CanadianFFL
Super Active Member
List of books compiled from sources of recommended reading from various defense forces across the the world. If you wish to gain historical perspective on warfare, knowledge on human factors in combat and decision making and leadership then pick any of the books below. I've read quite a few of these myself and highly recommend them.
If you have other recommendations, please comment below.
Books:
Barber: The War of the Running Dogs: The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1962
Campbell: The Old Man's Trail
Card: Ender's Game
Chapin: Uncommon Men: Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps
Crane: The Red Badge of Courage
Davis Marine: The Life of Lt Gen & USMC (Ret) Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller
Hammel: Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968
Leckie: The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West
Marshall: Soldier's Load and the Mobility of a Nation
McCormick: The Right Kind of War
Schell Battle: Leadership
Swinton: The Defense of Duffer's Drift
Thomason: Fix Bayonets!
Uris: Battle Cry
West: The Village
Amrose: Band of Brothers: E Co. 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
Ambrose: Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944
Asprey: War in the Shadows: The Guerilla in History
Collins: Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders
English & Gudmundsson: On Infantry
Fuller: Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship
Giap: How We Won the War
Hagan: American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy, 1877-1889
Holmes: Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle
Hynes: Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator
Keegan: The Face of Battle
Laquer & Alexander: Terroism Reader
Liddell Hart: Strategy
Lind: Maneuver Warfare Handbook
Manning: The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre
Moore & Galloway: We Were Soldiers Once and Young: La Drang, The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam
Moskin: The U.S. Marine Corps Story
Moskos: The Military: More Than Just a Job
Nolan: Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight for the DMZ
Nye: Challenge of Command: A Reading for Military Excellence
Rommel: Attacks
Ross: Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor
Sajer: The Forgotten Soldier: The Classic World War II Autobiography
Scales: Firepower in Limited War
Shaara: The Killer Angels
Sherrod: Tarawa: The Story of a Battle
Sulzberg: The Fall of Eagles
Sun Tzu: Art of War
Willock: Unaccoustomed to Fear: A Biography of the Late General Roy S. Gieger
Ardant Du Picq: Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battles
Chaliand: Guerrilla Strategies: A Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan
Doughty: The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940
Fall: Street Without Joy
Hackett: Profession of Arms
Hastings: Battle for the Falklands
Heinl: Victory at High Tide: The Inchon-Seoul Campaign
Higgenbotham: The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice
Hoffman: Once a Legend:"Red Mike" Edson of the Marine Raiders
Hooker: Maneuver Warfare: An Anthology
Horne : The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
Isley & Crowl: The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War: Its Theory, and its Practice in the Pacific
Keegan: The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare
Lupfer: The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War
MacArthur: Reminiscences
McDonald: Company Commander
Mao Tse-Tung: Mao Tse-Tung on Guerilla Warfare
McDonough: Defense of Hill 781
McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Mellenthin: Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Decond World War
Meyer: Company Command: The Bottom Line
Moorehead: Galipoli
Moran: The Anatomy of Courage
Navmc 2890: Small Wars Manual
Newman: Follow Me: Human Element in Leadership
O'Ballance: No Victor, No Vanquished: Yom Kippur War
Puller: Fortunate Son
Sears: Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
Sledge: With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa
Smith Douglas Southall Freeman on Leadership
Summers: On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War
Turley: The Easter Offensive, Vietnam, 1972
Van Creveld : Airpower and Maneuver Warfare
Baynes: Morale: A Study of Men and Courage
Catton: Grant Takes Command
Clausewitz:On War
D'este: Patton: A Genius for War
Fall: Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
Fehrenbach: This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness
Frank: Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account
Fraser: Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
Griffith: Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to Vietnam
Guevara: Che Guevara on Guerilla Warfare
Hammel: Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War
Paret:Makers of Modern Steategy: From Maciavelli to the Nuclear Age
Prange: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
Robertson: Dieppe: The Shame and the Glory
Schwarzkopf: It Doesn't Take a Hero
Slim: Defeat into Victory
Spector: Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan
Van Crevald: Command in war
Baer: One Hundred Years of Seapower: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990
Bennett: Ultra in the West: The Normandy Campaign, 1944-45
Buell: The Quiet warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
Gordon & Trainor: The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf
James: The Year of MacArthur
Krepinevich: The Army and Vietnam
Murray: The Making of Strategy
Newman: Follow Me II: More on the Human Element in Leadership
Pagonis: Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics from the Gulf War
Travers: How the War Was Won
Vaux: Take That Hill: Royal Marines in the Falklands War
White: The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805
Woodward: 100 Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander
Ambrose: The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Brennan: Foundations of Moral Obligation: The Stockdale Course
Chandler: The Campaigns of Napoleon
Cohen: Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War
Cray: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman
Doughty: Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939
Flicke: War Secrets in the Ether: The use of Signals Intelligence by the German Military in WW2
Forester: The General
Friedman: From Beirut to Jerusalem
Horne: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962
Horne: To Lose a Battle:, France 1940
Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
Millett & Murray: Military Innovation in the Interwar Period
Murray: Luftwaffe
O'Neill : A Democracy at war: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in WW2
Palmer: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam
Potter: Nimitz
Ridgeway: Korean War
Ryan: A Bridge to Far
Simpkin: Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty First Century Warfare
Smythe: Pershing, General of the Armies
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Travers: The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front, and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918
Van Tien Dung: Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam
Weigley: Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-45
Bartlett: Lejeune: A Marine's Life, 1867-1942
Fuller: Generalship, Its Diseases and Their Cure: A Study of the Personal Factor in Command
Halberstam: The Best and the Brightest
Kagan: On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace
Kennedy: Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000
Kissinger: Diplomacy
McNamara: In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
Newman: What Are Generals Made of?
Royster: Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
Sheehan: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Timberg: The Nightingale's Song
Twining: No Bended Knee
Smith: Angels from the Sea: Relief Operations in Bangladesh (Peace Operations)
Drew: NATO: From Berin to Bosnia (Peace Operations)
McKenzie: Peacekeeper (Peace Operations)
Fialka: Hotel Warriors (Military and the Media)
If you have other recommendations, please comment below.
Books:
Barber: The War of the Running Dogs: The Malayan Emergency, 1948-1962
Campbell: The Old Man's Trail
Card: Ender's Game
Chapin: Uncommon Men: Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps
Crane: The Red Badge of Courage
Davis Marine: The Life of Lt Gen & USMC (Ret) Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller
Hammel: Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968
Leckie: The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West
Marshall: Soldier's Load and the Mobility of a Nation
McCormick: The Right Kind of War
Schell Battle: Leadership
Swinton: The Defense of Duffer's Drift
Thomason: Fix Bayonets!
Uris: Battle Cry
West: The Village
Amrose: Band of Brothers: E Co. 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne: From Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
Ambrose: Pegasus Bridge: June 6, 1944
Asprey: War in the Shadows: The Guerilla in History
Collins: Common Sense Training: A Working Philosophy for Leaders
English & Gudmundsson: On Infantry
Fuller: Grant and Lee: A Study in Personality and Generalship
Giap: How We Won the War
Hagan: American Gunboat Diplomacy and the Old Navy, 1877-1889
Holmes: Acts of War: The Behavior of Men in Battle
Hynes: Flights of Passage: Reflections of a World War II Aviator
Keegan: The Face of Battle
Laquer & Alexander: Terroism Reader
Liddell Hart: Strategy
Lind: Maneuver Warfare Handbook
Manning: The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre
Moore & Galloway: We Were Soldiers Once and Young: La Drang, The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam
Moskin: The U.S. Marine Corps Story
Moskos: The Military: More Than Just a Job
Nolan: Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight for the DMZ
Nye: Challenge of Command: A Reading for Military Excellence
Rommel: Attacks
Ross: Iwo Jima: Legacy of Valor
Sajer: The Forgotten Soldier: The Classic World War II Autobiography
Scales: Firepower in Limited War
Shaara: The Killer Angels
Sherrod: Tarawa: The Story of a Battle
Sulzberg: The Fall of Eagles
Sun Tzu: Art of War
Willock: Unaccoustomed to Fear: A Biography of the Late General Roy S. Gieger
Ardant Du Picq: Battle Studies: Ancient and Modern Battles
Chaliand: Guerrilla Strategies: A Historical Anthology from the Long March to Afghanistan
Doughty: The Breaking Point: Sedan and the Fall of France, 1940
Fall: Street Without Joy
Hackett: Profession of Arms
