Best books on war?

[Valkman]

Many, many great Civil War books - I got "Killer Angels" as a present in '97 and that got me going. After that I read everything I could get my mitts on and bought a ton of books off of Ebay. Back then alot of great deals could be had, and I bought a bunch of first edition 1800's books for around $20 each. Now I have close to 200 CW books, and I'd recommend these to begin with:

Everything by Bruce Catton
Everything by Douglas Freeman, especially "Lee's Lieutenants" 4 book set
Everything by Stephen Sears

I started by buying books about the overall war, and the first set was "Civil War" by Shelby Foote, a 3 book set. There are many of these types of books that are good for CW general knowledge.

Some battle specific books:

Battle At Bull Run by Davis
Landscape Turned Red (Antietam) by Sears
Not War But Murder - Cold Harbor 1864 by Furguson
The Gettysburg Campain by Coddington
Gettysburg - The Second Day by Pfanz
Culp's Hill and Cemetary Hill (Gettysburg) by Pfanz
Return to Bull Run by Hennessey
Shiloh by Daniel
Pea Ridge by Shea and Hess
Chancellorsville by Sears

Diaries, all by women:

Diary of a Southern Woman by Morgan
A Diary From Dixie by Chestnut
Ties of the Past by Stewart

Persons:

Lee by Freeman
Lee's Lieutenants by Freeman
Lee by Dowdy
Lee Takes Command by Dowdy
Stonewall Jackson by Robertson (Many books on Jackson but I think this is the best)
Quantrill's War by Shultz
N.B. Forrest by Hurst (Forrest is my favorite CW cavalry figure)
Campains of Nathanial Bedford Forrest by Jordan and Pryor
First With The Most - N B Forrest by Henry
Longstreet by Wert

Military Memoirs of a Confederate by Alexander
Reminiscences of the Civil War by Gordon
Advance & Retreat by Hood
Personal Memoirs by Grant
Walt Witman's Civil War by Whitman

Other stuff:

Beyond The Battlefield by Madden
Civil War Prisons by Hasseltine
Letters of a Civil War Surgeon by Fatout
Civil War Medicine by Schaadt
Medical Practices of the Civil War by Beller
Letters from Lee's Army by Blackford

Have fun! Don't even ask about the Don Troiani art prints!

 

[submin]

A free source for the public domain titles

Some of the best books, for example . . .

The Art of War; Tzu Sun

On War; Clausewitz

Are available free from Project Gutenberg . All you have to do is download. This is two examples that I know of but I'm sure there are more. A great source if you like classics or even stuff penned by Plato. I saw a few titles about ancient Roman war-fair.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

For a controversial and very different perspective on the Civil War, check out The South Was Right! by James Ronald Kennedy &, Walter D. Kennedy. One of its arguments is that it was constitutional for the South to withdraw from the Union and the war was an illegal invasion ordered by Lincoln. It talks about the war being the point in which the states ceased governing themselves and the federal government began dictating its will onto them.

 

[Balog]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume those aren't the political Kennedy's.

 

[macman37]

Vietnam era:

Keith William Nolan's "Hue: The Tet Offensive" (I have one other by him; can't remember the title. Suffice to say KWN is an excellent author)

George R. Elford's DEVILS GUARD is a surprising (yet true, I had to check the book's spine frequently to make sure it wasn't fiction) story of German soldiers in the French Foreign Legion that served in Vietnam.

WWII:

Audie Murphy's autobiography is excellent.

Burke Davis' "MARINE! The life of Chesty Puller" was a bit dated but an excellent read as well.

jim

 

[Detritus]

George R. Elford's DEVILS GUARD is a surprising (yet true, I had to check the book's spine frequently to make sure it wasn't fiction) story of German soldiers in the French Foreign Legion that served in Vietnam.

there are a great number of people who want that book dismissed as not only fiction but as very far fetched fiction.... they're platform for this, that Former Nazi Soldiers CAN"T have done anything GOOD!!

i personally haven't read it but aren't at least some of them a portion of an SS unit that surrendered then when the war ended, enlisted en masse or some such??

