World War Two Military Fiction....

[Martin Mayers]

Want to try out a few fictional, yet realistically told, novels in the mould of Bernard Cornwell for example but set in World War Two.
Can people recommend someone I might enjoy?
Leo Kessler ??

 

[King Scott]

G. F. Borden wrote two books that I enjoyed...Easter Day, 1941 about a group of Britts in the desert trying to get back to friendly lines in a captured Italian M13 tank...also Seven Six One about the 761st Tank Battalion...of the two, I liked Easter Day, 1941 better.

S-Day by James Stewart Thayer is a pretty decent book about Operation Sea Lion.

Semper Fi!
Scott

 

[Hutch]

If you like Naval WWII fiction:

The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester of Hornblower Fame.

 

[kempenfelter]

I enjoyed War of the Rats by David L Robbins. The movie "Enemy at the Gates" was very loosely based on this novel.

 

[Vinnie]

Nicholas Monseratt's The Cruel Sea is a must read. For army fiction that is "true to life" you are fairly limited. I enjoyed Colin Forbes ATramp in Armour and Alastair MacLeans Guns of Navarone but neither of these really are realistic.
There have been a few recent "Commando" books on the supermarkets but having read the Odin Mission I cannot in all honesty say they are any better than Leo Kessler with a British hat on.

 

[GrumpyWargamer]

The best WW2 military fiction I have ever read was by WEB Griffon The Brotherhood of War series.

 

[Brian W]

If you haven't read it yet, Battle Cry by Leon Uris is a good one. The best WW2 novel I've read is The Thin Red Line by James Jones. However, nothing at all like the Sharpe series (which I was not much of a fan of).

For an interesting read that is part melodrama, part history lesson, Herman Wouk's Winds of War/War and Remembrance touch on about every aspect of the war, except CBI (well, a little on Imphal). It's well written, generally believable, fiction, but very little actual combat. The history is pretty good, too. Of course, his Caine Mutiny is a classic, but, once again, not really what you are looking for probably.

 

[Honza]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is a classic. Apparently it is an autobiography, but it reads like a novel. It was the first war book I ever read and I never forgot it...pun not intended.

 

[Martin Mayers]

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is a classic. Apparently it is an autobiography, but it reads like a novel. It was the first war book I ever read and I never forgot it...pun not intended.

Thought I'd read a few years ago that this book was outed as a 'fake'
I have read it and did enjoy it

 

[Martin Mayers]

If you haven't read it yet, Battle Cry by Leon Uris is a good one. The best WW2 novel I've read is The Thin Red Line by James Jones. However, nothing at all like the Sharpe series (which I was not much of a fan of).

For an interesting read that is part melodrama, part history lesson, Herman Wouk's Winds of War/War and Remembrance touch on about every aspect of the war, except CBI (well, a little on Imphal). It's well written, generally believable, fiction, but very little actual combat. The history is pretty good, too. Of course, his Caine Mutiny is a classic, but, once again, not really what you are looking for probably.

Yes, Thin Read Line is superb.
I enjoyed the Sharpe books but thought the ACW ones (Starbuck Chronicles I think they were called) were better.

 

[Honza]

Thought I'd read a few years ago that this book was outed as a 'fake'
I have read it and did enjoy it

Yeah, I heard that too. So if it is not a real autobiography then it is just a superb novel. I heard the director Paul Verhoven (who did Robocop and Starship Troopers) was going to do a film version. But I don't know if that is true.

 

[RobZagnut]

The best WW2 military fiction I have ever read was by WEB Griffon The Brotherhood of War series.

I enjoyed these as well. I read the Army and Marine series and they were both excellent.

Two of my favorites were The Guns of Navarone and Force 10 From Navarone by Alistair MacLean.

 

[wrongway149]

I enjoyed War of the Rats by David L Robbins. The movie "Enemy at the Gates" was very loosely based on this novel.

His Kursk Novel is titled 'Last Citadel'. Pretty good, had just one character too many IMO.

 

[wrongway149]

I've enjoyed Jeff Shaara's WWII trilogy (Although I haven't read the last one yet.)

 

[footsteps]

Warriors for the Working Day is, IIRC, about a Sherman crew fighting through Italy and France.

I don't recall if it was any good, as I read it as a teenager when I was lapping up any WW2 fiction/history I could get my hands on.

Not fiction, but I also liked And No Birds Sang by Farley Mowat, and there's another book by the commander of a Crocodile on his experiences with that beast from it's introduction to the end of the war -- but the name escapes me. :upset:

 

[wrongway149]

The Beardless Warriors by Richard Matheson was a good 'coming of age' tale, and semi-autobiographical.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780312878313-2

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

The best WW2 military fiction I have ever read was by WEB Griffon The Corps series.

fixed yer post...:salute:

 

[aiabx]

At one end of the scale, I have Life and Fate, a huge, fat, depressing banned-in-the-Soviet-Union novel about Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman, a wartime reporter for Red Star. If you like Russian literature, this one's for you. Alan Furst has written a series of very good espionage novels set in occupied Europe. This are a good deal more readable, but on the whole, not so military. The best ones I know are probably Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, and if they reflect Waugh's own military experience, you can see why he thinks so little of the glories of war.

 

[Kevin Kenneally]

I enjoyed War of the Rats by David L Robbins. The movie "Enemy at the Gates" was very loosely based on this novel.

Mr Robbins also wrote "The Last Citadel".

 

[Ray Woloszyn]

Seems we all read the same books. I ditto all the choices noted. For the unusual and for our German ASL friends I would like to point out two well known German authors, Hans Helmut Kirst and Heinz Konsalik. Both authors were well received for their WWII fiction at a time in Germany when not too many people wanted to talk about the war. They have made a number of good movies based on their novels. At the same time these Germans were writing, Soviet writer, poet and war correspondent Konstantin Simonov wrote what is my favorite WWII novel, "The Living and the Dead". There is no better description of the awful defeats the Soviet Army suffered in the summer of 1941 than in this novel.