There is a (long, and continuing) thread with the same title on another site that I check in on most days, and it often kicks up some interesting (and sometimes off-topic) "debates" ... so here goes:-
Last night I finished off Ron Kent's "First In"! - the wartime history of the 21st Independent Parachute Company (the original Pathfinders) 1942-1946.
Ron served as a Sergeant throughout almost all of that period, and ended up as Company Sergeant Major not long before the unit was disbanded. He was lucky to emerge unscathed.
I found his book (published in 1979) very absorbing ... and an interesting contrast to David Blakeley's "Pathfinder" - a more recent account of the modern day Pathfinders' adventures in Iraq in 2003, which I'm also wading through.
I'll give Ron's book 9/10 ... mainly because it's the only one I've come across that covers the early Pathfinders in such detail; and also as Ron gives a long eye-witness account of being at the sharp end at Arnhem!
OK ... so what are y'all reading these days?
