Article about: I always enjoy stumbling on good books that I haven't read or noticed before. Please share the book or books that you are currently reading . I'm sorry if a thread of this sort has already b
I just finished reading Stuka Pilot, by Hans Ulrich Rudel, and Brothers in Battle: Best of Friends by "Babe" Heffron and "Wild Bill" Guarnere. Both books were fascinating and very well written.
At first, I was worried that Stuka Pilot would be filled with nazism and other such ilk, but I was pleasantly relieved that he kept it down to a sort of minimum. (I have never read a book written by our former enemies before, so I didn't know what to expect) Though I found it somewhat confusing when he kept jumping from town name to town name, the book was very good, and I've got to admire the guy for his courage. The amount of dedication and courage that he showed whether he was running from the soviets across the frozen tundra in his underwear (yeah, that happened), to him making several sorties a day hoping to get just one more tank, to the point to where he even disobeyed direct orders from hitler and Goering to stay grounded when he was wounded, he kept persevering to the end.
Brothers in Battle was a very good read, and one that had me tearing up at the end. Bill and Babe both wrote about their experiences in a no nonsense way, proud to be a part of the 101st Airborne, and wrote it skillfully enough so that when you learned about men they were close to dying, you felt really sad too, especially if you were like me, and were unfamiliar with the Band of Brother story. From training in Georgia, to fighting wildly in Normandy at anything that resembled a kraut, to freezing in Bastogne, to the final victory, and after the war, you became attached to both of the men, and I personally was sad to see the book end. I wanted more!
So now that I've read both book, here's what's next on my reading list. Unfortunately, I have none of these books in my collection yet.
Blood Red Snow: Memoirs of a German soldier on the Eastern Front – Gunter K. Koschorrek
A Higher Call - Adam Makos
At Leningrads Gates: The Story of a soldier with Army Group North – William Lubbek
The Dead and Those about to Die D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach - John C. McManus
Road to Huertgen: Forest in Hell - Paul Roesch
Hang Tough: The WWII Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters. - Erik Dorr
Spearhead - Adam Makos
The D-Day Visitors Handbook: Your guide to the Normandy Battlefields and WWII Paris
Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger Knights Cross - Sepp Alllerberger
Memoirs of a Kamikaze: A WWII pilots inspiring story of survival, honor and reconciliation - Kazuo Odachi
The Man who flew the Memphis Belle: Memoir of a WWII Bomber Pilot - Robert Morgan
Panzer Ace: Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer commander from Barborossa to Normandy - Richard Freiherr von Rosen
Tigers in the Mud: The combat career of German Panzer Commanders of Otto Carius - Otto Carius
Until the eyes shut: memories of a machine gunner on the eastern front – Andreas Hartinger
My life in the Irish Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of Pvt. William McCarter, 116th Pensylvania Infantry - William McCarter
A Rebels Recollections - George Cary Eggelston
Any other WWII or American Civil War memoirs y'all would like to add?
I have a few of those on my "to-read" shelf too: A Higher Call, The Dead and Those About to Die, and Spearhead.
I really enjoyed Audie Murphy's memoir, To Hell and Back. Then, I know I mentioned it recently, but E.B. Sledge's memoir, With The Old Breed, has been great. If you want a little humor and a slightly different view of WWII from the USO, Bob Hope's I Never Left Home is good.
I'm reading: A Fine Brother, The life of Captain Flora Sandes. by Louise Miller.
If you think the name sounds a bit feminine you would be right, she was an amazing lady.
True story that takes you from Gentile Victorian Vicarage, to the horrors of the WW1 fighting in Serbia, through to arrest and incarceration in a Gestapo prison !
and much more ...............
well worth a read, if you think the lads were tough wait till you meet this lady.
Good choices....Ernst Junger book is quite a story. He was very active post ww1 in "conservative" circles and when he met Hitler they exchanged signed copies of each others book !
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