Semi OT: Recommended books for Current Conflicts

[Chad Harrison]

Hi all

I tried a search, and was surprised that we did not have any classic 'Recommend a Book for CM:SF Threads' - or atleast one that I could find.

So, can anyone recommend books for the current, ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

As with all of these threads, what are good books for the:

1. Overall Conflict and/or War on Terror

2. Major Battles (ie. Second Fallujah)

3. Individual Memoirs (ie. My Experience in Fallujah)

Thanks in advance

Chad

[Ryujin]

Well, two good ones I can think of are "Hogs in the Sand" (USMC snipers), "Masters of Chaos" (US Army SF). Perhaps not the standard "CMSF books", but good reads off the traditional list.

For a more tactical perspective, "Defense of Jisr Al Doreaa" handles modern counter insurgency tactics in a fictional Iraq scenario. A modern "Defense of Duffer's Drift".

[AkumaSD]

"Hogs in the Sand" (USMC snipers).

I looked all over for this until I found out that you must have meant "Hogs in the Shadows". Looks good. Thanks for the tips.

[ForceMultiplier]

Ryujin thanks for the tip on Hogs and Masters. I agree Defense of Jisr Al Doreaaa was great.

I suggest:

"Not a good day to die"(US 101st Airborne + 10th Mtn Afghanistan early in the war)

"Ambush Alley"(USMC Iraqi Freedom - great read directly for CMSF)

"Thunder Run" (US Army Armor taking Baghdad)

"No True Glory" (Fallujah - more high level - weren't they going to make this a movie???)

"We were one" (Fallujah - low level)

"Sniper One" (British in Iraq - GREAT read, no BS)

"Contact Charlie" (Canadians in Afghanistan - good read for NATO module comming up!)

"3 Para" (British in Afghanistan 2006)

"Ground Truth" (3 Para returns to Afghanistan 2008)

"Lone Survivor" (SEALs in Afghanistan - not directly for CMSF but good insight)

(Can't wait to read what everyone else suggests).

[JonS]

"3 Para" (British in Afghanistan 2006)

I thought that one was pretty average. The authour has a hard-on for the paras (and UK forces in general, I think), so they all have a stiff upper lip under extreme adversity.

[Chad Harrison]

Thanks for the replies so far. As always, Amazon appreciates your advice

Please, keep them coming!! I know that I am not the only one who will use this list as a shopping guide.

[Sivodsi]

Amazon appreciates your advice

While on the subject of book sellers, The Book Depository has free postage world wide. Just got my first few books, ordered on the 15th, at my door by the 27th (UK to Sth Korea).

[JonS]

Yeah, I prefer to use TBD now too. The total price is generally better than Amazon, and Amazon has been doing some funky stuff like reaching out to their Kindles and deleting stuff people owned.

[afreu]

A really good book and one of the best war books I've read is WAR by Sebastian Junger.

I also read 3 Para some time ago, but found it too repetitive after the first couple of chapters. In this regard another Afghanistan book to avoid is "Immediate Response" by Mark Hammond.

EDIT: Just had a look at some of the recommendations. Had to laugh at the subheading of CONTACT CHARLIE: "The Canadian Army, the Taliban, and the Battle That Saved Afghanistan". Sounds like they won the war 4 years ago, but just didn't care to tell anyone

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

Afgh:

Not well written but has interesting details:

A Million Bullets: The Real Story of the British Army in Afghanistan

by James Fergusson

Iraq:

The civilian side of the occupation:

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

History of the invasion:

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

by Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor

History of what went wrong after the Invasion.

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

by Thomas E. Ricks

[AkumaSD]

;1201143']

Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone

Excellent book!

[21sec]

A few not mentioned:

The Highway War - Folsom (LAV's in OIF1)

Takedown - Lacey (3rd ID in OIF1)

Ambush Alley - Pritchard (Battle for Nasiriyah)

House to House - Bellavia (Battle for Fallujah)

Not A Good Day To Die - Naylor (Operation Anaconda - Afghanistan)

[Blackcat]

There have been some dreadfully bad books published about both the Iraq and Afghan conflicts (the 3 Para book mentioned above is a prime example, "House to House" being another). Two that I would recommend are:

Attack State Red (ISBN 978-0-718-15506-3) and

Apache Dawn (ISBN 978-1847442543)

Both deal with the Brits in Afghanistan in 2007 and are well written. In places they talk about the same actions, so you get the Infantry view and that of the gunships supporting them, which is quite instructive.

As an aside a book that crossed my desk recently that I hadn't previously been aware of is "The Forgotten Voices of the Falklands" (ISBN 978-0-09-190881-2). This book, published in association with the Imperial War Museum, tells the story of that nasty little war by means of interviews with people who were there, islanders, Argentines and Brit servicemen. It is an extraordinary book that shows up the campaign for the come-as- you-are, make-it-up-as-you-go-along affair and near disaster for the Brits that it was.

