Thread 63989309

ITT we share our favorite weapons related books. I can heartily recommend Fire Force. It is an easy read and goes into detail on the Rhodesian use of paratroopers and air assualt to envelope rebels during the bush war.

I would like recommendations from anons on books to read to learn about modern naval combat. Surface fleet and/or ASW. I would also like suggestions on anything that touches on US ground air defense. This Typhon/Shorad/THAAD stuff is all new to me. Also stuff on the marines pivot to the pacific or whatever the fuck they are doing with those ASHM the sold their Abrams for. Basically I understand how the US military worked in like 1988 and am slowly coming to realize they don't be like that no more.

>>63989309 (OP)
haha, his last name is cocks

>>63989309 (OP)
forgot pic

Aside from writing several enjoyable military thrillers Tom Clancy also wrote several reference books on on the make up and operation of several units. Armored Cavalry Regiments, Marine Expeditionary Units, and the 82nd Airborne come to mind. It's all from a 90's perspective.

>>63989309 (OP)
Certified /k/ classic of a detailed account of the Frances mess at battle of Dien Bien Phun and

>>63989448
Is this good for real about chinks military or is pic related kind of book?

>>63990702
Amazing book.

>>63990702
Highly recommend this as a companion piece

Not /k/ related per se, but this is a good book about growing up in Rhodesia and the trials and tribulations that came after.

>>63990705
lmao

>>63990702
Added to my reading list. Absolute disasters seem to breed heroism.

>>63989309 (OP)
This book made me so angry and frustrated I felt emotionally compromised. I am glad it ultimately led to stronger intervention in the Balkans but I have no idea how much restraint it took Dallaire and the others to not go weapons free and escalate the situation to try and save the civilians.

>>63989444
I think I did a report on this book in seventh grade.

>>63989337
He mentions in the book how much he got clowned on by his seniors for that last name. He got it even worse since his buddy's last name was Condon.

Maybe more /sci/ than /k/ but breddu gud nonetheless.

One of the best books I’ve ever read

>>63989309 (OP)
Finished pic related a few weeks ago, the story of a prison camp raid by America's premier airborne division (the 11th) in the Pacific theater of WW2.
Just finished John C. McManus' "Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941-1943". Part one of a trilogy (started part two today). Comprehensive look at the Army's often downplayed role fighting the Japanese.

Obligatory mention

>>63994288
Most rocket propellants are downstream from WW2 German science (the best in the world) such as chlorine trifluoride, originally investigated as a self-igniting flammenwerfer fuel before being shelved indefinitely because holy shit it's hard to work with a chemical that can set stuff like asbestos and wet sand on fire

>>63992999
the movie just came out btw

>>63989309 (OP)
I always recommend "The Art of War in the Western World" by Archer Jones. It covers everything from Classical warfare to the end of the Cold War, and while it does talk weapons and tactics at times, its primary focus is on the operational level, and a recurring theme is the power of combined arms, logistics, good generals, and morale.

>>63995568
That sounds super interesting. How approachable is it? I tried reading "On War" once and couldn't get into it.

This book is close enough. The weakest parts are where the author gives you a quick history of insurance fraud at sea or something, where you can predict the next few pages. a few examples of old ships being sunk for cash. The core story though is very good though

Looking for a book that I don't need to put much effort into researching. I can just trust that the author has his bias under control and that it's as a whole deemed factual

>>63995568
I honestly think this concept is far too broad to be coherent and completely accurate. It can be helpful for beginners to grasp the scale of the evolution of Warfare, but it's still considered rudimentary.
>>63996985
On War isn't really about just War strategies; it's an analysis of what War is in modern-era of statecraft war and largely still applies today. Reading Clausewitz by Beatrice Heuser, is considered a good introduction not only to the text itself but also to its influence throughout history.

>>63994311
I still like Homage to Catalonia, but I consider it essentially a comedy, which is how I see most of Orwell's work

>>63990871
Allow me to share my unsolicited opinions. I'll rate the books I've read from the list and some additions below. These lists would benefit from being broken up by fiction and non fiction. Maybe nonfiction broken up by government, military, memoir, etc. Not sure. I'll give rate them as:

Required - you need to read this. Make time for it.
Not Required - good stuff but only if you are interested in the subject matter.
Not Recommended - horeshit

Or whatever else I come up with. Here's the non fiction list:

On Killing
A classic but his insistence that video games make you a killer by desenistizing you is pretty weak. The main thing is adding stress and realistic targets makes it more likely you'll pull the trigger when needed. Not required.

On War
Starts out a little slow I thought but the second half is great. Required reading.

Common Sense
Its short and worth a read for historical perspective. I've read that every literate person in pre revolutionary America had likely either read it or knew its contents from conversations. Not required.

Constitution
Short and you need to know it if you are interested in American history. As an American I think you should have a basic understanding of the founding document of our country. For people who want to see their government change this is the model. Required reading.

Guerrilla Warfare
It was fine but nothing you have to know. Not required.

War is a Racket
Explains the military industrial complex and who really profit from war. Very short, Jocko did a podcast where he just read the whole thing. Required.

48 Laws of Power
I thought it was garbage. Tried the audio book and was so pretentious I couldn't take it. I don't know /k can you convince me to try it agian. Just seemed like horeshit to me.
Not recommended.


War of the Flea
Interesting from a historical perspective but I don't that there's anything strategic/tactical to learn from it. Not required.

>>63997264
Survival Medicine Handbook
You need a physical copy. Hope you never need it. Required.

Left of Bang
Good book, helps you to devleop situational awareness. Required.

Strategy
I'm mid way through WW1 which is a little over half way through this book. I hate to say something is required when I haven't finished it yet but so far I've gotten a lot of out of it. Required.

Fry the Brain
The bible on urban sniping though I'm not sure I believe his conspiracy theories about JFK's assasination. But regardless, tons of good information. Required.

