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War books

QBA

New Member
Hi all :)

I'm interesting in Non-Fiction books of the American involvement on WWII, 2001 Afghan War, First and Second Gulf War including recently operations like the fallujah siege etc

If those books are related to operations of special forces and sniper team it will be a plus, but I will choose a good over all war book over a poorly written special forces one.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Alex
 
The only war book that i have read is Band of Brothers!

But i might not be what your looking for!
 
Thanks All

I did my own research base on people reviews on the net and this is what I got, I bought the first 3 books already :)

Generation Kill
ISBN: 042520040X

Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad
ISBN: 080214179X

An Army at Dawn: "the War In Africa, 1942-1943 Volume One Of The Liberation Trilogy "
ISBN: 0805074481

No True Glory: Fallujah And The Struggle In Iraq: A Frontline Account
ISBN: 0739325566

Ambush Alley : The Most Extraordinary Battle of the Iraq War
ISBN: 0891418806

Shadow Wars: Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism
ISBN: 189589624X

Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit
ISBN: 0440237335

Warrior Soul: The Memoir Of A Navy Seal
ISBN: 0891418636

Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces
ISBN: 1586483528

The March Up: Taking Baghdad With the 1st Marine Division
ISBN: 055380376X

I hope it can help some one else

Alex
 
About 15 years ago a coworker introduced me to an amazing set of books he happened to have sitting on his bookshelf. It was a three part documentation of the history of the Army Of The Potomac during the American Civil War by Bruce Catton. Book 1) Mr. Lincoln's Army, Book 2) Glory Road, Book 3) A Stillness At Appomattox.

A Stillness At Appomattox won the Pulitzer Prize, but much like Peter Jackson's three part Lord Of The Rings movies (the last of which swept the Academy Awards with the final film winning 11 Oscars), I think the Pulitzer was really being awarded for all three of Catton's books collectively, just as the Oscars were being awarded for Jackson's entire movie trilogy, if the truth were known.

The three books provide an amazing look at what the Army Of The Potomac experienced through the Civil War. Catton's writing style is absolutely great. His writing often transcends prose and approaches magic. Each book is punctuated with many, many anecdotal stories of individual soldiers, such as the one about the Irishman who asked for leave to go home because he received a letter from his wife desperately pleading for him to return for some important reason. The commander replied that HE too had just received a letter from the same soldier's wife demanding that her husband be kept there because all he ever did when he was home was get drunk and cause trouble. The soldier stood quietly for a moment and then said, "Colonel, there are two great liars in this room and I am not the least of them."

The battles are described in extraordinary detail, from the maneuvers of entire divisions down to the accounts of individual soldiers, and no book on warfare I have ever read has ever made me feel that I was right there in the thick of battle as these books have. There is also a plethora of trivia concerning everything from food, to games, to everyday life in the camps.

I would not hesitate to recommend these books to anyone interested in the subject of the American Civil War as arguably the finest books ever written on the subject for the average reader.
 
Here are some books on WWII. I have included some that do not fit within your criteria that never the less, you should find of interest

1. AND I WAS THERE, by Admiral Edwin Layton. Layton was the intelligence officer for the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor during the period prior to and after the Japanese attack on December 7th. He begins with his going into Naval Intelligence upon graduation from Annapolis, then covers intelligence operations vis-a-vis Japan during the pre-war period, the bogus negotiations by Nomura and Kurusu, the breakdown in communications between Washington and Pearl Harbor, the attack and its aftermath on through Midway. Layton defends Admiral Kimmel.

2. THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC, by Harry Gailey.

3.THE PACIFIC WAR, by John Costello.

4. PACIFIC SIEGE, by Lawrence Cortesi. Covers one of the battles for Australia, in New Guinea, which was one of the four, along with Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal, which stopped what had appeared to to an unstoppable advance by Japan. This is not a footnoted, scholarly account. However, my oldest brother took part in this fighting. He recommended the book to me.

5. D DAY, by Stephen Ambrose.

6.CITIZEN SOLDIERS, by Stephen Ambrose.

7. SHORE LEAVE, by Frederic Wakeman. This novel created an iconic figure in Andy Crewson, the Naval pilot leading the group on leave, back from the Pacific. Made into a really lousy movie, with a badly mis-cast Cary Grant as Crewson. Has some sharp bite beneath the veneer.

8. GUADALCANAL DIARY, by Richard Tregaskis. First rate reporting on the early days of fighting on Guadalcanal.

9. THOSE DEVILS IN BAGGY PANTS, by Ross Carter. A must read. A first hand recounting of the participation by the 82nd Airborne in WWII from North Africa on to the end, by a survivor.

10.UP FRONT. By Bill Mauldin. A collection of Mauldin’s cartoons for "Yank", the U.S. Army publication for the troops in Europe, with Mauldin’s irreverent but very illuminating running commentary.

11. PANZER LEADER, by Heinz Guderian, the German general who led the blitzkrieg through France, then fought on the Eastern Front. Guderian ranks with Patton and Rommel as the top combat commanders. His analysis of what happened from the German viewpoint is clear-eyed and factual, rather than apologetic, and very informative.

12. THE FIRST AND THE LAST, by Adolph Galland, the German ace of aces among its fighter pilots. Another attention grabbing analysis of the war from the enemy’s perspective.

13. SIXTY DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WEST, by Jacques Benoist-Mechin. Gives a day-by- day account of Germany’s steamrollering of France. For each day, the military and the political situation is set forth. A unique view.

14. SPY/COUNTERSPY, by Dusko Popov. This is the memoir of a Hungarian playboy recruited by the Abwehr, who joined up for the purpose of becoming a double agent; which he did, becoming one of Britain’s most valuable agents. Better than most fiction.
 
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I'd thoroughly recommend all of Cornelius Ryan's books on WWII:
  • The Longest Day - covers the events of D-Day.
  • A Bridge Too Far - the ambitious yet failed airborne assault into the Netherlands
  • The Last Battle - the battle for Berlin
I was gripped by each of these books, Ryan writes in an exciting, narrative style - more like a faced-paced novel, rather than a history book, yet his books are written with much historical detail. Ryan was a reporter, and managed to interview many of the key players in each of these scenarios, from Allied and German leaders, to resistance and political figures - so, many of his anecdotes are gleaned first hand from those who were there.
 
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