Hastings: Battle for the Falklands
Heinl: Victory at High Tide: The Inchon-Seoul Campaign
Higgenbotham: The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice
Hoffman: Once a Legend:"Red Mike" Edson of the Marine Raiders
Hooker: Maneuver Warfare: An Anthology
Horne : The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916
Isley & Crowl: The U.S. Marines and Amphibious War: Its Theory, and its Practice in the Pacific
Keegan: The Price of Admiralty: The Evolution of Naval Warfare
Lupfer: The Dynamics of Doctrine: The Changes in German Tactical Doctrine During the First World War
MacArthur: Reminiscences
McDonald: Company Commander
Mao Tse-Tung: Mao Tse-Tung on Guerilla Warfare
McDonough: Defense of Hill 781
McPherson: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
Mellenthin: Panzer Battles: A Study of the Employment of Armor in the Decond World War
Meyer: Company Command: The Bottom Line
Moorehead: Galipoli
Moran: The Anatomy of Courage
Navmc 2890: Small Wars Manual
Newman: Follow Me: Human Element in Leadership
O'Ballance: No Victor, No Vanquished: Yom Kippur War
Puller: Fortunate Son
Sears: Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam
Sledge: With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa
Smith Douglas Southall Freeman on Leadership
Summers: On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War
Turley: The Easter Offensive, Vietnam, 1972
Van Creveld : Airpower and Maneuver Warfare
Baynes: Morale: A Study of Men and Courage
Catton: Grant Takes Command
Clausewitz:On War
D'este: Patton: A Genius for War
Fall: Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
Fehrenbach: This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness
Frank: Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account
Fraser: Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel
Griffith: Forward into Battle: Fighting Tactics from Waterloo to Vietnam
Guevara: Che Guevara on Guerilla Warfare
Hammel: Chosin: Heroic Ordeal of the Korean War
Paret:Makers of Modern Steategy: From Maciavelli to the Nuclear Age
Prange: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor
Robertson: Dieppe: The Shame and the Glory
Schwarzkopf: It Doesn't Take a Hero
Slim: Defeat into Victory
Spector: Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan
Van Crevald: Command in war
Baer: One Hundred Years of Seapower: The U.S. Navy, 1890-1990
Bennett: Ultra in the West: The Normandy Campaign, 1944-45
Buell: The Quiet warrior: A Biography of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance
Gordon & Trainor: The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf
James: The Year of MacArthur
Krepinevich: The Army and Vietnam
Murray: The Making of Strategy
Newman: Follow Me II: More on the Human Element in Leadership
Pagonis: Moving Mountains: Lessons in Leadership and Logistics from the Gulf War
Travers: How the War Was Won
Vaux: Take That Hill: Royal Marines in the Falklands War
White: The Enlightened Soldier: Scharnhorst and the Militarische Gesellschaft in Berlin, 1801-1805
Woodward: 100 Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander
Ambrose: The Supreme Commander: The War Years of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Brennan: Foundations of Moral Obligation: The Stockdale Course
Chandler: The Campaigns of Napoleon
Cohen: Military Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War
Cray: General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman
Doughty: Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919-1939
Flicke: War Secrets in the Ether: The use of Signals Intelligence by the German Military in WW2
Forester: The General
Friedman: From Beirut to Jerusalem
Horne: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962
Horne: To Lose a Battle:, France 1940
Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
Millett & Murray: Military Innovation in the Interwar Period
Murray: Luftwaffe
O'Neill : A Democracy at war: America's Fight at Home and Abroad in WW2
Palmer: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam
Potter: Nimitz
Ridgeway: Korean War
Ryan: A Bridge to Far
Simpkin: Race to the Swift: Thoughts on Twenty First Century Warfare
Smythe: Pershing, General of the Armies
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War
Travers: The Killing Ground: The British Army, the Western Front, and the Emergence of Modern Warfare, 1900-1918
Van Tien Dung: Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam
Weigley: Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-45
Bartlett: Lejeune: A Marine's Life, 1867-1942
Fuller: Generalship, Its Diseases and Their Cure: A Study of the Personal Factor in Command
Halberstam: The Best and the Brightest
Kagan: On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace
Kennedy: Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000
Kissinger: Diplomacy
McNamara: In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam
Newman: What Are Generals Made of?
Royster: Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
Sheehan: A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Timberg: The Nightingale's Song
Twining: No Bended Knee
Smith: Angels from the Sea: Relief Operations in Bangladesh (Peace Operations)
Drew: NATO: From Berin to Bosnia (Peace Operations)
McKenzie: Peacekeeper (Peace Operations)
Fialka: Hotel Warriors (Military and the Media)