I love history and have run or helped run two great history forums for the past few years. One of the things I like to do a lot is to ask questions relating to "What If" Scenarios. And then it's also fun to just discuss history in general or also the way history impacts other facets of culture - language, food, technology, fashion, etc. and vice versa. So my mission is to post some of the key things I have written or am writing over time. Thanks for reading. Glad to have you here.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Disaster at Dieppe

Hi Everyone,

I forgot to mention that I also uploaded my 75 page book "Disaster at Dieppe" to Scribd about a month ago.

The official name of the invasion of Dieppe was Operation Jubilee. It was the first naval invasion or, depending on one’s definition, large scale raid, of World War II. Approximately 6,000 troops were roped into the attack: they included 5,000 Canadians, 1,000 British, 50 American Rangers and 24 French light infantry. The 50 Americans would be the first American troops to see combat in Europe in World War II and three of them would be the first to die there. Poor planning coupled with Murphy’s Law inflicted on the Canadians a casualty rate approaching 65%. It was a rate far, far worse than the 10% suffered by the US Marines at Tarawa in late 1943 or the 15% that would be sustained by the Americans on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. This is their story and includes new photos and interviews.

Narayan

American Eagles

Hi Everyone,
I have finally uploaded my book "American Eagles - US Aviation In World War I" to Scribd.

This story started out for me as a project to research Quentin Roosevelt, Eddie Rick-enbacker, Frank Luke, Billy Mitchell, Carl Spaatz and the World War I American aviators in France.

The 348 page book is complete (including table of contents, references, etc.). It is a fascinating illustrated overview of the World War I American combat aviation – the planes, the people, the bases, the stories and what happened to them after the war. The book covers the training in the United States, the Lafayette Escadrille, observation aviation, balloon aviation, pursuit aviation, naval and marine aviation and bomber aviation.

Starting from 1861 and running through 1919, American Eagles is chock full of dogfights, back stories, new maps, diagrams, 170 photos (mostly never seen before), first hand perspectives of the American pilots as well as those who interacted with them. It weaves personal interviews, first hand perspectives, official histories and down to earth technical explanations to make a compelling, well documented and extensively researched page turner. In fact, combat is only perhaps one-third of the book.

22 months of research have dug up new information, photos and interviews that have not been published before thanks to visits to France, correspondence with French and American aviation experts and source material research.

Narayan