[ed dixon]

Thread regarding "Jarhead" got me thinking.

The most memorable I can come up with are "Born on the Fourth of July," Fields of Fire," "Chickenhawk," "The Red Badge of Courage," "All Quiet on the Western Front." I've meant to read "The Naked and the Dead" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" but haven't yet. "The Things They Carried with Them" has also been bought but not yet read.

All respects, condolences and peace for Memorial Day, by the way. Ed

[ACP230]

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides.
A Rifleman Went To War by McBride.

Jeff Cooper has some good World War II stuff in To Ride Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth and some Cold War stories in Another Country.

I knew an American of Finnish ancestry who volunteered to fight the Russians in the 1939-40 "Winter War."
Good books about that fracas are A Frozen Hell by William R. Trotter and the novel Storm Over The Land by Kalle Paatalo (translated by Richard Impola).

There are more, of course.

[Mike Irwin]

The Guns of August


Killer Angels

[ahenry]

Killer Angels That’s interesting. Of all the books I have read on the War Between the States, both pro-North and pro-South, Killer Angels was one of the least enjoyable. I read it once and I doubt I will ever read it again, which for me is a rare thing.

[Mizzoutiger]

The Things They Carried is an excellent book. It was one we studied in Philosophy of War an peace

Unfortunately, our professor was nearly a complete pacifist. So, having to read it was not the most pleasant experience. Arguing over it in class was much fun though.

We Were Soldiers Once, and Young is a great piece of war writing by a very inspiring military leader. The movie was pretty darn good too.

[Dannyboy]

I've started "The Naked and the Dead" about 3 times and I can't get through it. One of my favorites is "This Kind of War." Probably the best Korean War book written. I liked "A Bridge Too Far" as well.

[Lyle Wyatt]

To some of those already listed I would add.

Force Recon Diary.

We Were Soldiers Once And Young.

Shots Fired In Anger.

In the fiction catagory The 13th Valley.

[Stevie-Ray]

Just read Silent warrior by Charles Henderson, Black Sheep One by Bruce Gamble, and Rolling Thunder by Ivan Rendall, all quite good, and all non-fiction.

[Doc]

When we were soldiers was great,
it was selected by the commandant of the marine corps, does anyone know how to find out the other books on the list?

[Al Norris]

Marine Sniper was so-so. Silent Warrier was much more polished and more readable. Both by Henderson, both about Sgt. Hathcock.

Having been in that area, albeit after Hathcock was burned, it reeks of realism.

[Mike Irwin]

"Killer Angels was one of the least enjoyable."

No accounting for bad taste on your part, obviously! :neener:

Killer Angels was one of the only college-assigned text books that I ever read in ONE sitting. Straight through.

[winstonsmith]

Well if your looking for something dryer, perhaps some history, Stephen Ambrose is a great writer. He did a book on D-day which just blew my mind when I read it. It is called, D-day, unsurprisingly. Another book by him is "Band of Brothers" which prompted the miniseries.

A very interesting excercise in alternate history is enacted in "The Guns of the South" by Harry Turtledove. It shows what would happen if the southern army were given many amenities of the future, including dehydrated coffee, soup, and most importantly, Ak-47s. Good read.

Just my $.02

-Jack

[D.W. Drang]

Let me try this again. (I hate it when I craft The Perfect Reponse and when I hit "Submit" it turns out that I have mysteriously been logged out and by the time I get logged back on my wonderful prose is All Gone...:fire: :cuss: :banghead: )

Thought The Naked and the Dead was a waste of ink and paper.

SLA Marshall may have been correct when he said Charles MacArthur's War Bugs was The Best War Memoir Ever.
MacArthur--no relation to the generals--was an Illinois college boy when he joined up with an NG artillery unit and helped shepherd a bunch of French 75s "Over There" in 1917 with the 42nd Inhfantry Division.
Later he wrote a bunch of plays and sreenplays and married Dorothy Parker. Matthew Broderick played him in the movie.

Laurence Stallings went to the same party as a Marine Lieutenant, and wrote an excellant non-fiction paeon to The Dougboys, using that title. He also wrote plays and movies, including What Price Glory?, with Jimmy Cagney and... I forget the name of the NCO...although so far as I know he never got drunk, let alone anything else, with Dorothy Parker... (Yes, Mrs. Eatman, I'll stop now.)

