"Best WWI reads" Topic

A couple of friends are contemplating starting WWI ships and campaign. I don't know much about the period, honestly. I have been tooling around abit on Wiki, but was wondering what the best reads are in the opinion of gamers, as of course we intend to game the period.

I've also won some Avalanche Press games on eBay, so I'm hoping they'll have some nice bibliographies, too.

Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie.

Also his "Dreadnought," to see whence it all came.

Tannenburgh by Showalter. Excellent book. I also like Hew Strachan. But then I love the Eastern front.

Thanks,

John

A great novel is "A Soldier of The Great War"

For WWI naval – Massie. Also, "Operation Kronstadt" is a thrilling read – would be good material for scenarios, pulp, campaign etc. Fast boats, spies, international intrigue, bolsheviks, torpodoes and general mayhem. One of those made for movie episodes in history. Highly recommend it.

For information about battleships, I can second the recommendation on the Massie books.

Another good source is the Osprey book British Dreadnought vs German Dreadnought, while Osprey´s British Destroyers 1892-1918 gives a good overview of how destroyers were expected to work with the fleet.

Older, but no less interesting, are two books from Geoffrey Bennett: Naval Battles of the First World War, and The Battle of Jutland. The Jutland book also covers some "near misses" between the fleets that would make some very nice what-if scenarios.

Highly recommend the Massie books.

Another excellent book on the period is Andrew Gordon's 'Rules of the Game'.

Paul Halpern, "A Naval History of WW1".

I recently read "The Great War and Modern Memory" by Paul Fussell and thought that it was a good read. For more of a tactical viewpoint there is a book called "The First World War" by John Keegan which is very informative about technology and combat.

Second the Keegan book as I recently finished it. Some interesting insights on naval issues.

Do you just want specific naval history or more general WW1?

A decent single volume history of the war is Keegans 'The First World War', although for wargaming something like Haythorthwaites 'First World War Sourcebook' is probably more useful.(potted campaign histories, maps, equipment, organisations, biogs of major figures, analysis of every major and minor army etc).

There are any number of battle and campaign specific books of course, as well as personal memoirs and studies of tactics and operations etc.

Massie~: dreadnought and castle of Steel, halpern's naval history, but top of the list and absolute must if you have any interest in understanding the Royal navy is Gordon's Rules of the Game. In fact, of upu only read one, make it Gordon's!

for such a highly rated book, Gordon's is apparently OOP despite a 2005 run, and is only found used in the $70 USD+ range! Massie is much more available and used at $4. In the end, my library system has them, pretty lucky.

I bought the Halpern book, and requested the above vie library. Thanks for the tips!

I also recommend Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's "The Grand Fleet 1914 – 1916" which you can read for free online.

Scheer also has some very interesting things to say in his own memoires regarding the High Seas Fleet.

Jutland by John Campbell is good too, although one can get bogged down in all the technical details of each heavy calibre hit.

The anti-war novel variously published under the title 'The skull of Sultan M'Kawa' or 'No Hero For the Kaiser'. Very sharp satire

I second the recommendations re Jellicoe's Grand Fleet, Scheer's memoires, and the John Campbell book on Jutland. Fortunately, John Campbell separates out the technical details of the individual big shell hits into their own section or chapters. So one can read his book for the narative and skip the detailed damage reports until one is in the mood to read them.

Jellicoe's book is especially good for setting up campaigns, as Jellicoe likes to give the details about which ships are heading to the dock for repair or refit. He also often gives the strength of operational ships at the end of a month. His pessimism about the strength of the Grand Fleet, especially in the early months, helps preserve some valuable details for operational North Sea campaigns.

Another one that I like that can be read online is Sir Julian Corbett's Naval Operations. Fantastic detail about the movement of ships in the hunts for the Geoben, von Spee, the Emden, and the Koenigsburg in the early months. It's a gold mine for hypothetical but plausible scenarios.

The skull of Sultan M'Kawa is a really interesting incident that was referenced in the Treaty of Versailles.

Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure is another of my favorite books. Excellent naval adventure fiction that just happens to be non-fiction!

You cannot beat Paul Halpern, "A Naval History of WW1". It covers every theater in detail from the North Sea to the Black Sea, the Baltic to Lake Tanganika.

Dave G
The PT Dockyard
ptdockyard.com

A J Marder "From the Dreadnaught to Scappa Flow" 5 vols. All you'll ever need on the British and Germans.

The Rules of the Game is also excellent.

Try "The Kaiser's Pirates" by John Walter; it follows the exploits of the German light cruisers at the beginning of the war. Some very daring men manned these ships. Amazon has it here; link

This is an excellent campaign springboard as it makes the players think about the overall situation (coaling, avoiding damage, possible encounters with more powerful enemy vessels etc etc) plus you only need a few ships compared to things like the Battle of Jutland.