and a section at the end that attempts to separate the facts from fiction that the "Miracle of the Marne" created.

All FWWC titles : "A Military Atlas of the First World War" by Arthur Banks, full of great maps (obviously) and explanations of all aspects of WW1 on all theatres of action on land, sea and air.