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ded posted:The Big Show: The Classic Account of WWII Aerial Combat Yes! This is great fuckin book. Read it if you haven’t.
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Nov 5, 2019 07:41
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Sad King Billy posted:I notice that the old war literature thread went into the archives. I'm after some recommendations for new books to read so selfishly, this new thread has been created. This one was absolutely great. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Nov 5, 2019 20:46
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Anyone read Callsign Chaos? On a whim I put it on my list to read this year. Should I read it or consider replacing it with something else in the same type of genre (which I believe is military leadership or leadership in general with anecdotes if I’m not mistaken)?
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Jan 3, 2020 21:56
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Read some Navy SEAL leadership books to impress your bosses
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Jan 3, 2020 22:09
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Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 The notebooks of a very lucky and very angry French soldier who survived WW1. I have heard many, many recommendations of this. Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel. A series of stories about the Russian Civil War and the Polish-Russian War of the early 1920's, the writer was a journalist attached to the Soviet cavalry.
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Jan 15, 2020 13:55
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UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:Read some Navy SEAL leadership books to impress your bosses Extreme Ownership is actually good. I'm not brave enough to ready anything else such as Frontline Canoeing: Driving Results The SEAL Way
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Jan 15, 2020 17:55
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Extreme ownership can be summed up in “just pretend you have full responsibility for everything that happens around you” which is all right but not really worth a whole book.
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Jan 17, 2020 06:02
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so is mattis's book worth a read or not
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Jan 17, 2020 12:03
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colachute posted:so is mattis's book worth a read or not Not. It’s as good as a Genera Flynn book at this point. And you don’t want to enable him.
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Jan 19, 2020 10:20
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The Unknown soldier by Finnish author Vainno Linna. It follows a Finnish machinegun company during Finlands continuation war with Soviet. The author himself was a veteran of that war, and writes in a very down to earth and realistic way. I heartily recommend it.
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Mar 1, 2020 21:51
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War Without Garlands: Operation Barbarossa 1941-1942 by Robert Kershaw. A rather gripping history of the first push into the Soviet Union by the Germans. Unique (to me) as it does a pretty good job in fleshing out some of the details that always seem to be presented in drier terms; i.e. Soviet Army encirclements, the final drive on Moscow, etc. Dovetails nicely with the Guy Sajer book.
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Mar 25, 2020 18:27
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Does anyone have book recommendations on the US Civil War, the (American) Indian Wars, or the British empire’s shenanigans in the 1800s? This is a time period of become fascinated with semi recently, and I can’t tell reputable books from lovely books at Barnes and noble.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:14
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I learned everything I know about the British empire's 1800s shenanigans from the Flashman series.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:20
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DinosaurWarfare posted:Does anyone have book recommendations on the US Civil War, Apostles of Disunion will get you up to speed on why "the Civil War wasn't about slavery" is complete and utter bullshit. The Civil War by Shelby Foote is a classic narrative encompassing the entire war and can give you a decent starting place to find any particular rabbit hole you want to dive into. If you have specifics you want to read about, let me know. The American Civil War was my degree concentration.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:28
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McNally posted:Apostles of Disunion will get you up to speed on why "the Civil War wasn't about slavery" is complete and utter bullshit. Foote's trilogy is good and a solid narrative, but even Foote himself has admited he had a bias for the Confederacy/South. Personally I'd recommend McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom as an intro and then dive into Foote's trilogy afterwards.
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Mar 27, 2020 03:34
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haha wow Shelby Foote was court martialed out of the army in WW2 for falsifying motor pool documents after stealing a jeep to visit his future ex-wife who left him for the Bockscar bombardier. I think we may have a new candidate for Mt. Gipmore
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Mar 27, 2020 04:07
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shame on an IGA posted:haha wow Shelby Foote was court martialed out of the army in WW2 for falsifying motor pool documents after stealing a jeep to visit his future ex-wife who left him for the Bockscar bombardier.  That is amazing.
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Mar 27, 2020 04:11
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Handsome Ralph posted:Foote's trilogy is good and a solid narrative, but even Foote himself has admited he had a bias for the Confederacy/South. Personally I'd recommend McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom as an intro and then dive into Foote's trilogy afterwards. I mean, he straight up admits it in the foreword of volume one, so it's not like he hid it. But yeah, anything McPherson is a solid choice. I was blanking on which one to recommend though.
