Almost finished this and its opened my eyes abit.

Just been reading up on my grandad's old troop. 15th Scottish Recon. He was shot twice. He still got up to the bar on Tuesday though when it was his round.

85 years and still fighting (the remote control mainly)

Pook, you should read this. I've read another in the Imperial War museams forgotten voices series (Falklands).

What strikes me about this book though is not just the devastation, but the depth and scale muppetry. Officers phoning in sick/being transferred before a big push, A Colonel going over the top with his mean (why?!) and subsequently being shot repeatdly, a 1,000 German soldiers entombed after someone was careless with stored flame thrower fuel barrels. etc etc

Try "Through German Eyes" By Christopher Duffy next-a view from the other side of the trench.

Fascinated by WW1-I've visited quite a few battlefields and memorial in France/Flanders.The sheer scale of men and equipment involved for such little gain.Nearly a century on all we've really learned is how to kill just as effectively from a distance with out getting our hands dirty-not how to negotiate instead of fight

Or meanwhile out at sea "Jutland 1916" by Nigel Steel and Peter Hart for a battle that nearly wasn't.

"Through German Eyes" By Christopher Duffy

Will do.

What amuses me in a dark way was the comments/shouts from the German trenches such as 'Come on Tommy, we are waiting for you'/when are you coming Tommy'? Then when a famous English footballer came into the trenches a German shouted over 'we know so-and-so's there'.

Just gave a more human-face to the 'other side'.

The famous Christmas DAy football match never ceases to amaze me

War stinks. The Red Army are driving on to Berlin in 'Berlin' at the moment and the correlation between senior incompetence and rank and file death is clear to see.

"We were soldiers once and young" is one of my favourites, The first time American and Vietnamese forces clash at lz x-ray in la drang valley.
Theres a website dedicated to it here so you can get the idea.

I have just read a long article about dien bien phu – will be looking out a book on that..
The forgotten voices series have read quite a few of – in the words of the soldiers themselves semes the only real way to hear it..

Another one from the flipside is "the sorrow of war" by Bao Ninh.It is tough going as it loses a little in translation from Vietnamese but still a good book.

Read quite a lot on Vietnam-I'd reccomend Chickenhawk by Robert Mason
A book called Close-quarters-the authors name escapes me but its about the armoured cavalry-M113'S and stuff.

Local to where I'm from..a book called TANK by a guy called Ken Tout from the Northamptonshire Yeomanry-his training and d-day experiences and he wrote a couple of others too-all good reading.

Also on that page "The Soldiers War" by Richard Van Emden, a very intersting and moving book. One story that stuck with me was the that of a Canadian soldier who was very tall and was forced to go everywhere bent over to avoid sticking out of the top of trenches. In the end he couldn't put up with it anymore and decided just to stand up straight all the time. Apparently he was hardly ever shot at, theory was he was mistaken for a decoy target to draw out sniper fire. In the end was killed by a shell, as were most people.

First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

+ 1 for First Light amazing book

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger provides an interesting perspective on WW1.

I was interested to learn the 300,000 British airmen died to kill 500,000 German civilians – to no useful end, obviously.

"War, uh, good god, what is it good for ? Absolutely nothing" 🙁

mtbfix – Member

War stinks. The Red Army are driving on to Berlin in 'Berlin' at the moment and the correlation between senior incompetence and rank and file death is clear to see.

I found 'Berlin' really hard going, I don't know whether it was the subject matter but the relentless, and in the vast majority of cases needless, slaughter really got me down.

+1 for Jutland.

I'd recommend 'The Long Walk'

Matt

Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper (General Military)
by Martin Pegler

Synopsis:
From the emergence of the first 'sharpshooters' in the 1600s to the record-breaking precision of military snipers operating in Afghanistan, this book examines the experiences, tactics and equipment of military marksmen through the ages. The first widespread use of dedicated 'sharpshooters' came during the American Civil War, and since then their deadly presence has haunted combat zones all over the world – from the trenches of World War I to the blighted Eastern Front of World War 2, and from Vietnam to the Gulf. Illustrated throughout with color and black and white photographs, this is a chronological study of snipers and sharpshooters, detailing their evolution, training, weaponry and actions.

This is a fantastic book. I've had an interest in snipers for some time, but no real knowledge of the subject. This tells you just about everything you could want to know, and is very readable. Great book.
There's a really good book on Agincourt I read a while back, by a female historian, who's name escapes me at the mo', but goes into amazing background detail about the prelude, the preparation for, and the battle itself. A famous part of English history, but not many know the real background. Recommended as well.

