Best Ever Military History Books

[Theatre of Trees]

I would go with anything by Stephen E. Ambrose. He is an fantastic author who writes historically accurate and very readable books.

If you have not read 'band of brothers' or 'pagasus bridge' go and buy them - they are well worth the spend.

Readable yes, accurate not always - Band of Brothers has a number of errors, the most notable being about Albert Blithe where both the book and the series state he died in 1947 when he actually lived on into the 1960s. I think the consensus of opinion is that once famous Ambrose tended to produce books at a quicker rate at the expense of checking the factual errors. I've also seen in places that not all the survivors of Easy Company were actually happy with the book.

David Kenyon Webster from Band of Brothers wrote his own autiobiography published under the title of Parachute Infantry, which is available from Amazon.
Paul Fussell's The Boys' Crusade was written as an antidote to what he felt were the sentimentalised writings of Ambrose and particular the intepretations by Spielberg for both the series and Saving Private Ryan. They are based on the author's own experience of fighting in Europe during 1944-45

Others I'd recommend:

Simon Sebag Montefiore - Dunkirk
Norman Davies - Rising 44, about the Warsaw uprising.
Adrian Weales - Renegades: Hitler's Englishman, the story of the German attempt to set up a British SS legion.

For a lesser known conflict there are two books on the Russo-Polish War of 1920 mainly famous for including the last major cavalry battle in European history:

Norman Davies - Red Star White Eagle
Adam Zamoyski - Warsaw 1920, the same author also wrote 1812 about Napoleon's invasion of Russia

Holger Herwig - The First World War is written from a German/Austrian perspective

Finally if you are going on a very long holiday:
Shelby Foote's 3 volume Narrative history of the American Civil War is excellent, informative and easy to read.

 

[Buzzer]

Stalingrad.

Quite simply an amazing tale of a city that somehow survived despite everything. You could run out of superlatives describing this book.

 

[Gwylan]

Berlin the downfall and Stalingrad, both by Anthony Beevor are quality reads.

Couldn't agree more


I'd also recommend the Flashman books - they may be fiction but they taught me more about Victorian history than any teacher from school managed.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Another vote for Berlin by Anthony Beevor from me. The idea that any city could still exist after that seems extraordinary. But Norman Davies is a bit of a hero of mine and his book on WW2 (No Easy Victory, I think) is absolutely brilliant too, I can't recommend it highly enough.

 

[portlock seagull]

Four days in June which is a novel/story of Waterloo by Iain Gale. Excellent and told through the eyes of the real characters who fought there.
.

Not heard of that and thought I'd read all I could on Waterloo so will look that up. Thanks.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Rifles by Mark Urban.

 

[Dandyman]

Stalingrad.

Quite simply an amazing tale of a city that somehow survived despite everything. You could run out of superlatives describing this book.

I'd vote for that also - a fascinating book and far more balanced that some of the author's other works.

As Uncle B says Mark Urban's books on the British Army are also worth a read, although I'd take some of Urban's comments with a pinch of salt.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Redcoat, The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket by Richard Holmes, is not too bad, although it is not done chronologically, so it can get a tad confusing.

 

[mrhairy]

Not heard of that and thought I'd read all I could on Waterloo so will look that up. Thanks.

I have the hard copy. If you live in Brighton and want to pop round to borrow it. I would be happy to lend it to you. Plus one or to others you might like.

 

[Eggmundo]

As before with the Beevor books..can't go wrong.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

Devils Guard by George Robert Elford, if you can get hold of a copy you should.

Its the story of former SS soldiers who, at the end of WW2 joined the French Foreign Legion- often to escape war crimes prosecution- and who were then sent to Indochina to fight what was later to become the Vietcong as France was exiting and before the Americans got involved.

This is visceral stuff and asks moral questions of the most basic nature. These fanatics used all the disgusting tactics employed by Hitlers troops on the Eastern Front, reprisal killings,torture,and burnt earth were the weapons they employed and I have to say their enemies feared them much more than the GI's who came after.

This book was the first to really paint for me what war really is, its not chivalry and brass bands but horror, pain and death and should be read for that reason alone.

That said, if I was on a sun lounger on Crete I might want something a little lighter.

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

bravo two zero.....

 

[strings]

The suggestion of Brave Two Zero reminded me of another Guilf war PoW book - 'Tornado Down'. It is written by a RAF Tornado Pilot and Navigator, who were shot down in the Gulf War.

I found it a thoroughly interesting read. There is also a sequel about settling back into 'normal' life after their PoW experience.

 

[keaton]

I recently read Homage to Catalonia by Orwell which is a brilliant of what's it like to fight in a strange war.
Klaus P Fischer on Nazi Germany's very good also

 

[withdeanwombat]

12 Days on the Somme:a memoir of the trenches 1916.

Sidney Rogerson.

 

[Lankyseagull]

Military Strategies of the JBRA by Tubby Mondays

 

[Buttinhams]

Genghis Khan & Kublai Khan, both by John Man - Remarkable books about a remarkable era.

 

[Uncle Buck]

Military Strategies of the JBRA by Tubby Mondays

I do prefer Tufty's rival book, Trenches in Fletching.

 

[withdeanwombat]

And if you like ww1 stuff,try the Long Long Trail website at The Long, Long Trail: the story of the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918

I don't know how to make that an active link as I'm a luddite silver surfer.

It has a link to a list of books with reviews and everything.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Great Scott !

The power of modern technology.......and without the use of steam.