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Mar 27, 2020 04:11
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If you want a "Why France Fell" account from a guy who was there, who wrote it in 1940 just after defeat, and who was both a historian and executed by the Gestapo for his work in the resistance, this is $2.99 on Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/Strange-Defeat-Marc-Bloch-ebook-dp-B07K4T4XJT/dp/B07K4T4XJT/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid= It's really good and you don't get many first person accounts from a trained historian that was actually there when the poo poo went down. (Obviously you don't get a lot of pulled-back analysis and sourcing and it's pretty clear he wasn't a fan of the generals, if you want to consider that a flaw). Dr. Kyle Farnsworth fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Apr 20, 2020 |
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Apr 20, 2020 18:19
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I can't remember where Achilles in Vietnam by Jon Shay was recommended. I think it was in Zeris' old moral injury thread back in the upper Cretaceous. In any case, wow, what a great read. Powerful and insightful. Shay is a psychiatrist who worked extensively with nam vets suffering from PTSD and moral injury. The book draws on the descriptions of the war experience of those vets and draws comparisons against classical narratives (especially the Iliad) of going to war to examine causes, effects, and suggestions for healing for the psychological trauma of combat. Highest recommendation for any of my fellow brokebrains here
US Berder Patrol fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Apr 25, 2020 |
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Apr 24, 2020 15:27
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shame on an IGA posted:haha wow Shelby Foote was court martialed out of the army in WW2 for falsifying motor pool documents after stealing a jeep to visit his future ex-wife who left him for the Bockscar bombardier. gently caress
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Apr 27, 2020 05:29
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Just finished Brendan Koerner's Now the Hell Will Start, the story of the manhunt for Herman Perry. Vivid picture of not only vintage 1940s racism, but the outrageous ratfuck that was the building of the Ledo Road from Burma into China.
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May 1, 2020 16:46
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I read Matterhorn this week. It was excellent in nearly every way.
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May 10, 2020 16:53
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bloops posted:I read Matterhorn this week. It was excellent in nearly every way. It's been ten years since I've read it and it still sticks with me. Might re-read it this year.
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May 10, 2020 17:39
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I've now finished everything I have in my bookcase. So here are a few recommendations. The Long Day's Dying by Alan White A pretty rare book but is available fairly cheaply on eBay. The author was a commando in the Second World War and I think it is loosely based on his experiences. A very quick read but intense in a psychological way. I definitely found it interesting. A movie adaption was filmed in 1968 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Day%27s_Dying https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13261634-the-long-day-s-dying Relentless Strike by Sean Naylor I bought this book a few years back on the recommendation of this forum. A very good read and I might give it another go. It is about the various special operations groups that took part in operations in Iraq. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Relentless-Strike-History-Special-Operations/dp/1250014549 ...and some military Sci-Fi that I have read. Passage At Arms by Glenn Cook Submarine warfare in space, a very tense book which I think is a classic. A lot of people in the Book Barn Sci-Fi thread appreciate it, but I don't think it has the appreciation it deserves. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Passage-at-Arms-Glen-Cook/dp/1597801194 We All Died At Breakaway Station by Richard C Meredith It would be fair to say that this book has a few issues. its treatment of women definitely dates it, they are effectively sex objects or incompetent. However, the alien psychology of the protagonists is well thought out and the central idea of troops being patched up with any technology available and sent back out asap is quite horrifying. I do have my reservations about the material but it was still a good read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/585516.We_All_Died_At_Breakaway_Station
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May 10, 2020 20:23
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Sad King Billy posted:
Reading everything Glen Cook writes is an extremely good use of your time. Dude was, IIRC, a QM1 back in the day.
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May 11, 2020 21:02
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I just finished With The Old Breed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_the_Old_Breed Pacific War through the eyes of a USMC mortarman. I think it should be required reading for anyone with the authority to send soldiers into harm’s way.
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May 19, 2020 01:20
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Itchy_Grundle posted:I just finished With The Old Breed. Its a drat good and very grisly book.
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May 19, 2020 02:38
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SpaceSDoorGunner posted:Extreme ownership can be summed up in “just pretend you have full responsibility for everything that happens around you” which is all right but not really worth a whole book. military leadership: when a higher up is around, tell someone to do something that they're already doing then look at your boss smugly
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May 19, 2020 16:10
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"The Short Timers" that Full Metal Jacket was adapted from is an amazing read. It was supposed to be a trilogy where in the third book he goes back to Vietnam to join the VC but the author died after writing the second novel. https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/i2l/shorttimers.pdf Here is the PDF. The wiki on the author is also interesting. He himself was a combat correspondent that was in combat in Hue. Afterwards other than writing it appears he enjoyed stealing books from libraries and had a storage container full of more than 10,000 books he had stolen.