and i also seem to remember reading (possibly in Zumbro's "iron cavalry") that this group of German born Legionaires was one of THE most effective anti-guerrilla units in Indochina.....

i'm STILL trying to find a readable copy for under $100

 

[Baba Louie]

Fix Bayonets – John Thomason – WWI

Fighting the Flying Circus – Edward Rickenbacker - WWI

All Quiet on the Western Front - Eric Remarque - WWI

Guadalcanal Diary – Richard Tregaski - WWII

Sympathy for the Devil - Kent Anderson – Vietnam

The Casca Series – Barry Sadler

 

[Detritus]

The Casca Series – Barry Sadler

happen to know where i can get a copy of Casca #1??

friend loaned me a copy about 7-8 years ago, but being an honerable person i gave it back after finnishing it, figuring that i could find anopther copy in a used bookshop..... no dice.

 

[moa]

Quite a few ex-German soldiers served in the French Foreign Legion. IIRC, the Legion was 80% German at one time and apparently was getting a little out of hand. This is in the 1950s-60s period.

My memory may be failing, but I think France disbanded the Legion for a while as a result.

I do not know if the Legion had any prohibition about enlisting ex-SS members.

However, I was just thinking that if there were any counter guerrilla experts around at that time it would have been the SS. The SS had entire formations from battlion level on up employed for years as anti-partisan troops. One formation eventually became a Division.

A recent publication and a great read about these SS anti-partisan troops is the "Cruel Hunters". It is mostly devoted to the Dirlewanger(sp?) anti-partisan SS. These German troops were enlisted originally from prisons and concentration camps, who had been imprison because they were animal poachers, and they were skillful at hunting and killing.

One photograph in the book shows these troops on the march with a track mounted multi-barrelled small calibre anti-aircraft automatic cannon.

Needless to say, this was a very hardnosed and nasty crowd.

 

[M99M12]

A WWII book I liked a lot was "They Fought Alone". Don't remember the author.
About some soldiers left behind on Mindanao in the Phillipines.

"Strong Men Armed" by Leckie ain't bad either.

Got myself a good want-list from all these posts, thanks

 

[Hutch]

I just thunk of another, "Brazen Chariot", can't remember the author. Written by a Brit who commanded an M3 light tank (Stuart) in the North Africa campaign. He had some great stories about force on force calculations, as in,: If we outnumber the enemy Mark IV's 2 to 1, then we engage. If we are in equal numbers with Mark III's, then we engage. If it's the Italians, than we engage, regardless of the correlation of force. I believe this was a comment on the Italian MBT, which apparently had 10 gears, 2 forward the 8 reverse.

 

[moa]

Italian WWII tanks were mostly a joke. They were basically mobile, armored machine gun nests bristling with machine guns. They were not suitable for armored warfare. More suitable for occupation duties.

 

[Baba Louie]

Detrius,
Check out Ebay for the Sadler "Casca" series of books. You can usually find one or more there.
Somebody had a complete set of 1 - 22 a while back... might be worth getting. My Dad still has all of mine and now considers them - his - along with all of the Louis L'Amour books (entire set up through his death)

I'd also recommend all of James Clavell's SHOGUN series or TAI-PAN, actually anything by Clavell is pretty darned good... KING RAT comes to mind as well.

Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey/Maturin series... excellant reading and who wrote the Hornblower series... CS Forester?

 

[Norwegian]

Also check out :

- " The naked and the dead " by Norman Mailer ( great novel )
- " Enemy at the gates " by William Craig
- " Acthung Panzer " by Hans Guderian

And maybe a book called " From Finland to Caucasus " if it is translated from Norwegian I don`t know , probably not .

 

[Hkmp5sd]

happen to know where i can get a copy of Casca #1??

I happen to have a copy, but it taint for sale.

Depending on just how bad you want it, Barnes & Noble's out of print network has 5 copies listed. Each is around $40.

