Favorite Military History Books

[Auger]

Thud Ridge by Col. Jack Broughton

[texasmom]

"Brave Men" by Ernie Pyle.

Anything by Ernie Pyle is just wonderful.


I read some off-the-beaten-path military books that were pretty good... they were void of grand plans or strategy. Just told simple stories of simple folks (which is probably why I like Ernie Pyle so much as well).

Soldiers & Sled Dogs was pretty interesting (Charles Dean)
Dog Tags of Courage was wonderful (John Burnham)
A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War (also by John Burnham)

Terrible Terry Allen (my favorite, especially love the account of his horse race here in TX)

We Band of Angels was a wonderful, wonderful book (Elizabeth Norman, nurses captive in the Philipines)

I was reading a *super* book about one of the leaders in the British a spy organization and her journey into occupied Germany just at the close of WWII in search of her missing agents. I don't remember the name, and can't find the book (left it at my sister-in-laws... or mother-in-laws... or somewhere).  It was so very good. I'm going to have to find out the name & buy another copy.

*edit* Your thread inspired me to search for the name of the book. Thank you! Found it:
A Life In Secrets - Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII (Sarah Helm) excellent reading

[Stoney]

War Without Mercy is probably my favorite book about the war in the Pacific.  Its not a "big blue arrow" book, nor does it go into details of individual battles.  It focusses on the effects of racism on both sides, and how it contributed to the violence and brutality of the Pacific war.  Absolutely fascinating book that will make you scratch your head.

A couple of others:

With The Old Breed...; Thank God for the Atom Bomb

For Vietnam:

Dispatches; Bright and Shining Lie

Military fiction:

Once an Eagle

[Curval]

Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad.

[Hazzer]

 +1 on Anthony Beevors Stalingrad,his Book on the fall of Berlin is also superb.History that reads like a novel.

[Fencer51]

Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Nicholas and Alexandra returns with a sequel to Dreadnought that is imposing in both size and quality, taking the British and German battle fleets through WWI. The fluent narrative begins amid the diplomatic crisis of July 1914 and ends with the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1919. Massie makes a coherent if long narrative out of a sequence of events familiar to students of naval history but probably not to many other potential readers. The focus is on the two fleets that confronted each other across the North Sea, their weapons and tactics and their complex and controversial leaders, both military and political. As in his other books, the author describes his cast of characters with the vividness of a novelist, British Admiral Beatty's disastrous marriage being a painful case in point. What emerges from that focus is not only a number of outstanding battle narratives (Jutland is only the most famous), but a closely argued case for the German fleet having been a disaster for its country's war effort. Once built, the High Seas Fleet made war with England and the blockade of Germany inevitable. Unable to break the blockade with that expensive fleet, Germany felt compelled to choose between a negotiated peace and unrestricted submarine warfare. Once the Germans chose the latter course, American intervention and disaster become nearly unavoidable.

Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald Burgett

Brazen Chariots: An Account of Tank Warfare in the Western Desert, November-December 1941 by Robert Crisp

The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann

Target Berlin: Mission 250, 6 March 1944 by Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price

[Skahula]

Mein Kampf.....at least i enjoyed it...

[bj229r]

Thud Ridge by Col. Jack Broughton

Read that <S> That book is a summation of everything that was wrong about the way we prosecuted the Vietnam War---would have liked to know more about how he got court-martialed, I'm thinking it was because he bombed a Sam site before it was operational--thus not on the whiz-kid's "list"

[Eustace]

With the Old Breed - straight-forward, unvarnished account of Marines fighting on Peleliu and Okinawa. 

We Band of Brothers - B25 bomber pilot in the Pacific.  There are several books by this name, but this one is by R. E. Peppy Blount.  I think these guys were the best pilots, fighter or bomber, and had the most difficult and dangerous missions.  Lots of NOE missions.  One in which the author came back with the radar mast of a ship he bombed stuck in his wing.   Want to know what happens when you strafe someone with 10 50cals?  It's in here.

Samurai! - The autobiography of Saburo Sakai - lots of detailed, turn by turn accounts of dog-fighting.  Some incidences sound like they could have happened in AH.

