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Military Books

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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭iceage


    Just finished The Circuit by Bob Shephard, a really interesting insight into the world of PMCs from various conflict zones around the world. This is a no sh*t or shine version of what goes on, from the top tier companys that have developed a huge industry and made millions, to pulling no punches with corner cutting CSCs that put their people in harms way. He also dedicated the book to Vince Phillips, a nice gesture that.



    Recently picked up a deal at Easons 7 troop and Apache (Ed Macy) 20.00 yoyo new found respect for these Apache pilots, the stuff they can do with their eyes!!! :) back laters with a mini review.


  • Registered Users Posts: 169 ✭✭roashter


    Read this a while back and still the best book I've ever read.
    Sajer was a 16 year old French lad when he joined the wehrmacht, and spent over 2 years fighting in Russia.
    An absolute must read.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19,986 ✭✭✭✭mikemac


    The Battle by Allesandro Barbero
    Great book on the battle of Waterloo

    And I know it's fiction but I enjoyed the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. You might have seen some of these on TV with Sean Bean.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 16,793 ✭✭✭✭Hagar


    Stricken by insomnia last night I read a book by Chris Ryan thinking I would nod off in five minutes. Instead I found myself swept along from page to page. The enthralling plot, the character development, the technical accuracy, I just couldn't put it down. I would heartily recommend "Black Gold" to anyone... who hasn't outgrown the Famous Five.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 423 ✭✭triskell


    Terrill gives a great insight into a marines recruit's basic training and insight's into the marines in general, good book enjoyed it,it has the feel of being written by a civvie


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 423 ✭✭triskell


    This guy really dose number on Blackwater, from their creation right up to iraq, some of it is hard to wade through, politics and connections up to Bush and his cronies, I was suprised to see Irish rangers being one of there preferred recruiting groups (catholic) Its along read but worthwhile


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭twinytwo


    Have read both First into action by Duncan Falconer and Inside Delta Force by Eric L. Haney

    Both are good... First into action is good... the bit at the back is a bit misleading. Thought is was good though.

    Inside Delta Force was ok... i think he sort of plays himself up a bit in the book also describes himself as one of the founding members of the unit which he is not... other than that its not bad


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 9,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tenger


    triskell wrote: »
    This guy really dose number on Blackwater, ................. Its along read but worthwhile
    Very definitely agree here. Great book to bring up in chats about PMCs in Iraq and elswhere!
    Have also seen Blackwater mentioned in 2 other books as dodgy operators. Can't remember properly but do Blackwater have any operatives in Georgis...I think it was mentioned that they were there........watching the media over the Russo-Georgian conflict it mentioned 'US advisors' and I thought of those Blackwater guys.

    Spotted on Future Weapons last week that the BlackWater Training facility is used by the programme on several occasions.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 18,109 Mod ✭✭✭✭CatFromHue


    has anyone ever read "the quiet soldier" by adam ballinger?

    i picked it up in a local second hand bookshop about a year ago, i think it was written early 90's. Its about a guy with no military background going through selection for 21 SAS, the reserve squadron of the british SAS.

    Its just about the selection, nothing about afterwards. I found it very interesting and un-putdownable. i think i read it in a couple of days, then just started it again!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    Sounds interesting.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 63 ✭✭deiseff


    A must read is Tom Barry Gurellia Days in Ireland. This is like my bible. If ever feeling pissed off just read a few chapters of this!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,559 ✭✭✭LD 50


    Making a Killing was one of the first non-fiction military novels I read. Its a Very good book, plain and simple down to earth.
    Commando is very good too. Never saw the TV series that went with it. Its hard to believe he got his Green Beret at that age.
    Sniper One was great too.
    A quick mention for Jarhead. Its one of my favourite books.
    Anyone read Bravo Two Zero?


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 9,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tenger


    LD 50 wrote: »
    Making a Killing was one of the first non-fiction military novels I read. Its a Very good book, plain and simple down to earth.
    Commando is very good too. Never saw the TV series that went with it. Its hard to believe he got his Green Beret at that age.
    Sniper One was great too.
    A quick mention for Jarhead. Its one of my favourite books.
    Anyone read Bravo Two Zero?

    Haven't read Commando. Loved Sniper One,try Dusty Warriors,its more of a historical book but puts Sniper One in context of what was happend around them.

    'Mud,Blood and Poppycock' by Gordon Corrigan is a great read. Exposing the myths of WWI.

