Holy shit. I am reading through Storm of Steel, almost done. What a fantastic book! You know strangely a part of the book that stuck out to me was how he mentioned grunts sometimes welcome the artillery barrages so the pen-pushers and other people issuing out trivial tasks would go away.
Anyways, what are some other great books /k/ related?
>>30323649
Storm of Steel is fantastic. What I noticed most is how often Junger stays alive just by getting lucky. So many times he was a hair's length from death.
Anyway here's my submission for required reading for all /k/manndos.
git yer shit together op, they're /klit/ threads
currently reading "the first and the last" by adolf galland. i'm enjoying it so far. before that was "i flew for the fuhrer" by heinz knoke. i think it could have been better if it had been written as a memoir as opposed to his diary. he'd go a month or two without entering anything at times, which was somewhat frustrating. it was till good overall though. an interesting introspect into the mind of an average german 20something in the early-mid '40s.
>>30323649
Here's some more WWI with your Junger.
I love Junger, because while he's acknowledging the traumatic "war is hell" shit, his response is to get mad and go all "blood for the blood god".
Beau Geste, and Beau Sabreur. Both fill you with the yearning for glory, the pain of service, and the bond of brothers. Haven't read the third.
>>30325025
>that pic
>not mentioning A Rifleman Went to War
Also: Thom Jones' short stories about Vietnam, George Macdonald Fraser's Quartered Safe Out Here
>>30325686
I think /thg/ guy was compiling historian accounts, I'm sure he has a separate list for memoirs and stuff.
Pic related is my favorite, fun for all ages. Anyone have any recommendations for fallschirmjägers, partisans, or Italians in WW2?
>>30323649
Guy Sajer - The Forgotten Soldier
Guy Sajer - The Forgotten Soldier
Guy Sajer - The Forgotten Soldier
If you like storm of steel you will love Guy Sajer.
>>30325816
PS. Be ready for feels. Life on the Eastern Front was not a happy one.
>>30323649
Just picked up Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine by James Calvert.
>>30324009
just read starship troopers, it was amazing.
With exaggerated deliberation, I climbed down the wooden ladder and entered the oil-covered water. My helmet was barely awash as I walked aft on the main deck, skirting wreckage. The dense floating mass of oil blotted out all daylight. I was submerged in total blackness.
Grunting with exertion, I tried to open the large hatch. “Topside, this damn hatch is stuck,” I said into my helmet phone. “The gasket probably melted from the heat of the fires. I’m going forward to the access trunk hatch and use that opening.”
I slowly groped my way across the littered deck to the trunk hatch. I forced the trunk hatch open and descended into the darkness below. This trunk was a square shaft that extended uninterrupted from the main deck to the third deck. I extended my right hand to guide myself down through the trunk. By following the shaft straight down, my hand was pointed in the direction necessary to follow the working plan. As I landed on the third-deck level I knew by the position of my extended arm that I was headed for the starboard side of the ship.
“Topside, I’m on the third deck. Give me three hundred feet of slack.”
I pulled down my coupled lifeline and air hose, coiling them at my feet. When I received the slack in my lines, I straightened up to get my bearings.
I moved cautiously, feeling my way with ungloved hands toward the starboard bulkhead in the compartment, which was my starting point. What I would find I had no inkling. Eventually, it would severely draw on every ounce of courage I possessed. As I looked up, I saw a light that glowed dimly, flickered, and disappeared. It must have been phosphorescence in the water, I thought as the blackness enveloped me once again. I shrugged as I thought: I would settle for just enough light to be able to see the end of my nose.
>>30326120
Suddenly, I felt that something was wrong. I tried to suppress the strange feeling that I was not alone. I reached out to feel my way and touched what seemed to be a large inflated bag floating on the overhead. As I pushed it away, my bare hand plunged through what felt like a mass of rotted sponge. I realized with horror that the “bag” was a body without a head.
Gritting my teeth, I shoved the corpse as hard as I could. As it drifted away, its fleshless fingers raked across my rubberized suit, almost as if the dead sailor were reaching out to me in a silent cry for help.
I fought to choke down the bile that rose in my throat. That bloated torso had once contained viscera, muscle, and firm tissue. It had been a man. I could hear the quickening thump of my pulse.
