Book Reviews

Book Review: Shadows in the Sand

"In 2010 I heard that someone was willing to write our story. I knew I had the ability to write down my...

Book Review: Come back to Portofino

"The general public could not comprehend what their boys had gone through or how the war had changed them," writes author James...

Book review: The utility of force

General Rupert Smith published his "The Utility of Force – The Art of War in the Modern World" to well-deserved acclaim some...

Book Review: The Art of War

Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" is arguably one of two great books written on the topic, the other being Major General...

Book Review: On War

"On War", "Vom Kriege" in the original German, is regarded by many as the pre-eminent work on the philosophy of war. Written...

Book review: Uncle George

The late Carel Birkby was a fine writer and "Uncle George" illustrates well his fine eye and finer humour. Brigadier, then Major...

Book Review: Official History of the SANF during WW2

South Africa entered World War Two with no navy. Some naval trained personnel, yes; but ships, no. From three officers and three...

Book review: The Hall Handbook of the Anglo Boer War

Major Darrell Hall was a well-known expert on the South African War and his "The Hall Handbook of the Anglo Boer War"...

Book Review: American Guerilla

"American Guerilla" is a fresh look at an anti-Japanese US-led insurgency on Luzon in the Philippines during World War Two and the...

Book review: Weapons of War

"Weapons of War" is a highly under-rated book, as coffee table-style books tend to be. "Weapons of War" was one of my...

Book review: People’s War

Anthea Jeffery's "People's War – New light on the struggle for South Africa" was published into a storm of controversy in 2009...

Book review: Strangling the Confederacy

"Strangling the Confederacy" is a dry, witty and ultimately educational account of Union coastal operations against the Confederate States during the American...

Book review: Three Frigates

Three Frigates is a cautionary tale about a country that acquired a modern Navy for political reasons and a defence force too...

Book review: To the Bitter End

The trouble with the Russo-German War of 1941-1945, commonly called the "Eastern Front" of World War Two, is language, propaganda and secrecy....

Book Review: Tale Gunner

Attention! Eyes Right! Stand at Ease! Sergeant Major AJ Brooks has some memories for you! That is is you are male,aged between...

Book Review: The burglar in the bin bag

South Africans are a gullible lot as a "Burglar in the bin bag" shows. Indeed, the fact that this is Arthur Goldstuck's sixth book...

Book review: Endless War

Counterinsurgency evangelist Ralph Peters is not well known in these parts. This is a pity, as he is a vocal, if somewhat...

Book Review: A Collector’s Guide to the history of the South African Special Forces

The just-released "A Collector's Guide to the history of the South African Special Forces" is essential for anyone with an interest in...

Book review: First in Last out

"First in Last out – The South African Artillery in Action 1975–1988" is a must-have. It is a lucid account of South...

Book review: The Fourth Dimension

The Fourth Dimension – the untold story of military health in South Africa is a magisterial study of the subject just published...

Book review: PK van der Byl, african statesman

"PK van der Byl, african statesman" is both very funny and quite sad. Humorous in that by all accounts Pieter Kenyon Fleming-Voltelyn...

Book Review: Pathfinder Company

What an excellent book! Well written, well illustrated and humorous, Pathfinder Company tells the story of the short-lived reconnaissance and raiding force...

Book review: The rise and fall of an American Army

To what extent was Vietnam a struggle between insurgents and counterinsurgents and to what extent was it a conventional war between the...

Book Review: Mastering Tactics, A Tactical Decision Games Workbook

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The US Marine Corps takes professional military self-education seriously and even has a manual on the topic: MCRP 6-11A A Book on...

Book Review: Selected military issues with specific reference to the Republic of South Africa

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It is a rare to find military or academic writing clear of the convoluted language and obtuse thinking usually found in these...

Book Review: Fighting Columns in Small Wars: An OMFTS Model

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Does an unbiased account of Operation Modular, the SA Defence Force's (SADF) last venture in Angola exist? Fred Bridgland and Helmut Heitman...

Book Review: Men against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command

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More often quoted in speeches than actually read, Brig Gen SLA Marshall's classic "Men against Fire, The Problem of Battle Command" is...

Book Review: Going to the Wars

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Max Hastings, the newspaper reporter, editor and historian, is good at telling good stories. Going to the Wars is about himself. It...

Professional Military Education is a Learning Curve

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"You cannot say later in life, I will study. You have got to start in the beginning." US General of the Armies Omar...

Book review: Operasie Savannah

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It takes the (re-) reading of an official history of Operation Savannah to realise how scratch an exercise it was. The forces...

Book review: The Killer Angels

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"The Killer Angels" is the Pulitzer Prize winning US Civil War novel that gave rise to the pretentious TV-mini series, Gettysburg, available...

Book review: The World War II Bookshelf

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This is a book review of a book on book reviews. Now, before you skip reading the rest of this review, reflect...

Book Review: MCDP 6, Command and Control

Marine Corps Doctrine Publication 6: Command and Control is an excellent introduction to this tortured topic and shows up some of the...

Book review: The Great Boer War

It is interesting and entertaining when a great novelist turns to telling great history. Dr Arthur Conan Doyle served as a volunteer...

Book review: Blue and Old Gold

Blue and Old Gold is probably the definitive one-volume history of the British South Africa Police (BSAP) and it is unlikely to...

Book review: Hani – A life too short

"Hani – A life too short" is a sympathetic biography of African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) "struggle"...

Book review: In a Bosnian Trench

In a Bosnian Trench is the powerful melancholy autobiography of Bosnian teenager Elvir Kulin, a boy a who stayed home in a...

Book Review: Goodbye Dolly Gray

Rayne Kruger's Goodbye Dolly Gray is a remarkably prescient and erudite single-volume account of the South African War, aka the Second Boer...

Book Review: How SA built six atom bombs

This rather repetitive and somewhat superficial book is a history of the South African nuclear weapons programme that by late 1989 had...

Book review: Sunday, Bloody Sunday

  Jake Harper-Ronald had no quiet life, and as the title of this autobiography suggests, he was indeed present in Derry on Sunday,...

Book review: Those Who Marched Away

Those Who Marched Away is an anthology of extracts from some 200 diaries from the 1660s to the present days. Peppered with...

Book review: A world of trouble

I forget who wrote that events in the Middle East were bloody-minded "spite and malice passing as normalcy", but that would be...

Book Review: Berlin Battlefield Guide

Simply spell-binding! In the words of that mangler of English, George W Bush, "unputdownable". Former British Army military policeman Tony le Tissier is arguably the...

Book Review: The Rise of US Grant

The Rise of US Grant is an education in leadership, the value of incremental experience at various levels of command and the...

Book Review: From Tailhooker to Mudmover

From Tailhooker to Mudmover is another excellent title from the pen of retired South African Air Force (SAAF) Brigadier General Dick Lord. I have long...

Book Review: German Order of Battle

Samuel W Mitcham Jr's German Order of Battle describes itself as the "definitive reference on the German in World War Two, covering the...

Book Review: The Gamble

The Gamble is Thomas Ricks' superb sequel to Fiasco, his best-selling account of the misbegotten US invasion of Iraq and its immediate...

Book review: Conflicting Missions

A Colossus who bestrode the Third World is gone. Fidel Castro has retired.   But what drove him to step onto that stage? Some years...

Book Review: Never Quite a Soldier

David Lemon's Never Quite a Soldier – A Rhodesian Policeman's War 1971-1982 shows why Robert Mugabe is the tyrant he is today – he...

Book Review: The Story of my War

JH Selfe's The Story of my War is a title we should see more of. Americans call their World War Two forbears "the greatest...