    Bravo Two Zero was good but after reading other books I then realised it was a bit dodgy. Also read "The Real Bravo Two Zero" by Micheal Asher. Its a criticism of the original story by a guy who is ex-military and traces the path of the patrol. Am still not sure what the official British Army version ismdonb't think they ever made any comment.

    Andy McNaband Chris Ryan are making a killing out of it thou! :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,559 ✭✭✭LD 50


    I have "The Real Bravo Two Zero" somewhere round here. started reading it and then lost interest. He's ex-SAS. Reading through it was like hearing that Santa isn't real, in that a great military legend is being torn to shreds.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,823 ✭✭✭EvilMonkey


    Soldier Five by Mike Coburn is decent account of the Bravo Two Zero mission


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 18,056 ✭✭✭✭BostonB


    Poccington wrote: »
    Having read Lone Survivor, I personally don't feel it was in any way "flag waving, god fearing massive ego stuff" at all. All it showed(In my opinion) was that Marcus Luttrell has a love for his country and firmly believes in God.

    Very good book though, the firefight as they're coming back down the mountain is unbelievable. ....

    Just finished Lone Survivor. Ok, theres a awful lot of the strong faith, all American mantra, hoohray crud, which is hard to take tbh. But I guess you don't get into something like the SEALs unless you are a pretty driven and intense person. So I can accept that. However I think if you put that to one side, accept it for it is, the rest of the book is a decent read. The Seal training part is good and the firefight is also excellent, as is the immediate aftermath.
    kinda agree that theres some odd decisions made. They knew it was bad ground tactically and still went ahead. Not tying up the shepherds, and even when they knew the mission was blown, they waited to long to put out a rescue call, before even a shot was fired.
    . But its a worthwhile read, if short. Got to respect the training, commitment and the bravery.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    I have just started "Apache Dawn" by Damien Lewis. It is about british army apache pilots in Afghanistan. It is looking good so far. Lewis is an author who was given a lot of access to the army air corp so a lot is second or third hand, but comes over as well researched.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,559 ✭✭✭LD 50


    I have just started "Apache Dawn" by Damien Lewis. It is about british army apache pilots in Afghanistan. It is looking good so far. Lewis is an author who was given a lot of access to the army air corp so a lot is second or third hand, but comes over as well researched.
    If you liked that, give "Apache" by Ed Macy a read. Very good book. Explains a lot of the Apaches systems, weapons, training for it. And most of it is 1st hand. the bits that he wasn't there for himself, he actually got the people who were there to write and fill in the gaps. Has detailed plans of the Apache, and maps of the A.O, which IMO a lot of these non fiction military books would improve greatly from.


  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 9,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tenger


    I have just started "Apache Dawn" by Damien Lewis.

    Currently on my shelf. Will wait for your appraisal. If the Ed Macy one is good will get that too. Didn't want to pick up both. In Waterstones in London the day after Ed Macy was signing books. A staffer there told me he was quite small and nondescript but he looked like a spy/SF trooper. Came in and out by staff exit,was very friendly but keep alert to the entire room. Didn't seem to lose concentration for the time he was there.

    Currently reading "One Bullet Away:The Making of a Marine Officer" by Nathaniel Fick. He is the Lt. from "Generation Kill". Halfway through it and its an easy read. The guy writes well and doesn't get bogged down in technical data or macho posturing. More like a personal diary than a historical account of his experience. He seems to have a grounded attitude to it all. (Angry but not overly aggressive over 9/11. Proud to be an American but not a chest beating flag wearer. Focused on Iraq but confused by lack of direction from above. Prepared to obey chain of command but will question bad orders)Nice to see a different view on what was reported in "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright.

    Another reccomendation of mine would be "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. I read it about 2-3 years ago. Spotted a guy reading it the other day. Got chatting,he has it on his International relations Degree course. Now thats a course I would like to do,shame it won't help my career thought!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    Bramble wrote: »
    Currently on my shelf. Will wait for your appraisal. If the Ed Macy one is good will get that too. Didn't want to pick up both. In Waterstones in London the day after Ed Macy was signing books. A staffer there told me he was quite small and nondescript but he looked like a spy/SF trooper. Came in and out by staff exit,was very friendly but keep alert to the entire room. Didn't seem to lose concentration for the time he was there.

    In Apache dawn the auther relates apache pilots to Special Forces. They try and keep out of the public eye for more or less the same reasons.

    He also says that Apache pilots aren't what you would expect. The image is of a tall muscle boune top gun type pilot, but in reality those guys would never fit in the cockpit:D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 323 ✭✭armchairninja


    +1 on Apache, a great read, very interesting and informative.

