Thunder Below! is the one I thought of.

Or Run Silent, Run Deep.

Absolutely agree with both original topics. Silent War is an awesome treatment of WWII US sub ops and Silent Victory is a real compliment to it. I'm 2/3 through the book now, while playing the full campaign of SW. Outstanding!!

Awful game.



Just not enough there for me. I know a lot of people love it though.

I enjoy this because its a chaotic wargame that I can get non-wargamers to play.

I found the book the comes with the PC "RED BARON" game pretty good read.

Also try "They Fought for the Sky," by Quentin Reynolds, a superb book.

Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson is another good one.

While we're on the subject, I just finished A Bridge too Far by Cornelius Ryan. Man...amazing book, well written, covering everything from the operational to the tactical level. And while it is dominated by the allied story, the germans seem to be given a pretty fair shake (and indeed, many of their commanders and soldiers from the battle were extensively interviewed for the book). If you think the first part is a bit slow, keep reading...once they get to the attack the book is hard to put down! The only problem is, now I want to buy a bunch of Market Garden wargames, and the ones I have already barely get played by my eurogaming friends!

I'm definitely going to have to read The Longest Day and The Last Battle now.

Out of curiosity I have to ask .. what does the German author make of the validity of Monty's plan? Does he think it was a waste of time & resources, or a good idea that went badly wrong?

I'm in to secound the opinion on "A Bridge too Far" I just read it again a couple of weeks previous and its a heck of a read. A real historical page turner

Matt, to answer your question, IIRC, the thesis of the book was that Montgomery made a terrible decision to go in, which in no way could have been construed as a good idea (hindsight being 20/20 and all that). Ryan's comment was that Napoleon once said he only fought when he thought he had a 75% chance of success - but here, even optimistically, Monty had only a 25% chance of success and did it anyway.

Can't remember what the Germans thought in particular - I remember a passage saying that the Allied equipment airdrops were so far off at some points, that the Allies completely restocked German units with weapons and ammo. I think they were surprised the Allies approached the towns from the direction they did: on those elevated dike roads where a single stalled vehicle could completely disrupt the convoy.

You might also be interested in reading up on Horrocks then if this battle interests you. It was after all his XXX Corp that led the sometimes faltering charge up the Highway.

If you have the time to dedicate to the game & a couple of friends, then the "Highway To The Reich" Highway to the Reich is one of the great monster games of all time