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Aug 11, 2020 15:54
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https://www.warbooks.co.za/collections/e-books Free poo poo, yo.
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Aug 18, 2020 20:41
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Hell in a very small place was fuckin great, thanks thread. Some dated racial stereotyping that clearly was a product of its time but other than that it was insanely gripping. Just finished Spain In Our Hearts by Adam Hochschild. Mostly a history of American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War but also provides a nice overview of the geopolitical situation and how it impacted the outcome of that conflict. It’s good.
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Sep 19, 2020 01:28
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DinosaurWarfare posted:Does anyone have book recommendations on the British empire’s shenanigans in the 1800s? You want shooting leave which is the real accounts of stuff in the vein of flashman. The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk Trespassers on the roof of the world is also excellent.
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Sep 19, 2020 06:43
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Came across another recommendation that might appeal. For some reason, the chap who posted it refuses to post here. So I did it for him.quantumfoam posted:Just finished reading a amazingly stupid book.
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May 26, 2021 17:53
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D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944 Holger Eckhertz Intense look of the fighting during and following D Day that follows several units taken from first hand accounts years after the war. https://www.amazon.com/DAY-Through-...ps%2C191&sr=8-1
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May 27, 2021 02:54
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Mr-Spain posted:D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944 I read this during hurricane florence hours before my house flooded because it was a good "yeah this isn't so bad" comparison but... I think it's fake. All the stories are just a little too perfect and no one can find any record of any of the soldiers named.
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May 27, 2021 03:29
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shame on an IGA posted:I read this during hurricane florence hours before my house flooded because it was a good "yeah this isn't so bad" comparison but... I think it's fake. All the stories are just a little too perfect and no one can find any record of any of the soldiers named. drat, I'll have to look into that.
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May 28, 2021 20:29
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Neptune's Inferno I just finished this one. Guadalcanal seems to get a little less attention than Pearl Harbor, Midway, or Leyte Gulf, but it's arguably as important as any of them. Hornfischer is an excellent author. He takes the difficult task of looking at a chaotic, confusing and rapidly changing environment and creates a narrative out of it, complete with a lot of personal stories without turning it sensationalist. He also casts a very fair eye on the actions of both the Americans and the Japanese without letting nationalism get in the way. If military or naval history interests you even remotely, this and his other - Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors - are absolutely worth your time. Bonus points for the picture of the New Orleans with her entire bow blasted off but still afloat.
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Jul 6, 2021 10:12
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OK, been on a tear since mid-2020. The highlights: -Grant by Ron Chernow: I used this as a text for my military history course. The first part of the book is his military career. If you didn't think so already by the end you'll see that Grant was probably the best soldier this country has ever produced. -Twilight of the Gods by Ian Toll: Another book I used for class. About the ending phases of the Pacific war and just how powerful the US Navy was. Toll sticks it to Halsey pretty good because of his lapses in judgement that killed scores of sailors. Ray Spruance should have been the Five Star. -No Miracles: The Failure of Soviet Decision Making in the Afghan War: For obvious reasons this book is pretty timely. Compare and contrast. At least the Soviets made the withdrawal into a sort of ceremony. -Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War: OK, you guys know The Pentagon Wars? Well, this is the guy that set all that off. John Boyd, frankly, belongs on Mount GiPmore. He forced the A-10, the F-16 and the F-15 on the Air Force instead of more swing wing F-111 clones. He hated the B-1. He thought planes like the F-35 were over priced junk (he died in 1997 which says something) He also wrote about warfare in a way that took off from Clausewitz and gave the Marines some theory to back up their warfighting. I am plowing though his 400 plus slide presentation entitled A Discourse on Winning and Losing which is as close to something he authored as there will ever be. The Air Force disliked him. The Pentagon resented him, the Marines love him and you should read this book ASAP. Don't start with any of his presentations though. Start with this book, it's a introduction you'll need. https://www.coljohnboyd.com/ Collects most of the material about him.
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Jul 8, 2021 22:03
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The Tango War: The Struggle for the Hearts, Minds and Riches of Latin America During World War II by Mary Jo McConahay. Fascinating look at what was going on in central and South America during the war. Massive German colonies in Brazil, Mexican oil fueling u-boats, Orson Welles making an epic film that was suppressed, it’s a great read.
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Jul 9, 2021 06:31
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