Call Sign Chaos
Great book. Reminds us how important it is to read so we don't have to learn things through trial and error. He says he looks for the agressive implementation of initative which I think about a lot. Think of something you need to do/want to do, attack it, push forward get it done, move on. Required.

History of the Peloponesian War
Damn its long but its good. If you want a little less reading about the revolt of corvus and the oligarch coup will show you nothing every changes. War is the same its always been, people are the same. The struggles today, why people change alliances, etc were all seen 2000+ years ago. Required.

A long way gone
Interesting child soldier story. I have a hard time believing some of it like a story of a child soldier killing an older soldier with a knife. Anyone recounting anything from their early life should be treated as unreliable narrator. Not required.

Looming Tower
I loved this book. Great history of Bin Laden and the lead up to 9/11, the intelligence failures, etc. I really want to make this required reading but i feel like 24 years later its ancient history. Not required.

Extreme Ownership
I like Jocko, its a good book. I think a leadership book like this should be required reading though I'd let you sub it out for something else. Required.

>>63994318
>America's premier airborne division
That would be the 17th, who racked up four Medals of Honor.

>>63997274
Long Range Shooting Handbook
Best long range book I've read. Nothing comes close. I wish he'd write some more stuff. Required.

Five Acres and Independence
Classic back to the land book. Warning some info is pretty dated and has you doing some unsafe practices. I remember tings about lead paint or using mercury for something. If you are interested in self sufficiency its required.

First Aid Manual
You need a physical copy. You don't need to read it cover to cover but you need to know what in there, what items you need in your first aid kit, you need to memorize CPR and choking instructions, rescue position, what to do for bleeding and to prevent shock. Required.

Missing Nonfiction

Contact
By Max Velocity. Best book on tactics I've read. Devoured that book, you need a physical copy. Required.

Tactical Wisdom Series
You need them. Very short chapters, very to the point. Summarizes the info you need and what you need to do to prepare. He is very motivated by Christianity so there's that. I can't recommend it enough. Required.

Professional Citizen Project
I've only read the first but it had good info mainly around navigation. The rest are on a shelf waiting. Required.

Citizen Soldiers
Great book about the history of blackwater from the founder erik prince. Really interesting stuff. I bet you didn't know that after hurricane katrina bill gates funded a blackwater rescue operations for one of his family members near there. Wild shit man. Not required.

The Warrior Ethos
I've seen this recommended so many times and its utter fucking garbage. Not recommended.

All Hell Breaking Loose
About what the military is doing to prepare for climate change. I think their focus on energy, water, and preparation for natural disasters should echo what preppers have been saying. Not required.

>>63997309
Lights Out
Ted Koppel's book is a great into to prepping for your non prepper friends. This has opened the eyes of a lot of people. Ted is a trusted reporter, there's no gun stuff in it, you need to read this and you need to buy a couple of copies to give to friends. Required.

This is how the world ends
Sandworm
I think both books are fine but you only need to read one. I think I liked sandworm a little more but you need to understand what's going on with cyber warfare. Required.

Mediations on Violence
The companion book training for sudden violence is on the k list but really it should be this book and implies the whole series. Required.

Small Unit Leadership
Best leadership book I've ever read.

Demon's in the Freezer
Hot Zone
You need to read at least one of these. Demons in the Freezer is my favorite but both are excellent. Demons in the Freezer deals more with militarized bioweapons, Hot Zone with naturally occurring biological disaster. Required.

Survival Theory
Absolute horseshit. Not recommended.

Survivalist Gardener series
A short series on self sufficiency for preppers covering greenhouse gardening, raising animals and permaculture. I've never seen it recommended by anyone but I thought there was a lot of good info in them. Not required.

When violence is the answer
Similar to meditations on violence. You probably only need to read one of them. I enjoyed both. Not required.

Twilight in the Desert
About the dwindling oil reserves. Hard to believe this book is 20 years old and we're still pumping oil like there's no tomorrow. He definitely was a fatalist on his views but I still found it very interesting. Not required.

>>63997309
Fiction

Most fiction is mindless garbage. Read whatever you want but I will give some book that I think are missing:

1984
The concept of doublethinkg and constantly changing history are as prevelant and relevent today as they were when the book was written. Required.

Hatchet
For many young boys this was the first survivalist type book they read. Classic. Required.

Old Man's War
Well written, sci fi military book. I've only read the first in the series but I felt like it was contained enough I don't really care about the rest. Not required.

Ender's Game
Criminal to have a /k book list without this.
Required

The spy who came in from the cold
Best spy novel ever written. Required.

Lucifer's Hammer
One of the best apocalyptic novels of all time. Larry Niven is a great author and while not everything aged well I think its a great read. Required.

Dies the First
You want an apocalypse but with long swords? This has you covered. The first book seemed like an intro to wiccan culture or something and that got old but the concept of all electronics and gun stop working makes for a great story. Not required.

Once and future king
One of the greatest novels I've ever read. Its about Camelot and the story of King Arthur and really isn't related to /k but if some moron can put hunger games in the list then surely we can put this in.
Hope this helps

>>63997364
Ender's Game sucks. All the characters talk at each other and have no personality. Every character being mildly dislikeable makes it a tough read

>>63989309 (OP)
These 4 books are absolute kino and should be a part of every kommandos reading list.

>>63997264
>48 Laws of Power
My seventh grade teacher recommended me this after I got detention once. It had a few useful things about how to not look like an idiot, but it was essentially a manual on how to be a big ol asshole. What did my teacher mean by this? Same teacher I did a report on >>63989444 for. kek

>>63997264
>>63997811
Agreed. It's a manual on how to be a cunt, for cunts. If you don't mind your humanity then it's a pass

>>63997378
What sets Ender's game apart is the twist/reveal at the end which I won't spoil here. Also the emphasis on constantly changing tactics and trying new things. I don't remember anything about any of the characters but they are being trained to be assholes so them acting like assholes should be expected. It's not a character study.