{And good luck finding either of these...}

WWII the best book was probably The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, who I am pretty sure was not THR & TFL's Guy Sajer... :p Sajer was an Alsatian who attempted to enlist in the Luftwaffe and wound up in the Gross Deutschland Division instead.
{A friend tried to tell me that this book was"supressed" in the USA, and I enjoyed informing him that it was in fact on the official US Army reading list...)

Same milieu Sven Hassel's books about the Wehrtmacht are pretty entertaining, if you have a high tolerance for having your BS Flag fly a lot... Great quote" "It is at times like these that you regret having taken that course in unexploded ordnance disposal..."

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

With all due respect to Gunny Sgt. Carlos Hathcock;
my vote goes to the other true story:

Hamburger Hill *

*From May 11 to May 20th, 1969 the 101st Airborne was
engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of modern times;
on hill 937 in the Ashau Valley, Republic Of Viet-Nam.
For the men who fought in this courageous battle; this
is their story!

And another good one-

"When Hell Was In Session" by Jeremiah Denton*
* Former Navy POW in the Hanoi Hilton

True story of the treatment American POW's received
at the hands of the North Vietnamese. Far different
cry from the BS that "Hanoi Jane (Fonda) put out!


Best Wishes For A Safe and Joyous Week-End,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[Chuck Dye]

Up Front by Bill Mauldin

[Detritus]

"We Were Soldiers...."

"band of Brothers"

and the firsthand accounts of WW2 in the 101st Airborne, by Donald Burgett

"Currahee, a screaming Eagle at Normandy"

"Road to Arnhem"

"seven Roads to Hell" ( Bastone, and the Bulge)

and

"Beyound the Rhine, a Screaming Eagle in Germany"

[Fed168]

I just read Task Force Dagger, about the hunt for bin laden. Good read. I'll also chime in for Blackhawk Down, since alot of good others have been mentioned.
I remember a series called War in Peace, that covered global conflicts since WW II.

[Baba Louie]

My favorites include:

Red Badge of Courage, Crane

All Quiet on the Western Front, Ramarque
Fix Bayonets, Thomason
Fighting the Flying Circus, Rickenbacker

To Hell and Back, Murphy
Lt. Ramsey's War, Ramsey
The First and the Last, Galland
Guadalcanal Diaries, Tregaski
Samurai, Caiden & Sakai

Sympathy for the Devil, Anderson

Just a few. Have scores.

(edited to add)
Inside the Third Reich, Speer
G.I.'s War, Hoyt
(edit off)

Adios

[Sisco]

"Sand in the Wind" by Robert Roth.

[Ol' Badger]

"And a Hard Rain Fell"
About the Nam. Good read, not to wordy. About what you would expect from Middle Class Grunt.

[ACP230]

Most of the books I mentioned are available on Amazon.com. One of the Coopers is out of print.
Powell's has also been a good place to find books.

[stevelyn]

Anything by Harold Coyle. "Look Away" and "Until the End" is a two part series about the War Between the States. Which were departures from his other books about modern warfare. My favorite is "Savage Wilderness" about the French and Indian War. Incidentally, the characters in "Savage Wilderness" turn out to be the ancestors of characters in "Look Away" and "Until the End" which made it even more entertaining.
I've been hoping, waiting and praying for Coyle to write a book or series about the American Revolution.

[Dannyboy]

Stevelyn, I think those same Coyle characters, one of them at least, are decendents of his main character from Team Yankee , a good WWIII book in its own right. Coyle hasn't written anything I didn't like.

Another good WWII book, I thought, was Black Edelweiss. It's about the SS in Finland before and after being sold out by the Finns. It's a good book but I'm not sure about the author. It's got a bit of that, "Yes, I was in the SS but I was a good boy" feel to it. Still, a pretty good read and I'd give the author the benefit of the doubt.

Has anyone read Grenadiers by Kurt Meyer? It's out of print and I haven't been able to find a copy for a while. If anyone has any leads on a copy, I'd appreciate if you could let me know

[Mark Tyson]

War of the Running Dogs
by
Noel Barber

A very good book about the Malay emergency. You could say that the Brits "wrote the book" on counterguerilla warfare.

[Razor]

Anything by Harold Coyle.

