Do you have a favorite history book that you read and re-read? I have two....Time for Trumpets by Charles Macdonald and Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester. What are your choices?
thanks
DJ

The Bruce Trilogy, a historical novel by Nigel Tranter, a Scottish historian. Its a bloody good read told from Robert the Bruce's point of view. I learned alot about Scottish history and the wars of independance from this book.

Jamie

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, Thunder Run by David Zucchino, My War by Colby Buzzell, One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, and Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor.

The Bowden, Zucchino, and Naylor books are outstanding contemporary books on US miltary operations that have greatly helped me in my studies but also serve as excellent lesson learned books on current operations.

The Buzzell and Fick books are great first hand accounts of an enlisted Soldier (Buzzell) and a Marine officer (Fick). Both also do great jobs at explaining small unit operations and life as a deployed soldier. I usually read each at least once a year.

Jeff

"The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty that Armed Germany "at War by William Manchester. Definately not a short read but very, very interesting.

Dave-- good call. Manchester did a superb job in writing that fine book on Krupp.
DJ

No Time for Trumpets is on my short list of books to read for the FIRST time. As to books to be read again I'm getting heavily into nostalgia. I'd like to find some of the old books I read when I was a kid. The American History series of books come to mind.

My choice would be Bodyguard of Lies by Anthony Cve Brown. This was the first WWII book I read back in the 70's that explained how we used Ultra to set up D Day. It's a great read.

Jeff-- those are some interesting works. Which one would you recommend that we start with Fick or Buzzell to begin understanding the war?
thanks
DJ

I agree that the contemporary books by Bowden, Zucchino, etc. are excellent. I've got a couple more to add:

"Generation Kill" by Evan Wright (an embedded reporter). I'd recommend this in conjunction with Nathaniel Fick's book as the embed was with Fick's unit. It's interesting to read the same account told from the ground soldier's point of view and from leadership's. As an FYI, Fick's covers much more ground that Wright's in that Fick covers his time coming up through boot camp, Afghanistan, and Iraq, so it's told from a much broader scale.

Another is "Heavy Metal: A Tank Company's Battle to Baghdad" by Capt. Jason Conroy & Ron Martz. It goes quite well with Zucchino's book. Once again, it's the more strategic view compared to Zucchino's blow-by-blow narrative.

- Frank

Frank-- thanks for the insights. I am thinking that at the end of this tthread I should categorize the books discussed so people can appreciate what books attract readers by a given period. As you can see from going through the responses to date, we cover a large portion of recorded history. So, let's keep the wheels turning and come up with a comprehensive list for future use.
thanks again
DJ

What Frank said is true. It really depends which perspective you wish to understand in the war. Buzzell offers a liberal and enlisted response to the war with raw emotions. Also the time period is in 2004 with the 2ID - a Stryker unit - based in Mosul. Much of what is in the book came from his blog, one of the first successful soldier blogs to emerge. Buzzell intertwines two polar philosophies of a don't-give-a-darn attitude and a I-want-to-excel attitude into one interesting personality.

Fick is a Marine Recon officer who's time frame is the initial invasion, literally at the tip of the Marine push. Because he's an officer you are getting - for lack of a better way to say it - a more mature view of the war even though the perspective rarely goes above the company level, However a comparison of Wright's book and Fick's book shows the same events (as far as the Iraq invasion goes) but in two different lights. You can easily tell that Fick is keeping his mouth shut on certain disagreements with officers, while Wright lambasts them - but that is because he is talking from an enlisted's point of view...and that of a reporter.

I have about 5 other first hand soldier accounts that are excellent too. Most are from the enlisted's perspective and give excellent and dynamic views of an enlisted Soldier's experiences.

Jeff

Jeff-- why don't let us have the names of the five books and authors so I can start a comprehensive list of recommended readings for the current Iraq situation.
DJ

Shattered Sword Parshall & Tully About Battle of Midway

Gentleman of War VanDer Vat Career of SMS Emden

Guerilla Hoyt About Von Lettow WWI East Africa

Gettysburgh July 1 Martin

Gotterdammerung Schneider Germany's Last stand in east

Stalingrad Beevor


These are just a few of the outstanding books that I have been able to enjoy over and over again

I would reread (I have already read it twice :-) ) "Secret Soldiers" about an american camoflague/deception unit in the ETO. Also "visions from a Foxhole".

Matt

Great books being presented for all to take note of. I will compile the composite list this weekend. Keep them cards and letters coming.
thanks
DJ

I've got two more that I really enjoyed & would read again:

"The Longest Winter" by Alex Kershaw (author of The Bedford Boys). Story of an intelligence platoon during the Battle of the Bulge & their subsequent POW time.

