Just read No Easy Day by Mark Owen and American Sniper by Chris Kyle. Really liked N.E.D. American Sniper - not as much. Also Lone Surivior by Marcus Lutrell needs to be in this thread as well. Ready that a while ago, and is my favorite of the three. I'm going to go back to a novel for my next book, but some others in this category on my radar: Black Hawk Down Killing Pablo. (Not really military, but more DEA
Blackhawk Down is one of my favorite books of all time, an absolute must read if you are into military non-fiction. Killing Pablo was also very good but different. Is Bowden going to write a book about the Bin laden raid? Seems right down his alley.
He already has. Called The Finish. It came out just weeks after No Easy Day but no one talked about it because Owen got all the pub
Anything by Jeff Shaara is really good for this topic, I haven't been able to get through a full one of his books yet but I know the writing is excellent. His dad also wrote The Killer Angels, the basis for the movie Gettysburg. I listened to that as an audio book and it was excellent. Here's his page at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Shaara/e/B000APZFAA/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1358651007&sr=1-2-ent
One I have read in the last couple years. Most are pretty decent reads. Not a great fan of Dick Couch though. All his books are the same. Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Roberts Ridge: A Story of Courage and Sacrifice on Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War title Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior Gates of Fire Lions of Kandahar: The Story of a Fight Against All Odds The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole who Infiltrated the CIA No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander title Delta: America's Elite Counterterrorist Force American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History title Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy Seal Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw
I'm almost finished with "The Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway." I've read and own dozens of WWII books regarding the pacific theater and this is one of my favorites. It's from the Japanese perspective and written in the fog of war of the unfolding events. It debunks a lot of myths and misconceptions that have been spawned from historians trying to apply our doctrines of the time to their actions and failures. It's draws on a bunch of recently released Japanese material to help understand why the battle unfolded as it did. I highly recommend it.
With the Old Breed is a must read if you're in to WWII. It's the most comprehensive story of what the war in the Pacific was like, told by someone on the front lines.
Anyone got a rec for a good book on British intelligence during WWII and the Cold War? I'm not finding anything too great on my own.
Not necessarily WWII, but "A spy among friends" is a good book about a British double agent from the end of WWII through the Cold War
that book taught me so much that i didn't know, just crazy the stuff that was going on behind the scenes
Russian blood, British intelligence, and American money British intelligence is the one I know the least about.
This is more American intelligence during WWII but Rosevelt's Secret War is really interesting book about the intelligence agency that America had during the war.
It's a great book, but the military history is only a small part of the book and an even smaller part of the story of Quanah Parker and the story of the Comanche nation. Another great military history book is "The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers" by Richard Moe. It tells the story of the 1st Minnesota Regiment from it's formation until their famous suicide charge that enabled the good guys to win the battle of Gettysburg.
I listened to a ton of these on Audible over the last few years, can highly recommend the following: - Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative trilogy - Retribution: The Battle for Japan 1944-1945 by Max Hastings (also great, the end of the war in the Pacific was something I knew little about) - The Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) by Craig Symonds (really good, Midway fascinates me) - The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara (second half of his Revolutionary War set, first one is Rise to Rebellion, didn't get it because they only had the abridged version, will be reading it eventually though. Anything by Shaara is fan-fucking-tastic) - Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Phillbrick (great exploration of the events leading up to the start of the Revolution) - Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942 by Ian W. Toll (a little hard to get into, but some great character studies of the big personalities in the war, and great info, I really like learning more about the Pacific Theater) - D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor (so great, the second book I've read by Beevor, he is fantastic) - The Second World War by Antony Beevor (incredibly exhaustive, detailed account of WW2, again Beevor is fantastic. audio version is 40 hours long if that tells you anything)
Almost finished w this. Great read. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3418555-empires-of-the-sea?ac=1&from_search=true
I've been reading a lot about naval warfare in the 1500s-1800s recently. Sherman said "War is Hell", but naval warfare during that period was absolutely horrifying. A few good ones on the subject The Battle of Trafalgar https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1073205.Nelson_s_Trafalgar?ac=1&from_search=true The Spanish Armada https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2028188.The_Spanish_Armada?from_search=true
I finished this last week. Up to the war, it's phenomenal. It's not great on the actual war though. The writer left Germany when they invaded France. The firsthand stuff up until that is amazing, but from there on it's almost like he just covers the highlights for 400 pages. Pry a B+ overall.
The Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell. Story of a Midwest National Guard unit fighting in New Guinea in WWII. Easy informative read.