Except for Dead Hand :p

Have you read his latest, More Than Courage? I was going to pick it up, but I got Michael Durant's In The Company of Heroes instead.

[Boats]

I like to leaven "war memoirs" with books by actual historians who go through archives looking for perspective. My favorite "war book," as it were, is War Without Mercy--Race & Power in the Pacific War by MIT historian John W. Dower

It is a little "post-modern" but that does not detract from what I find to be the most powerful English exploration of why the War in the Pacific was far more savage than the war in Europe. In general, the war against the Japanese gets short shrift in the histories, memoirs, and popular imagination because it was the "sideshow" compared to "saving Western Civilization."

Think about it. The American war in Europe was essentially ramped up in 1943 in Africa, fought with fairly low intensity until Italy, (and why the Italian campaign was not the "official allied invasion of Europe," I will never understand), and culminated in a Western Front that lasted less than a year, defended by Germans who would largely surrender when circumstance dictated, and who would take prisoners, though sometimes there were massacres. For instance, nothing happened at Omaha Beach in Normandy that hadn't already been experienced by the 2/2 Marines at Tarawa in November 1943 except for the scale of the landing, yet few people know that of just that one Marine battalion they took something like 1500 dead from a force of 5,000 IIRC.

No one who could help it surrendered to the Japanese. That war was fought bloodily from the opening shots at Pearl Harbor through June 1945 on Okinawa, with an invasion of the home islands being contemplated. Over one in four prisoners in Japanese custody died and the rest looked as bad as anyone who ever came out of a concentration camp in Eastern Europe. I have all of the respect in the world for the veterans of any war, but the War in the Pacific gets overlooked way too often in relation to its duration, scope, and intensity.

My favorite war book written by a veteran is Run Silent, Run Deep, a thinly fictionalized "novel" by Ned Beach. The book bears little resemblance to the melodramatic movie starring Clark Gable, (what a shock huh?)

[glockten]

Fiction: Piece Of Cake by Derek Robinson. About an RAF fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Non-fiction: With The Old Breed At Peleliu And Okinawa by E.B. Sledge.

[Zip06]

Some great ones;

Stillwell and the American Experience in China - 1911-1945 by Barbara Tuchman. An exceptional officer; an impossible task.

Hell in a Very Small Place. Bernard Fall. The definitive study of the battle for Dien Bien Phu. The defeat of the French convinced the leaders in Hanoi that they could later defeat the Americans. This book shows how they did it.

Street without Joy. Bernard Fall. Excellent history of how the French got their ??? kicked out of Indochina.

The Battle for the Falklands. Hastings and Jenkins. An excellent account of Englands land forces during the battle. We can use more allies with the skills, training, stamina and raw courage that these limeys demonstrated.

Brute Force. John Ellis. An unusual account of WWII from the standpoint of American industrial production and logistical flow. Neither the Germans or the Japanese had a chance. Simply put, we could produce anything quicker than the enemy could destroy them. For example, production of tankers and supply ships out numbered axis destroyed ones from 1943 on. Similarly, in the skys, we could easily afford to lose five mustangs for every German fighter shot down because our strategy was to kill their air crews so they couldn't fly again and we did it.

Blackhawk Down. Mark Bowden. Although bordering on special operations worship this is an excellent read.

[MolonLabe416]

Some outstanding books already mentioned. I'll add:

Something of Value by Robert Ruark

Brown on Resolution

The Great War in Africa

Washing of the Spears

Mau Mau Manhunt by Baldwin

The River War by Churchill

Warrior by Capstick

Fix Bayonets! by Thomason

Scouting on Two continents by Burnham

The Rough Riders by Teddy Roosevelt

Duty Honor Empire by Lord

Gates of Fire by Pressfield

I could go on, but this should keep you busy for a bit. Enjoy.

[Khornet]

Incredible Victory, Walter Lord, about Midway
Clear The Bridge, John O'Kane, war patrol diary of USS TANG
Bruce Catton's Civil War trilogy
We Were Soldiers Once And Young
American Caesar, William Manchester, about MacArthur
Company Commander
The Monk and the Marines, Philip Kingry...a Corpsman in Vietnam
Breakout, Martin Russ,about Chosin
One Bugle, No Drums, about Chosin
1000 Destroyed, about P-51 combat
Zemke's Wolfpack, about P-47 combat
Brazen Chariots,,M3 Stuarts in Africa
With Rommel in the Desert
Just about any Stephen Ambrose
Storm Over the Gilberts
Typhoon of Steel, about Okinawa
Line of Departure: Tarawa, Martin Russ
A Mighty Fortress, B17 combat

I've got a million of 'em...

