Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history/News/April 2023/Book reviews

Does Fire and Ash say anything about is the lack of coordination between 14th AF and the fleet? Gog the Mild (talk) 22:49, 9 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

No. It describes the work of the Task Force Thunderbird, the US Army unit that provided voice communications, satellite links and the Trojan Spirit II intel system. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 00:28, 10 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

@Hawkeye7: Thanks for the review of Born of Fire and Ash. I purchased a copy (which took a surprising amount of work given that most bookshops aren't selling it), and was disappointed by its sheer bulk. It looks really interesting, but is close to being unreadable. The last volume in the Southeast Asian conflicts OH series had the same problem. From my initial skimming of the book, there seems to be excessive detail and some repetition (the material on the RAAF fast jet force is spread all over the place and is repetitive, for instance). The official history unit at the AWM might benefit from a stronger focus on ensuring that its products actually get read. Official history works will never have a wide readership, but if they're physically difficult for any readers to consult they're not very useful. Nick-D (talk) 11:11, 11 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

I bought my copy from the War Memorial, which was more complicated than it sounds because the place is in a complete mess owing to recent construction activity. Just finding the car park was a challenge. You have to make a free booking in advance because numbers inside are limited and I was unsure whether the book store was still there or where it was. Fortunately, it is and was easy to find. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:27, 11 April 2023 (UTC)Reply