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What is the best war book you have ever read?


Popo367
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Just wanted to get some ideas on some books to read. I like to read and want to collect books for my 2 boys (9,5).

 

I am reading a book called "God have mercy on us!," it is about the 97th Co, 6th Marines. I just got it today and I have only read a few pages, but the book it pretty witty.

 

 

There is no information about the author and it doesn't mention if he was part of the 6th Marines.

author: William T Scanlon

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CNY Militaria

Hazardous Duty: An American Soldier in the 20th Century by MG John K. Singlaub was great if you like reading about his experiences in the OSS During WWII, BN CDR in Korea, his special role in Vietnam, his command in Korea again, and his role as a private citizen in world conflicts after his army career. I thought it was great!

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Darktrooper

I have a few:

 

Lest We Forget: The Kingsmen 101st Aviation Battalion, 1968 by William C Meacham

 

Wings of the Eagle: A Kingsmen's Story by W.T. Grant

 

Tank Sergeant by Ralph Zumbro

 

Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson

 

Six Silent Men by Gary Linderer, Kenn Miller, and Reynel Martinez

 

Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius

 

 

Science fiction:

 

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

 

The Falkenbergs Legion series by Jerry Pournelle

 

Fiction:

 

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

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Flyboys by James Bradley, really makes you understand the Japanese thinking concerning war.

 

Hitler's Last Soldier Out of print and hard to find, but one of the best stories I have ever read. What you've got here is the true story of a German who was taken prisoner in Africa by the U.S. during WWII, and brought to a prison camp in the U.S. One night he manages to escape, and has to start his whole life over again with a fake identity and background.

It's just like the movie "Fugitive", with several close calls early on on his new life in California. He doesn't live as a recluse, eventually getting married and living a very active life. I won't ruin the ending, but you won't be disappointed.

The German POW reads a book about German POW's in America and how of the 30 or so that escaped, only one was never caught, he relizes that this man is him. He calls the author in the middle of the night and tells him who he is. The author meets with him and writes this book. The man still lives out in Colorado.

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Guest john.wingfield

"Love My Rifle Better Than You". Perspective of the Iraq invasion from a female MI specialist assigned to the 101st Air Assualt Division.

 

Gosh, so many titles and so many perspectives read over the years, it is a challange for the avid reader of military non-fiction to choose just one and say it is the best. The reason that I listed the one I did was that it was an eye opening experience and shed light on some of my own post-Iraq deployment feelings.

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I have many favorites, but two I've read multiple time are:

 

Goodbye, Darkness by William Manchester

 

The Good War by Studs Terkel

 

Thanks,

Tim

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"All Quiet on the Western Front" - Remarque

 

"D-Day" Stephen Ambrose

 

"On to Berlin" James Gavin

 

So many good ones, it is hard to narrow it down... Has anyone ever read "A Mind in Prison" by Bruno Manz? It is a great one about growing up in the Third Reich and the seduction of the youth by Hitler. I recommend that one too.

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nguoi tien su

That will be Da Nang Diary, A Forward Air Controller's Year of Combat Over Vietnam written by Tom YARBOROUGH.

 

This book is about Forward Air Controllers of the 20th TASS. It is amazing and loaded with details.

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Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's WWII - Raymond Gantter

 

I second that one. It is a very good read. A 30 something draftee enlisted replacement that arrives during the Hurtgen campaign and is a platoon commander by the end of the war.

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"Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry" by Charles R. Cawthon

 

Cawthon served as an officer in the 29th Division (116th Regiment) and was intimately acquainted with soldiers like Tom Howie and Sidney Bingham. A pre-war journalist, his writing is sublime.

 

Find a copy and read it-- you will not be disappointed.

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I second that one. It is a very good read. A 30 something draftee enlisted replacement that arrives during the Hurtgen campaign and is a platoon commander by the end of the war.

 

Those two picks are based on the manner in which they are written and the insights they offer. I read about 20 personal memoirs in writing my senior thesis and these were the most perceptive ones. Light on campaign names and such but heavy on very personal and unfiltered observations.

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"Company Commander" by Charles McDonald (who was later a civil service historian for DA and wrote or edited several of the "Green Book" official histories).

 

"Ridgway's Paratroopers" by Clay Blair (lifelong journalist -- NYT?) (Also wrote "Silent Service" on US subs -- IIRC he was a sub officer in WWII).

 

Gerard Devlin: "Paratrooper" and "Silent Wings" (gliders)

 

George Koskimaki (101st vet and vet assn historian): "D-Day with the Screaming Eagles", "Hell's Highway" and "battered Bastards of Bastogne"

 

"With the Old Breed" by fnu Sledge (about 1st Mar Div)

 

"Devils in Baggy Pants" by Ross Carter (504/82nd, covers Sicily and Italy)

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AT BELLEAU WOOD by Robert B Asprey ( My Bible)

 

Devil Dog, Fighting Marines of WWI( My Talmuth)

 

The Doughboys By Laurence Stallings ( My Thora)

 

Rendez Vous with Destiny by Rapport & Northwood ( My Coran)

 

T

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The favorites I just keep reading all the time.
I must have read the Deadly Brotherhood about 25 times!

EDIT: Pictures are lost

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