Baa Baa Black Sheep - The man, the myth, the Legend: Pappy Boyington!  If you haven't read it, you need to.

Terror in the Starboard Seat - I forget the name of the author, but if you can find this book, it's really fascinating, funny and sad.  The author was RCAF but he flew as a Mossie navigator for the RAF.  I haven't seen many books about Mossie's.  This guy flew all kinds of missions.  Recon, ground attack,  "skulking", chasing down V2s.  They tried bombing a bridge once but couldn't hit the target haha.  In the skulking missions they would fly around German airfields in France at night, waiting for fighters to return.  Then they would get into the landing pattern behind the planes and try to shoot them down.  He tells about how terrified he would get when the flak started coming up.  So scared that he couldn't speak.  His pilot would be asking him questions, but he just couldn't get his mouth to work.  Once when they were returning from a recon, the pilot  tried to strafe a guy in a cast or something who was laying out on a balcony.  I guess he thought it was a German soldier.  There was an incident with a flat spin that the barely recovered from.  Also they caught someone having carnal knowledge with a sheep.

[balance1]

look for a book called "The Wrong Stuff" the misadventures of an 8th airforce aviator. it is a truly great read.

[FiLtH]

  Ive got tons of em. My all time favorites would be War at Sea 1939-1945 by John Hamilton. Every page has his artwork to go along with whats being said. And the other would be US Destroyer Actions in World War 2. Cant recall the author.

[Cthulhu]

"Battle: The Story of the Bulge" by John Toland is another good one.

[Rich46yo]

"A Glorious Way to Die" - Russell Spurr

This is a great book about the final mission of the Japanese battleship Yamato.  I would highly recommend this one.

http://www.amazon.com/2007-Japanese-Drama-Movie-Subtitle/dp/B000ZLUWAM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1239719463&sr=8-1

I recieved mine 3 days ago and have watched it 3 times already.

[Cthulhu]

With the Old Breed - straight-forward, unvarnished account of Marines fighting on Peleliu and Okinawa. 

We Band of Brothers - B25 bomber pilot in the Pacific.  There are several books by this name, but this one is by R. E. Peppy Blount.  I think these guys were the best pilots, fighter or bomber, and had the most difficult and dangerous missions.  Lots of NOE missions.  One in which the author came back with the radar mast of a ship he bombed stuck in his wing.   Want to know what happens when you strafe someone with 10 50cals?  It's in here.

Samurai! - The autobiography of Saburo Sakai - lots of detailed, turn by turn accounts of dog-fighting.  Some incidences sound like they could have happened in AH.

Baa Baa Black Sheep - The man, the myth, the Legend: Pappy Boyington!  If you haven't read it, you need to.

Terror in the Starboard Seat - I forget the name of the author, but if you can find this book, it's really fascinating, funny and sad.  The author was RCAF but he flew as a Mossie navigator for the RAF.  I haven't seen many books about Mossie's.  This guy flew all kinds of missions.  Recon, ground attack,  "skulking", chasing down V2s.  They tried bombing a bridge once but couldn't hit the target haha.  In the skulking missions they would fly around German airfields in France at night, waiting for fighters to return.  Then they would get into the landing pattern behind the planes and try to shoot them down.  He tells about how terrified he would get when the flak started coming up.  So scared that he couldn't speak.  His pilot would be asking him questions, but he just couldn't get his mouth to work.  Once when they were returning from a recon, the pilot  tried to strafe a guy in a cast or something who was laying out on a balcony.  I guess he thought it was a German soldier.  There was an incident with a flat spin that the barely recovered from.  Also they caught someone having carnal knowledge with a sheep.

I didn't know Silat was that old.

[Cthulhu]

A Soldier's Best Friend: Scout Dogs and Their Handlers in the Vietnam War (also by John Burnham)

Mom, is there very much about Nemo in this book?

Always loved this story:
http://vdha.us/content4772.html


Also add:

"A Bright Shining Lie", by Neil Sheehan (mainly for insights into the early years in Viet Nam)