For the first time I felt confined in the suffocating darkness and had to suppress the desire to escape. “Breathe slowly, breathe deeply,” I commanded myself. I must stay calm, professional, detached. The dangers from falling wreckage, holes in the deck, and knife-sharp jagged edges were real, formidable hazards. I must not succumb to terror over something that could not harm me.
I concentrated on finding the first road sign before starting toward the shop.
“Topside, I’m facing the bulkhead and my left hand is on the fire hydrant.”
A voice answered. “Move to your left about ten feet and reach your hand up to the overhead and you should feel a large blower motor. Continue six feet beyond and you will feel a watertight door in the after bulkhead of the workshop.
I did as instructed and felt my way through the darkness toward the door to the machine shop, accompanied only by the sound of the air hissing into my helmet from the air hose trailing behind me.
At the shop doorway I hesitated and drew my lifeline toward me. “I’m inside the shop doorway.” There was that feeling again.
>>30326133
“Turn and face the after bulkhead and move to your right about twenty feet. There should be a fire hydrant on the bulkhead waist high.”
“Got it.”
“Good. Now turn around, and with your back to the bulkhead, slowly walk forward through the shop.”
Then I got the eerie feeling again that I wasn’t alone. Something was near. I felt the body floating above me. Soon the overhead was filled with floating forms.
Obviously, my movement through the water created a suction effect that drew the floating masses to me. Their skeletal fingers brushed across my copper helmet. The sound reminded me of the tinkle of oriental wind chimes.
This time I did not panic. Instead, I gently pushed the bodies clear and moved through the compartment. I shuffled through the workshop area, threading my way around lathes, milling machines, and drill presses. I stopped and again found myself surrounded by ghostly bloated forms floating on the overhead, all without heads. This shop had been the damage control battle station for one hundred of the crew. The violent explosions from bombs and torpedoes, plus the forceful impact of water, must have thrown the sailors like rag dolls against bulkheads, breaking their necks and severing skulls from spines. Voracious scavenger crabs had finished the job.
It was not something I wanted to think about, and I pushed it from my mind as I moved forward again. That is when I stumbled over what felt like a torpedo, the object I had come down here to find.
“Topside, I found it. I’m at the nose cone.”
“Careful,” warned the voice from topside. “That’s where the detonator is located.”
“I know. I’m still at the nose cone. It’s wedged under a lathe. As soon as I circle this machine, I’ll feel my way down the torpedo body and attach the propeller lock.”
“Keep us posted on your progress.”
>>30326146
Then, as if someone had thrown a switch, my air supply stopped. “What’s wrong with my air supply?” I yelled.
No answer. The topside phone key was depressed, but all I could hear was panic-stricken shouting.
I quickly closed the exhaust valve in my helmet before all the air escaped from my helmet and suit. “Take in my slack, I’m coming up,” I yelled, fear rising in my voice.
Back came a rapid reply, “Your lifeline is hung up. Retrace your steps and clear it as quickly as you can.” I knew the oxygen remaining in my helmet could not sustain life for more than two minutes. By now the air had escaped from my suit, causing the dress to press tightly against my torso, the pressure from the surrounding water flattening it. As the pressure increased, I felt the huge roiling mass of panic surge into my throat. I tried desperately to hold back the growing anxiety within me. I had seen what terror could do to a man. It could take possession of mind and body and prevent him from helping himself, even cause him to give up completely. I told myself to concentrate on surviving.
I grabbed the lifeline and started back, pulling hand over hand toward the access trunk. The 196 pounds of diving equipment on my shoulders became an incredible weight. Without buoyancy in my suit, it became a heavy burden dragging me down.
Stumbling, wildly now, I crashed through the corpses, my breath quick and shallow from fear and exertion. Blind terror could destroy me. I fought it as best as I could. I finally felt where a loop in my air hose was caught on the handwheel of a lathe. I cleared my lines and yelled, “Take up my slack!”
Almost immediately, I felt the answering strain on the lines as my diving tenders heaved them in.
“It’s free,” someone shouted over the phone. “Stay calm. We’ll have you up in a minute.”
I did not have breath enough to answer.
