What's your favourite war novel?

[Placebo 28]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (loopy @ Dec. 08 2002,14:12)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (placebo @ Dec. 08 2002,22:15)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Anything by Sven Hassel.<span id='postcolor'>

Now there brings back a few memories placebo<span id='postcolor'>

You mean memories of the last time this thread was made a few months ago and the time before that and the time before that?

I usually always answer with Sven Hassel, I've read books individually that I've perhaps enjoyed more but collectively and for the last 17 years or so that I've read and re-read Sven's books they have to be my favourite

[Assault (CAN) 1]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Anything by Stephen Ambrose.<span id='postcolor'>

Yeah, I'm reading D-Day right now, it's pretty good but it is hard to ignore his American bias.

I just finished reading Dieppe - Canada's Forgotten Hero's by John Mellor.

It's a good read about how the raid on Dieppe was planned and executed and how things went during the operation and after, as the men were carted away to POW camps.

Tyler

[brgnorway 0]

"Battle Cry" by Leon Uris is perhaps the best war novel I have ever read. I find most of the war litterature to be quite uninteresting though.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mr. Snrub @ Dec. 08 2002,15:56)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Stephen Coonts (while not being terribly realistic about things) is pretty fun to read.<span id='postcolor'>

I love Coonts too.

Flight of the Intruder

Final Flight

and

The Intruders

Those are his best works.

Minotaur wasnt TOO bad, but when he decided to get more into the cloak and dagger shit instead of sticking to the aviation stuff, I found it a little less enjoyable. America was good though.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Assault (CAN) @ Dec. 09 2002,00:59)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Anything by Stephen Ambrose.<span id='postcolor'>

Yeah, I'm reading D-Day right now, it's pretty good but it is hard to ignore his American bias.

I just finished reading Dieppe - Canada's Forgotten Hero's by John Mellor.

It's a good read about how the raid on Dieppe was planned and executed and how things went during the operation and after, as the men were carted away to POW camps.

Tyler<span id='postcolor'>

Well, I think Ambrose having an Amerocentric view is sort of understandable. He is after all an American.

[Lazarus_Long 0]

Wow, thanks for all these great suggestions.

I spent a few hours in Barnes & Noble today and I picked up a copy of "Catch-22", a book that I've always wanted to read, but never seemed to get around to. Thanks Tovarish for reminding me about that one. I also checked out some of the Ambrose books, they seem pretty good. I'll have to try them out sometime. I've read all the Clancy novels except "The Bear & The Dragon". I was going to get it but after I read some of your comments I've decided to hold out for a while. I might try some of his non-fiction stuff instead.

Who is this Sven Hassel? I must have missed some earlier thread on this. Is he real? I coldn't find anything by this guy.

[Col. Kurtz 0]

Sven Hassel is a Dane who wrote war books set in WW2. He claims that they are basd on real stories and real characters and that he actualy took part in the events that occured in the books(they are written from a first-person point of view) , but once you read his books you might doubt this. They are a bit over-the top, but quite a good read.

[ralphwiggum 6]

just to add a post: War and Peace by Tolstoy.

[Oligo 1]

Panzer General was a good read. It's the biography of Heinz Guderian.

[theavonlady 2]

The Mouse That Roared, by Leonard Wibberley.

[DarkLight 0]

Hmz, a good book about ww2 is band of brothers. I like it..

[Akira 0]

Probably too late but here is my suggestions:

"The Last Ship" by Buckley. A well written book about an Arleigh Burke class ship after a nuclear war has broken out. It starts with them finding an island to settle on and the trouble people have accepting it...then goes back in time to what happened, their cruising about the world and seeing the effects of the war (when the get to India is a great chapter) and includes a rather interesting meeting with a Russian submarine. I recommend it.

Right now I am reading:

"The Prize of All Oceans"...forgot by who Its about Commodore Anson's mission in 1740 to leave England, round Cape Horn, and sail to Manila to capture the Spanish treasure Galleon. He leaves England with 6 ships...one ends up making it. It tells the rather harrowing journey and all the trails they went through.

Dunno if anyone mentioned it but "Team Yankee" is a good one.

As are the WWIII series by Ian Slater. I recommend just the first three called:

WWIII

WWIII- The Rage of Battle

WWIII- World in Flames

Good and interesting though his "super-general" Freeman get annoying sometimes (and is clearly modeled after Patton/MacArthur).

Also if you want a great historical read I recommend:

"Ploesti: The Great Ground-Air Battle of 1 August 1943" by James Dugan. The only battle or air-raid where avaitor deaths outnumbered civilian deaths. My favorite part is the modern day "Charge of The Light Brigade" by "Ted's Travelling Circus." Also on a side note, then Axis Romania sent a letter to the US thanking them for minimizing civilian deaths on the raid against a strategically important target. But you'll have to read it to find out more.

