Matrix Games Forums

If you only had room for 5 military related books on your bookshelf, what would they be?


edited: Added the military classification

1. The Rommel Papers - Rommel, Edited by B. H. Liddel Hart
2. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946 - Conways
3. Jane's Fighting Ships of World War I - Janes
4. War as I knew It - Patton
5. History of the Second World War - B. H. Liddel Hart

Those are just the top 5 I own though, not what I would have if I could have any book.

hah i have more than that i'm reading simultaneously stacked up next to my bed.

Harm's Way by James Basset
Foxes of the Desert by Paul Carrel (sp?)
Red Storm Rising by Clancy
Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler
Bitter Victory (Sicily) by D'este

ORIGINAL: Tankerace

5. History of the Second World War - B. H. Liddel Hart

Excellent book [:)]

Red Storm Rising was a great read - I just couldn't put it down.

Can't really think of any books that I would read over and over. Guess I would have to take some of my medieval books. Would be tough deciding which ones though.

1. Conways all the Worlds Fighting ships 1922-1946
2. The Pacific War 1941-45 - John Costello
3. The Road to Starlingrad - John Erickson
4. The Road to Berlin- John Erickson
5. Most Secret War - R.V. Jones

Unfortunatly I do not have my library with me at the moment, but the book at the top of my list is: Achung Panzer by Guderian.

My favorites would be

1)Hitler Moves East - Paul Carrel
2) Glory Road - Bruce Catton
3) The Desert Generals - Corelli Barrett
4) The Real War (History of the Great War) - B.H. Liddell Hart

and my all time favorite though not strictly historical Cross of Iron by Willi Heinrich[:'(]

I few years ago, when I was visiting my sister near Portland, OR, she took me to Powell's Books in Portland and I found a copy of Unternahmen Barbarossa by Paul Carrell, the original German edition of "Hitler Moves East". Still a most prized book in my collection.

On seas of glory epic, battles of the american navy.
The art of war.
War in the pacific Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay.
World War II Time Life Books series is an awesome read.
Fighting Techniques Of The Ancient World. ( YA GOTTA LEARN THE BASICS )

1) The Big Show - Clostermann
2) One of Our Submarines - Young
3) Overlord - Hastings
4) History of warfare - Keegan
5) Panzer Leader - Guderian

Couple of German infantry memoirs from the Eastern Front (Bidermann, Sajer) but they are too depressing to read too often.

By Tank Into Normandy (Hill) is excellent too.

Nothing from PTO on here...Bergerud I really enjoyed, and have some things on order to fill the PTO void in my bookshelf.

The Erickson books I have tried to plough through due to their reputation etc...but it is hard work. And more than any, those books need MAPS!

1. Guadal Canal - Richard B. Frank
2. The Rommel Papers
3. An Army at Dawn - Rick Atkinson
4. Midway - The battle that doomed Japan - Mitsuo Fuchida & Masatake Okumiya
5. History of the Second World war - B.H Liddel Hart

ORIGINAL: PeckingFury

1. Guadal Canal - Richard B. Frank

That is sitting on the desk in front of me right now. Really very good.

Right Now I am reading
Knight's Cross by David Fraser
Luftwaffe Fighter Aces by Mike Spick

The list below is what I have shipping to me right now



CARLSON'S RAID
by George W. Smith

THE EAGLE AND THE RISING SUN
by Alan Schom

GUNS OF THE THIRD REICH
by John Walter

CHIANG KAI-SHEK
by Jonathan Fenby

We will see how those turn out. I really enjory the biography on Rommel though. I never knew the Akrika Korps could be so exciting to read about.

A Soldier's Story - Bradley
Battle Cry - Uris (I know, fiction, but he was there)
Guadalcanal - Frank
The History of Naval Operations in World War II (the single volume if one is picky)
Tin Can Sailors

May be some of the mods should create a sticky with best books and reference for PTO.

1-Lost Victories by Von Meinstein ( A MUST )
2-Memories from the Third Reich by Albert Speer ( A MUST )
3-Galland's biografy
4-The Night Watch by S.Pasini ( great what if novel )
5-the other side of the hill by Liddle Hart ( interviews with hitler's generals )

then i'd put on the list "Panzer leader" by Guderian,The war in Europe by Von Senger, the Opera Omnia of Paul Carell,and many more...but those are my top 5

Lost Victories, Von Manstein
Operation Market Garden, Then and Now, Karel Margry
The campaigns of Napoleon, David Chandler
When Titans clashed, how the red army stopped Hitler, Glantz & House
The forgotten soldier, Guy Sajer

The Sharp End: The Fighting Man in World War II - John Ellis
The World within War: America's combat experience in World War II - Gerald F. Linderman
Dispatches - Michael Herr
The Great War and Modern Memory - Paul Fussell
The Red Thin Line - John Jones (fiction, but still)

The Bitter Woods - J. Eisenhower
D-Day -S. Ambrose
The Mighty Eight - Astor
Mircle at Midway - Goldstein
A time for trumpets - McDonald