What military books are hidden gems (not necessarily the blockbusters that have sold a million copies or had movies made)? I came across a book: "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers. It was awesome. I had never heard of it before and was wondering what other hidden gems were out there to read.

Posted on May 5, 2016

What military books are hidden gems (not necessarily the blockbusters that have sold a million copies or had movies made)?

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I came across a book: "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers. It was awesome. I had never heard of it before and was wondering what other hidden gems were out there to read.

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Posted 8 y ago

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LTC Stephen F.

Edited 8 y ago

Posted 8 y ago

I recommend Attacks by Erwin Rommel and the Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman along with the anything by Barbara W. Tuchman CW3 Susan Burkholder She writes about medieval warfare as well.
Ernie Pyle was what we would call an embedded journalist in WWII. I recommend reading Brave Men first then Here is Your war and lastly Last Chapter where he was killed by a sniper on Okinawa.

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CW3 Susan Burkholder

8 y

Awesome LTC Ford, I just looked up Guns of August. This also fits nicely with my spare time genealogy passion. I often wonder why so many Hungarians chose to leave Hungary in the years before the Archdukes assassination. Maybe it includes some of this?

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SSG Carlos Madden

8 y

I second Guns of August

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MSG Brad Sand

Edited 8 y ago

Posted 8 y ago

CW3 Susan Burkholder

If you have not read the books below, I would recommend them.

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission and We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: Ia Drang - The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, even, especially, if you have seen the corresponding movies.

While fiction, Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers is a must read for all in uniform...in my opinion.

Chickenhawk - Robert Mason's narrative of his experiences as a "Huey" UH-1 Iroquois helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War was interesting.

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MSG Brad Sand

8 y

SSG Carlos Madden

I would recommend it highly. The movie, not so much. You have to read the book.

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1LT William Clardy

8 y

The movies are heavy-handed satire, MSG Brad Sand, sharing little more than the title and the characters' names with the book.

In the same vein as "Starship Troopers", I would recommend Jerry Pournelle's "West of Honor" (which is one short novel in his Codominium future-history series).

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MSG Brad Sand

8 y

1LT William Clardy
Agreed but I must say that film adaptation of the Raid at Cabanatuan (Ghost Soldiers) in the movie The Great Raid was not bad and We Were Soldiers was pretty good for the first half of the book?

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1LT William Clardy

8 y

I thought that "The Great Raid" was an excellent film, MSG Brad Sand, but then again, I'm the guy who read "Band of Brothers" to my sons for their bedtime stories.

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1stSgt (Join to see)

Posted 8 y ago

Big fan of SLA Marchall and a good book of his is "A Soldiers Load and the Mobility of a Nation" also "On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" by Dave Grossman.

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1stSgt (Join to see)

8 y

Very well, Sir. I call and raise "The Defence of Duffer's Drift" by Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton. May the good Lt have sweet dreams.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defence_of_Duffer%27s_Drift

The Defence of Duffer's Drift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Defence of Duffer's Drift is a short 1904 book by Major General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton. It purports to be a series of six dreams by "Lieutenant Backsight Forethought" about the defence of a river crossing in the Boer War. The infantry tactics in the early dreams are disastrous, but each time BF learns something until in the final defence he is successful.

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1LT William Clardy

8 y

If we're going to start with "how-to" books from back when, 1stSgt (Join to see), then I'll call with one of my copies of "Duffer's Drift" and raise with Frederick Forsyth's "The Dogs of War", which not only included some detailed lesson on how to hire and equip a mercenary army back in the 1960s and 1970s (before instant communications became commonplace), but which may have been even closer to a documentary than most people realized, with the author having allegedly been heavily involved in an abortive attempt at a coup d'état which closely paralleled much of the story in the book (absent the feel-good ending).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_(novel)

The Dogs of War (novel) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dogs of War (1974) is a war novel by Frederick Forsyth featuring a small group of European and African mercenary soldiers hired by a British industrialist to depose the government of the fictional African country of Zangaro.

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1stSgt (Join to see)

8 y

Good raise, how about the "Small Wars Manuel".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Wars_Manual

Small Wars Manual - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Small Wars Manual is a United States Marine Corps manual on tactics and strategies for engaging in certain types of military operations.

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1LT William Clardy

8 y

If we're leaving entertainment value behind, have you read John English's "On Infantry", 1stSgt (Join to see)?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/ [login to see] /#

Perspective on Infantry: John A. English: 9780030596995: Amazon.com: Books

Buy Perspective on Infantry on Amazon.com â FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

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What military books are hidden gems (not necessarily the blockbusters that have sold a million copies or had movies made)?

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