*Neath Verdun: The Experiences of a French Soldier During the Early Months of the First World War* by Maurice Genevoix.
*Storm of Steel* by Ernst Jünger.
*The Outlaws* by Ernst von Salomon.
WWII Memoirs by theater.
Eastern Front:
*The Forgotten Soldier* by Guy Sajer (considered a classic).
*The Forsaken Army: The Great Novel of Stalingrad* by Heinrich Gerlach.
*The Blond Knight of Germany* by Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable.
*The Beginning of the Road: The Story of the Battle for Stalingrad* by Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov.
*Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel* by Anatoly Kuznetsov (fictionalized memoir).
Europe:
*The Cretan Runner: The Story of the German Occupation* by Giórgos Psychountákis.
*Thunderbolt!: An Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace* by Robert S. Johnson.
*Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of World War II* by Charles B. MacDonald.
*Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs* *of Major Dick Winters* by Dick Winters.
*Three Corvettes* by Nicholas Monsarrat LtCdr, FRSL RNVR.
*Night* by Elie Wiesel (fictionalized memoir).
Burma:
*The Battle for Burma: The Wild Green Earth* by BG Bernard Fergusson KT, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, OBE, 16th Infantry Brigade (Chindit).
*Beyond the Chindwin: An Account of Number Five Column of the Wingate Expedition into Burma, 1943* by BG Bernard Fergusson KT, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, OBE, 16th Infantry Brigade (Chindit).
*A Change in Jungles* by BG Miles Smeeton, DSO, MBE, MC, British Indian Army.
*A Chindit’s Chronicle* by MAJ Bill Towill, 3rd Bn., 9th Gurka Rifles.
The Pacific:
*Ray Parkin’s Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke; Into the Smother; The Sword and the Blossom* by Ray Parkin, Chief Petty Officer, Royal Australian Navy.
*With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge.
*From Ingleburn to Aitape: The Trials and Tribulations of a Four Figure Man* by Bob “Hooker” Holt, 2/3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division, 2nd A.I.F.
*Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot’s Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons* by Yasuo Kuwahara and Gordon T. Allred.
*God Is My Co-Pilot* by Robert L. Scott and C. L. Chennault.
*Samurai!: the Unforgettable Saga of Japan’s Greatest Fighter Pilot* by Saburo Sakai and Martin Caidin.
*The Divine Wind* by Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima.
*Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito and Roger Pineau.
*Requiem for Battleship Yamato* by Yoshida Mitsuru.
*No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War* by Hiroo Onoda.
*Return of the Enola Gay* by Paul W. Tibbets.
*The Prisoner and the Bomb* by Laurens van der Post, CPT, British Intelligence Corps.
*Bataan Death March: A Soldier’s Story* by James Bollich.
*Bataan Death March: A Survivor’s Account* by William E. Dyess.
*Helmet for My Pillow* by Robert Leckie.
*Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War* by William Manchester.
*The Night of a Thousand Suicides: the Japanese Outbreak at Cowra* by Teruhiko Asada and Ray Cowan (trans. and ed.) (fictionalized memoir).
*Three Came Home* by Agnes Newton Keith.
vrimj on
Newspaper Days, 1899-1906
Book by H. L. Mencken
All of his are great but this is one of my favorites
Also Ambrose Byrce is very readable but kind of dark
5 Comments
E. B. White’s Letters.
WWI Memoirs:
*Neath Verdun: The Experiences of a French Soldier During the Early Months of the First World War* by Maurice Genevoix.
*Storm of Steel* by Ernst Jünger.
*The Outlaws* by Ernst von Salomon.
WWII Memoirs by theater.
Eastern Front:
*The Forgotten Soldier* by Guy Sajer (considered a classic).
*The Forsaken Army: The Great Novel of Stalingrad* by Heinrich Gerlach.
*The Blond Knight of Germany* by Raymond F. Toliver and Trevor J. Constable.
*The Beginning of the Road: The Story of the Battle for Stalingrad* by Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov.
*Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel* by Anatoly Kuznetsov (fictionalized memoir).
Europe:
*The Cretan Runner: The Story of the German Occupation* by Giórgos Psychountákis.
*Thunderbolt!: An Extraordinary Story of a World War II Ace* by Robert S. Johnson.
*Company Commander: The Classic Infantry Memoir of World War II* by Charles B. MacDonald.
*Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs* *of Major Dick Winters* by Dick Winters.
*Three Corvettes* by Nicholas Monsarrat LtCdr, FRSL RNVR.
*Night* by Elie Wiesel (fictionalized memoir).
Burma:
*The Battle for Burma: The Wild Green Earth* by BG Bernard Fergusson KT, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, OBE, 16th Infantry Brigade (Chindit).
*Beyond the Chindwin: An Account of Number Five Column of the Wingate Expedition into Burma, 1943* by BG Bernard Fergusson KT, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, OBE, 16th Infantry Brigade (Chindit).
*A Change in Jungles* by BG Miles Smeeton, DSO, MBE, MC, British Indian Army.
*A Chindit’s Chronicle* by MAJ Bill Towill, 3rd Bn., 9th Gurka Rifles.
The Pacific:
*Ray Parkin’s Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke; Into the Smother; The Sword and the Blossom* by Ray Parkin, Chief Petty Officer, Royal Australian Navy.
*With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa* by E.B. Sledge.
*From Ingleburn to Aitape: The Trials and Tribulations of a Four Figure Man* by Bob “Hooker” Holt, 2/3rd Australian Infantry Battalion, 16th Brigade, 6th Division, 2nd A.I.F.
*Kamikaze: A Japanese Pilot’s Own Spectacular Story of the Famous Suicide Squadrons* by Yasuo Kuwahara and Gordon T. Allred.
*God Is My Co-Pilot* by Robert L. Scott and C. L. Chennault.
*Samurai!: the Unforgettable Saga of Japan’s Greatest Fighter Pilot* by Saburo Sakai and Martin Caidin.
*The Divine Wind* by Rikihei Inoguchi and Tadashi Nakajima.
*Japanese Destroyer Captain* by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito and Roger Pineau.
*Requiem for Battleship Yamato* by Yoshida Mitsuru.
*No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War* by Hiroo Onoda.
*Return of the Enola Gay* by Paul W. Tibbets.
*The Prisoner and the Bomb* by Laurens van der Post, CPT, British Intelligence Corps.
*Bataan Death March: A Soldier’s Story* by James Bollich.
*Bataan Death March: A Survivor’s Account* by William E. Dyess.
*Helmet for My Pillow* by Robert Leckie.
*Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War* by William Manchester.
*The Night of a Thousand Suicides: the Japanese Outbreak at Cowra* by Teruhiko Asada and Ray Cowan (trans. and ed.) (fictionalized memoir).
*Three Came Home* by Agnes Newton Keith.
Newspaper Days, 1899-1906
Book by H. L. Mencken
All of his are great but this is one of my favorites
Also Ambrose Byrce is very readable but kind of dark
[The Diary of Anne Frank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl)
[The World of Yesterday](https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-yesterday-stefan-zweig/7306188?ean=9780803226616) by Stefan Zweig
Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain