How about "Shake Hands With The Devil" by Lt Gen Dallaire (Canadian) about Rwanda?

"My War Gone By, I Miss It So" by Anthony Loyd (ha, what a ridiculous was to spell "Lloyd" )

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...e=UTF8&s=books

This book is fantastic. it's written by an ex-army officer (green jackets, if i recall correctly?) who gets out and ends up being a heroin addict. he picks up a camera and decides to travel to bosnia to try being a freelance war photographer.

if you served in bosnia during the war, you will find it fascinating. if you didn't, it's still damn good. and with the current conflicts going on, his experience in grozny (chechnya) are quite chilling.

an extremely well written book by someone you've probably never heard of!

oh, there are some other good ones but they've all been mentioned already (as has this one once). chickenhawk, we were soldiers once (and young), pegasus bridge, dispatches... and i haven't seen anyone mention yet "Dusty Warriors" about the squidgies in iraq. very good read.

Anyone who enjoyed the aforementioned 'My War Gone By...' would be well advised to have a look at Aiden Hartley's 'The Zanzibar Chest'.

Another war zone junkie (with a predilection for pills and booze rather than heroin) Hartley's tale, on one level, is another account of self-destruction amidst destruction, inner hell amidst outer hell etc. This time the Balkans are an interlude in a decade largely spent covering some of Africa's darkest hours including the Rwandan genocide.

The evocations of battlefield carnage, massacre and journalistic hard-living are extremely powerful. So far, so Loyd. Both also share personal famly issues centred around absent but dominating fathers.

Where Hartley adds something else though is in weaving an older story of the love between his father's best friend and a Muslim girl in Yemen, an affair with a tragic end, into his 90s narrative.

Better reviews to be had on Amazon I'm sure but a read you won't forget and one that leaves you with a real sense of human capacity for evil but also for hope.

The Dallaire account of Rwanda I found surprisingly cold and documentary in places. Definately him setting the account straight in details at times but no one can deny his personal engagement in what went on, shown during but especially after events. I am lucky enough to have a copy of his booksigned by the man during his visit to Canadian peacekeepers in Haiti and given to me by a Canuck mate.

Just the same as someone said on page 1 or 2, Devils Guard. I also lent it to my mate. I did so while he was in the 'Hereford Gun Club' and I never got it back. He lent it to one of the other Blades! Must still be doin' the rounds, 5 years later!

Can't find it anywhere online either to re-buy it. "Bugger"!!!!

Originally Posted by Thermal_Warrior

Just the same as someone said on page 1 or 2, Devils Guard. I also lent it to my mate. I did so while he was in the 'Hereford Gun Club' and I never got it back. He lent it to one of the other Blades! Must still be doin' the rounds, 5 years later!

Can't find it anywhere online either to re-buy it. "Bugger"!!!!

Somewhere on this thread there is a link where you can download it as a PDF file.

Here: http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/.../start=90.html

Yeah, I tried that. Got a message back, saying that the file was... "either deleted or been downloaded too many times"!!!!!!

Other books I forgot to list......

'Black Hawk Down' (the original text, not the film version).

'Don't cry for me sgt-mjr'. (Funniest war book ever. Written by two journo's who were embedded during the '82 conflict)

Also.... I've been told many a time, that Chickenhawk is awesome.

Devil's Guard - George Robert Elford

you seen the price of this!!.............wants to be a stonker!

Devils Guard PDF I`ve uploaded it again to a different spot :D

The funniest war books I've read have to be the Spike Milligan war diaries.

But the best serious war memoir I've read is Philip Caputo's Rumour of war, an excellent book.

Originally Posted by The_Beating_Heart

The funniest war books I've read have to be the Spike Milligan war diaries.

But the best serious war memoir I've read is Philip Caputo's Rumour of war, an excellent book.

Agreed. A Rumour of War is stunning, I've read it several times. Another good memoir is William Manchester's Goodbye Darkness. Manchester was a US Marine sergeant on Okinawa.

Has anybody here read Keith Douglas's Alamein to Zem Zem? I've only read excerpts and his poetry, which is brilliant.