>>30326164
Without air pressure in my suit, foul fetid water poured in through my suit cuffs and the exhaust valve in my helmet. I could feel the coolness of it around my neck. I felt the constant frantic pull on my lines as my tenders heaved me in. I stumbled and fell as they pulled me over and around a milling machine. Filthy water gushed into my mouth. Somehow I was able to regain my feet, only to be slammed against a lathe and then pulled over the top of it in a mad, tumbling journey to the surface and fresh air.
But time had run out for me. I fell again, and putrid liquid rushed into my face. I stood up again, coughing and gagging. My breathing was labored and the panic was like a rat behind my forehead, twisting and gnawing. I was not aware that my instinct to survive had vanished.
Bursts of stars and brilliant white shards of light exploded before my eyes. A loud ringing filled my ears. Even in my dire state, I recognized the symptoms of carbon dioxide toxicity and oxygen deficiency. A hundred ugly visions flashed through my mind, grim reminders that I was going to die down here among these headless corpses.
The strain on my lifeline was from above my head now, holding me upright. A red haze passed before my eyes, grew fainter and fainter and finally disappeared into blackness. I was dying and the part of me that still cared, knew it. But for now I would just close my eyes and go to sleep.
>>30323649
This book is amazing, its about British general Orde Wingate, the guy that invented and carried out the first LRRP operation. It starts off with him leading Jew guerrilla forces against Muslims attackers in the British Palestine territory right before the war, then he goes on to be one of the first British boots on the ground to retake Ethiopia, then gets sent to Burma and there invents the concept of LRRP.
It's an all around great read, though it ends kinda poorly just due to the nature of the way the guy actually died.
>>30326220
He also fathered the Chindits, the very same still in service today.
If you have any interest in the American Civil War at all I very, very highly recommend Shelby Foote's narrative on the war. It reads like an actual interesting book (hint hint: narrative) rather than a boring old high school history textbook and is an absolutely fantastic read.
Ignore the PS4 game, this was from a long time ago goofing off with a fellow /k/ommando on /vg/
If you didn't read this book at least once then you aren't a /k/ommando
>>30326242
er, the chindits were disbanded in 45, i don't know what I was thinking of
The previous picture was after his first LRRP in burma I believe, this picture was during his preparations in Ethiopia. His face changed quite a bit after some jungle time it seems.
>>30326175
Did he died?
>>30323649
"Storm of Steel" is far more interesting than "All Quiet on the Western Front" and written by a far more experienced soldier too. What a terrible war it must have been, and it's amazing anyone came home at all from it.
I smell Jocko...
>>30326349
Nah, pretty crazy book though. Number of other divers died on Oklahoma though.
Is Jack Reacher /k/ enough? Some of the stuff (especially in the earlier books) isn't too accurate but he's basically every /k/ommando's dream.
>wandering murrica, living on pension
>6'5 master race
>very good at hand to hand combat as well as the use of various small arms
>good shot
>getting into some spoopy operational adventures
>bangs a qt
>shoots some fag in the face
>is borderline autistic
>always manages to pull through no matter how bad the situation is
I'm currently reading 'World War One: The African Front' about the British vs the Germans in Africa. It's interesting, but I'm having some trouble with the content sticking because I have no point of reference for the geography, etc.
I just finished reading 'Brave New War: the next stage of terrorism and the end of globalization', which I found to be extremely thought provoking. The author's argument is that terrorism is moving towards and open-source structure that is more or less impossible to stamp out and unless there are some serious changes in how states address the problem, the states will collapse.
I also just read "America's Secret Submarine", which was written by a crew member of the NR-1, the USN's smallest nuclear sub that could literally drive across the sea floor. They built it with wheels.
Had the pleasure of meeting the 92 year old author at the POW camp he was interned in recently. Very interesting story of service in the Wehrmacht, life in a POW camp, and the difficulty in re-adjusting to life after performing forced labor on a Scottish farm for 2 years after the war ended, only to return to pile of rubble for a hometown. He later served as a translator for the British, emigrated to America, and founded an international adoption center with his wife.
>>30326242
>>30326296
The """Chindits""" were reinstated January, 2015, although not in a Long Range Reconnaissance role. Personally, I disagree with having paper pushers continue the legacy of the Chindits, but I also disagree with most of what has been done to the British Army (ie. amalgamations) since the end of WW2.
>>30326948
I forgot the link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom)
>>30323649
>/k/ /lit/
>calling it anything but /klit/
>>30326120
Seriously, DO NOT start reading this book on a work night. I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing by 6 am the next morning. Excellent book.
