Your favourite war related book?

Journey To The End of The Night. Celine shits on Junger in that one.

Really? In what way?

It's one of my all-time favorites, though in admittedly not an expert of war lit. Some of the best characters in any novel ever.

It's not quite like Storm of Steel (in that it's not a first hand account) but Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor is a really good book.

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Dispatches
Journey to the End of the Night
The Thin Red Line
The Naked and the Dead

Are there any good war books that aren't just " dude war is like le so bad!!" It doesn't have to be pro war I'd be fine with war just being a necessary unavoidable thing in the story.

war & peace

Will you accept Finns?

I don't know enough about literature to know if you're trying to meme. But I'm still a total pleb and I've been afraid to start a book of that caliber because I'm afraid I might dislike it because I don't fully understand it

OP's book isn't anti-war. Junger was excited to go to war at the start. But most are anti-war because war is a situation where you lose all your brothers within a few days - I don't get why you want to read simply to reinforce your views.

Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is pretty good if you are willing to look past the obvious and well-documented problems the book has

>He gets enough minor details wrong to question his authority
>There's no corroborating evidence that he was actually who he claims to be
>He's French

But the human experience of fighting on the eastern front is pretty well captured according to people who are supposed to know those kind of things.

I don't want to reinforce my views. I don't have any particular view on war. I would actually prefer a book that doesn't have a view on war either; it just shows the war and what happens without trying to spoonfeed me how war is good or bad.

Then Storm of Steel is what you want. All it is is Junger's memories of war from his notebooks at the time. He voices absolutely no opinions except those from his young self.

Unabashedly pro-Vietnam

I've read a lot of war books, and it seems like the ones that are written by soldiers tend to be anti-war. If I die in a Combat Zone, Matterhorn, Fireforce by Cocks (lol), and even Junger's later books are anti-war, or at least anti modern war.

Thanks you friend

War isn't a particularly pleasant experience by those who actually take part in it huh

this guy wasn't even in vietnam, he was just an air gunner in WW2
seems like a phony tbqh

Even Junger's typical self-insert in On the Marble Cliffs just wants to live on the cliffs and hang out with his priest-botanist bud.

yup, the book is a sham and propaganda.

pic related, a pro-war but highly critical hit piece on the leadership in Vietnam

Laugh, laugh at the French.

>is is

Reading it now.

>give me something that eschews the mainstream narrative of topic X!

>hurr durr your just confirming your biases. brb gonna buy some diet pepsi and a copy of the new york times.

Not him, but a) that was perfectly grammatical and/or b) something something meme/bait

Dispatches is the good shit. Also Chickenhawk (Huey pilot's POV) and Dear Mom (top Marine sniper POV)

Any other recommended Nam accounts? Gonna check out If I Die In A Combat Zone next

Band of brothers

anyone read Achilles in Vietnam or Odysseus in America?

Great book.

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has anyone ever read any good Soviet-Afghanistan war books?

pic related and The Great Gamble are two that I picked up from Half Priced Books, but I had no prior knowledge of them/

Also, does anyone know of any Chechen war books/memoirs?

Very good memoir on the Bosnian war. A bit biased because the journalist was usually on the Bosniak side, but very well written and engaging. Unfortunately he adds a chapter about some drug issues, which I didn't care for, but still a wonderful read.

Besides the Iliad, which has already been mentioned, pic related.

I also really enjoyed Johnny Tremain when I read it in 4th or 5th grade. Any thoughts on whether it'd be worth rereading as an adult or is it really targeted at younger audiences?

Besides the Iliad, which has already been mentioned, pic related.

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One of the best books on the air war over North Vietnam. Has a great part where he describes the near suicidal ROEs that US pilots had to endure.

I stopped reading when he went back to London, should I give it another shot?

Are there any good reads about modern wars?

This book made the war seem kind of comfy. The author spent a lot of time looting snacks, alcohol, clothes, cigars, binoculars, Lugers, and such. Alexandria and Cairo sounded like they were fun places to go on leave, and contact with the enemy was often welcomed as a reprieve from boredom. The Officer Corps was a bit of an old boys club, it was almost like an extension of boarding school so they were all pretty used to the discipline and "bloody mindedness" of their superiors.

Getting wounded sounds like pure hell though.

IDK, there has always been a class of professionals who volunteer over and over again. I think for a rare type of person it's fun.

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Fug. :DDDD

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You don't want to read War and Peace then. Tolstoy is the master of the narrator forcing his views on you.

The Cannibal by John Hawkes. I have never read a novel so aware of such atmosphere. Its closer to a dream than a real novel. Wonderful!

Thucydides is absolutely incredible.
But it is from a political military history perspective.

If you want Military History in campaigns, Caesar is the classic.

Another is the Campaigns of Hernan Cortes in The Conquest of Mexico by Prescott.

The Conquistadors were literally incredible. A few hundred rag tag troops vs literally millions of natives. The immense loneliness, courage and daring of it deserves a grand epic.

No one has ever told the tragic epic of Napoleon either, despite his deserving nature for it. He was such a cursed, driven and flawed genius, yet no one has tried to write an Aeneid of his epic.

