Good War Memoirs

[GloryofGreece]

I've gotten into reading war memoirs. Of course Storm of Steel is great, but the two below are interesting and well done as well.

Adventures in My Youth: A German Soldier on the Eastern Front

https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-My-Yo ... 789&sr=1-1

A Soldier on the Southern Front

https://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Southern ... 0847842789
Any recommendations?

[TheReal_ND]

http://www.jrbooksonline.com/PDF_Books/ ... naries.pdf

For My Legionaries (Romanian: Pentru legionari) is an autobiographical book by Iron Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu first published in 1936. The book has been described by historian Irina Livezeanu as being to Codreanu what Mein Kampf was to Adolf Hitler.[1] It was first published in Sibiu, as it was not allowed to pass censorship in Bucharest.[2]

~wiki

[brewster]

The books that "The Pacific" tv series was based on are pretty good. Helmet for my Pillow, and With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. And of course there's Band of Brothers.

[de officiis]

Storm of Steel is excellent. The following are from my bookshelf. Some of these are more akin to biographies.

* Excellent

* Jakob Walter


* Eugene Sledge


Narrative about Tarawa (not a war diary)


* Guy Sager


Josef “Sepp” Allerberger (validity as a true war memoir has been challenged)


* Otto Carius


Otto Henning - reconn narratives


Evgeni Bessonov


Andrew Wilson, 141st Royal Armoured, 7th Bn, The Buffs


Belton Cooper


Adolf Galland


* Adolf Galland


Eric Hartmann


Helmut Lipfert


* Hans Rudel (unrepentant Nazi--blew up a shitpile of Soviet armor)


Saburo Sakai, Japanese fighter ace


Lt. Col. Richard Turner

[brewster]

Wow, fascinating list! I noticed Samurai was co-written by Martin Caiden. We had a bunch of his books around house as a kid because he was an acquaintance of my folks. A great one in particular was The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, a history of the early pacific air war, where we we getting our asses kicked before the US got more and better aircraft out there to take on the Zero. He covers the Flying Tigers (AVG), also covered in the memoir God is my Co-Pilot, As well as another good Pacific air memoir: Baa Baa Black Sheep, that the show was based on. What made the biggest impression on me as a teen reading that last was the latter section dealing with his POW experience. Harrowing shit.

[GloryofGreece]

Storm of Steel is excellent. The following are from my bookshelf. Some of these are more akin to biographies.

* Excellent

* Jakob Walter


* Eugene Sledge


Narrative about Tarawa (not a war diary)


* Guy Sager


Josef “Sepp” Allerberger (validity as a true war memoir has been challenged)


* Otto Carius


Otto Henning - reconn narratives


Evgeni Bessonov


Andrew Wilson, 141st Royal Armoured, 7th Bn, The Buffs


Belton Cooper


Adolf Galland


* Adolf Galland


Eric Hartmann


Helmut Lipfert


* Hans Rudel (unrepentant Nazi--blew up a shitpile of Soviet armor)


Saburo Sakai, Japanese fighter ace


Lt. Col. Richard Turner

What a list. Have you read the book Life and Fate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Fate

[de officiis]

Wow, fascinating list! I noticed Samurai was co-written by Martin Caiden. We had a bunch of his books around house as a kid because he was an acquaintance of my folks. A great one in particular was The Ragged, Rugged Warriors, a history of the early pacific air war, where we we getting our asses kicked before the US got more and better aircraft out there to take on the Zero. He covers the Flying Tigers (AVG), also covered in the memoir God is my Co-Pilot, As well as another good Pacific air memoir: Baa Baa Black Sheep, that the show was based on. What made the biggest impression on me as a teen reading that last was the latter section dealing with his POW experience. Harrowing shit.

I didn't know about Ragged, Rugged Warriors - looks like a good one.

Caiden also wrote a book about the P-38 Lightning (Fork-Tailed Devil) which is pretty good.

[de officiis]

Have you read the book Life and Fate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Fate

No, I haven't. Thanks for the link- I'll check it out.

[heydaralon]

Have you read the book Life and Fate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_and_Fate

No, I haven't. Thanks for the link- I'll check it out.

Great book! Though it is fiction not a memoir, Vasily Grossman wrote another excellent book whose title escapes me atm. Life and Fate is very very dark, but a lot of people view it as a 20th century war and peace. Worth checking out for sure!

[heydaralon]

William Manchester's Goodbye Darkness covers the Bataan death March if I remember correctly. It was fairly engaging, though I read it in middle school. I don't know if someone mentioned Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden. Not quite a memoir, but a phenomenal book.