>>63998841
The sequels are well written as well. They have plot holes, but the writing strikes that perfect and hard to hit mix of being accessible but cerebral.

>>63997378
All people are dislikeable. That is the point. It is warfare without anyone being able to overcome their flaws by rushing an MG nest so afterwards everyone is too embarrassed to say you were a coomer or retarded.
You define yourself purely by how efficient you are in cold calculated combat. It is inherently dehumanizing and I think now, when we are looking at when drone swarms seem the immediate future if war that it deserves to be revisited and reinterpreted, wven if the author couldn't expect the proliferation of unmanned systems

>>63989309 (OP)
Token

>>63998871
Great book. It's a little dated on tech, but the tactics are outstanding.

>>63997364
I appreciate your reviews. I've read most of the books on the list, which I did not make, and I broadly concur that a lot are good while others are pulp.

>>63998904
None of you faggots read, shoot or exercise. I don't even know why I try.

>>63998918
i leik books about pugs

>>63998918
Not enuf pictourz

>>63998932
Harden.
The fuck.
Up.

>>63998940
pugs r silly

>>63998943
Your mom's asshole looks silly after I donkey punch her.

pugs calm my dark places you jerk!

>>63997803
Congo Mercenary was awesome. I sent Hoare a birthday message about that in 2019.

>>63998953
Ever seen a pug eat mayonnaise?
That is what yout mother looks like when I am done with her.

>>63998940
You all deserve SHIT

youre making them worse

>>63992908
I read this because of a recommendation on here, it is shit. The first part is about a bunch of guys getting fucked as prisoners of the Viet Minh, second part is about them faffing around and lots of relationship drama in Paris ( I still have no idea what that part was actually good for) and only in the third part when they are fighting in Algeria do you get a very little bit of action. A boring book, typically Frech with a lot of drama and not much substance.

>>63999012
If I cannot find like minded individuals here, then where?

>>63999012
I got all of those books. I haven't read them yet. How are they?

>>63994312
yeah this one was gnarly. It really makes the horrors of the eastern front come to life.

>>63999016
All of you fags should take the Stop The Bleed Course. Free online.

>>63999031
Truth, the amount of shit that can buy hours for actual doctors is worth it

>>63999023
I haven't read one in close to a decade but from what I remember it was almost insultingly simple. But it is meant to inform people with no background.
It was less politically opinionated than expected, but it is there.

>>63999023
>>63999041
Read them. It is not only retrospective but it is good info. Or maybe some bad, a la Anarchist's Cookbook.
Read one and make a thread. Highlight the things you think are useful and questionable.
Are you schooled in self sufficiency? Can you plant, forage, fish, hunt, sew?

/k/ related books that I have read and are good. If you have questions I may get to them in the next few days.

>The Art of War by Sun Tzu
>Counterinsurgency Theory and Practice by David Galula
>Black Hearts by Jim Frederick
>Resistance to Tyranny by Joesph Martino
>Total Resistance by Major Von Dach Bern
>The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward R. Tufte
>Apocalypse 1945 by David Irving
>Maneuver Warfare Handbook by William S. Lind
>What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro >Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinksy
>The Road to Kalamata by Mike Hoare
>Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life by Jason Hanson
>Concrete Hell by Louis A. DiMarco
> A Very Short Introduction to Clausewitz by Michael Howard
>The Maginot Line by Anthony Kemp
>Platoon Leader by James McDonough
>The Outpost by Jake Tapper
>Farewell America by James Hepburn
>The Little Red Book by Mao
>The Man, The State, and War by Kenneth N. Waltz
>War in European History by Michael Howard
>Infantry in Battle by George Marshall
>The Art of Pistol Shooting by Charles Askins
>The Puzzle Palace by James Bamford
>The Trail of the Fox by David Irving
>The Five Rings: Miyamoto Musashi’s Art of Strategy
>Hitler’s War and the War Path by David Irving
>Amerithrax by Robert Graysmith
>Countercoup by Kermit Roosevelt
>Superweapon: The Making of MX by John Edwards
>Meditations on Hunting by Jose Ortega y Gasset
>From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
>Fortress America by William Greider
>The Lawmen by Frederick S Calhoun
>The History of the SS by GS Graber
>Venice’s Secret Service: Organizing Intelligence in the Renaissance by Ioanna Iordanou
>Visual and Statistical Thinking Displays of Evidence for Making Decisions by Edward R Tufte
>Empire of the Summer Moon by SC Gwynne
>The Falcon and the Snowman by Robert Lindsey
>Panzer Division: The Mailed Fist by Major KJ Muchsey
>The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley
>The Causes of the English Civil War by Conrad Russell
>Beware of Heroes by Peter Shankland
1/

>>63999039
Long term care - You are fucked without civilization
Short term or "medium wounds" - you can keep someone alive, in agony, with moderate knowledge without Big Pharma stocks. Hard mfers will survive and never be the same.

>>63999051
>>Maneuver Warfare Handbook by William S. Lind
>William S. Lind
Is this the same guy that wrote a story in which T-34/85's donated from the new russian tsar to a white christian milita, defeating US M1 abarams in a stand up fight since the abarams ran out of fuel. Said christian milita later knocks out the US military (consisting of gangbangers and white liberal womne) and establish a new christian US goverment?

>>63999051
Nice list. Be honest though; How many have you read?
How many have you taken notes or read more than once?
Pic related. I read this when bored. How the FUCK did we compile this list of failures and then go into Afghanistan?
>Kill the poppies, support domestic synthetic opiate production.
I shot a kid for that and had to pretend not to see Afghani officials literally raping boy slaves.

