War books

[jonoman89]

I don't like Beevor's books, partly due to his attitude towards war veterans but mainly because he offers very little from what has already been written by many many others. He goes to the archives & reads diaries and avoids interviews.

Beevor isn't a very traditional historian. He writes like a novellist almost, his focus is on the emotions involved in the conflict. If you like 100% absoltue fact with no ellaboration thrown in i can see why many dislike him.

Personally i think he is doing a very important job: bringing traditionally high-brow subjects down to a common, emotional level which i think everyone can relate to.

"Berlin" was a masterpiece in the way it illustrated the utter carnage of the last few months of the war for both Germans and Soviets.

I picked up Paul Ham's The Illustrated Edition Vietnam The Australian War in the Borders meltdown. Not read it yet. Have you and if so thoughts?

I'm a Vietnam War junkie and read this about one and a half years ago. A pretty good read. He certainly doesn't have the black armband view of the conflict which many writers have. There is quite detailed sections comparing the anti-war movement back home and the regular attrocities committed by VC/PAVN troops in the South and the very good manner Australian troops conducted themselves in.

The part i found the most interesting was reading about Australian society in the 1960s and how we really were an "odd one out" in the conflict...we were involved in a fight we had very little societal or political understanding of. Even more so than the Americans even.

For the French Vietnam war (and anyone who likes lost cause siege type stories), Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall is a good read about Dien Bien Phu

I've read heaps of books which have had many excerpts from Fall's work, but i've never gotten down to actually read one fully. I'm trying to source a copy of the "Street Without Joy" but am having no luck.

It was a bit of a mind trip walking along that "street" last year...it definitely isn't the tropical wonderland you expect of Vietnam. Very dark, overcast and cold section of the country...very gloomy and you can see why the French and American troops would have absolutely hated patrolling around there. I was quite spooked actually!

I recently ordered a book which details the lives of two ARVN officers later in the war. Without giving too much away, both end up taking up very different paths after the fall of Saigon. Should be interesting.

 

[sydney eagle]

Have flicked through (but not fully read) "Zombie Myths Of Australian Military History" edited by Craig Stockings. Covers stories from Colonial times ("The Frontier War that never was") to Timor ("Two Tales Of Timor"). Interesting, but I have only read a couple of chapters here and there .

 

[mike14]

going to bump an old thread (that I just discovered):

For those interested in Vietnam with an Australian slant I highly recommend:

Delta Four and In Good Company by Gary McKay. Mckay was a Platoon Commander with 4RAR (he was awarded the MC) and his books focus on that period of the war up to about Company level. they are still on the recommended reading lists for the Army's junior leaders. He also wrote Sleeping with your ears open about the Aussie SAS in Vietnam which does a pretty good job in explaining how they went out things back then.

View from a Low Bough by Barrie Crowley. Another first person account, written in a slightly odd way, Barrie was the interpreter for a rifle company. Despite his Company being in several contacts, Barrie's position means that he isn't really involved and so the book focuses on other areas of the war. It's an interesting look at the thoughts of a soldier during that time period, but it may be hard to find a copy now (book was released about 15 years ago and I doubt a 2nd print run was ordered).

Vietnam in general you still can't go past Dispatches by Michael Herr. Just a crazy ride through the US Army at war. Michael also wrote the screen play for Full Metal Jacket and was a consultant for Apocalypse Now. The scary thing is reading this book now and seeing how much of it is still relevant in Afghanistan and Iraq.

regarding more modern conflicts:

Both Generation Kill (Evan Wright) and One Bullet Away (Nathanial Fick) offer an interesting insight into the modern soldier and the modern US Marine Corps. For those that haven't seen the HBO series, Wright was an embedded report who was with the Marines when they invaded Iraq, Fick was the Platoon Commander of the unit he rode in with.

Shake Hands with the Devil by Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire. Dallaire (Canadian) was head of the UN mission in Rwanda during the Rwandan massacre of 1994. It is probably the most gut-wrenching book I've ever read and the sub-title The failure of humanity in Rwanda describes perfectly the turning of a blind-eye by the UN.

 

[Asgardian]

I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned Antony Beevor's Stalingrad or Berlin. They are both brilliant examples of the way that history should be written. He makes the absolute horror of these battles tangible, both for the combatants and the civilians caught in the fighting.

Personally, I think that Stalingrad is the better of the two books.

I've just started Stalingrad, waiting for the next installment from Stephen Donaldson.