Favourite Military Novel?

[StefanM]

The Polish Officer by Alan Furst is an excellent spy novel set in WWII.

Publishers blurb:

September, 1939. The invading Germans blaze a trail of destruction across Poland. France and Britain declare war, but do nothing to help. And a Polish resistance movement takes shape under the shadow of occupation, enlisting those willing to risk death in the struggle for their nation's survival. Among them is Captain Alexander de Milja, an officer in the Polish military intelligence service, a cartographer who now must learn a dangerous new role: spymaster in the anti-Nazi underground.

Beginning with a daring operation to smuggle the Polish National Gold Reserve to the government in exile, he slips into the shadowy and treacherous front lines of espionage; he moves through Europe, changing identities and staying one step ahead of capture. In Warsaw, he engineers a subversive campaign to strengthen the people's will to resist. In Paris, he poses as a Russian poet, then as a Slovakian coal merchant, drinking champagne in black-market bistros with Nazis while uncovering information about German battle plans. And a love affair with a woman of the French Resistance leads him to make the greatest decision of his life.....

[DrPMC]

Thank you for your welcome, pleased to be here!

On the fiction, I would recommend Pat Barker's 'Ghost Road' trilogy, although I can't remember much about it now, apart from it being about the Great War, and Wilfred Owen and co. However, I do recall that I read all three books back-to-back, so they must have been gripping.

[Kiwipete]

Hands down forbme is Stalingrad and Berlin the downfall by Anthoney beevour.
Read both books 3 times.

[canti44]

Hello Pete,

love them both too but without wishing to appear pedantic they are not novels!

Cheers,

Ian.

[drmessimer]

My favorite German language war novel is Einen Bessern Findst Du Nicht, Stuttgarter Hausbücherei, 1959, which is about an eight-man infantry squad on the Eastern Front. The author is annonmous, probably a ploy to make the book seem more fact than fiction. The book is very personal, extremely accurate with regard to the action and events, but also explores the interactions between ranks. It also has excellent sub plots within the main story that actually add to the realism.

My favorite English language war novel is Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, which Ted Turned based his movie, Gettysburg on. The author did an excellent job of sticking to the facts and using only real characters to tell one view of why Lee lost at Gettysburg, which in a nutshell was his refusal to take Big Round Top and flank the Union line. As novels go, this one is so close to fact, with realistic human inter-relations, that I would have used it as a text in my History 15A-B section had it been available at the time. Dwight

[KriegMann]

I am a fan of Remarque's All Quiet on the Westeen Front and the second book that follows the soldiers home.

[Adrian]

Guy Walters has written some good wartime books.

I've read three:

The Traitor - about an English officer captured and made to be a founder member of the Britische Friekorps in exchange for his wife's well being who is interned in a camp I won't spoil it but the officer uses his position to sabotage the German war effort. A bloody good read.

The Occupation - set on Alderney the story is set in modern day but also has a secondary story running set during the war. It's not as confusing as it sounds as both stories are related.

The Colditz Legacy - set behind the Iron Curtain, again, set during the 70s if memory serves me correctly about a patient in Colditz which has been turned into a 'facility' and another story relating to an escape attempt during the war which ties up with the 'modern' setting.

[octavian]

Perhaps some of you members may enjoy our Book Pass Along Thread?

https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/discu...ussion-256569/

[Thanatos]

Three obscure titles that are good reading,
"We were the Rats" by Lawson Glassop 1944 Based upon the Tobruk battles
"Beyond the Chindwin" by Bernard Fergusson 1945 Based on number 5 column during the first Chindit expedition into Burma 1943
And "the Last Bastion" by Kristin Williamson 1984 Based upon Australian politics during the dark days of 1942
Cheers all
Dave

[Jerry B]

I enjoyed this, written during the war and with a propaganda slant, but a good read.

Eagle and Tartan, Translated from Polish by R. Pearce. with a Preface by Compton Mackenzie. Glasgow Ksiaznica Polska; 1st Edition (1944)