>>63999051
>Recondo by Larry Chambers
>Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson
>How to Break a Terrorist by Matthew Alexander
>The Sealed Train by Michael Pearson
>The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben by Joseph Borkin
>The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
>Spy Catcher by Peter Wright
>The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
>Theodore Roosevelt: Hunter-Conservationist by RL Wilson
>The End or Order by Charles L Mee Jr
>The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy
>Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
>Paradise Lost by John Milton
>Hiroshima by John Hersey
>Company Commander by Charles B MacDonald
>Men Against Fire by SLA Marshall
>Understanding Terror Networks by Marc Sageman
>Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
>To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
>A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan
>Bruce Lee’s Fighting Methods The Complete Edition by Bruce Lee and M. Uyehara
>The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman
>About Face by David Hackworth
December
>Lincoln and His Generals by T Harry Williams
August
>Chinese Gung Fu by Bruce Lee
>The Soldier’s Load by SLA Marshall
>Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor
>The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
>The Campaigns of Napoleon by David G Chandler
>7 Seconds to Die by John Antal
>Inside Delta Force by Eric L Haney
>West Wall by Charles Whiting
>We Were Caught Unprepared: The 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War by Matt M Matthews
>The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender by John Spencer
>Lessons Learned from the Russo-Ukrainian War by Dr Phillip A Karber
>The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
>Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie
>The Himalaya by the Numbers by Salisbury and Hawley
>Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall
>Passing it On by Andrew Skeen
>The Perfect War by James Gibson

>>63999068
Personal theory is that Lind is the smartest dumb person. When you hear him saying something smart it's usually because someone else told him that.

I highly suspect that John Boyd wrote the Maneuver Warfare Handbook, but lacked the resolve to sign his name to it.

>>63999069
Fugg. Apologies.
Not doing well and trying not to get pissed at NPR.

>>63999069
>Be honest though; How many have you read?
All. I removed a bunch that I thought sucked or weren't military related.
>How many have you taken notes or read more than once?
If I read it on my computer I usually take extensive notes. If I read it physically I don't take as many notes. If it's poetry I read it out loud.

I've read The Art of War twice. All of the rest I read once

>>63999075
Get in the gym and AA. Otherwise you are probably going to die.

>>63999075
I read that book and omitted it from my recommended list because it was basically that the Russians are stupid. There was one vignette where their ambush failed because they left out a bunch of trash and smoked in their hide sites. What lessons can I learn if they were just stupid? That's why I liked "Passing it On" better because it showed the British trying their best with good late 1800s tactics.

I did enjoy the contribution that Russian doctrinal symbols have additional detail that Americans don't, their "tanglefoot" obstacle is a big slinky and not a NATO tanglefoot, and the one time that they used mannequins for a bogus airdrop.

>>63999073
>Personal theory is that Lind is the smartest dumb person. When you hear him saying something smart it's usually because someone else told him that.

https://desuarchive.org/k/thread/30443812/#30443812
>Victoria - A Novel of 4th Generation War

>Chapter 13
>Like the Russian BMP, the Bradley was an explosion waiting to happen, a tin-clad rolling armor dump that any anti-tank weapon instantly turned into a Viking funeral for its crew.

If only he knew how wrong he was.

>>63999077
I try to read Illiad and Odyssey once a year, alternating.
How to make Friends... annually.
I've read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 more than once just because I couldn't stop.
Also Animal Farm, Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men; they dont count as cliche novellas.
Read Jurassic Park more than once as a kid. Pretty sure I read it back to back.
Fear and Loathing I read thrice once I got a copy.
Does Proverbs count?

>>63999093
Lind is hilarious. Those threads were golden.

Sometimes he writes something that's genuinely insightful in his nonfiction, but he's also a liberal's idea of what a conservative is. He's also a 6'7" 78 year old bachelor with a proclivity for light rail, so he's generally weird.

>>63999096
I encourage that you read whatever you enjoy reading. Whatever it is, it counts.

I am rereading the Bible this year, this time out loud and KJV. I'm taking a detour with The Power Broker, which is amazing.

>>63999096
>Animal Farm, Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men
Together this is more pages than 99% of people read in a year.
Which is sad. It's less than 2 pages a day to finish all three in a year.

>>63999103
I will investigate the Power Broker.
Old Testament is a mind-fugg, even omitting that the book of Esther is a complete lie to create a reciprocal genocide to justify a holiday. It bogs down around Numbers and Kings but considering how influential it is, everyone shoukd read.

>>63999109
>Of Mice and Men
In high school I pointed out that the gun in the movie was not the same as the gun in the book.

>>63989309 (OP)
If you want /k/ alternate history autism so good that it will RUIN you for other authors in the genre:
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The premise is that The Black Death was much, much deadlier to Europeans, giving a >99% mortality rate. Without Europeans to steer history, the world powers become the Muslim world, Travancore and China, as well as a free North American and Mesoamerican Alliance led by an escaped samurai freedom fighter from conquered Japan.

It all comes to a head in the 8th chapter, which is... one of the most brutal, metal, awesome things I've ever read. I've read that chapter dozens and dozens of times, it is indescribable.

But I'll try:
World War I happens, only in East Asia.
You have waves of screaming, suicidal, drugged up Muslim fantatics in gas masks raging across trenches in the Gansu Corridor (North-central China).
Barrier troops, crematorium trains, bunker buster shells, corrosive poison gas.
Muslims shelling Mt. Everest a few hundred meters lower so the tallest mountain will be Muslim.
Muslims blowing up mountain passes in the Himalayas to bury entire divisions.
Breaching glacial dams on the Indian side of the mountains to flood entire armies in the canyons.
Finally the LINK UP with the based, proud, non-shameful jeets of this world (just shows how based a world without Br*tish could truly be, VGH).
Mourning for the destroyed Bodi tree.

It's fucking incredible, brilliantly-written, and /k/ as fuck. The main characters keep getting reincarnated in different eras, beginning to remember their previous lives, and trying to break the cycle. It's a literary device, but it's pretty cool.
I'd recommend the hell out of it

>>63999119
There's an alt history novel where the Carthaginians win. I don't recall the title, but it would also change everything.

