[BOOK] White Eagle, Red Star

[A co]

That's the title of Norman Davie's book about the Polish -Soviet war in 1919-1920. I just read it and recommend it highly. Mobile warfare with cavalry, armored trains, biplanes, and early tanks, and of course infantry and arty. It would be interesting to see a war game based on this. This happened when the West had largely given up the idea of fast-moving mobile warfare based on initiative, surprise, envelopment, as the author describes it. Has anybody here read it?

 

[mTk]

I'll have to look into this a bit. I didn't even know there was a war.

 

[A co]

It happened in the shadow of the Russian civil war, and just after WWI, so it didn't get too much attention, relatively. Here's a bit about American volunteer pilots involved- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_7th_Air_Escadrille

 

[Nathangun]

I haven't read it but I've read Norman Davies books before. 'Warsaw 44' comes to mind. A very good scholar and academic.

 

[Rico]

Sounds interesting -- must look out for it.

 

[A co]

Continuing my thought of books about relatively obscure conflicts, I also recommend 'The Dark Defile" and " The Boxer Rebellion", both by Diana Preston. The first is about the British in Afghanistan in the first half of the 19th century. The second is about the various armies of the world who ended up fighting in China in 1900, and gives very interesting comparisons of their qualities and habits. German, U.S., British, Japanese, Russian, Italian (if my memory serves) all fighting in the same place. Again, both subjects would make good fodder for war games sometime.

 

[Hedgehog]

I will look at that one for my next Kindle choice ......Thanks for the Heads up for the Book