I Like To Read Books About War

[Phat Mack]

I like to read war books written by guys who were actually in them. Three good ones off the top of my head ( I can't remember the author's names):

Destroyer Captain, written by a WWII Japanese, you guessed it, destroyer captain.

I Rode with Stonewall, written by one of Stonewall Jacksons aides.

With the Old Breed, must reading from a WWII Marine.

[Zeno]

Another good book by someone whose was there: Goodbye To All That, by Robert Graves. He writes well and his description of his part in the Somme Offensive [WW I] is particularly vivid - including all the bungling and idiocy of how things were carried out. They gassed many of their own men, for example.

I also remember reading about the Flying Tigers, Submarine warfare in the Pacific and other odd assortments of violent fun. The book Run Silent Run Deep , by Edward Latimer Beach is one I highly recommend. It is about an American Submarine in the Pacfic during WW II. It is a Classic.

-Zeno

[sam h]

A must-read that is half-way in this genre (written by a reporter, but he was embedded with a platoon and not in the way they do it now) is Dispatches, by Michael Herr. Definitely one of the most interesting takes on Vietnam that I have read.

[chezlaw]

The Second World War Churchill, Keegan

Keep you busy.

chez

[ericd]

Two by David Halberstam:

1. The Best and the Brightest
2. War in a Time of Peace

They are focused on the politics and not the battles.

[Phat Mack]

The nautical theme reminds me of a couple:

They Were Expendible, American PT boats in early WWII. They made a movie out of it that was ok.

Iron Coffins, by a German U-boat skipper.

Both great books.

Goodbye to all that is an excellent choice. It's hard to realize how lunatic wars are without having seen one. Graves does a good job of describing the idiocy of the Somme. (So does Keegan, in Face of Battle.)

[wh1t3bread]

Ghost Soldiers - Hampton Sides

This book details a rescue attempt of American POW's in the Philippines during WW2 by a group of Army Rangers. The prisoners were mostly survivors of the Bataan Death March, which occured years early.

I liked this book alot, one of the main reasons that I even decided to read this book was to help relate to what my Grandfather went through during WW2 (he was captured and became a prisoner under the Japanese for a short time during the war).

I always recommed this book to anyone remotely interested.

Sidenote: They just recently made this book into a movie called, "The Great Raid". I haven't seen it, and I might not ever see it for fear of it probably ruining what is an excellent book.

1776... great story about George Vs. George...

Black Hawk Down... the movie doesn't do it justice

[Cumulonimbus]

I just finished Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Awesome. It more focuses on all the death and evils of war, but as an added bonus, it gets into existientiality(sp?) and time travel and aliens, and it actually pulls it off without sounding like a "out there" sci-fi book. Plus, it's a relatively quick read. There's this one really long chapter that blows me away, teetering me to the edge of sanity. I don't know how else to describe it. Yeah.

[HtotheNootch]

[ QUOTE ]
Ghost Soldiers - Hampton Sides

This book details a rescue attempt of American POW's in the Philippines during WW2 by a group of Army Rangers. The prisoners were mostly survivors of the Bataan Death March, which occured years early.

I liked this book alot, one of the main reasons that I even decided to read this book was to help relate to what my Grandfather went through during WW2 (he was captured and became a prisoner under the Japanese for a short time during the war).

I always recommed this book to anyone remotely interested.

Sidenote: They just recently made this book into a movie called, "The Great Raid". I haven't seen it, and I might not ever see it for fear of it probably ruining what is an excellent book.

[/ QUOTE ]

I second this one.