>>63999103
Based and simple-speech.
You read Machiavelli or Dante?

>>63999119
oh and I forgot to mention the best part: this alternate World War I lasts 40 years and has ~67 miles big guns that by this late stage in the war, are filled with crap like cats bones and dentures for shrapnel because LOL no metal.

Also, can anyone ID this explosive agent by its description?
>The other new inconvenience was a shell so huge, cast so high by such big cannons, that when it came down out of the sky it was falling faster than its sound, so there was no warning. These shells were bigger around than a man, and taller, designed to penetrate the mud some distance and then go off, in stupendous explosions that often would bury many more men in trenches and tunnels and caves than were killed by the blasts themselves. Duds of these shells were dug out and removed, very cautiously, each one occupying an entire train car. The explosive used in them was a new one that looked like fish paste, and smelled like jasmine.

>>63999096
>Of Mice and Men
I read this out loud to by crazy A2M fat tits fiance when she was detoxing and I cried and I swear it helped kill the relationship.
Candy should have told them to fuck off or at least shot his own dog, like George.
Obvious Chekhov's, in retrospect.
I'm not mad, I'm grateful

>>63999115
I totally missed that they didn't use a Luger.
You mean the Lt. Dan version, I assume?

>>63999135
correction: their WWI equivalent lasted 60 YEARS
was confused by the line
>"They were never sane to begin with,” Kuo said. “It’s been forty years since anyone on Earth has been sane."

>>63999137
I have a lot of questions but why did you pick that?

>>63999145
In the John Malkovich movie they use a revolver instead of the Luger in the book.

>>63999129
I have read The Prince by Machiavelli, I have yet to read his Discourses on Livy which are the big ones.

Dante is awesome. I read it in 2 sittings out loud. I read the John Ciardi translation. 100% worth it.

>>63999152
She was already reading it. She picked it out of my library because it was slim and I guess she recognized it.
I cried like a bitch when he shot Lenny. Ne excuse for being drunk.
Even though she was basically immobile, I could see and feel that disgust.
Never believe a woman when they say they want you to be emotional/tell them your fears.

>>63999161
Book of 5 Rings
Anabasis

>>63999171
Based All old Greek works should be read. And Shakespeare. Literally every modern Western work is based on them.

>>63999171
>Book of 5 Rings
It's a good read. Pretty philosophical.

>Anabasis
I haven't read it yet, but I've heard from someone I trust that it's amazing.

>>63999186
>All old Greek works should be read
It's such a shame we'll never know just how accurately they were translated by the muzzies or how corrupted they got in the process.

>>63999214
The real loss is the works that are gone forever.
We only have one of Aeschylus' Prometheus trilogy .

>>63999213
You are better read than 99.9% of people.
Remember that exposure doesn't mean shit if you cannot apply the knowledge you absorbed.

>>63999023
The foxfire books are more from a historical perspective than instructional/informative perspective. You're better off with anything from Storey.

>>63999051
>>63999070
Thanks for these lists I'm going to look through them

>>63999069
>Kill the poppies, support domestic synthetic opiate production

Is this a strategy or a summery of what you think the Afghanistan war was about?

The legal and illegal poppy growing markets are totally segregated. This is due to the US setting up a pretty dubious legal cartel where only 3 companies (Johnson&Johnson, Mallinkrodt Inc. and Penick Corp.) have the permits to handle raw opium latex and refine it. Their buying is from Australia, India and the UK through GMO seed for poppy straw agreements. All the other companies like Purdue are downstream. If anything the opoid crisis benefited the worst nation on earth Australia much more than Afghanistan since the cheapest method of making Oxycodone is from Thebaine which is a fairly minor part of normal opium poppies so GMO poppies that produce no morphine and shitloads of Thebaine were bred and mostly grown in Australia. This was thought of as a great system for everyone except the people dying from drug overdoses since it made Oxycodone cheaper and the poppies couldn't be diverted for clandestine drug usage.

Regarding Afghanistan. The opium grown there was turned into #3 brown heroin in clandestine labs there and in Pakistan that flooded Europe, the middle east and Russia. While the US illegal opium was historically #4 white heroin from the far east and low quality black tar heroin from mexico. Now its a mix of #3 and #4 heroin and chinkoid fent all coming from mexico.

getting back to the point of the thread there aren't any good books about opiate narco politics since all are surface level or made by self interested weirdos like Jim Hogshire. Adrian Cowell's many documentaries are good but basically historical since it is about the golden triangle and heroin production in Burma during the Vietnam war.

Low Level Hell is a great combat-focused biography from a loach pilot. Highly recommend it if you like boots on the ground stuff and not strategic level snooze books. The guy is still alive, a few years ago he visited a loach factory to sign copies of his book and fly around.
The other half of his hunter-killer team wrote a biography called “Gunship Pilot” that rocks. Lots of great photos and personal anecdotes.

obligatory

>>63999313
I am currently re-reading this one, it really is great

>>63999573
I tried to read this one a while ago but unless you are a chemist it gets too technical about a third of the way in.

>Ctrl-F Glory
>No Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
Shame, /k/, shame. It's as you didn't wanted to be reminded of why Africans love paratroopers. Also this book is essentially the unauthorized chronological sequel to Shake Hands with the Devil.

>>64000664

Great Lakes Conflagration is another good book about the first Congo War but more exclusively focused on a detailed recounting of military operations

>>63998918
I do two out of three.

This is about Cortez and is one of the most unbelievable stories I've ever read.

What he accomplished and how lucky he constantly got was unbelievable.

>>63989337
Difference between (You) and him is that his last name is cocks, (you) suck cocks. As usual, OP is faggot, but (you) are even bigger faggot.

>>63999573
Nigger
>>63994288

>>63997100
If you consider it as an outside-looking-in 1920s version of the Abu Hajaar video then yeah.

