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recommended books
Post Second-World War
 Arabian Days - The Memoirs of Two Trucial Oman Scouts, Antony Cawston and Michael Curtis. Two memoirs that look at life in the Trucial Oman Scouts (a precursor of the army of the UAE) in two periods during the 1960s. The authors came to the unit in very different ways, but both clearly enjoyed their time there, and they paint a very sympathetic picture of life in the Emirates at the very start of the oil boom. [read full review] |
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 Stay the Distance - The Life and Times of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham, Peter Jacobs. A biography of one of the RAF's most important post-war leaders, tracing his career from his wartime tour with Bomber Command to his post as Chief of the Air Staff during the Falklands War. [read full review]
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 In a Bosnia Trench, A Wartime Memoir of a Muslim Bosnian Soldier, Elvir Kulin with Maury Hirschkorn. A impressively un-judgemental account of the Bosnia War as seen by a young Bosnian Muslim from the Sarajevo area, of value both for its account of the fighting, and of the rapid descent into civil war in the former Yugoslavia. [read full review]
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On the Deck or in the Drink, Flying with the Royal Navy 1952-1964, Lieutenant Brian R. Allen RN. The autobiography of a pilot in the post-war Fleet Air Arm, recounting his experiences flying a wide range of aircraft from old wartime Avengers to the Fairey Gannet and some alarming early helicopters [read full review]
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Back Bearing: A Navigator's Tale, 1942 to 1974, Group Captain Eric Cropper. A useful account of a period of rapid navigation in the science of navigation, seen from the point of view of an RAF Officer who served as a navigator with Bomber Command during the Second World War then remained in the RAF for thirty years, becoming a senior figure in navigation training [read full review]
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Save the Last Bullet for Yourself: A Soldier of Fortune in the Balkans and Somalia, Rob Krott. A compelling and convincing tale of life as a soldier of fortune in the Balkans and Somalia written by a former US Army officer, Harvard post-graduate student, looking at the first two years of his career as a successful soldier of fortune. [read full review]
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Fighting for the French Foreign Legion: Memoirs of a Scottish Legionnaire, Alex Lochrie. A valuable account of life in the Legion during the period when it became an official part of the French armed forces, covering the selection process, training, and the Legion's involvement in peacekeeping in Africa and Bosnia as well as Operation Desert Storm. [read full review]
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Second World War
 Surgeon at Arms: Parachuting into Arnhem with the First Airborne, Lipmann Kessel. The memoirs of a surgeon who parachuted into Arnhem, operated in a hospital that was soon occupied by the Germans, and who then escaped from captivity and spent weeks with the Dutch underground making a series of attempts to cross the front line. [read full review] |
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 The Secret Army: The Memoirs of General Bor-Komorowski, Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski. The memoirs of the commander of the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. An invaluable source for this heroic but tragic attempt to liberate Warsaw from the Nazis as the Soviet armies approached from the east and for the earlier efforts of the Polish Resistance. [read full review] |
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 Letters from my Son: A Texas Boy's Journey to the RAF, Dolcie Suggs Ehlinger & Karen Guelfo Ehlinger. Biography of Early Willson Jr, an American volunteer in the RAF, told through his letters to his parents stretching over a fifteen year period, and ending just before his tragic death in a flying accident in Wales in 1941. [read full review]
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 Armoured Guardsmen: A War Diary, June 1944-April 1945, Robert Boscawen. The diary of a tank commander and squadron commander, written during the campaign in north-western Europe in 1944-1945, with later comments also provided by the same author. A compelling read that mixes moments of great humour with accounts of some very fierce combat, and the casualties that went with it. [read full review]
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 The Alexander Memoirs, 1940-1945, Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis. The memoir's of Britain's most experienced commander of the Second World War, a man who led troops at Dunkirk, in North Africa, Burma, Sicily and Italy. 'Alex' is almost too modest, focusing much more on his subordinate's achievements than on his own, but his memoirs are still an invaluable source for some of the most important campaigns of the war. [read full review] |
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Panzer Destroyer - Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander, Vasiliy Krysov. The memoirs of a Soviet tank and self-propelled gun commander who fought at Stalingrad, Kursk and during the long Soviet offensives that followed, ending the war in East Prussia, and who was lucky to survive for so long, losing his crew and his commanding officer, and being wounded four times. Provides a memorable picture of life in the Red Army during some of the titanic battles on the Eastern Front. [read full review]
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 'A Very Fine Commander': The Memoirs of General Sir Horatius Murray, ed. John Donovan. Interesting autobiography of a lesser known British general of the Second World War, tracing his career as he moved from staff posts at home to combat in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Italy and Austria and his post-war career that saw him serve in Palestine and Korea and rise to high rank within NATO. [read full review]
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 One Pilot's War - The Battle of Britain and Beyond, W.A. Wilkinson. The very readable autobiography of a pre-war RAF volunteer, tracing his progress from the workshops at Cranwell to the cockpit of a Hurricane during the battle of France and the battle of Britain, long patrols over the Irish Sea and finally a career as an instructor. [read full review] |
