Recommend me some good war books (non-fiction, modern)

[Von Smallhausen]

I forget the name of the book but Lofty Large wrote a book on his time with the Gloucester Regiment in Korea before his selection for the SAS.

 

[FTM]

attack state red was one I just read, about the anglians in afghanistan

 

[Swi1ch]

Black Hawk Down
In The Company Of Heroes (Written by Mike Durant, the lost Pilot from Black Hawk Down)
The Cage - Vietnam, British officer who gets captured by the VC. Factual. Terrifying.
Sniper One.

 

[PlumpMonkey]

Pablos War - By Pablo Mason a Squadron Leader Pablo Manson who led the first of many Tornado attacks in the first Gulf War
Sniper One - as mentioned before an excellent book

And for a fictional account, World Word Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War - Its firmly in my list of top 10 books.

 

[drunken fool]

Pheonix Squadron - Rowland White (Falklands, Bucanners and Phantoms on board the Ark Royal)
Sink The Belgrano - Mike Rossiter (Falklands, sinking of the Argentine Battleship by a British Sub)
In Harms Way - Doug Stanton (although is WW2 but very good read about the worst naval disaster in US history)
Joint Force Harrier

There are a few more as well but can't remember the names at the moment

 

[gettothechopper]

ive read these and they have all been good

One bullit away (written by the Lt from Generation kill - reading this right now)
Generation Kill (really good)
Band of Brothers
With the old breed (sledge from the pacific tv series)
Black Hawk Down
In The Company Of Heroes
D Day by Stephen Ambrose
We were soldiers once
chickenhawk
jarhead

also less military but charlie wilsons war is good if you want to read about some pre 2001 afgan history

 

[freak2002]

Another Sniper One Vote - No doubt

The bit where he gets hold of a .50 Cal makes me lol.

 

[RobPot]

Dusty Warriors - Richard Holmes about 1 PWRR in Iraq.

Winter Warriors (Across Bosnia with the PBI 1995-96) - Les Howard

 

[fire_munki]

Generation Kill is prob my fav book ever.
One bullet away is good but not as good as the above.

 

[gjrc]

Stalingrad

/thread

this, but tbh if oyu like andy mcnab this might not be for you.

anything by Antony beevor or Robert K Massie (peter the great especially) are amazing.

 

[Sp00n]

You need Jack Reacher in your life

But srsly, for a different take on the non-fiction: http://www.amazon.co.uk/GCHQ-Richard-Aldrich/dp/0007278470

Excellent book, first 2 chapters are about WWII but the rest is post-war right up to modern times, interesting read so far for me.

 

[lemonkettaz]

Ground Truth, 3 Para return to Afghanistan.

Patrick Bishop

 

[JudgeC]

Soldier 'I' - About a soldier who served in the SAS for 18 years, which I read back in the late 80's but looks it looks like it has been expanded and re-released.

Seven Troop - A later book by McNab which expands on his experiences in the regiment.

3 Para - Account of the deployment and actions of titular regiment in Helmand Province in 1986.
Ground Truth - The follow up to 3 Para which charts the return to Afghanistan by the Para's.

All of the above should meet your requirements and I found all of them to a be good, interesting read.

 

[Totality]

Another Sniper One Vote - No doubt

The bit where he gets hold of a .50 Cal makes me lol.

"The Beast". Quality moment!

 

[eddie_slovik]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

Great read but widely accepted as fiction.



Heres my recommendations

With the jocks by Peter White, probably the best British ww2 personal account.

Sniper on the eastern front by Albrecht Wacker, memoirs of Sepp Allerberger who killed a scarey number of russians in ww2.

Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills, not recommended many times for no reason !

The Pacific, much much better than the tv series.

What d'ya do in the war Dad ? by Barry Parr, a sons tale of his dad Wallys exploits including landing by glider on Pegasus Bridge.
http://www.pegasus-parr.co.uk/

Fly for your life by Larry Forrester biography of Robert Stanford Tuck who was the RAF's top scoring fighter pilot when shot down over France in 1942, he ended up in Colditz !

Tank, In the shadow of Arnhem and the bloody battle for Tilly by Ken Tout or any other book by him, all excellent.

I flew for the Fuhrer by Heinz Knoke, blokes a bit of a nazi but weaves a fascinating tale of his battles with B-17's and B-24's.

Tank Rider by Evgeni Bessanov, this bloke rode halfway across Europe on the back of a T-34 and survived !

 

[chipperhead]

C.Q.B.: Close Quarter Battle by Mike Curtis

I absolutely loved this book, about the Paras, Falklands and SAS, lent it to someone, never got it back

 

[Swi1ch]

You need Jack Reacher in your life

Even a die hard Reacher fan like me has to admit the's going downhill

But I definitely forgot Generation Kill in my previous post.

I think it's the best war reporting, ever. Evan Wright, the author, has stones the size of mountains.

 

[Over Clocker]

Thanks so much for all your ideas guys!!

I have whittled it all down to 10 books now.

Sniper One
Close Quarter Battle
Severn Troop
GCHQ
Phoenix Squadron
Eight Lives Down
Sea Harrier over the Falklands
Joint Force Harrier
Apache Dawn
Vulcan 607

Cheers again guys, look forward to some good reading!!

 

[Swi1ch]

Thanks so much for all your ideas guys!!

I have whittled it all down to 10 books now.

Sniper One
Close Quarter Battle
Severn Troop
GCHQ
Phoenix Squadron
Eight Lives Down
Sea Harrier over the Falklands
Joint Force Harrier
Apache Dawn
Vulcan 607

Cheers again guys, look forward to some good reading!!

I'm going to push you once more towards Generation Kill. At the very least watch the HBO adaption.

 

[Over Clocker]

I'm going to push you once more towards Generation Kill. At the very least watch the HBO adaption.

Have added it to my wish list for phase 2 mate

Cheers!