Orwell's prior military training before going to Spain amounted to the level of a first-year ROTC student and from his writings it's glaringly obvious even he's like "Man, why'd I get put out here with all these retards and fuckups?"

>>63997274
Fry The Brain has good pointers on how not to get killed immediately after firing your first shot regarding urban/guerilla sniping but the author's super out-of-pocket conspiracy theories about JFK and other historical incidents, his complete glossing over of the amount of know-how required to be an effective shooter at any distance past 100m, his fundamental misunderstanding of modern technology in all aspects and his halfway-retarded advice on proper weapon selection means you need to supplement it with something like Cleckner's Long Range Shooting Handbook to actually take anything of value from his writings.

>>63999889
>I tried to read this one a while ago but unless you are a chemist it gets too technical about a third of the way in.
sort yourself out, then

>>63999313
That sounds fucking cool.

Probably my favorite military fiction book, loosely based on the guys real life experiences apparently

What are the best military manuals?

>Sapper Handbook, the old one.
>Air Force Survival Manual 64-5
>Infantry Bible
>Engineer Bible
>Combat Skills of the Soldier
>Ranger Handbook

What are some other good ones?

>>64002565

Idk if Orwell was a member of the volunteer unit at Eton (more like JROTC or the modern UK cadet force) but I would assume not since he was a rabid little commie at Eton and by their logic joining the school's cadet force made you a bigger counter revolutionary than Karl Kautsky. He was a colonial policeman in Burma prior to fighting in Spain which gave him a large leg up on the other volunteers.

So its more like if James Yeager rocked up to a warzone and was actually the most competent person there.

>>63997107
I read this like 13 or 14 years ago, absolutely fucked up. But interesting none the less.

>>63999014
>The first part is about a bunch of guys getting fucked as prisoners of the Viet Minh,
Uh oh!

>>63999039
My leg is only normal because of a splint made by a co-worker, generator backfired and the trailer hitch popped me in the shin just hard enough. I didn't need pins or surgeries because of basic first aid. Please fucking learn it.

>>64004645
Not sure Orwell had well defined political views at that point in his life. He was a bookfag and never a doctrinaire Marxist ideologue. He didn't really understand the politics of Spain when he went there although he identified as a socialist at that point.

IMHO his personality and politics was like the socialist version of Billy Brown of London Town. That was a cartoon character stuck around the London Underground during WWII to encourage people to wait their turn in line, be patriotic, and conserve resources and stuff like that. Turn off your lights during blackouts!

His view of socialism was like that. A very rationalist, "common sense" English version of it (in contrast to the Russian version) that's supposed to be about fairness and decency (as he saw it), and also an alternative to a hypocritical English gentry who kept their heads in the sand until German bombers were attacking them during the Blitz. He never joined the communist party and saw them (at home) as hypocritical intellectuals disillusioned by their own country and not feeling any patriotism for it while acting like jingoistic, power-hungry fags for Russia, basically weaboos with academic degrees.

Finished this recently. I heard it was darker than Full Metal Jacket was. But I was not prepared for how much.

>>64005666
>Not sure Orwell had well defined political views at that point in his life. He was a bookfag and never a doctrinaire Marxist ideologue
Going out of his way to volunteer with the POUM instead of the Comintern's (and therefore USSR's) International Brigades suggests his political views were very well-defined. A lot of his critiques in Catalonia are being made from the left.

>His view of socialism was like that. A very rationalist, "common sense" English version of it (in contrast to the Russian version) that's supposed to be about fairness and decency
This is a lot closer to Hemingway's feelings on it whenever it comes up in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

>>63997274
Which Survival Medicine Handbook do you have/suggest? I've been meaning to pick one up. There are multiple versions/authors by that name.

>>63989309 (OP)
>tfw some random hue body builder smokes half the squad's weed stash

I just found a PDF of this on my PC, reading it now.

>>64005959
That was awhile later. He wrote about his personal history in the Ukrainian introduction to Animal Farm, saying he didn't consider himself a socialist until around 1930. Before that he had gone to Eton, then worked as an imperial policeman in Burma, and then bummed around Paris for two years.

>In 1936 I got married. In almost the same week the civil war broke out in Spain. My wife and I both wanted to go to Spain and fight for the Spanish Government. We were ready in six months, as soon as I had finished the book I was writing. In Spain I spent almost six months on the Aragon front until, at Huesca, a Fascist sniper shot me through the throat.

>In the early stages of the war foreigners were on the whole unaware of the inner struggles between the various political parties supporting the Government. Through a series of accidents I joined not the International Brigade like the majority of foreigners, but the POUM militia – i.e. the Spanish Trotskyists.

>So in the middle of 1937, when the Communists gained control (or partial control) of the Spanish Government and began to hunt down the Trotskyists, we both found ourselves amongst the victims. We were very lucky to get out of Spain alive, and not even to have been arrested once. Many of our friends were shot, and others spent a long time in prison or simply disappeared.

>These man-hunts in Spain went on at the same time as the great purges in the USSR and were a sort of supplement to them. In Spain as well as in Russia the nature of the accusations (namely, conspiracy with the Fascists) was the same and as far as Spain was concerned I had every reason to believe that the accusations were false. To experience all this was a valuable object lesson: it taught me how easily totalitarian propaganda can control the opinion of enlightened people in democratic countries.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/orwell/1947/kolghosp-tvaryn.htm

>>64006465
I see you like horses as well.

Starside Blues and Tin Man by William K Shepherd.
Battletech-esque Mecha Noir War Novel with autistic anime android waifu, armor autism, tsundere latina waifu, literally me

>>64005959
>>64006999
I think he joined the POUM because it was nearest to him most and despite being only a police officer in Burma, he still had an advantage over most of the disorganized militias Spain had at the time, and his descriptions give a good idea of why they lost against the Nationalists.

