What are your initial thoughts on that?

World War 1.  Two gets all the glory.  1 altered the world more IMO, cost more military lives according to most and was fought in a comparatively tiny area.  The concentration of firepower was unimaginable.

Evening! Your geographic focus is excellent....the Med is under appreciated, so is the Crimean campaign. I find North Africa a superior field of study.....the Wehrmacht under Rommel was known to suspend artillery bombardment at British tea time.

My WWII War library includes the recommended titles:

History Of United States Army Air Corps Operations In WWII

The United States Strategic Bombing Survey

Nice!

I see the Green Books, Morison's WWII naval history, and what looks like a bunch of old WWII-era TM/FMs.

Do you have the complete collection of USSBS books?

I love ya!

You are the bomb.com! Sorry took so long to get back, was on the phone MST. The US Army In WWII is a complete set including map companion and all the photo volumes.

Also visible in red is History Of United States Marine Corps Operations in WWII and the difficult yet definitive and rarely seen 10 volume red and black books (lower left) History Of German Concentration Camp System in WWII by Christian Bernadac translated from the French in 1968. They are 10 separate titles rather than a single title for the entire work...have only seen it listed once.

Also found are Churchill's excellent 6 volume set, The Waffen SS in WWII, first editions of Paul Carell, Walter Lord, William L. Shirer, etc, The TM's and FM's include all the small arms weapons manuals, American & Japanese Ammunition manuals, Army cookbooks (very cool, we can make SOS for 70!), etc.

Sadly no, the USSBS is published in dozens of works and many self-indulgent weenies try to get $200 for a single folio. Crap, man. How am I supposed to get to the bottom of this war in one lifetime?!?

I heartily disagree with that. WW1 set the stage for the second act, but WW2 changed everything everywhere.

Speaking of which, I've been reading more about the peripheries of WW2- North Africa, Middle East, CBI.

The Soviet Union may have never existed to start the cold war, the Ottoman land may not have been divided like it was, etc. Well never know.

I understand what yer gettin' at, and I don't necessarily disagree. Both were monumental and  hugely influential conflicts; I just believe WW2 was slightly moreso decisive in ordaining world events after its conclusion was long past.

Rome on the eve of empire

The Hundred Years War

The War of the Roses

In my humble opinion; unlike WWI which was the War To End All Wars and indeed saw the advent of machine gun slaughter, early aerial bombardment of cities and horrific WMD's (gas attacks), WWII merely:

resulted in over 100 million dead and over 250 million casualties.....

redrew the map of the world and impacted every country and peoples on earth....

changed warfare in 6 years from primitive mechanized cavalry to atomic combat....

evolved from biplanes used in many prewar air forces to early almost-ICBM's (V2's) with the "New York Rocket" under development....

restructured the worlds military, logistical supply chain and command structure.....

put 12 million Americans alone in uniform.....

resulted in at least 4 countries exceeding 20 million dead (Germany, Russia, China and Japan).....

created countless new manufacturing techniques, technological changed and food production methods.....

invented synthetic rubber, gas, plastics, fissile materials, etc.....

and on and on and on.......

also, created the trick question:

"Quick....how many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?"

"I don't know, it's never been tried"

Here is the 1940 Tour De France

Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

Although I wish I knew more about Archaic Greece and the Mycenaean Civilization.  The Mycenaean disappearance in history seems like a real great mystery.  Did the Sea People wipe them out? Who the heck were the Sea People? Atlantis?  

I mostly enjoy Roman history, because it is well fairly well documented and I have great admiration for them in terms of what they accomplished. I often wonder what would have happened if Rome had never declined, but instead kept growing stronger.

They may have ended up being the ones to colonize the Americas, and the U.S might be speaking Latin today, IMO.

The Warring States Period of Japan = So many colorful characters, alliances, back-stabbings, ideologies going on; also the height and essential end of massive Samurai warfare.

Post Civil War - 1930's = Again, its all the colorful characters. From the anti-hero's, Jesse James - Charles Luciano; to the law-men, Wyatt Earp - Elliot Ness

Napoléon between 1804-1821
WWI - WWII


Lev0'

Napoleon's military campaigns is definitely a history I want to read more about. Seems like in his youth he was an innovator, but as he grew older was a little less so.  

That seems to happen to a lot of folks.