"Death Traps - The Survival of an American Armored Division in WWII" by Belton Cooper. Memoir of an Ordinance Liason officer tied to the 3rd Armored Division from Normandy through the end of the war. He tends to be on the repetitve side at times, but it's chockfull of info on how a maintenance company works, comparison of Allied & German Armor, etc. A good read. Oh yeah, he's pretty opinionated too on Allied leadership and the Sherman in particular.

- Frank

Not on my Watch - the 21st Century Combat Medic by Joshua M Peters and Josh R. Fansler. This book is of the two author's experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq as medics. One of them was onboard a Chinook when its wingman was shot down. He was the only medic, not even a CLS bag, and the entire aircraft had only an M-16 as they were all going on R&R. He got the Chinook to set down and with a small group of Soldiers saved as many lives as he could. On a small side note they are from a college close to me so that's how I found out about it.

This Man's Army by Andrew Exum. Follows stereotypical biography format of a Soldier who graduates from ROTC at Penn and becomes a Ranger in Kuwait and then Afghanistan in the mopping up parts of Operation Anaconda. Pretty good. I especially like it as it talks about ROTC (something I'm in), IOBC, Ranger school, and deployments. Downside of the book is because he's so high-speed, a lot of what he does comes off as almost condecending.

Just Another Soldier by Jason Christopher Hartley. A great book on a New York NG junior NCO deployed to Iraq in the 04-05 timeframe. Has one of the best quotes that I have seen about war.

Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams. One of a handfull of books of female soldiers. I believe she was a translator or some PA like that. Complains a bit much, but is a good account from the female point of view.

The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell by John Crawford. Another story about a junior enlisted Soldier. Like the title says, he becomes discontented after being stoplossed - even after being told to report in to deploy during his honeymoon. Not bad, but not at the top of my list.

Each book has its unique point of view of a conflict. All tend to or at least try to avoid politics and focus instead on what the soldier is thinking. Politics - why or why not we should be in Iraq - is irrelevant as that Soldier is there. Its not hard to guess the political side of each, but its not the focus of the book.

Jeff

You guys are well read on a variety of related periods. Keep the list coming, I am keeping a running list of subjects. Amazing amount of relevant readings.
Keep 'em comin'
DJ

BLACK CAT RAIDERS OF WWII by Richard C. Knott.
Black Cats and Dumbos, WWII's Fighting PBY's by Mel Crocker.
ON HELL'S PERIMETERS, Pacific Tales Of PBY Patrol Squadron 23 In WWII by Don Klotz.

Jan-- you provided some interesting works on the PBYs. I always wanted to make the B-24 version PBY in 1/48. Have you done one?
DJ

Stalingrad by Antony Beevor Amazing Book

Holding Juno Canada's Heroic Defence of the D-Day Beaches June 7 - 12 1944

Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks I can imagine its a controversial pick on here but I really enjoyed reading it. I would like to get some more books about this war for a balanced opinion if thats possible.

And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat which chronicles him and his regiment the Hasty P's in Sicily and Italy. Read it in high school and I still like to pick it up now and then.

Good book. Got it for Christmas 05 and couldnt put it down.

Right now I am reading Foot SOldier by Roscoe BLunt Jr and so far it is an amazingly well written alabight(sp?) the numerous type-o's.

Matt

The only reason I couldn't put it down was because I didn't have anything else to pick up.

Another really great book that I forgot to mention was The Devil's Sandbox by John Bruning. It follows 2-162 INF of the Oregon NG through its deployment to Baghdad and Najaf. Really great book giving insight to a battalion's mission and also gives a good insight into the good things happening in Iraq as well as the bad things that can happen as the battalion took a lot of casualties. As almost an afterthought (because as he was writing the book, it really was an afterthought given how the unprecedented it was), the author includes his enbedding with the battalion's deployment to New Orleans as part of Katrina as the only historian sent to Katrina's operations. An outstanding book that just came out.

Jeff

Chansellorsville: Stephen W Sears. An excellent, well written account of Robert E Lee's finst battle. Dispells a lot of the persistant myths surrounding the battle.
Amazon

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: James D Hornfischer. How a group of Escort Carriers and their DE & DD escorts withstood Japanese Battleships and Cruisers during the Battle of Samar. Outstanding and breathtaking.
Tin Can Sailors.

Most Secret War: Dr R V Jones. Jones helped play a vital role during WW 2 penetrating the secrets of German endevour in Radar, the V1 & V2. An outstanding account of how British Intelligence helped win the war.
R V Jones

The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815 N A M Rodger. If you want to read why the RN became such a vital part of Britain's Social structure as well as the reason why Britain won an Empire, this is a book worth reading.
Command of the Ocean

That's just a few of the books I've read and reread. I'd like to get my hands on a copy of Shattered Sword, by all reviews I've read it's an excellent account of the Battle of Midway.

Hi there DJ. Do you mean the USN B-24 Liberator (PB4Y-1)? If you do I haven't done that one, yet. :-)