It struck me, having read so much about infantry fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq recently, just how much the technology of war has moved on since 1982. What doesn't seem to have changed is the quality of senior (above battalion level) British officers and their staff. I really don't think the UK has produced a good battlefield General since Slim

and the Navy are even worse, incompetence in officers there seems to be a matter of norm down to junior officer level.

[Phantom Captain]

A tiny bit OT but still in the same vein,

Any good recommendations for books on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? I would like more first person accounts but anything good will do. Really looking forward to the new game release.

My CMBB email partner, who lives in Sweden, suggested a book on a Soviet paratroopers account of his experiences in Afghanistan but he doesn't know if it's been translated to English.

[JonS]

Any good recommendations for books on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?.

"The Bear Went Over the Mountain". It's available online legitimately.

[Phantom Captain]

Thanks!! Found it online as you said!

Looks very interesting and very much focused on the tactical level of things.

[Homo ferricus]

About "Hogs in the Shadows", it was a great read, but the copy I picked up at the store had some sort of strange defect; about 50 pages before the end of the book (let's say page 200, for illustration purposes), all of a sudden I flipped that page and it went back to page 76! Which is to say, where I should have been reading pages 200-250, I was instead re-reading pages 76-126!

I have no idea how widespread this defect is for the production of this book, and neither did the cashier I returned it to, but if you buy it in person, flip through and make sure that you don't see page 76 or sumfink towards the end of the book.

I'd love to contribute to the library of CMSF related books being discussed here, but I'd only be echoing what's already been said. There are some interesting semi-tactics related books that I can vouch for, like "My War: Killing time in Iraq", by Colby Buzzell (it's actually quite non-tactical, mostly about how much it sucks to be in the Army/Iraq), and the ever popular "Generation Kill".

[Ron]

A tiny bit OT but still in the same vein,

Any good recommendations for books on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? I would like more first person accounts but anything good will do. Really looking forward to the new game release.

My CMBB email partner, who lives in Sweden, suggested a book on a Soviet paratroopers account of his experiences in Afghanistan but he doesn't know if it's been translated to English.

A little more OT in not being a book, but an excellent documentary on the Soviet experiences in Afghanistan is 'Afghantsi'. It doesn't have as much 'live' footage as I would have liked, but the very brutal and honest interviews more than make for that and really bring home the reality of that war. All the more suprising coming from then still communist Russia.

[LongLeftFlank]

NO TRUE GLORY, by Bing West, an ex-Vietnam Marine and embedded journalist who was with the Marines in Fallujah 2004 (and I wouldn't be surprised if he popped a few rounds downrange himself). A great combination of strategy and grunts-eye-view, this is one of the best military history books on Iraq, although it tails off after 2004 and could definitely use a sequel.

JOKER ONE, by Donovan Campbell, memoir of a young Princeton grad (now a Harvard B-school exec at Pepsico) who became a 2/4 Marine platoon commander in Ramadi (2004). Well-written, spiritual and sincere, although he leaves unsaid a lot of interesting details like how his platoon was nicknamed "the praying platoon" by its peers and how he clearly viewed his CO as a self-promoter (a successful one though -- the latter won a Silver Star and that trophy Ross Perot gives out for the actions Campbell also fought in, and is now the battalion commander).

STREET FIGHT IN IRAQ, by Gunny Patrick Tracy, 2/5 Marines. Not that I'd ever say it to the guy's face, but I find all his bitching about the Army and the other companies in his battalion a bit whiny considering his company (Fox) pulled the comparatively quiet west end of Ramadi and got to operate out of the relatively plush Hurricane Point battalion base instead of the extremely austere (no running water) Snake Pit or Combat Outpost, but he provides a lot of good detail on mission tactics and "sleds".

SHERIFF OF RAMADI, a more traditional history, focuses mainly on sniper operations in Ramadi but then segues to the "Anbar Awakening" of 2006 where the Dulaym sheikhs finally turned on Al Qaeda, weary of their fanaticism, and aligned their militias with the government.

[Michael Emrys]

I haven't read much on Afghanistan or IOF. Most of my reading in this area is focussed on ODS. But one book I did read was Rick Atkinson's In the Company of Soldiers. He was embedded with the 101st. Airmobile and stuck pretty close to Headquarters, so read this as from an journalist rather than a historian. He does have some interesting tidbits and criticisms though, so it might be worth your time.

Michael

[jameshr4]

Attack State Red by Richard Kemp is a great book about 1 Royal Anglian in Helmand in 2007. Also Operation Snakebite by Stephen Grey about the retaking of Musa Quala in 2007 and 3 Commando Brigade by Ewen Southby-Tailyour about the brigade in 2006/2007.

Dusty Warroirs by Richard Holmes in about 1PWRR in Iraq in 2004.

[cabal23]

My personal favorite right now is Eight Lives Down by Maj. Chris Hunter. A more accurate portrayal of a real British IED team.

[tyrspawn]

Steven Zaloga - T-72 vs m1 Abrams