What is the best war book you have ever read?

[J_Andrews]

Not "best", but two INTERESTING ones I read many years ago and have not seen since:

 

WWII: The Deathmakers -- A novel of US armored inf in the last week or so of the European war; with the characters and action episodes, would have made a good movie. I do not recall the author, but my copy disappeared when I lent it to a friend who said he believed the name was a pseudonym for a better-known author -- ??

 

VN: The Village, by Frank J. West -- Non-fiction narrative re USMC Combined Action platoon(s) in a village near Da Nang, during the beginnings of the Marine "live-in" pacification program. IIRC West was a Capt in the program and was later a political-appointee asst Sec Nav.

[Teamski]

I can't just single it down to just one. So here's a list of my favorites:

 

Currahee by Donald Burgett (Read it 8 times as a kid and carried it on my 14 mile walk in Normandy)

With the Old Breed

Flying Forts

Destroyer Captain

Fly for your Life

Brazen Chariots

100 Days of Lt McHorten

Wahoo

Clear the Deck

Take Her Deep

Iron Coffens

A Bridge Too Far

Over the Top

With Machine Gun to Cambrai

 

 

The list goes on... Just amazing stuff!!

 

-Ski

[Chris_B]

Ski-

 

Is that "Wake of the Wahoo", by Forrest Sterling? Great book

[swag]

Imagine this; a young American man who spent his youth as a cowboy roping cattle, breaking wild horses, and living a hard tack life. He finds himself in Canada when World War 1 breaks out and joins the Canadian army. After landing in France he soon transfers to the Royal Flying Corps as an observer/gunner, then moves up the ladder and becomes a pilot. When American enters the war he is persuaded to join the fledgling Army Air Corps by none other than Billy Mitchell!

If that sounds like a good story to read then you should probably get your hands on Horses Don't Fly: A Memoir Of World War I by Frederick Libby. Truely a fascinating read, I couldn't put it down once I started reading it.

[J_Andrews]

ADDENDUM: "The Deathmakers" was written by Glen Sire and published by Simon & Shuster in 1960. I have not found anything further on "The Village" by Frank J. West.

[Teamski]

Ski-

 

Is that "Wake of the Wahoo", by Forrest Sterling? Great book

 

I was referring to Richard O'Kane's autobiography of the ship "Wahoo". Now that is a great book. Mush Morton was a hell of a skipper.

 

-Ski

[101combatvet]

Well, I have many military favorites and over the years I have accumulated an extensive library. Here are a few that I really have enjoyed:

 

Ambush

Inside the NVA

 

Night Drop

Four Stars of Hell

Ridgway's Paratroopers

Currahee

All of Mark Bando's books...

Goodbye, Darkness - an interesting perspective but not in total agreement with.

 

Hazardous Duty

 

As a side note.... I am not a big fan of Steven Ambrose's tours, interviews, or his books.

[Chris_B]

I was referring to Richard O'Kane's autobiography of the ship "Wahoo". Now that is a great book. Mush Morton was a hell of a skipper.

 

-Ski

 

 

Ah. I'll have to find it

 

"Wake of the Wahoo" is probably something you'd enjoy; it was written by the Wahoo's Yeoman, who joined the boat for it's second patrol and transferred off right before it's eternal patrol

[unterhund]

Yet another vote for "Company Commander." My late father, who was a rifle platoon leader in WWII, a company commander in the 50's, and a batallion commander in the 60's, thought it was the best book about infantry combat. When my best friend asked my dad for a letter of recomendation for his ROTC scholarship, my dad wrote it, and then gave him a copy of MacDonald's book.

[Military Historian]

Uh Oh! You've piqued the scholar's interest!

 

Hands Down--Best Books: "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan--so much more than the movies could include!

