Good War Memoirs
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I'm making a summer reading list and this year I'm super interested in war memoirs after watching Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Restrepo, and Korengal.
I'm really interested in what I think you'd call "soldier narratives". The thoughts, feelings, and reflections of those who were involved with combat. I'm not looking for books full of military history, tactics, or strategy.
I'm open to any conflict, but I'm thinking specifically about WW1 to the present. I'd love it if anyone knew of good translations of memoirs from the Japanese in WW2 or the VC and NVA in Vietnam.
Here are a few that seem pretty darn good to get us started:
With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge
Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien
five years to freedom
>>30038055
Brazen Chariots (Desert Rat in a Stuart).
Baa Baa Black Sheep (Flying Tigers to Pacific to POW camp).
My War: Killing Time in Iraq (Iraqi War from POV of the first really famous milblogger).
Up Front (Europe WW2 written by cartoonist for Stars & Stripes).
Those are some of my all time favorites. Not so much blood and guts as some of the others, but thoroughly personal accounts with all the small, funny, weird stuff that never seems to make it into the history books.
Pic related -- I have an autographed copy of his book. And I am here to tell you Pappy Boyington had big giant fucking hands.
Just play Metal Gear OP. If you can look past the anime silliness it is actually a decent look at the complexities of conflict and being a soldier.
>>30038055
I read two of his books in high school; one of them being "The things they carried."
It is one of the best books I've read. I cried, laughed, and maybe even grew a little/became prepared for the future. Sitting here thinking about it already makes me want to not only cry but read it again. Tim O'Brien is a very good author and I'd recommend "The Things They Carried" to any /k/ommando looking to become a commando.
My next war memoir read will be the Bible. I've put it off for too long but I want to learn about a lot of the old testament battles and ultimately learn about the wars being waged over our souls.
>>30038134
If you're fond of the classics, try Xenophon's Anabasis. It sounds like the basis for some wild-ass swords and sandals movie -- 10,000 Greek mercs who lose their patron and need to fight their way home through Asia Minor -- but it actually happened. And Xenophon was an eyewitness. He was one of them.
>>30038055
Major Dick Winters wrote a Memoir called "Beyond Band of Brothers" which is pretty good
Check out The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell. All the funniest and most tragic excerpts from a national guardsman's 2003-2004 tour in Baghdad.
if youre looking for some dark vietnam material
Company Commander by Russell Lewis.
It is an in depth look at what it is like to lead and manage a company of men during combat operations in Afghanistan. While the firefights that are retold in the book are excellent I found Lewis's personal accounts of the day to day operation of the FOB and the personal toll it took on him the most interesting part of the book, especially where he talks about losing men and the "loneliness of command" that he experienced. When anyone asks me for a book to read about military operations I recommend this.
>>30038125
Are you for real right now
British ones are generally good.
3PARA - by Stuart Tootal, about the influx of British troops into afghan in 2006, it was right at the start of major combat operations outside of special forces, and the book is what made me want to become a para.
Attack State Red - about 1 Royal Anglians -Afghanistan 2007, a lot of really harsh stuff like a really in depth description of a group of scimitar light tanks engaging about 60 Taliban with 30mm HE and the ensuing carnage, the Ross kemp documentary took place in the same area, same time, same regiment, but didn't get a mention, it also covers the friendly fire incident in Mazdurak where 3 young lads were killed by a USAF F16, really gut-wrenching.
Seven Troop - Andy McNab, really in depth description of life in the SAS, covers a lot about the attitude of operators and the mindset and training elements aswell, good for anybody who wants to go from Kommando to Commando.
Poorfag here.
If some kind anon would be willing to share ebooks, please do.
>>30042461
No mention of Sniper One?
It's about 1PWRR's defence of CIMIC House in some of the heaviest fighting of the Iraq War.
Fierce Pride
Team Yankee is pretty damn based. It's fiction but it's a really damn good book.
![0008994_japanese-destroyer-captain[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/CuHYS8O.jpg "0008994_japanese-destroyer-captain[1].jpg")
>>30038055
>good translations of memoirs from the Japanese in WW2
>>30038134
The things they carried was absolute shit. I actually threw it in the trash.
See how you like Everything We Had by AL Santoli. First person recollections of combat in Vietnam.
>>30042645
It's funny you would mention that, not only was it the first military biography I ever read, PWRR are my local regiment, being a filthy southerner, 1st Battalion is the armoured infantry, and for a long time I wanted to join them, until I found out they were based in Paderborn.
It's a damn good book, the bits about that lad chatting to a girl of POF, only to find out its his pals winding him up was amazing.
>>30038125
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHlldvAVBnE
I'm dying