    The reason he was very alert the whole time was probably due to the fact that he would have p!ssed a serious amount of taliban off with his escapades in Afghanistan, which you'll discover when you read the book.

    Great admiration for the pilots though, serious skill and ability required to pilot one them machines!


  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 2,432 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peteee


    Not a book but a series of online articles called 'The War Nerd' the archive can be found here and the current stuff can be found here.

    Its a column written by a guy called Gary Brecher. his writing style is quite unique, and he has a interesting viewpoint on a lot of matters related to warfare. Even if you disagree with his analysis, it will always be thought provoking and often laugh out loud funny.

    An excerpt from a column about the IRA a few years ago
    It took the Provos a while to realize that bombings and shootings in Ulster didn't accomplish anything. Finally, after years of blasting their own neighborhoods, the Micks started to understand that the British government didn't care what happened up there. Northern Ireland is a hellhole -- one big welfare slum. The English hate the Northern Irish Protestants almost as much as the Catholics, and wouldn't mind if Ulster was wiped out by a meteor.

    Eventually the PIRA realized that there was only one target the Brits really cared about: London. London IS England. Almost a third of the country's population lives in Greater London. Hit London and you cripple the whole UK. Imagine if New York had a population of 100 million and our next biggest city was some place like Milwaukee. That's how important London is to Britain.

    Even after they focused on London, it took the IRA 20 years to perfect a way of attacking London without drawing too much bad publicity. Because that's what the IRA's war was about: publicity, "hearts 'n minds," not real military advantage. In their first London campaigns, they used Khadafy's semtex to attack military targets. Some of the results were pretty funny, like when they killed seven cavalry horses bombing a military parade in Hyde Park in 1982.

    It was a successful attack, with eight soldiers killed -- but killing those horses drove the British papers into a frenzy. The Limeys are more horse-crazy than a sexually frustrated 14-year-old girl. They were ready to hang anybody with red hair or freckles after the pictures of dying horses hit the front page. You can slaughter all the people you want, but touch a pony and those English ladies will pull your spleen out and squeeze it to pulp right before your eyes.

    So the PIRA went back to the drawing board, with a note-2-self: "No more dead animals, lads." They tried to think what would hurt the rich folks and had a flash: shopping! On Dec. 17, 1983, an IRA bomb blew up Harrod's Department Store (if you've seen Ali G's interview with the Arab who owns it, you might know it better as "'Arrod's.")

    Five shoppers got splatted and the tabloids went wild. I mean, napalm is one thing, but messing with the retail season -- talk about war crimes!

    The PIRA was slowly starting to understand that the more casualties they inflicted the worse things went. The British media just splattered the pictures of bloody civilians all over the papers and TV, and the PIRA was in bigger trouble than ever. They stuck to the idea of paralyzing London, but they started trying to think of ways to do it without hurting anyone.

    Q: How can you blow up London without casualties?

    A: Phone in lots of warnings, hours before the bombs are due to go off.

    That's what the PIRA started doing in the late 1980s. To cause maximum property damage, they started using trucks packed with fertilizer-based explosives and also equipped with booby traps, so any attempt to defuse the bomb would set it off and vaporize the bomb experts working on it. In the late 1980s you could always tell an IRA man: he was the customer who ordered ten tons of fertilizer even though he lived in a London highrise.

    The PIRA's new London cadre was English-raised, so they didn't have that giveaway Belfast accent. They were classic urban guerrilla material: disciplined, young guys who held day jobs and didn't talk.

    Their first success with this kind of bomb came on April 10, 1992. A PIRA man drove a truck packed with more than a ton of fertilizer bomb mix to the London financial district, parked it and walked away. No worries about parking tickets, and any towtruck driver who messed with it would be real, real sorry.

    Then PIRA operatives started calling in warnings about the bomb, starting hours before it was set to go off. They even called radio and TV stations because they were afraid if they only called Scotland Yard's Special Branch, the spooks there might not pass on the warning, since any casualties hurt the PIRA and helped the Brits.


  • Registered Users Posts: 782 ✭✭✭riflehunter77


    HOGs In the Shadows by Milo S. Afong
    Combat stories from Marine Snipers in Iraq.