I've had an interest in snipers for some time, but no real knowledge of the subject

one might wish this condition to persist…

Sfb "to no useful end" thats a moot point, do you mean the WWII Bombing? I suggest you read Bomber Boys by Patrick Bishop. Its a good read and gives all the arguments and evidence for both sides. In the end it hastened the defeat of Nazi Germany, but wasn't nice at all. The story of the whole campaign is fascinating.

Obviously in a wider sense it was all pointless but it wasn't as clear cut at the time.

Recently finished 'D Day' by Beevor. Good book if you can stick with it.

Another vote for both the Beevor D-Day book and First Light.

Also, do try War in a Stringbag, by Charles Lamb.

Oh, and Enigma, by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

'Most secret war' by R.V.Jones, mindbogglingly interesting, I went back from last to first page and read it again. Jones was a big wheel in WW2 intelligence.

Just checkds, you can get a good copy of Jones' book on Amazon for 1p. Get it, shoot me on sight if you are not completely captivated by it.

'Mud, Blood and Poppycock' by Gordon Corrigan provides a different and persuasive alternative look at the 1stWW stereotype of bumbling allied commanders and summary court martials.

It challenged almost everything I thought I knew about the Great War TBH.

A soldiers Song, by Ken Lukowiak – about the Falklands, the room always seems to get a little bit dusty when I'm reading that one!

+1 War in a Stringbag – Taranto – amazing

Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie gives agreat overview of WW1 naval strategy – very easy to read and fascinating characters.

Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R. Burgett – borrowed this loads from the library as a nipper. Read it again and it was still a good read.

The Big Show by Pierre Clostermann – Free French fighter pilot in WW2. Maybe slightly embellished but a great read.

Cletus, always interested that someone else has read it!

re The Big Show, I was lucky enough to have known some people involved in that whole "Free French" shebang. Well worth a read, despite a few "embellishments" 😉

Fairly recent, Sniper One. By Sgt Dan Mills,

For another book from the German side The forsaken army about stalingrad from someone who was there and got home. a quite awesome tale.

SFB – you need to rethink your numbers 380 000 was the total British military deaths not just the airmen

i don't really do war books as they often come across as badly written film scripts but Norman Mailer: The Naked and the Dead is a cut above the usual dross.
"based on his military service in World War II. A New York Times best seller for 62 weeks, it was hailed by many as one of the best American wartime novels and named one of the "one hundred best novels in English language" by the Modern Library."[/i]

i'm about half way through, it's a good read, going to read Harlots Ghost next about the early days of the CIA 1000+ pages so should keep me occupied for a while.

+1 for Chickenhawk and if you can get hold of it Low Level Hell which is in the same vein but even better.

Just checked – both available on Amazon.

The Devil's Adjutant: Jochen Peiper, Panzer Leader is also a very good read.

+ another for Chickenhawk

I've still got Chickenhawk somewhere- due for a reread soon me thinks.

BTW- the Forgotten Voices/Imperial War Museum books are well worth the read. Its a very different format but the first hand snippets from actual people on the ground give you a totally different perspective.

There are a few instances where people have admitted to shooting their own side to put them out of their misery (with a name/rank and regiment against the person). Plus there was the lad shot for desertion. He'd deserted 4 times previously. Post-shooting, someone mentioned to the Padre that at the battle of Mon this lad had shown outstanding courage- he'd just snapped later on. Why wasn't this brought up at his trial? 'There wasnt enough time'.

Buying Duffy's book today.

I 'enjoyed' if that is the right word 'With The Jocks'

I've a copy of Devil's Guard linky which is an amazing book.

If I can dig it out your welcome to borrow it.

"War, uh, good god, what is it good for ? Absolutely nothing"

Well, removing genocidal, testicularly-challenged, murdering madmen from power is maybe one possible thing it's good for? Just a thought.

Well, removing genocidal, testicularly-challenged, murdering madmen from power is maybe one possible thing it's good for? Just a thought.

You are referring to Slobodan Miloševi? and possibly Hitler?

Argentina was legitimate and we only went into action to recover our lands.

Who else? There is normally another agenda for war. Its not always 'us against the baddies' is it?

The losers of a war tend to be the civilians and soldiers caught up on the ground. War is appalling and using the words 'War on Terror' is disgusting. Our boys are victims out there in Afghanistan not 'Heroes' IMO. Sorry.

Read quite a lot on Vietnam-I'd reccomend Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

I've read several good books on Vietnam but that's the best by far.

Some good suggestions, i'll look some of these up soon…

I liked First Light by Geoffrey Wellum.

Currently working my way through Spike Milligan's war diaries that a friend at work lent me, is this a valid recommendation for this thread?! Really good, the lighter side of war maybe… 🙂

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) possibly my most favourite book. The paralels between then and now are quite amazing.