Also nice glossing over or almost rape haha.
![57936[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3jAAEiX.jpg "57936[1].jpg")
Him and his comrades taught Arab fighters how to bomb. Think about that shit.
>>30323649
This is still exactly true with modern warfare albeit obviously our IDF attacks are nothing compared to WWI. A a contractor especially shit gets noticeably more lame as soon as IDF attacks stop(ped) happening regularly.
>>30324009
Starship Troopers is one of the best and most realistic infantry books (or any type of media) of all time.
Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius is fantastic. He ran a hobby shop and used to take pictures and sign copies if you came in. Unfortunately he passed away not too long ago.
Lost Victories by Field Marshall von Manstein is fantastic, although as typical of post-war memoirs he attempts to pass blame along just like Donitz and Guderian did.
>>30324009
Star Ship Troopers is fucking amazing and probably one of the best representations of the modern combat arms mentality.
Old Mans War was a great read.
Forever War is hippy fucking garbage and I couldn't get past the first battle when the protagonist started crying like a bitch at his awesome killing prowess.
I'm going to give a special shout out to Armor. I initially didn't like the book despite recognizing that it was technically extremely well written, for some reason I just didn't like it. Right up till the ending which made me love the damn thing. It really ended up being an amazing book and I'm sad we'll never get a sequel, there's so much world building that was done but barely touched on.
>>30326175
That was friggin' incredible, will be reading this book.
>>30326275
Mellow
>>30328281
I was reading the Forever War but I started to like it less and less because of all the fucking useless "women fighters" in the book who seem to get in the way.
The book seems like it was written by a degenerate. I haven't finished it But I stopped half way. The only thing interesting me was the suspense of the first alien contact.
Should I just push through? Does it get better?
And the book Star Ship Troopers is it any different from the movie? I don't want to read a book that's basically the same story as the movie, especially since i watched the movie first.
>>30328717
Keep going. All science fiction writers go through a phase where they try to reinvent sexual politics. The author is a Vietnam vet. Relativistic time dilation is a metaphor for how time stands still while you're deployed but life keeps on changing back home.
>>30324009
why cant we run our government like this :*(
>>30328772
Because nobody wants to see the Great Seal Of The United States replaced with hand drawn dick doodles.
>>30328717
Honestly sounds like you were only half paying attention, the book is about the vietnam war.
>>30328756
FUCK. How on earth did I not pick up on that.
>>30328717
>And the book Star Ship Troopers is it any different from the movie?
jesus christ yes.
>>30328756
>All science fiction writers go through a phase where they try to reinvent sexual politics
speaking of which....stay away from Stranger in a Strange Land or any later Heinlein novels until you read some of his earlier stuff, troopers included
>>30326051
10/10 book, you wouldn't happen to be the Portugal bro i suggested it to would you?
>>30326365
I enjoyed storm of steel a lot more too because he actually went into detail what day to day life was and the routine of life in the trenches
Pic related is what I'm reading now
>>30328717
"And the book Star Ship Troopers is it any different from the movie?"
Except for the title, almost everything.
I liked the movie. Exploding insects and naked chicks are agreeable with any straight male. But it's not the same story as the book, which by the way where written for teenage boys.
"It's afra
>>30329513
>dem nips
I wanted to fuck that chick so bad.
>>30328281
I want to read Old Man's war but John Scalzi is a cunt.
Armor is outstanding.
>>30325807
What do you need my friend im an expert on yugoslav partizans of ww2
>>30329524
You got your hand and your personality, m8.
>>30329631
Scalzi is a massive cunt, and the fucker panders to tumblrinas like no other.
But damn it all if Old Man's War isn't an outstanding book. Like seriously, you wouldn't know the guy had it in him to write something that good.
But I'm all for separating the work from the writer, and when you separate Scalzi from his work it's damn good.
>>30328281
I read old man's war based on what was said here about it.
I shouldn't have. It was shit. Even moreso, it was edgy shit that seemed written by a 14 year old.
Birdsong is good, but probably too much drama and sidestory for those looking for just war stuff.
One of the few books dealing with the WW1 tunnels/mining operations though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNXw2ZjvEdU
If you like learning about the Vietnam War and US Special Forces, then I have to recommend pic related. One of the best military books I've read.
