Recommended reading? British campaigns/actions 50s - 80s

Hi Chaps

Decided to brush up on my military history, i would like peoples suggestions of histories/textbooks detailing the following campaigns/actions

Suez, Oman, Aden, Malaya, Korea, Kenya, Cyprus

plus any others i cant think of at the moment. The only one i dont need is Falklands, as i already have suitable material for that.

cheers Fellas

 

James Lunt "Imperial Sunset" excellent book

 

A trip to Ian Allen books will probably do it

 

I just read 'Without Glory in Arabia' which was an eye-opener to the Aden withdrawal.

 

Journeys Hazardous: Gurkha Clandestine Operations - Borneo, 1965 is excellent.

Confrontation, the War with Indonesia 1962-1966 is more comprehensive.

Aden Insurgency: The Savage War in South Arabia 1962-67: The Savage War in South Arabia 1962-67 is a very good read.

Savage Wars of Peace: Soldiers' Voices, 1945-89 and The Imperial War Museum Book of Modern Warfare. British and Commonwealth Forces at War 1945-2000 provide good chapters on a variety of post WW2 campaigns.

 

The Savage Wars of Peace (as posted by RP578 above) is an excellent introduction to the subject, with individual chapters dealing with Malaya to Northern Ireland and most things in between. A Brief History of Modern Warfare by Colonel Richard Connaughton is quite a good follow-up in dealing with campaigns such as Gulf War 1, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan.

 

Brush Fire Wars: Campaigns of the British Army since 1945 by Michael Dewar.

 

For Korea - which was NOT a brush fire, it was the bloodiest war fought by UK forces since WWII - see:

Farrar-Hockley "The Edge of the Sword:" Personal account of Imjin River and resistance in the POW camps

Large: "Soldier Against the Odds:" Personal account by SAS vet, but the best chapter in the book is his account of the annihilation of his company at Imjin

Hastings "The Korean War:" Good, Anglo-centric overall history

Hickey: "Korea: The West Confronts Communism" As above

Hayhurst: "Green Berets in Korea:" 41 Commando's forgotten (in Britain) raids into North Korea and its action with the US Marines in the epic Chosin Reservoir campaign.

For the only full account of Imjin....I respectfully point you at my sig (or at the Amazon link here):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845134087/?tag=armrumser-21

 

Hunting terrorists in the jungle ; John Chynowyth - A memoir of a National Serviceman in Malaya, as a platoon commander from 1953 to 1954, and the history and background to the emergency.

 

I agree this is an excellent overview of what we were upto in various places now mostly forgotten. It is used by a certain government official as his unofficial aide memoire.

 

You may find 'Last Post: Aden 1964-67, by Julian Paget of some interest.

Big subject you have chosen, good luck.

 

thanks for all the suggestions chaps,

yes, big subject, but once ive a better overview i can norrow down to specific parts of interest. For now, the overview is whats needed

cheers

 

@Andy_S, just ordered your book

Another book on Korea worth a read: Now Thrive The Armourers by Robert O Holles. A story of action with the Gloucesters in Korea Nov 1950 - Apr 1951

 

Rangestew:

Good man. Feel free to post bouquets or brickbats on this forum.

I thought that "Now thrive..." was accurate, as war novels go, but a rather ho-hum account, given the extraordinary drama of 29th Brigade's situation. But it is the only British fiction I can think of about the Korean War, bar Penelope Lively's "Battle of the Imjin River," (in her short story collection "Making It Up"). I thought that was pretty good, although one of the Northumberland Fusilier veterans told me that he had written to her to correct some inaccuracies.

EDITED TO ADD:

There is also a very vivid account of the RUR Battle Patrol's ride into destruction on the first night of Imjin in PJ Kavanagh's "The Perfect Stranger." Though the book is presented as semi-fictional, it is strongly autobiographical.

 

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/main/index1.html