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Guns against the Reich - Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front, Petr Mikhin. The autobiography of a Soviet artillery officer who fought in front of Moscow, at Stalingrad and Kursk, and on the long advance into central Europe. This is an excellent account of life on the front line on the Eastern Front, and a valuable contribution to our understanding of life in the Red Army. [read full review]
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Devotion to a Calling: Far-east flying and survival with 62 Squadron, RAF, Group Captain Harley Boxall and Joe Bamford. A mix of autobiography and biography tracing the career of Group Captain Harley Boxall from his pre-war training, to the Far East in 1939, through the chaotic events of the Japanese invasion of Malaya and on to his later career in the RAF [read full review]
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Prisoner of the Gestapo: A Memoir of Survival and Captivity in Wartime Poland, Tom Firth. A tale of survival in wartime Poland in which the author saw in the early Russian occupation of eastern Poland, occupied Warsaw, the inside of a Gestapo prison, the front line in 1944 and the paranoid workings of the Soviet state at the end of the war. An enthralling tale of the best and worst of humanity [read full review]
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Escape from Arnhem: A Glider Pilot's Story, Godfrey Freeman. The story of two escapes - the first from German captivity, the second from enemy-held territory, both with the help of the Dutch resistances. Freeman also produces some interesting views on the nature of bravery - as is so often the case he underplays his own actions and saw the most bravery in the Dutch civilians who helped so many men to escape from Arnhem. [read full review]
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Night Fighter Navigator: Beaufighters and Mosquitoes in World War II, Dennis Gosling DFC. The autobiography of a radar operator who took part in some of the most important spells of night-fighting during the Second World War, including the early days of radar interception and the desperate defence of Malta. [read full review]
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Periscope View, George Simpson. Autobiography written by the commander of the 10th Submarine Flotilla from 1941-43, focusing on his time in command of a unit that sank or damaged over one millions tons of Axis shipping in the Mediterranean but at a very heavy cost, losing half of its submarines [read full review]
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Sea Flight: The Wartime Memoirs of a Fleet Air Arm Pilot, Hugh Popham. First published in 1954 this was the first memoir produced by a fighter pilot from the Fleet Air Arm, and captures the feel of the times while the nine year delay means that Popham had time to put his experiences into a wider context, both personally and within the framework of the war. [read full review]
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I was Hitler's Chauffeur, Erich Kempka. One of a series of memoirs written by Hitler's domestic staff, this account focuses on the last days of the Third Reich, and the descent into chaos and delusion in the Berlin bunker, ending with Kempka's role in the disposal of Hitler's corpse. Despite some flaws this is an invaluable eyewitness account from the heart of power in the Third Reich, and as such is of great value. [read full review]
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Alone I Fly - A Wellington Pilot's Desert War, Bill Bailey. Wider ranging than the title would suggest, Bailey served as a Wellington pilot in North Africa and from Malta, an airfield controller on Malta and as an instructor in the UK, all after surviving a fairly disastrous first mission in the desert. An engaging and wide ranging autobiography that gives an unusual view of the RAF at war. [read full review]
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 Love and Sand, Howard M. Layton. The autobiography of a RAF Navigator who took part in the campaign in East Africa and the evacuation from Greece, flew on the Trans-Africa ferry route and fought in the El Alamein campaign. Layton weaves his military experiences into the wider story of his life, taking us from pre-war Coventry, through North Africa, and on to his post-war life in America [see more] |
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First World War
 My Seventy-Five, The Journal of a French Gunner August-September 1914, Paul Lintier. The diary of a talented young French author covering the first two months of the First World War, covering mobilisation, the advance to the French frontier and the long retreat, the counter-attack on the Marne and the eventual stalemate on the Aisne. A fascinating view of one of the most important campaigns of the First World War. [read full review] |
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 Through all the Changing Scenes of Life, ed Susan Harrison. The memories of William Edward Jones, a career Navy man who joined up in 1899 and served during the First World War. An interesting account of life in a navy that still had some old 'three deckers' (mainly as training ships) operating alongside turbine driven destroyers and the great dreadnoughts. [read full review] |
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 The Distant Drum - A Memoir of a Guardsman in the Great War, F. E. Noakes. A rare example both of an autobiography written by a private soldier serving in the Guards during the First World War, and of an autobiography that covers the events of 1917 and 1918, including the German offensives in the spring and the final victorious Allied campaigns. [read full review]
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Some Desperate Glory - The Diary of a Young Officer, 1917, Edwin Campion Vaughan. This diary covers the experiences of a young and very inexperienced infantry officer (as he admits himself) from his arrival in France in January 1917 to his participation in the Third Battle of Ypres in August. Casts an unusual light on the relationship between junior officers and the men under their command [read full review]
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Napoleonic and French Revolutionary Wars
A Waterloo Hero: The Reminiscences of Friedrich Lindau, ed. James Bogle and Andrew Uffindell. A rare example of a memoir written by a private soldier in Wellington's army, in this case a skirmisher in the King's German Legion who fought in the last few years of the Peninsular War and at Waterloo, where he was involved in the fighting at La Haye Sainte. A valuable insight into the daily life and preoccupations of one of Wellington's men. [read full review] |
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