 

MacDonald's "Company Commander" is good, and so are Manstein's "Lost Victories", Rommel's "Attack's", Patton's "War As I Knew It" (He is a surprisingly good writer)

 

Max Hasting's "Overlord" is a must. Russel Weigley's "Eisenhower's Lieutenants" has great depth. Samuel Elliot Morrison's "Two Ocean War" should be the starting place for ANY U.S. Navy in WWII discussion. Sledge's "With the Old Guard" should not be missed. John Toland or Trevor Dupuy on the Battle of the Bulge are standards.

 

"An Army At Dawn" by Rick Atkinson is good for describing how the U.S. Army fumbled around and found its' footing in it's first operations in North Africa in 1942. (I saw it last week in Barnes and Noble).

 

"The Defeat of Imperial Germany, 1917-1918" by Rod Paschall is a real eye-opener on the final German and Allied offensives on the Western Front. Philip Warner's "Passchendaele" will redefine your view of WWI (what you think you know about the British 1917 offensive is probably wrong!).

 

Finally, a little volume entitled "The German Economy At War" (the author escapes me at the moment) will snap everything else you read about WWII into sharp relief, and deepen your understanding of German wartime strategy--MUST READING!!

 

There are many others, but that should keep you reading for awhile!! (He-He!)

 

Bob C.

[Military Historian]

No sooner did the light go out and my head hit the pillow last night when the author of "The German Economy At War" popped into my head--it is Alan S. Milward.

 

Cheers!

 

Bob C.

[YankeeDiv26]

I've probably read a good 30 or so First person War experience books and thus far my favorite has been "Guns Up!" by Johnnie Clark. A 18 year old USMC M60 gunner from the end of the Tet Offensive through the rest of his tour. Fantastic book!

 

-Tim

[kammo-man]

Hi All !

I was wondering if anyone out there has ever heard about or read "The devils of D-Day'.

It is a very old book and I have been trying to locate it for years.

Thanks in advance .

owen.

[nuke41]

There are so many great ones, but "We Were Soldiers Once… And Young" stands out for me. "The Bedford Boys" also stands out for it showing how hard war hits those left at home.

[WVUM1shooter]

I really enjoyed Flint Whitlock's The Fighting First, Robert Parkin's Blood on the Sea, and Rick Atkinson's An Army at Dawn.

[Nkomo]

Vietnam

"Secret Commandos" By John Plaster

"SOG" By John Plaster

 

Grenada

"Urgent Fury -The Battle for Grenada" by Major Mark Adkin

 

Panama

"Operation Just Cause- The Storming of Panama" by Thomas Donnelly, Margaret Roth, and Caleb Baker

 

Central America

"Everybody Had His Own Gringo- The CIA and the Contras" by Glenn Garvin- This is probably my favorite out of all my books.

 

US Special Forces

"Masters of Chaos The Secret History of the Special Forces" by Linda Robinson

"The Killer Elite-The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team" by Michael Smith

 

Unfortunately, the ones from Grenada, Panama, and Central America are out of print, but they can be purchased used through Amazon or some other bookseller such as that. For some reason the 1980's is an often forgotten time period in US history. The books I listed are a good guide to this time period and are fairly balanced ( not too far left wing!) . Thanks!

Arch

[Guest R. Hoq]

"All Quiet on the Western Front" is by far my favorite...

 

I recently finished "They Called US Devil Dogs" by Byron Scarborough... a first-hand account of WWI through the eyes of a Marine private... pretty good reading

[glenm]

2 of my 3 haven't been mentioned yet, so shame on the lot of you! haha

 

1) "It Never Snows in September" by Robert Kershaw - absolutely fabulously detailed account of Operation Market Garden, in theory from the German side, but is very, very good for information from the Allied side as well, with loads of information I've never seen before and lots of explanatory colour maps.

http://www.amazon.com/NEVER-SNOWS-SEPTEMBE...2040&sr=8-1

 

2) "Hell In a Very Small Place" by Bernard Fall - the classic "brick" of a book about Dien Bien Phu. More information and gut-wrenching combat stories than you could ever want - it is a depressing read in one way, but is full of courage, cowardice, incompetence and unbelieveable bravery in the face of certain disaster.

http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Very-Small-Plac...2149&sr=1-1

 

3) "A Time For Trumpets" by Charles B MacDonald - the best history of the winter 44/45 Ardennes fighting, with detailed small-unit accounts that you don't find elsewhere, and a narrative that makes it easy to understand what's happening where.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Trumpets-Untold...2214&sr=1-1

 

Cheers,

Glen.

