This is what im sorta into rite now - and its a total skitzophrenic(sic) book. I'd entered this spring not in a Jutland mood -well, always a little- but because of secret reasons (secret only because it's a little red on my face if i out it) i decided to make a few week of coverstars of the German battle cruisers from WW1. As I posted them every few days, i had to look over the Internet for good and large snaps so i could so adorn Securityout! but then I wandered onto an article which was mainly a review of a book which'd come out a few years before and was the hottest and latest shit on the battle. I read the article, realised that i needed to read the book, and then set about ordering it. Not in CP libraries. fist foray into ordering it from borders online worked - but it arrived smacklack in the middle of my Russian adventure - so it had to wait.
In the meantime, I picked up a book that id gotten a few years back but never read - Death in the Grey Wastes, an oral history of the battle of Jutland. Long book - but oral histories are candy often, and this was very-best-candy. I'd put down the Road to Berlin slog for a bit and ate up the Jutland. It was a loved read, this oral history book - it'd been maybe 6-7-8 years since last ad on Jutland, and boy this book throttled me goodly.
So, i finished the Road to Berlin and jumped rite into Rules of the Game. This book is strange - obstinately it is about the battle of Jutland - but the book i rally more that just about that. For as the shells crash and the ships turn and the battle cruiser fleet finally sights the German High seas fleet - rite @ that chaos crazy moment - it halts the battle and takes us on a 250 page examination into the history of the Victorian Navy and their propensity to follow orders.
@50p detour. Rite when the battle cruisers had turned north and the 5th Battle Squadron was first feeling the High Seas fleets guns on them. Bamm. Story halted.
So, the jutalnd part was thilling. But the Victorian part? Well ...... thriling is surely not the word. it's funny, too - i have speant a lot of time in this world. Remember how I concentrated on English history as an undergrad and a grad student? My natural interestes were in this sprhere. But, th dual sections juxtaposed leaves one dying for th return of the Jutland part of the book (pag 400 or so brings us back to the barrle) and dyig for th end of the Victorian section.
But that Jutland section - and why the 250p diversion? Simply put, the Jutland section is Love - a great writer writes and teaches me on a battle I know inside and out. Or thought I did. The point of the 250p diversion is to examine a oint in the battle that I never really gave much thought to. The point is when - as stated above - the smaller faster scouting detachment of the English fleet (the Battle cruiser Fleet supported by the 5th Battle Squadron ((the real heavies, but only 4 ships)) ) chased the German equivalent south (The Run to the South) in order to locate the main German fleet (The High Ses Fleet). Then,it happened - th English battle cruisers sighted the main German fleet and turned back north (th start of The Run to the North) - but something messed up, for as the battle cruiser turned north - the 5th battlesquadron kept sailing into the 'jaws' of the German fleet- they were sailing 34 knots towards destruction.
So, the point of the book is "What happened that the 5th BS kept going south, even though the oher half of the fast detachment turned around?" Thus begins the 250p discussions of following orders in the Victorian Navy. im complaining about this 250p detour - but realise that this writer has things to teach me. Never would i have put so much thought into that particular point of the battle. Then again, he is a PhD in that era, so .....
In the meantime, I picked up a book that id gotten a few years back but never read - Death in the Grey Wastes, an oral history of the battle of Jutland. Long book - but oral histories are candy often, and this was very-best-candy. I'd put down the Road to Berlin slog for a bit and ate up the Jutland. It was a loved read, this oral history book - it'd been maybe 6-7-8 years since last ad on Jutland, and boy this book throttled me goodly.
So, i finished the Road to Berlin and jumped rite into Rules of the Game. This book is strange - obstinately it is about the battle of Jutland - but the book i rally more that just about that. For as the shells crash and the ships turn and the battle cruiser fleet finally sights the German High seas fleet - rite @ that chaos crazy moment - it halts the battle and takes us on a 250 page examination into the history of the Victorian Navy and their propensity to follow orders.
@50p detour. Rite when the battle cruisers had turned north and the 5th Battle Squadron was first feeling the High Seas fleets guns on them. Bamm. Story halted.
So, the jutalnd part was thilling. But the Victorian part? Well ...... thriling is surely not the word. it's funny, too - i have speant a lot of time in this world. Remember how I concentrated on English history as an undergrad and a grad student? My natural interestes were in this sprhere. But, th dual sections juxtaposed leaves one dying for th return of the Jutland part of the book (pag 400 or so brings us back to the barrle) and dyig for th end of the Victorian section.
But that Jutland section - and why the 250p diversion? Simply put, the Jutland section is Love - a great writer writes and teaches me on a battle I know inside and out. Or thought I did. The point of the 250p diversion is to examine a oint in the battle that I never really gave much thought to. The point is when - as stated above - the smaller faster scouting detachment of the English fleet (the Battle cruiser Fleet supported by the 5th Battle Squadron ((the real heavies, but only 4 ships)) ) chased the German equivalent south (The Run to the South) in order to locate the main German fleet (The High Ses Fleet). Then,it happened - th English battle cruisers sighted the main German fleet and turned back north (th start of The Run to the North) - but something messed up, for as the battle cruiser turned north - the 5th battlesquadron kept sailing into the 'jaws' of the German fleet- they were sailing 34 knots towards destruction.
So, the point of the book is "What happened that the 5th BS kept going south, even though the oher half of the fast detachment turned around?" Thus begins the 250p discussions of following orders in the Victorian Navy. im complaining about this 250p detour - but realise that this writer has things to teach me. Never would i have put so much thought into that particular point of the battle. Then again, he is a PhD in that era, so .....
And boy is it a skitzo book. Part detailed thesis about jutland, part thesis about the Victorian Navy and English soiety, but also a history of th battle - so, along w/ thesis havy sections, you also have some very popularised parts about the battle. he's not vying for a "this is a complete history of the battle", but he still inputs enough information, explanation, and oral testimony to create an overall pleasing and informed reading on the battle itself - i supose he didnt want to cheat anyone picking up th book expectin that total history of the battle.
So, 100p more of the Victorian Navy, then back to see what this author makes of the 'Turn to the North'.
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