Advice on WW 2 and WW1 Novels

[wodin]

Can anyone recommend a WW 2 East Front novel. It has to be East front realistic and a damn good read.

I own The Red Horse, Forgotten Soldier, Siege, Life and Fate and Scar of Honor.

Also any WW1 novels aswell. I own a fair few but there maybe some gems I've overlooked.

[JudgeDredd]

Stalingrad by Athony Beevor

[wodin]

Read it...I'm after novels though not non fiction

[NefariousKoel]

I just got A World Undone, The Story of the Great War by GJ Meyer, recently. Just started first chapter last night before I zonked out.

I wanted a newer book that covered the whole of WWI and this one came out in 2006 so I thought I'd give it a go. I'm liking the writing style from the first few pages thus far.

[cillmhor]

'The Middle Parts of Fortune' by Frederic Manning is one of my favourite novels. Set in WW1, first published in 1929 and written by a veteran of the Somme. Not an all actioner by any means, but a great portrait of some of the men who fought on the Western Front. Seen as a classic, but certainly not everybody's cup of tea. 

[Fred98]

[font="compatilfact lt regular"]I read an entertaining novel some years ago – unfortunately I forget the name. I lent it to a mate and never got it back![/font]
[font="compatilfact lt regular"] [/font]
[font="compatilfact lt regular"]About a unit of British regular soldiers who went off to WW1.[/font]
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[font="compatilfact lt regular"]The book centres on a few characters.[/font]
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[font="compatilfact lt regular"]One of them transfers to the armoured core and would become a motor mechanic after the war.[/font]
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[font="compatilfact lt regular"]It was a good read.[/font]
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[font="compatilfact lt regular"]-[/font]
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[wodin]

I've read Middle parts of fortune...read all the classic WW 1 novels....Under Fire is one of my favourites out of the novels written by veterans.

Again I'm looking for NOVELS not non fiction.

[7th Somersets]

An Ice Cream War - William Boyd - set in East Africa during WW1

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: 7th Somersets

An Ice Cream War - William Boyd - set in East Africa during WW1

Excuse me - but the Ice Cream Wars were in Glasgow in the late 80s!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Ice_Cream_Wars

[:D]

[mmccot]

Can you find some of the GOLD MEDAL novels from Fawcett ? There was a guy named Sven Hassel wrote Comrades of War & Wheels of Terror. A devastating chronicle of the inhuman violence that was WWII for a Nazi Trooper. Came out in 1963.

[E]

[ Edited out due to my inability to read. *egg-on-face-grin* ]

[wodin]

They are, Non fiction aren't...read my sentence


Have seen the Sven Hassel and the Leo Kessler books...will get around to buying them...

[E]

ORIGINAL: wodin

They are, Non fiction aren't...read my sentence


Have seen the Sven Hassel and the Leo Kessler books...will get around to buying them...

Oh, that's right! Confuse the issue with actual WORDS! *sheepish-someone-wake-me-up-grin*

[wodin]

no worries...[;)]

[sprior]

Does it have to be Eastern Front.

[wodin]

Preferably East Front....though I'm open to anything that you feel is a must read...

[sprior]

HMS Ulysses by one A MacLean is about a ship on the Arctic convoy route.

The Cruel Sea, Montserrat

Just about anything by Douglas Reeman

Bomber or Goodbye Mickey Mouse or Declerations of War (a collection of short stories) Len Deighton. SS-GB about german-occupied Britain is good too.

If you want another hypothetical try Fatherland by Robert Harris, set in the 1960s after germany wins WWII

[JudgeDredd]

I used to like Alistair MacLean stuff...I've gone off fiction over the last 10 years because there are so many good historical books.

What about the one about the german soldier who made it through the Russian campaign to get back to his family life - he wasn't proper German if I recall...can't remember the name of the book...something like The Soldier??

It's called The Forgotten Soldier...and sorry - it's an autobiography...not fiction.

DOUBLE EDIT
Turns out the authenticity of the story is questionable and apparently the author has acknowledged it's a novel...so maybe it does pass your checklist?

AND ANOTHER EDIT
Turns out there is ALOT of controversy over this book and it's authenticity - an article here discusses the issue

I read this book quite some time ago and completely forgot about the furore surrounding it

[sprior]

I read Where Eagles Dare tucked inside To Kill a Mockingbird in English Lit.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

I used to like Alistair MacLean stuff...I've gone off fiction over the last 10 years because there are so many good historical books.

What about the one about the german soldier who made it through the Russian campaign to get back to his family life - he wasn't proper German if I recall...can't remember the name of the book...something like The Soldier??

It's called The Forgotten Soldier...and sorry - it's an autobiography...not fiction.

DOUBLE EDIT
Turns out the authenticity of the story is questionable and apparently the author has acknowledged it's a novel...so maybe it does pass your checklist?

AND ANOTHER EDIT
Turns out there is ALOT of controversy over this book and it's authenticity - an article here discusses the issue

I read this book quite some time ago and completely forgot about the furore surrounding it

The Forgotten Soldier was a fake????? I never knew that! [X(] And here I am, being amazed at what he went through. [:@]

I'm not supposed to laugh because it was brutal but the Ice Cream Wars in the 80's link made me laugh! [:D]