>>64007829
Orwell describe the Republican forces
>"Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls, or some variant of the militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in it that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for."
>"The town had a gaunt untidy look, roads and buildings were in poor repair, the streets at night were dimly lit for fear of air-raids, the shops were mostly shabby and half-empty. Meat was scarce and milk practically unobtainable, there was a shortage of coal, sugar, and petrol, and a really serious shortage of bread. Even at this period the bread-queues were often hundreds of yards long. Yet so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful."
>"On my second day at the barracks there began what was comically called 'instruction'. At the beginning there were frightful scenes of chaos. The recruits were mostly boys of sixteen or seventeen from the back streets of Barcelona, full of revolutionary ardour but completely ignorant of the meaning of war. It was impossible even to get them to stand in line. Discipline did not exist; if a man disliked an order he would step out of the ranks and argue fiercely with the officer. The lieutenant who instructed us was a stout, fresh-faced, pleasant young man who had previously been a Regular Army officer, and still looked like one, with his smart carriage and spick-and-span uniform. Curiously enough he was a sincere and ardent Socialist. Even more than the men themselves he insisted upon complete social equality between all ranks. I remember his pained surprise when an ignorant recruit addressed him as 'Senor'. 'What! Senor? Who is that calling me Senor? Are we not all comrades?' I doubt whether it made his job any easier. Meanwhile the raw recruits were getting no military training that could be of the slightest use to them."

>>64007833
>“I admit, too, that I felt a kind of horror as I looked at the people I was marching among. You cannot possibly conceive what a rabble we looked. We straggled along with far less cohesion than a flock of sheep; before we had gone two miles the rear of the column was out of sight. And quite half of the so-called men were children—but I mean literally children, of sixteen years old at the very most. Yet they were all happy and excited at the prospect of getting to the front at last. As we neared the line the boys round the red flag in front began to utter shouts of ‘Visca POUM!’ ‘Fascistas—maricones!’ and so forth—shouts which were meant to be war-like and menacing, but which, from those childish throats, sounded as pathetic as the cries of kittens.”
>“The essential point of the system was social equality between officers and men. Everyone from general to private drew the same pay, ate the same food, wore the same clothes, and mingled on terms of complete equality. If you wanted to slap the general commanding the division on the back and ask him for a cigarette, you could do so, and no one thought it curious. In theory at any rate each militia was a democracy and not a hierarchy. It was understood that orders had to be obeyed, but it was also understood that when you gave an order you gave it as comrade to comrade and not as superior to inferior. There were officers and N.C.O.S. but there was no military rank in the ordinary sense; no titles, no badges, no heel-clicking and saluting. They had attempted to produce within the militias a sort of temporary working model of the classless society. Of course there was no perfect equality, but there was a nearer approach to it than I had ever seen or than I would have thought conceivable in time of war.”

>>64007068
What's the Lore?

>>63999012
Anything else like Foxfire?

>>64007829
The POUM was loosely associated with the Independent Labour Party, which was the only British party he ever actually joined, and was informal allies with the POUM. He joined the ILP after he came back from Spain, but had apparently got connected to the POUM via an ILP member named John McNair who organized British volunteers to go there. He had some contacts with them.

The ILP was a breakaway group from the Labour Party. A few thousand members. They saw the mainstream Labour Party as too moderate, and the Stalinists as totalitarian freaks, which fits Orwell. A lot of leftists back then were into communism (i.e. Stalinism) and were members of those parties and that was almost monolithic on the left, so he was part of this dissident tendency, which in the case of Spain, resulted in the communists killing them.

>>64007833
>>64007836
No wonder they lost.

Asking for recs from my audiobook wishlist, with their short description/my short description of them.

Comrades of War: A fictional novel about serving on the eastern front by a German guy who served on the eastern front during WWII
A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962
Cosa Nostra: The Definitive History of the Sicilian Mafia
The Wager: Ship lost at sea
A Book of Five Rings: The Strategy of Musashi
Fighting for Queen and Country: One Man’s Remarkable Story of Blood and Glory in the Paras and SAS
Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89
The Middle Kingdoms: A New History of Central Europe
Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History
Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima
Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815
Cobolt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus 1569-1999
Revolutionary Spring
The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
Lords of the Desert: Britain's Struggle with America to Dominate the Middle East

might was well write an off the cuff Afghanistan (pre-2001) reading list.

Zinky Boys or Boys in Zinc by Svetlana Alexievich

A journal of the Soviet-Afghan war written by a dissident Soviet journalist. Similar to One Soldiers War but more "Our fresh faced soviet boys are being ground up in a nightmarish quagmire" than "I'm a mobik in a Russian nightmare war"

>Captivity and Conversion .. Soviet POWs in Afghanistan

A study of Soviet POWs and defectors in Afghanistan. Shows a lot of different experiences from defectors ideologically opposed to the war, war profiteers who switched sides for money, those fleeing Dedovshchina and those abandoned in captivity by their government until their own families paid a ransom (about 5 years after the war ended)

>Wings over the Hindu Kush by Lukas Muller

Osprey style book about the Afghan Civil War and all the shenanigans that happen when quasi-feudal warlords get their hands on Soviet fighter-bombers, tanks and SCUD missiles (and the ex-commie soldiers to properly operate them).

>The Forty-Year War in Afghanistan by Tariq Ali

The stuff about the war on terror is so so but the essays about the 90s Taliban, their ideology/formation and their alleged (but also actual) paymasters in Pakistani ISI are great.

>The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk

Hopkirk can really set the scene. Probably the most engaging 19th century history book I've read. It also does a good job explaining the historical context while also keeping your attention with examples of daring British explorers and farcical Russian military actions. Also it has the Dr. Najibullah seal of approval.

I could post more but I've had to rope in some weird ones like Jihad by Tom Carew.