[J_Andrews]

On this thread someone listed "Once a Warrior King" by Dave Donovan, re being a MACV district advisor/RF/PF leader in VN.

 

I WAS one of those type guys, and I am now about 2/3 through the book.

 

I would say that it is IMHO 100% accurate and insightful. Sure rings true. RECOMMENDED READING.

[Popo367]

Wow gentlemen,

Enough reading here for years to come...............................

[A.B.]

OK, I'll bump this thread, and go back a bit in time. Personally, I find it instructive, to see how much knowledge about modern war was forgotten, between our Civil War and the Great War....

 

Sherman, by Captain Liddell Hart

 

The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant, by Major General J.F.C. Fuller

 

Grant and Lee, also by MG Fuller

 

Stonewall Jackson, by G.F.R. Henderson

 

OK, finally, something first person:

Fighting for the Confederacy, The Personal Recollections of General Porter Alexander (Gary W. Gallagher, Chapel Hill Press edition)

 

 

 

A couple three modern works, about war but not of it (as it were), that happen to be at the top of the pile, here:

 

Tank, by Patrick Wright

 

The Great War and Modern Memory, by Paul Fussell

 

On Thermonuclear War, Herman Kahn/RAND

 

 

And, mostly, I want to enthusiastically "third" the recommendation for Hazardous Duty, by MG John K. Singlaub.

 

Cheers!

AB

[A.B.]

Oops, I forgot to include The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, one of the finest works of prose in the American language.

 

And, along those lines, in a different tongue: Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell.

[Andrei]

On this thread someone listed "Once a Warrior King" by Dave Donovan, re being a MACV district advisor/RF/PF leader in VN.

 

I WAS one of those type guys, and I am now about 2/3 through the book.

 

I would say that it is IMHO 100% accurate and insightful. Sure rings true. RECOMMENDED READING.

This is one of my favorite book.

If you dont mind, could you please share your recollection of Vietnam in another thread ?

I am sure that many Vietnam collectors here will appreciate your war stories.

[mpguy80/08]

By far, Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy for Fiction, followed closely by Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.

 

For non Fiction,

 

A Time For Trumpets, by McDonald This book is an in depth study of the Ardennes offensive by the Germans in 1944, more commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge.

 

At Dawn We Slept and The Mriacle at Midway, both by gordon Prang. Two books studying the attack on Pearl Harbor and Midway respectively.

 

Midway, by Mitsuo Fuchida. Yes, THAT Fuchida, the one that planned the attack on Pearl Harbor. This book, while skewed by Fuchida's attempts to make the best light out of some serious errors made by the japanese, offers a look at the Midway battle from the Japanese side. This makes a good counterpoint to Gordon Prang's Miracle at Midway.

 

Shattered Sword. I cant recall the author of this one, but this is the most in depth look at the Battle of Midway from BOTH sides in the same book. It has fairly accurate Orders of Battle and a really good reference section in the back of the book.

 

A Bridge Too Far, by Cornelius Ryan. This book studies the Arnhem offensive in 1944. See the Movie of the same name.

 

Those are my pick... though most books on Pearl Harbor, Midway and The Battle of the Bulge are high on my list to read.

[A.B.]

Great books, mpguy! Shattered Sword was written by Jon Parshall and Anthony Tulley. A great companion to that is John Lundstrom's The First Team, Pacific Naval Air Combat...

 

I have to add another great work of prose: The Wartime Journals of Charles A. Lindbergh.

 

Cheers!

AB