    Just start reading this and I cant put it down it is a collection of short stories from snipers. It gives you a personal look inside the mentally and physically demanding world of the marine sniper in combat almost to the point where you can feel the recoil yourself. Picked mine up at amazon.co.uk but the link below gives a good descripition of it.


    http://www.historybookclub.com/ecom/pages/nm/product/productDetail.jsp?skuId=1028024330


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,798 ✭✭✭Local-womanizer


    I have a few:

    Chickenhawk by Robert Mason:My favourite book,the author gives a first hand account of the Vietnam War as viewed from the cockpit of a Huey.Fantastic read.

    The Lebanon Diaries by Martin Malone:"A unique warts and all insight into Irish military life,at home and abroad".An account of five tours of the Leb drawn from personal diaries and letters,"A must read for any person interested in the Irish Defence Forces."

    Jarhead by Anthony Swofford:Much better read than the movie,very dark at times,as you would expect.

    An Ordinary Solider by Doug Beattie:Accounts from a British Captian in the Royal Irish during his recruit training,his tour in Northern Ireland,Bosnia,Iraq and the most serious Garmsir in Afghanistan.Great read again,very first hand accounts of the battles.

    18 Hours: The True Story of an SAS War Hero by Sandra Lee:Its about a Australian SAS signal man during Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan.Turns into a brutal battle.He ends up winning a medal.Great read.

    Edit:Added another to the list.


  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 2,432 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peteee


    Chickenhawk by Robert Mason:My favourite book,the author gives a first hand account of the Vietnam War as viewed from the cockpit of a Huey.Fantastic read.

    I would highly reccomend this. Fantastic read.

    Dispatches by Michael Herr is another great read. Probably one of the all time great books about war, it follows a war correspondant for an american magazine embedded with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam war.

    Some of the best writing I've ever seen, both poetic and harrowing in parts, its a absolute must.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,001 ✭✭✭ Brenna Beautiful Cricket


    triskell wrote: »
    I just finished reading Sniper One, by sgt Dan Mills a british solider in Iraq, great read, very much told from a solider's point of view who wanted to be in combat, totally recommended it for the holidays.

    Ye I read this. ****ing brilliant.

    It's probably been mentioned already but Hidden soldier by Padraig O'keef is brilliant aswell. Got it yesterday and am more then halfway through, nearly finished it in fact it's that good.

    If your interested in the middle east The Great War for Civilisation is pretty good.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 21,635 Mod ✭✭✭✭helimachoptor


    Bramble wrote: »
    Currently reading "One Bullet Away:The Making of a Marine Officer" by Nathaniel Fick. He is the Lt. from "Generation Kill". Halfway through it and its an easy read. The guy writes well and doesn't get bogged down in technical data or macho posturing. More like a personal diary than a historical account of his experience. He seems to have a grounded attitude to it all. (Angry but not overly aggressive over 9/11. Proud to be an American but not a chest beating flag wearer. Focused on Iraq but confused by lack of direction from above. Prepared to obey chain of command but will question bad orders)Nice to see a different view on what was reported in "Generation Kill" by Evan Wright.
    Yes a really fantastic book I have to say Bramble.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 26,567 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    I have just started "Apache Dawn" by Damien Lewis. It is about british army apache pilots in Afghanistan. It is looking good so far. Lewis is an author who was given a lot of access to the army air corp so a lot is second or third hand, but comes over as well researched.

    Finally finished it. A very good read inded and gives a lot of info about not only the apache itself, but also the Afghan conflict.

    The author was approached by the crews themselves to write their story so whilst it may be written by a non military person, the accounts are all straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

    definately worth a read.

    Flachette darts...Jesus:eek:


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,255 ✭✭✭getz


    i dont normally read many war books-but a few years ago i picked up one called popskies private army -it was a true story based in north africa during ww11 this man was the start of the long range desert group-my father often told me about them as he was in the desert rats, and when i first started work in 1957 one of my bosses was a sargent with them-one of the stories he often he told, was one day he and two others were sent to blow up a german arms dump-with the info that he was to bring back his own guns as we were short of them-when he arrived the germans were waiting for them ,he was the only one not taken prisoner-he took two days to walk back to the allied lines-and was absolutely sure it was his own army who had tipped off the germans to spread false information


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  • Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 9,695 Mod ✭✭✭✭Tenger


    The author was approached by the crews themselves to write their story so whilst it may be written by a non military person, the accounts are all straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
    Have read Operation Certain Death by Damien Lewis and thought it was a goood read. Have this on my shelf. Just finished "The Circuit" by Bob Shepherd, easy and enjoyable to read, subjective accounts but very good,actually argues against the merits of his commercial security industry,recommendation from this thread. Just started "One million bullets", about the British in Afghanistan. Then its Apache Dawn.


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