[Die Alive 0]

Full Metal Jacket - The Short Timers

IF you liked the movie, then you love this "version" of the story.  It's a screen play writen by Stanley Kubrick and  Michael Herr based on the novel of Gustav Hasford called "The Short Timers".  This script is alot better the the film version of Full Metal jacket, there's many parts of the story that never got into the movie, and that too bad.  A very good read.

-=Die Alive=-

[KingBeast 0]

http://www.metrowargamers.com/articles/Peter/peter_1.htm

Sven Hassel anyone?

[Die Alive 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KingBeast @ Dec. 09 2002,12:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.metrowargamers.com/articles/Peter/peter_1.htm

Sven Hassel anyone?  <span id='postcolor'>

Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!

-=Die Alive=-

[ZIKAN 0]

Being a book-worm myself I can recommend:

Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor.

About the famous battle for Stalingrad and how its was the turning point in the Second Wolrd War. Its written like a narrative/novel, but is based on actual events and people on both sides. Very compelling and very moving.

The Gulag Rats, by K.N. Kostov.

Its a novel about 'Punishment Battalion 333', Russian soldiers fighting during WW2. Lead by a very charasmatic Colonel, himself charged with treason to the motherland, but a higly decorated man of war.

Field Punishment Battalions were places were soldiers who went astray were sent, also murderers, criminals,pimps and thieves, who have been let out of Gulags (concentration camps) could complete their punishment in the line of fire against Nazi Germany. They are given the most arduous tasks that would certainly lead to death, such as mine clearing, laying roads under fire and assaulting heavily fortified enemy positions. Aswell as being shot by their officers for being afraid or weak. If they survived after 6 months they would return to their parent unit. However Battalion 333 was the exception to the rule as its members were often the worse kind of men, and given suicidal missions.

A very brutal book, but a good read, and certainly should be made into a film one day.

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KingBeast @ Dec. 09 2002,18:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.metrowargamers.com/articles/Peter/peter_1.htm

Sven Hassel anyone? <span id='postcolor'>

Lol I see a URL with "Peter" in it and i automatically think "oh no, not THAT again "

[ralphwiggum 6]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tovarish @ Dec. 09 2002,21:29)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (KingBeast @ Dec. 09 2002,18:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">http://www.metrowargamers.com/articles/Peter/peter_1.htm

Sven Hassel anyone?  <span id='postcolor'>

Lol I see a URL with "Peter" in it and i automatically think "oh no, not THAT again "<span id='postcolor'>

hmmm..that gives me a new idea about your title.... :evilgrin:

[Milkman 1]

RED STORM RISING, by Tom Clancy is the BEST book i have ever read. You should read it too.

[KingBeast 0]

Red Storm Rising is a good book, but I found the anti sub warfare sections IMMENSELY boring

[Col. Kurtz 0]

That peter Rbit come Sven Hassel was the best Kids story ever!!!!

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (RalphWiggum @ Dec. 10 2002,00:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">hmmm..that gives me a new idea about your title.... :evilgrin:<span id='postcolor'>

LOL that got me to scroll back up to my post pretty quickly . As if putting it in my e-mail wasn't enough .

[NavyEEL 0]

Blackhawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers, Killing Pablo, Bat 21..... all the typical war novels most people have heard of are all good. Some other good ones are:

Five Years to Freedom

American Soldier

The Commandos

The Warrior Elite

I'd have to say the best though, by far, is "Once an Eagle".

[Schoeler 0]

Fields of Fire by James Webb.

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason.

Pleiku by J.D. Coleman.

If You Survive by George Wilson.

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.

Currahee by Donald R. Burgett.

The Short Timers by Gustav Hasford.

Goodbye Darkness by William Manchester.

Marine Sniper, 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson.

Devil's Voyage by Jack L. Chalker

About Face by David Hackworth.

We Were Soldiers Once, and Young by Harold G. Moore and Joseph Galloway.

Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy.

Low Level Hell and Firebirds by Chuck Carlock.

Black Thursday by Martin Caidin.

Point Man by Chief James Watson.

Battlecry by Leon Uris.

Not really a war novel, but a good story about the SS and the Holocaust (its a novel not a documentary) is The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth.

[Oligo 1]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Dec. 10 2002,01:08)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">That peter Rbit come Sven Hassel was the best Kids story ever!!!! <span id='postcolor'>

Too bad that the tank in the pictures is a T-34, not a Tiger.