“James, I notice that you review a number of memoirs mostly about Navy SEALs and other current specops types. Do you have a recommendation for best war stories/war memoirs?”
Shawn
Off the top of my head, Shawn, here are the seven best war stories I have read, in the order that they influenced my perspective on war. All of these are books that I have read and which I no longer possess and am not in a position to review, except for the first listing, which I am doing an adaptation of as the serial A Sickness Of The Heart. I do not have the names of authors for most of these.
1. The Conquest of New Spain, Bernal Diaz
2. Storm of Steel, Ernst Junger
3. House to House, David Bellavia
4. Iron Cross Sniper on the Eastern Front
5. No Bugles, no Drums: An Oral History of the Korean War
6. Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
7. Guadalcanal Diaries [read when I was 12-years-old]
8. Lone Survivor, the movie adaptation of which I review in 'I Care About You’.
For a dishonorable mention let’s not forget Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars.
I welcome reader suggestions below.
Black Hawk Down
Comanches- T.H. Fehrenbach
The Men the Mission and Me ( written by a SFOD squadron commander)
Hell in a Very Small Place (Dien Bien Phu)
If you don't mind historical fiction check out,
Wildwood Boys ( about Bloody Bill Anderson)
Stone Song ( about crazy horse)
I am ridiculously particular about my fiction but these two were superb.
A Rumor of War by Phil Caputo
Memoir of Platoon leader in Vietnam War '65-'66.
My War Gone By by Anthony Loyd
British war photographer during civil war in Yugoslavia.
White Feather/Marine Sniper - John Hathcock, VietNam 60's
Great read. He started the sniper program for the Marines. Within, he describes the fine tuning of rifle selection, field modified and professionally made rifles and scopes to accomplish the tasks that he and others faced.
I enjoyed this book a lot—especially the time when they pinned down that NVA platoon in the rice paddy.
I like Jim Webb's Fields of Fire and Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn. Marlantes' meditation on his experience, called What it is Like to Go to War, is well worth a read too.
It's a longer read, but Shelby Foote's Narrative History of the Civil War is amazing too. Hate them or love them, there's no denying that Sherman and Forrest were Men.
Shelby Foote's Civil War was my favorite historical read. After I saw him interviewed on Ken Burn's documentary I had to read the books
Sniper One: The Blistering True Story of a British Battle Group Under Siege by Dan Mills is pretty good.
I liked this one a lot.