>>30326365
I liked All Quiet on the Western Front. It had a more anti-war attitude, but was very good, and left you with an empty hearted feeling for the war. Granted, he apparently never saw combat, as opposed to Jünger.
Second string recomendation is "One Soldiers War" by Babchenko.
Its a biography about the grittiness and inhumanity that was present during the Chechen wars.
My first recommendation would be Blood Meridian. Its a fictional account of scalp hunters in the wild west, somewhat anchored in fact. Joel Glanton definitely existed at the time, and the story surrounds a young male (the kid) as he follows a pack of murderous ex soldiers to collect indian scalps for the bounty.
This novel isn't something you want to enter unprepared. I've read depressing russian literature and wanted to chug vodka, but this book is something else. It breaks into the nature of mankind and violence. It offers it up for wholesale slaughter, and it makes you wonder.
Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy.
Best WW2 book coming through here, make way.
>>30326418
Do you think jocko knows about /k/?
>>30326242
He was also notorious as a complete asshole and a stinky motherfucker who would brief reporters while nude in a hotel room, washing his nuts with a toothbrush.
>>30328281
Old Man's War was extremely mediocre.
>>30323649
Read a book about swedish expeditionary forces fighting for the SS in WW2, dont know if it has been published in english but its called berlins sista dagar in swedish. Great book, awesome story about brave swedish SS forces fighting all the way from stalingrad to hitlers bunker.
>>30333605
James Franco is trying to make a Blood Meridian movie, and it will probably end up being shit and that's what the general public will know it for ;_;
>>30335687
there's no way to do it right. If it were done proper, it would be NC-17, be 4 hours long, and have a 60%+ casualty rate amongst the cast
>>30333961
The entire section with Memel made me feel utter hopelessness and sorrow for anyone on the German side
>>30328281
However, I was standing next to Joe when Heinlein told him how much he enjoyed Forever War. I t was at the first KC Worldcon. So take that you pleb.
>>30326623
> borderline autistic
Yep
>>30335718
Maybe it could work as like an HBO miniseries or something
Anyone got an epub of Fireforce by Chris Cocks? I've been looking for a copy and found a bit on Google, but haven't been too successful
>>30326265
And just took this one today. Just finished the one on the left and I'm starting the one in the middle. I read the one on the right when I was fresh out of high school but I'll read it again because that was a long time ago
>>30334661
God I hope not.
He's seems to avoid all time-sucks. No vidya, never knows what anyone is talking about when they try to bring up movies or TV.
>>30324009
Does the movie do the book justice? havent read this or seen the movie.
>>30338791
Absolutely not, but the movie has it's own merits and satirical spin
The director never even finished the book because he found it too boring and the Mobile Infantry is more like Soviet wave infantry in the movie than elite units in power armor
>>30338572
http://book4you.org/book/2283337/b667d5
If that doesn't work, search up bookzz then type fireforce into the search bar.
>>30339540
Thanks a bunch
I have a ton of military/tank/plane autism books on my Mega:
https://mega.nz/#F!uVVXGQTR!khwhTBlj6fdkGHWYWrkbmg
>>30339540
Holy shit anon, that's the first and probably last good book piracy sight I've ever seen!
>>30329513
Dina Meyer?
>>30329005
I'm a Canada Bro. Mark Urban also has a book called 'Fusiliers' in the same style as 'Rifles' but about the 23 Royal Welch Fusiliers during the American Revolution, which is also really good.
>>30328281
>Forever War is hippy fucking garbage
I really enjoyed forever war. It's essentially a Vietnam vet using science fiction as a form of therapy to come to terms with his combat experiences and the alienation he felt after returning to the US. Every novel military doesn't need to be full of oorah firepower fuck yea bullshit.
I will say that Forever Free, the """""sequel""""" is one of the worst novels I have ever read. Avoid at all costs unless you enjoy aimless bullshit and literal deus ex machinas.
>>30331560
>he apparently never saw combat, as opposed to Jünger.
Okay, that's wrong. Remarque wasn't a volunteer, but he was conscripted as assigned to an infantry unit as a combat engineer, got sent to the front line and got blasted by a (French?) artillery shell, ans spent the rest of the war talking to other wounded soldiers and outlining his book.
Are there any good books on Waco or Ruby Ridge?
