Where for War, War Action, fiction?

[Respigi]

I note checking thru` a lot of ebook sites that fiction books for categories like war, military fighting and action seem to be rare. Plenty of non fiction Military but this is often Mil. history. A few like "Search for Private Ryan"s would be good but don`t want huge "War and Peace" type tomes.
Any inputs appreciated.

[Dr. Drib]

Moved out of the General Discussion Forum and into the Reading Recommendations Forum.


Don
(Moderator)

[MickeyC]

Highly recommend the Flashman series. Covers various key battles and incidents in the Victorian era. Although technically fiction, they are very accurate except for the amusing things Harry Flashman gets up to.

Details here https://g.co/kgs/phKc1B

[Apache]

Pacific Glory, Ghosts of Bungo Suido, Sentinels of Fire & The Commodore by P.T. Deutermann. These are all WWII US Navy books. Three about US Destroyers and one involving a US Navy Submarine.
W.E.B. Griffin's 10 book Series The Corp. The first 8 are WWII about US Marines. The last two are the Korean War.
Apache

[bfisher]

Great books, Apache

A few books I've enjoyed:

WW2 naval
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Run Silent, Run Deep - Edward L Beach - USN submarine war against Japan

The Ship - C.S. Forester - a RN light cruiser escorting a convoy to Malta against sea and air attacks

The Good Shepherd - C.S. Forester - USN destroyer in Battle of the North Atlantic

Das Boot - Lothar-Günther Buchheim - Battle of the North Atlantic from the perspective of a U-Boat crew

Away All Boats - Kenneth Dodson - a USN attack transport in the South Pacific campaigns

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WW1 naval
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The Blooding of the Guns - Alexander Fullerton - Battle of Jutland from the perspective of 3 RN officers of same family - captain of a dreadnought, junior officers on a battle cruiser and a M class destroyer

A Sailor of Austria - John Biggins - Austrian U Boat in the Med

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WW1 air war
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Goshawk Squadron - Derek Robinson - Royal Flying Corps squadron on the Western Front

Flight To Mons - Alexander Fullerton - using a Fleet Air Arm dirigible to insert and extract spies from German-occupied Belgium

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WW2 air war
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Piece of Cake - Derek Robinson - RAF fighter squadron in Battle of France and Battle of Britain

Dauntless - Barrett Tillman - dive bomber squadron from Yorktown at Battle of Midway

War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk - a USN family in WW2 - Only some bits about combat, but there is a great description of the Battle of Midway and the courage and sacrifice of the USN torpedo bomber squadrons

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WW1 ground war
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All Quiet On the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque - the Western Front from the point of view of a German infantryman

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WW2 ground war
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The Thin Red Line - James Jones - Guadalcanal ground combat - Jones actually fought at Guadalcanal (he was a private in the 25th "Tropic Lightning" Division at Pearl Harbor)

[Apache]

All good books. Also Leon Uris's Battle Cry. Based on his Marine experiences in the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Apache

[4691mls]

If you like mysteries - James R. Benn's Billy Boyle series is set in World War II.
Some of them have more of the actual war in them than others. As I recall, there was one that was set mostly in Ireland and another in the Vatican but some also describe action in places like North Africa or the South Pacific.

The author includes notes at the end as to which events described in the book are factual, which I appreciate when reading historical fiction.

[AnemicOak]

You might enjoy Jeff Shaara's books.

His father Michael's book, The Killer Angels, is excellent.

[Respigi]

Thank you all for contributing,some excellent titles.
I think I was trying to also say in my post that I was having difficulty in finding an ebook site that listed some suitable books of the war category. I haven`t found too many.

[BenG]

W.E.B. Griffin has several series of military books.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1052648.Semper_Fi

The hero of The Corps series, Ken McCoy, has some remarkable similarities to Bobby Shaftoe in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

[Pajamaman]

The Cruel Sea

The Guns of Navarone

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by BenG

W.E.B. Griffin has several series of military books.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1052648.Semper_Fi

The hero of The Corps series, Ken McCoy, has some remarkable similarities to Bobby Shaftoe in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.

You intrigued me with the Bobby Shaftoe reference (I liked The Corps series) - I'm adding Cryptonomicon to my want-to-read list.

Does Bobby Shaftoe also have any resemblance to the folk song character?

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles at his knee;
He'll come back and marry me,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe!

Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair,
Panning out his yellow hair;
He's my love for evermore,
Bonny Bobby Shaftoe!

Bobby Shaftoe's getten a bairn,
For to dangle on his arm;
In his arm and on his knee,
Bobby Shaftoe loves me.

[BenG]

The Cryptonomicon switches back and forth from the near future and WWII. Bobby starts out in Shanghai in a similar situation to Ken's in Semper Fi

I hadn't heard that folk song before.

[Respigi]

Thanks all great list, but you are missing a bit of my request. I asked for a (or best) supplier of this genre. Some suppliers are all non fiction war history and the pricing is from near free to $20 and up for same book. So far I think Smashwords to be the best selection source.

[Apache]

Amazon, B&N and Kobo are all good sites. If you ever decide to do Military Science Fiction Baen is your best choice.
Apache