Comment by paganel
16 days ago
> world war 2 naval history?
Mind to share some titles? As I’m also interested in naval history and strategy, and for better or for worse I’ve stopped reading programming books a good while ago.
Also, and for what it’s worth, I found out that good books on military strategy are also really valuable when trying to apply them to many higher-ish-level programming tasks, so in that respect I’m hitting two birds with one stone.
You asked specifically for books-- let me add some podcasts:
Check out https://www.youtube.com/@UnauthorizedHistoryPacificWar An overview of the US Pacific war with a professional historian and WW2 museum director, and a retired submarine captain/commodore who served in the Pacific. Lots of high-quality guests, too, often including Parshall and sometimes Tully from bloopernova's list.
Also, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaBYW76inbX4kE52CPUvx... Doesn't have the authority of the previous, but is high-quality and covers the non-US portions of the war much better, IMO.
These 2, in this order:
Incredible Victory by Walter Lord[1]. The story of Midway, fairly balanced.
Shattered Sword by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully[2]. also about Midway, but more research on Japanese sources. Has updated information about some things that are taken as "truth" about Midway. Amazing book.
EDITED to add:
James Hornfischer has some great books about the Pacific Naval war:
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour[3]. 6 small escort carriers, and a handful of destroyers and destroyer-escorts vs the heavyweights of the Japanese fleet: Battleships and cruisers. Jaw-dropping descriptions of courage under fire. Fantastic book.
Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal[4]. Covers several naval battles, but not much on the ground conflict. Really good book too.
The Fleet at Flood Tide: America at Total War in the Pacific[5]. The late Pacific war, with the invasion of Saipan, and the naval aircraft battle of the Philippines, leading up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the war.
----
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Incredible-Victory-Battle-Midway-Clas...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Shattered-Sword-Untold-Battle-Midway/...
[3] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553381482
[4] https://www.amazon.com/Neptunes-Inferno-U-S-Navy-Guadalcanal...
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Fleet-Flood-Tide-America-1944-1945/dp...
Thanks a lot!
Oh yeah, on the applying military concepts to software engineering: Shattered Sword talks a lot about organizational/strategic/doctrinal deficiencies and I found the lessons to be very relevant to how teams work. I definitely recommend that book if you're any kind of leader or work in development.