[Pilgrim]

The Fire Dream by Franklin Allen Leib.

[Dave Markowitz]

Some of these have already been mentioned, but what the heck:

Fiction:

Brown on Resolution, CS Forester.
The entire Hornblower series, again by Forester.
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway.
The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara.
The Guns of the South, Harry Turteldove.
Men at War, Ernest Hemingway, ed.


Non-fiction:

We Were Soldiers Once, and Young, by Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway.
Blackhawk Down, Mark Bowden.
Pegasus Bridge, Stephen Ambrose.
Stillwell and the American Experience in China, Barbara Tuchman.
A Rifleman Went to War, H.W. McBride.
The Emma Gees, H.W. McBride.
With British Snipers to the Reich, C. Shore.
The Face of Battle, John Keegan.
A History of Warfare, John Keegan.
The Price of Admiralty, John Keegan.
The Mask of Command, John Keegan.
The Art of War, Sun Tzu (Griffith translation).

[matis]

My schedule is full and budget stretched.

Now I'm gonna have to buy and read 10-15 more books!


Life can be tough!



Matis

[jdkelly]

Six Silent Men, all three books
Eyes of the Eagle
Eyes behind the Line
Wings of the Eagle
About Face



Anything by soldiers like Linder, officers like Hackworth and Beckwidth (sp.), or piolts Grant who tells their stories of combat.
Anything about Lurps, the 101st, 1st Cav, the 1st of the 9th, Force Recon, Recon, MAC V Recondo school or any speical ops in Vietnam (strange fellows indeed).

Personal stories told well enough to scare the likes of me!


jkelly

[T.Stahl]

"Popski's Private Army" by Penjakov himself.
"Sabre Squadron" and "All Necessary Measures" by Cameron Spence.

[280PLUS]

"the desert column" ion l. idriess-hard to find, not cheap-try ebay
"the silent service" also idriess
"the guerilla series" also idriess
"horrie the wog dog" also idriess

idriess fought as an australian cavalryman in the trenches of the middle east WW1 for four years, palestine, gallipoli, "turcoland" (sound familiar?)
the 'column" was an abridged version of over 20,000 pages of the journal he kept religiously throughout his tour, the entire journal is on display in the australian war museum. it is the only know journal of that campaign produced by an enlisted man.
you want realistic info about war from the grunt's perspective? read this one

he went on to write over 50 books, some about wartime but also on many, many other diverse topics. the "guerilla series" was written by him under contract with the aussie gov't as a tactical guide for the civilian population to use in the event they would need to repel the japanese from aussie shores. hard to find, not cheap, facsimiles are available at www.ozbook.com
if you havent read any idriess, i highly recommend him!

search "ion l. idriess" on ebay

"walking point" CPO james watson - an original "greenface"

"guadal canal diary" was good

"china to me" emily hahn - a journalists report on the japanese occupation of china - not real combat stuff but very insightful

"dear mom - a snipers vietnam" Joseph T. Ward - the guy that relieved chuck mawhinney(sp) and took over his rifle

"napolean's invasion of russia - 1812" - eugene tarle

any cornelius ryan book

if you can find a copy of this story of the british raid on st nazaire during the early part of ww2 you'll be totally dumbfounded, makes "the dirty dozen" look like tiddly winks (a friend commented, " these guys must have CLANKED when they walked!") i'll let you figure it out...:evil:
"the greatest raid of all" anthony heckstall-smith - little, brown & co. - publishers

theres plenty more...you may find a lot of these to be out of print, some can be found on ebay occasionally

;)

[glockten]

why the Italian campaign was not the "official allied invasion of Europe," I will never understand

Terrain, for one reason. Between Italy and Germany stands a formidable mountain range. The topography of northern France and Belgium was much more conducive to mobile warfare in 1944.

In addition, Normandy was closer to the industrial heartland of Germany than Italy was.