>>64015665

I should add Jihad is a generic Andy McNab clone but it it becomes interesting because of the convoluted arguments regarding its factuality where either the author was a real life Big Boss who fought the soviets in Afghanistan or he was a delusional Soldier of Fortune reader who made it all up.

ZOV is an interesting relic of the initial days of the SMO. I fight, I win, I live is another interesting Russian manual. Both predate the mass proliferation of drones so they are, of course, dated.

>>63997803
Death In the Long Grass is fucking awesome

>>63997803
>>64017753
I love those old safari books, just finished Horn of the Hunter.

>>64015272
Funnily enough, the initial balance of forces seemed to be in the Republic's favor, they had more soldiers, most of the Air force and Navy remained loyal and they themselves had a contingent of competent Spanish Army officers, but as the central government fractured, issues were mostly decided at the local level. The Army was distrusted and was not allowed to build and train a competent force against the Nationalists. The side that won was the one that could effectively organize and lead the available forces. They managed to prevail against larger numbers of confused, leaderless government forces. The government, on the other hand, could count on relatively spontaneous support from left-wing organizations and political parties, which tried to mobilize their supporters against the military uprising, but this meant that political power quickly devolved to factions on the ground and while sometimes effective in an urban context, left-wing militias proved ill-equipped to wage full-scale war.

>>64017801
hunting books are pure kino

>>63989309 (OP)
Can anyone recommend some good memoirs of people involved in lesser-known Wars from the 20th and 19th centuries, such as the warlord era in China for e.g?

>>63994200
My dyslexic ass read this title exactly how you think It would.

>>64001481
Newfag

>>64023135

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Soldiers_Letters

There's a collection of letters written by soldiers in the Philippine-American war. compiled by 1890s pacifists against the war but they are interesting none the less

>I suppose the people back home did not expect us to have any fighting, but we have already had the greatest land fight of the war, and it may take a great deal more to finish it yet, for we may have to kill all the black rascals before they are conquered.... Occasionally a Filipino would fall forward apparently dead, wait until he was fairly under the heels of the Americans, and then foolishly rise and attempt to gain safety. To shoot a man at six feet range with a Springfield rifle is a hard thing to do, but the orders were to let no insurgent live, and off would go the whole side of his head, or he would fall with a wound in his abdomen large enough to drop a potato through
t. Private in a Kansas Regiment

>Last night one of our boys was found shot and his stomach cut open. Immediately orders were received from General Wheaton to burn the town and kill every native in sight, which was done to a finish. About one thousand men, women, and children were reported killed. I am probably growing hard-hearted, for I am in my glory when I can sight my gun on some dark-skin and pull the trigger.
t. A.A Barnes - G Batt, US Arty.

>When you can realize four hundred or five hundred persons living within the confines of five or six blocks, and then an order calling out all of the women and children, and then setting fire to houses and shooting down any niggers attempting to escape from the flames, you have an idea of Filipino warfare

t. Sgt. William A. Rule - H Company, Colorado Volunteers.

>>64023135
Scouting on 2 continents

>>63997364
>/k
Maybe r/ is more your speed

>>64015665
>fleeing Dedovshchina
>exchanging sodomites for another brand of sodomites
Literally fucked

>>64006320
You want the one written by Joseph and Amy Alton from Doom and Bloom. They wrote one called the ultimate survival medicine guide but that is the abridged version of their larger "Survival Medicine Handbook". I'd get the big one and get the latest edition which is 4th edition. My edition is the 2nd so I can't really compare. From what I've seen their book is unique in that its looking at medicine from a SHTF perspective.

From what I can tell the color version is only available on their website and is a bit pricier. If you order from amazon you get the black and white. Reviews say the color is probably worth it.

They wrote two other books as well as made some instructional videos. I'm tempted to check out the videos.

And lastly I've heard good things about where there is no doctor, where there is no dentist, NOLS Wilderness Medicine and Bushcraft First Aid (part of the 4 book series by Dave Cantebury). Haven't read them would be interested if anyone else has.

>>63997264
thanks for the lists anon

>>63992958
This is about the AK?

>>64023386
sounds less like warfare and more like slaughter to be honest
oh well i'm sure someone got rich off of it so it's all good

>>64005101
I remember like 10 years ago people claiming it was propaganda by a disgruntled loser and surely Russia's military couldn't be that horrible.

lol lmao

>>63997264
>War is a Racket

>>64026874
so war isn't a racket?

>>64026883
Im convinced machiavelli was intentionally trying to get rulers killed with his advice.

>>64026925
So, Smedly Butler had no qualms fighting for corporations when he was in; and when he got out he was an ambitious political shill so closely tied to the Communist Party he had to convinced them not to give him a party ID card because it would ruin his appearance of neutrality.
He was a political scumbag telling dummies what they wanted to hear so they'd vote for him and his elite buddies. You're deepthroating a campaign speech.

>>63989309 (OP)
Unit 788 by Max Lauker was a cool book about his time in swedish special forces and its growth into sog. He was deployed to Columbia to learn spying then deployed in Kosovo and shot a few serbs up when they crossed the border through the woods to do recon. He has funny thing about perfecting the observation post and it shows in the book.

>>64027007
His Discourses on Livy are considered to be his magnum opus.

>>64027077
That sounds awesome.

>>63994312
Must read.

>>63989309 (OP)
boo/k/s

British manuals are good, but they are all restricted. Good luck finding them.

Has anyone read anything by Matthew Luke?
Small Unit Raids and Tactics and Long Range Shooting both look like they are good. Just looking for reviews of them.

>>64026486
It covers the AK in the last portion of the book, but it's more of machineguns as a whole. From the beginnings of Maxims and big crew served MGs towards the more mobile current day application of machineguns.
It's basically in 3 sections
>1st is the beginning of MGs and their affect on warfare
>2nd is the M16 and it's adoption
>3rd is the AK and it's proliferation
Solid read though, even if you're just interested in AKs

>>64023386
holy based