 

[macman37]

Hey Detritus

George R. Elford's DEVILS GUARD is a surprising (yet true, I had to check the book's spine frequently to make sure it wasn't fiction) story of German soldiers in the French Foreign Legion that served in Vietnam.


there are a great number of people who want that book dismissed as not only fiction but as very far fetched fiction.... they're platform for this, that Former Nazi Soldiers CAN"T have done anything GOOD!!

i personally haven't read it but aren't at least some of them a portion of an SS unit that surrendered then when the war ended, enlisted en masse or some such??

and i also seem to remember reading (possibly in Zumbro's "iron cavalry") that this group of German born Legionaires was one of THE most effective anti-guerrilla units in Indochina.....

i'm STILL trying to find a readable copy for under $100

Good luck on that. My advice is to check gun shows and used book stores. I had a copy but someone offered me good money for it so I sold it to him! (hey, gun parts don't pay for themselves do they? ; ) )

Most of the troops in the book were former German Army regulars. The SS guys were the REAL pieces of work (and IIRC, at least one of them was a headcase). I think it was a "we'll turn the other way if you fight for us" situation for the French once WWII ended.

You are right, they became a very good jungle fighting force. Scary good.

An excellent read. I hope you are able to find a copy. Heck, I hope *I* find another copy ; )

jim

 

[Detritus]

The SS guys were the REAL pieces of work

i did some digging around, seems the SS troops (one of which as i understand it is the officer who wrote the diary that the book is based on) were members of one of the Anti-partisan "KopfJaeger" (headhunter) units. considering what even a few months in such a unit would have been like, it's no wonder they were "pieces of work".

but I think France disbanded the Legion for a while as a result

Don't know if there was such a move in the 50's-60's time frame, but the legion WAS disbanded for a short time some time between it's initial formation and when the powers that be finally sent them to garrison French africa. and i think i remember reading that the decision to use the legion for that purpose, thus freeing up "real" army troops AND putting all the "filthy foreigners" out of sight and out of mind, was a major impetus for the reformation etc of the legion.

wish i could remember were i came across that.......

 

[hops]

These are interesting if not good by others standard's.

The Great War In Africa - 1914-1918 - Byron Farwell. The campaign waged by Col. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck against the allies from 1914 to 1918 is especially fascinating.

Infrantry Attacks - LtC. (Oberstleutnant) Erwin Rommel. I have the 1956 Quantico Marine Corps Association Edition. I'd love a 1st edition German language copy.

Sixty Days that Shook the West - The fall of France: 1940 by Jacques Benoist-Mechin - 1956 France, mine is the 1963 English version. Covers the Political and Military view form the French side, until their end on 1940. The Political view is very fascinating.

The Interrogator - the story of Haans Joachim Scharff, master interrogator of the Luftwaffe. This is extermely interesting.

The Last Gentleman of War by the Naval Institute Press. Since the Emden was mentioned, this is a good and easy read. The Emden is more Famous than the Bismark. She was a Light Cruiser, detached from Von Spee's Pacific German Naval squadron to rage commerce raider warfare in the Pacific, as Von Spee too the rest of his force to the Atlantic.

Somewhere in my lair, I have a German Language book called; "Division Brandenburg". This unit, the Brandenburgers, was a unit of the Abwehr. It was basically a comando unit, whose members could speak 3, 4, 5 or more languages. I read it 20+ years ago. Very interesting. Not sure if there is an English Langauage version.

 

[RocketMan]

One that comes to mind that no one has mentioned:
"Pearl Harbor: At Dawn We Slept", by the late Gordon W. Prange.
A Navy historian, he and his team did extensive interviews with players on both sides of the Pacific after the war.
It is an exhaustive book, well written for the most part, though a little excrutiating with the details at times. It is thoroughly footnoted and sourced.
Besides telling a very complete story about Pearl Harbor from the perspective of both sides, it really puts to rest all the conspiracy theories and revisionist history surrounding Dec. 7, 1941.

 

[Dirty Bob]

Check out The Ravens, by Christopher Robbins. It's an account of the CIA's air war in Laos. This is a fairly serious book, full of footnotes. Unfortunately, the extremely mediocre film "Air America" was "based" on it. Believe me, there's no relationship between the two! Great stories of heroism that just about nobody knows about, esp. a native pilot named Lee Lue (if I remember his name correctly), who would come back to base after so many flying hours that he had to be lifted from the cockpit. He reportedly also had blood (!) on his plane from low level missions!