[El Rojo]

My entire book case is full of military non-fiction. I worked as a substitute teacher for 2-3 years. Sure you would figure you would be busy teaching during that time, but no. Many teachers don't leave you much to do, it is mainly a babysitting job. I would read a book or two a week while getting paid for it!

Many of the good books have already been mentioned. I like all of Stephen Ambrose for WWII.

There was an inter-related group of soliders that have already been mentioned fromt he Vietnam War. Anything by Larry Chambers, Gary Linderer, WT Grant, Craig Jorgenson, Chuck Carlock, James Watson.

One of the best books on Vietnam I have ever read was Covert Warrior by Warner Smith. This is a spectacular read. There really isn't a lot of the extra humor or vulgarity in this book like a lot of other Vietnam books. Which the other books are good because they tell the complete story. The thing that sets this book apart is it is simply action packed. This guy parachuted into Southern China BY HIMSELF! So amazing you think you are reading fiction.

And with that, I just found a link that claims this book is fiction. COVERT WARRIOR: OVERT FANTASY! (http://www.navyfrogmen.com/SOF4.html) A very interesting article.

Warthog: Flying the A-10 in the Gulf War by William Smallwood. I am a A-10 fan and this is a good read. You would be amazed at what a group of dedicated and inventive pilots did to Saddam back in the first war.

Both of Andy McNab's books are good too. He was captured deep in Iraq during the first Gulf War. He also served all over the world with the SAS.

And of course Blackhawk Down.

I got lots of them.

[Dannyboy]

Speaking of Andy McNab, I read a book called Eye of the Storm not too long ago by the guy who was the RSM of 22SAS during the Gulf War. He basically said that McNab and the other guy that wrote books about that Bravo 2 0 patrol were full of crap. Having said that, I like McNab and his books are all pretty good, even the novels.

[5ptdeerhunter]

I am on page 100 of Black Hawk Down, and it is a very good book so far.

[Ala Dan]

Chained Eagle by Everett Alvarez, Jr

true story from the longest held Navy pilot
during the Viet-Nam war. He was even based
on the carrier, USS Ticonderoga when
he was shot down. Good man, and a darn
good pilot!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[MrKandiyohi]

Civil War trilogy by Shelby Foote

B-17: Flying Fortress by Martin Caidin

P-38: Forked-tailed Devil by Martin Caidin

Fly for Your Life by Stanford Tuck

Curahee!

The Cactus Air Force

To the Last Cartridge


When you've covered all the WWI books you want, read:

Battle Maps of WWII by Simon Goodenough

[Detachment Charlie]

Having read all of the above comments, I am impressed with the selections and fellow THR members.
My two favorites have been mentioned by several, and I simply want to add that it's a shame Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front are too frequently wasted by "forcing" them on high schoolers.

[Dr.Rob]

Some of my favorites:

Cross Of Iron
Das Boot
Johnny Got His Gun
The Short Timers
War Of The Rats
The Illiad
The Things They Carried
King Rat

Non Fiction:

Citizen Soldiers (Ambrose)
Blackhawk Down (Bowden)
About Face (Col. David Hackworth)
Empire Of The Sun (JG Ballard)
Bloods
Flags Of Our Fathers

[dinosaur]

There`s a new one out "Xin Loy, Viet Nam" by Al Sever. I haven`t read it yet, (cheep, cheep, cheep) :D but the reviews are very favorable. The only reason I`ve heard of it is a friend of mine went to school with the author.

I`m reading Harold Coyle`s "Against All Enemies" right now. I like his books but the Civil War doesn`t interest me.

Fiction, non fiction, it`s all good. I like to buy as many books as I can this time of year so I can relax by the pool on the real hot days. Actually, that goes for the real cold days too. No pool then though.:eek:

[Khornet]

author Philip Kingry is still around. I mentioned his book last year in a column for America's Voices, and his daughter saw it and forwarded to him. He emails me from time to time....interesting man indeed.

[280PLUS]

if you get through the first chapter of "drums of mer" without a good week or so spooking to follow, youre better than me...

:what: :eek:

first time i really ever thought, "do i dare turn the page?"

it is war related but of an entirely different type of war and almost totally without firearms...

:uhoh:

[Al Thompson]

Eric Bergerud has two very good books out about the war in the Souh Pacific. Touched with Fire is about the land war and Fire in the Sky is about the air war.