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10/10

Homage to Catalonia.

Have you read pic related?

Storm of Steel

Pic related. It's based on the author's diary notes written fighting for the Wehrmacht on the Eastern front. Starts off with him being assigned to run food and supplies to soldiers staked out in various buildings in Stalingrad, then goes on to cover the arduous retreat back to Germany.

Does anyone have any recommendations on the subjects of

-The Spanish Civil War
-The Bosnian War
-The First and Second Congo Wars
?

Loved it

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Good stuff.

Conquistadors are a taboo subject, you can expect it as much as an epic about SS.

Lately people have more relaxed opinions about certain facts surrounding the book, and there were a number of Alsatians in the Wehrmacht

Probably one of my favorite history books. Pretty rough to read, but still.

Yes, definitely. In fact if the "home" chapters are skipped entirely, it will have little bearing on the war sections, iirc.

Are they still? Would have thought enough time had passed. Interesting.

They are Catholics and America is massively into colonial guilt trip and whatever America is into everyone else is.

Just look what happens every time Colombus day rolls around.

Battle Cry of Freedom
Killer Angels
Life and Fate
Dispatches

This isn't simply a matter of "too soon", it's the problem of making them into heroes when the general populace considers them anything but

But the entire reason for that hatre is because the self hating guilt ridden left has been allowed to revise and ruin their memory. Their memory should be revived and rebirthed, with a glory to smash the marxist agitation of historic grievance.

Remember that Oliver Cromwell was absolutely despised before Thomas Carlyle redeemed him.

If anything, it is a story awaiting a virgil.

In Parenthesis by David Jones. A masterpiece of prose. Up there with Joyce

There have been nationalist riots about Cortes since the reign of Porfirio Diaz. He is the definitive peninsular asshole.

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I would love an epic about the SS.

I wish we could admire feats of arms and physical courage for their own sake. All the moralizing pap we get from hollywood these days makes me want to wretch.

Gravity's Rainbow is the ultimate war book.

Audiobook version narrated by Bryan Cranston was 11/10

One Soldier's War by Arkady Babchenko is a must read on the Chechen wars.

War and Peace my man.

How can anything else even compete?

Jarhead just has to be quality stuff.

Sienkewicz is the man

War is a Racket is the best book on war.

He really is.

This book was pretty interesting. The author was a Test Cricketer, journalist, and mountain climber - sort of a South African version of Hemingway.

One thing I've noticed in reading these kinds of books is that the British spend an inordinate amount of time drinking tea when they go to war. On one occasion a "brew up" nearly costs a tank crew their lives when the Germans see the smoke from the kettle.

The M3 Stuart a CUTE

Really weird how noone posted Blood on The Risers by John Leppelman, a great book, no-bullshit account on the war, skips all trivialities, very engaging, would recommend

Either
>Catch 22
>The Things They Carried

I see a lot of people mentioning Tim O'Brien. I've only read The Things They Carried, but I really liked it. What did you guys think of it? How does it compare to his other stuff?

The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon , ARVN life and death in the south vietnamese army & street without joy.

Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75 is also good, if not depressing.

Just got this, was it worth it in Veeky Forums's opinion?

Spanish Civil War with L'Espoir (Malraux).

This desu

All of Beevor's books are pretty great. Have not read his book on Paris though. His Berlin 1945 book does a good job of portraying the suffering of the city's population and generally the atmosphere (The Gallows humour and the fact that teenager girls were all trying to get laid to lose their virginity to a German boy before being raped by Soviets) as well as the military aspects of the battle. It also remains pretty balanced and doesnt act as an apologist for Nazi crimes just because the Soviets were also brutal whilst the civillians and their suffering remain at the heart of the book

>One thing I've noticed in reading these kinds of books is that the British spend an inordinate amount of time drinking tea when they go to war.

All British soldiers are given Brew kits so they can make Tea whenever they have a short break and all Tanks and APCs are required to have an electric kettle built in to make Tea. It used as a way to keep up morale (so Veterans have told me) so they can do something familiar to help keep their sanity when under pressure.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_vessel

>not ready for a nice cuppa to raise your morale

Tbh I've tried reading that book several times and never enjoyed it. I was expected something more like the movie, but the book is gritty and gave me a headache. Same with "From Here to Eternity." Feels pleb but oh well.

An electric kettle is a good improvement. In ww2 they were using a tin can filled with gasoline and sand. They poked holes in the top to mcgyver a little stove, but it made too much smoke. It looked just like a tank that had been blown up.

Wouldn't it make you have to pee too much though? I would probably just chainsmoke but I've also noticed that older writers don't mention this a lot because it's just assumed that everyone is smoking like a fiend.

Oh wait but you knew that because it says so right in the article. I also thought they were using a food can not a fuel can, in my head I was imagining something like a sterno stove.

Not my favorite, but this is the last war book I remember reading. Has anyone else read it?

I haven't read any war books that I could count as one of my favorite books of all time. The closest I got to that was Celine's first novel, but I can't say war was the primary theme.

Is OP's book any good? I borrowed it from the library but had to return it due to some other pressing needs at the time.