Recommended WW2 reads

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 01:05 AMHawking

With The Old Breed by Eugene Sledge is a must read. The definitive WW2 Pacific Theatermemoir, IMO, and probably my favourite military memoir to date. I've yet to find someone who so humanly captures the horror as Sledge did in his writing.

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 01:09 AMThe Big Red 1

if i am not mistaken that book was adapted into an epic miniseries called The Pacific I watched and have a DVD of it =)

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 08:33 AMArray

The liberator about a U.S. Officer in an infantry regiment which travelled further than any other and was the first into dachau. It's excellent as a soldiers account but also helped me flesh out details of Anzio and the campaign in southern France which broader accounts have failed to do for me. It's also an extraordinary story if survival and very readable and entertaining to boot. Written by Alex kershaw.


For large scale analysis Absolute War about soviet/axis war was fascinating focusing on the ideological nature of the eastern front battle and how the two powers handled it. I know Quinn Duffy drew on this heavily - it includes the account of a t34 ram destroying a tiger and has a lot of detail on the stuff that our Russian friends found so objectionable due to their referencing in game.

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 09:19 AMUlaire Minya

What the Russian population found objectionable (and with good reason) is that fact that the campaign focuses on all the negative aspects of the Red Army while calling itself Company of Heroes.
Contrast that with the campaigns in the original game and even Ardennes Assault. Not a singe mention of anything but heroism.

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 11:23 AMZupadupadude

IIRC the campaign showed the leadership being shit most of the time, not the ordinary soldiers, hence Company of Heroes still applies I think.

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 13:47 PMsquippy

Not really. It showed them as forced and unwilling, and thus as either suckers or victims. It was both ridiculous and spiteful.

I played the CoH1 campaign something like 5 times, but CoH2's was just too vile to get through even once.

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 08:43 AMMajorBloodnok

Moving to the Library

Jump back to quoted post2 Aug 2015, 15:09 PMZupadupadude

Ah right, fair enough.

I agree it got really ridiculous at some points (the cutscenes in the gulag rofl), I'm by no means saying it's very good.