Steve Harlov has some good modern fiction about the Israli special ops forces. Nylon Hand of God is one.

Anything by Ambrose (RIP) is good. Easy reading and lots of good information.

Hackworth continues to lose me - Mike Durant wrote in his book that Hackworth attacked him in print for being a coward. That's a major insult in my view.

[El Rojo]

I forgot about Catch 22. For those sarcastic bastards like me, Catch 22 is hilarious. I highly recommend you go check it out from the local library. It is about this bombadier in a B-24 in WWII that does whatever he can to stay out of battle. This is the king of absurd books.

[Ed Straker]

Seconding (or thirding...) 'Chickenhawk', 'The Rough Riders' (Nothing like hearing it firsthand), 'Black Hawk Down'.

Has 'Phantom Over Vietnam' been mentioned?
'Helmet for my Pillow'
Then, there's always 'Guadalcanal Diary'.
Another one is 'Ironclaw', about a Prowler pilot during Desert Storm.

[OEF_VET]

Anything by Sthephen Ambrose

Blackhawk Down

The Hunt for Bin Laden - mostly because I was there at the time, and was privileged to be there for Operation Anaconda and can relate to several of the things mentioned in the book. I'm also partial to it because I've got a copy autographed by the author, signed on the 1 year anniversary of my return from Afghanistan.

[roscoe]

My War Gone Bye, I Miss It So - Anthony Loyd

re: the Balkans. Some truly unforgettable scenes.

[bobs1066]

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned. I'll add the novel "The Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek. The title and author's name contain Czech characters I don't have available.

You don't normally think of WW I as being funny, but Hasek pulls it off. Unfortunately, he died before completing Svejk's tale.

There are a couple of different translations available. If you can, get the one with all the foul language intact.

[motorep]

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned, but my #1 is The 13th Valley, by John M. Del Vecchio, 101st Airborne, 70/71.

[RON in PA]

The 900 Days by Salsbury, about the seige of Leningrad.

[Johnpl]

"Fields of Fire" by James Webb
"Once an Eagle" and "The Big War" by Anton Myrer
"The War Lover" by John Hersey (which was made into a great movie starring Steve McQueen.)

[CWatson]

Zemke's Wolf Pack by Hub Zemke.It's about a P-47 group commander's experiences through WW2.CW

[cato87]

I lean more toward Civil War books so here goes:
Any book written by Gordon C. Rhea (covers the Overland Campaign up through the Battle of Cold Harbor).
Tanner's THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN.
Any book on Gettysburg by Harry W. Pfanz.
Also any book by Stephen Ambrose about WWII fits my bill.
Now we need to get a thread started about best political books you have ever read. Which in my book would be Bernard Bailyn's THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
cato87

[ed dixon]

Yep, Vet, should've mentioned "Blackhawk Down." I read it and it was first-class.

Should be able to sort through this list by Xmas. May have to learn logarhythms or sumpn to do it justice.

Thanks, folks.

Maybe even learn how to spell "logarithms."

[Ala Dan]

Hey! I just came up with another one-

"Headhunter's" by Matthew Brennan*-editor

*also author of "Brennan's War"

Another Viet-Nam classic, about true stories of:
The 1st Squardon Of The 9th Calvary from 1965-1971
as told by survivor's of the campaign! This unit was
engaged in some of the most gruesome battles of
the Viet-Nam war; and lots of times its men made
the ultimate sacrifice.

I just started reading it last evening (05-27-03), and
so far its been a good one.

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[Viking6]

From Defeat to Victory by Viscount William Slim
The Flashman Series (the portions that deal with war) by George McDonald Fraser (and his autobiographic book on his time as an enlisted soldier in Burma, the title escapes me)

[Mute]

Von Clausewitz - On War
Sun Tzu - Art of War

[280PLUS]

"mao tse tung on guerilla warfare"

the copy i have is: translated and with an introduction by Brigadier General Samuel B. Griffith USMC (Ret)

praeger publishers 1961

the book that will demonstrate to you how noone will ever occupy our homeland, try as they might, if we don't want them to...

;)

i'd like to read some sun tzu,,,too...

[RandyB]

Killer Angels (and others by the authors son)

We were soldiers....and young

Band of Brothers

Guns of August

All were excellent reads.