Rorke's Drift 1879: 'Pinned Like Rats in a Hole' by Ian Knight. The battle behind the great war flick "Zulu." I really like this and the other Osprey books on battles and campaigns. Not the most thorough coverage, but readable and understandable, with good maps.

Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot, by Howard R. Simpson. Book by a writer who was *at* DBP, in the early stages. I wish more Americans had read about the French experience in VN, before we repeated many of their mistakes.

Anything by Bernard Fall

Respectfully,
Dirty Bob

 

[macman37]

RE: "At Dawn We Slept"

That reminds me, I bought that at the gift shop at the Arizona memorial in 2002. I have not yet read it but have it on the "schedule"

Those of you who regard yourselves WWII buffs need to get to the Arizona memorial and the Missouri. Both will leave you absolutely drained. I am glad I took so many pictures while there; it was an incredible experience. The service men and women on Oahu must have thought they were in paradise up to 12/7/41.

(You MUST ignore the revisionist history in a lot of what you read and see while there... it is quite sick).

To stand on the spot (or very near the spot, you can't stand ON it) that Macarthur observed the treaty being signed to end WWII? Absolutely moving.

jim

 

[Mute]

Definitely:

Sun Tsu - Art of War
Von Clausewtiz - On War

One distinction about these two books, and this is just my opinion. Art of War is really about warfare, the tactics, mindset and philosophy. On War is an all encompassing read about the nature of war, socially, politically and the effects and causes, not so much about how to win a war, though it's certainly a useable guide.

 

[Baba Louie]

Anything on the airwar by Martin Caiden, Samurai has been mentioned, but Fork Tailed Devil (P38), Flying Forts (B17), Thunderbolt (P47) Black Thursday (Schweinfurt Raid) come to mind as well as his "Everything But the Flak", a hilarious tale of getting three B-17's ready and over to England for the movie The War Lover.

Farley Mowat's two books "And No Birds Sang" and "My Father's Son" have several great perspectives on the Canadian effort in WWII as he lived and saw it (good reading too). If you have kids (or are a kid at heart) read them his "Never Cry Wolf", "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be" and "Owls in the Family"... you'll laugh and you'll cry. Tho not war related... his stint as a biology major going up into the tundra to study the wolves (Never Cry Wolf) came about due to his disenfranchisement of society after the war... he also wrote about the natives of the region. Disney made the movie...

 

[Caliburn]

I'll add another second to Keegan's History of Warfare. He does a great job looking through all of history to spot the patterns.

George R. Elford's DEVILS GUARD

I had a copy in college that someone stole. I've been looking for another copy. Mine was a paperback and the author was listed as Wagemueller, but it was definitely the same book.

For a history of US battles and the US military pick up For the Common Defense by Millett and Maslowski. Great book.

 

[Hedger]

Great Book - Through These Portals

Here are a few of my favorites:

1. If you live in the Northwest (or anywhere else), "Through These Portals" by Wayne MacGregor is a must read.

http://wsupress.wsu.edu/newsandevents/reviews/portals.html

Ground pounding with the 77th Infantry in the Pacific in WWII in vivid no BS detail told by a true gentleman. This book is being used by several college history programs.

2. "At Dawn We Slept"... another must read.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140157344/103-7117087-5525452?v=glance

3. "War As I Knew It" Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. Hear about war from the Magnificent Bastard himself. Also contains helpful insights for groundpounders including "Don't dig latrines under trees."

http://www.lizmichael.com/patton.htm

4. "The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire" Forget everything you ever learned about Japanese thinking in WWII Pacific. The author gets the straight dope directly from surviving Japanese officers, officials, soliders, sailors, politicians, etc. We always think of Midway as the turning point of the war... not so the Japanese.

http://www.historyofmilitary.com/Th..._the_Japanese_Empire_19361945_0812968581.html