"Three WWIII Good Books" Topic

Three good books that one can can scenario ideas from.

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Mike

nice Mike, I have not read any of those.

Just finished "Fist of God" myself, a very good read based on the 2nd Iraq war

cheers
Matt

Thanks – I have Red Thrust, and First Clash is on my mental wishlist, but Arctic Strike is new to me, so I'll look for that on my haunts of used bookstores.

I have First Clash. A pretty good book. Have not heard of the others. Will have to look out for those. Thanks for the tip Mike G from Mike G.

Gosh, I just read my original post. Sorry for the typo, I was up at 3:30AM so I could drop my Daughter and my Mother at the airport.

Mike

Thanks mate – 2 outa 3 aint bad – I must get the Arctic Storm one (3 years out of uniform I ought to be able to think about the polar region without shivering – no – there I go – ing Freeeeezing!)

Also well worth a read are Ralph Peter's 'Red Army'; Harold Coyles's 'Team Yankee'; and of course the bible, General Sir John Hackett's 'The THird World War', set in 1985 but actually written in 1978. As it set free world public opinion firmly behind rearmament it arguably saved the world from armageddon…Its a pretty good read too!

First Contact! by Kenneth Macksey MC is also pretty good – The Canadian Mech Bde saves the free world! (Which I'm sure they would have done, God Bless Em and their Leo I tanks…)

Thanks for the suggestions. Naturally as a 4CMBG alumni I have First Clash, including the original in CF Pam format :) but will now go add the others to my Amazon wishlist.

Arctic Strike is actually one out of four books in a series called "A visual novel of tomorrow's war". The other ones are Armor at Fulda Gap – Dealing with an M1A1 tank unit in WW III, Strike Eagles – F15s battle it out with the commies and Helicopter Aces – Helicopters leading the charge. All four of these books use the same scenario, but are set in different locations of the same War against the Russians. They are pretty good and quick reads and each are filled with numerous pictures of the "battles". If you can buy the whole set I highly recommend it.

For Cold War Gone Hot ideas, some of the smaller enagements in the James Rouch 'The Zone' series would be interesting.

Ralph Peters book Red Army (already recommended by Sparker) has some interesting smaller enagagements; the Forward Security Element battle for the farm in particular.

Cauldron by Larry Bond has some useful engagements for slightly different dynamics in the C20/21

Si

I remember enjoying "Team Yankee" a while ago (Early '90s?) and "Red Storm Rising" as well.

Good rec's all. Thanks.

I too enjoyed Red Army.

Red Army is one of my favorite books, re-reading it now actually, I also liked "The THird World War, August 1985" but Thrust, and First Clash are new to me .. i must get these.

'The Zone' series by James Rouch was also a good source of scenarios.

Another brilliant book is called TOTAL WAR 2006. Yes, it's date is a bit out, but it's surprisingly good for the read you get!

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Agree Total War is well worth the read. I kept mentally moving everything up 10 years so it begins in 2011 and culminates in 2016 which considering present and recent events makes it seem rather chilling.

Put three more reviews on my blog.

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Mike

I've just read 'Chieftains' by Bob Forrest. Long out of print I believe, but now on kindle. Interesting as it's mostly from the British point of view. I enjoyed it very much.

The War After Armageddon by Ralph Peters is a interesting read. Not to give too much away the Arabs explode some nukes in Europe and the US. They also take over Israel. The US elects an ultra conservative right wing religious govt that decides it was going to take back the "Holy Land" from the Arab armies so it launches an invasion of Israel.

The main focus of the book is between the two generals commanding the different US corps. One US corps is comprised of Marine and Army units kind of like the "red haired step child" of the military. This corps general is looked down upon and his troops use old equipment. The other corps is a "newer" corps led by a charismatic general. This corps is pretty much what the SS was to Hitler. They have the best equipment and are seen as the "elite" of US military forces. Neither corps gets along with each other even though they are working toward the same goal.

There is plenty of ground action and one thing I like about the book is Peters uses my old tank battalion I went to Desert Storm with, 2-34 Armor, part of the 1st Infantry Division in this book. It leads a charge during one battle scene.

Overall it is a good read and really chilling, especially the end.

Also check out the "Armored Corps" three book series by Peter Callahan. It is about a M1 Abrams tank platoon in a future Korean War. Very good books because this author actually got assistance from REAL tankers, such as myself, while writing these books. They are paperbacks, but they are very, very accurate depictions of what an Abrams tank platoon does in real life and some of the scenarios he uses are actual ones that happened in real life (the part of the third novel where the tank won't start and one of the crew gets out and opens the "b**** plate" and jiggles the starter to get it going is a real incident that happened on a tank range at Ft Riley in 1989. My tank was behind the NCO who did it and I was watching and laughing the whole time).

The "Armored Corps" series is very good.

Sparker, Kenneth Macksey also wrote a sequel to "First Clash", called, "Counter-Attack". I don't know if it ever made it past army document though.

I also recommend Red Army by Ralph Peters.

Outstanding book and one that you can easily pull several scenarios from.

I especially liked the action in Hameln.

Frank

The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 is an interesting twist.

The X-Mas War and Jihad War in 2036, Oil Commission and Lake Aral, Total War 2006 are also good books.

Also recommending Cheftians and Red Army both really good book although i liked Cheftians more….

I would also recommend a fairly new trilogy set during the1980's and dealing with GSFG vs BAOR/NORTHAG ( with some scenes set elsewhere ). They are written by a former Brit Officer who I believe was BRIXMAS

The Red Effect ( book 1)
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The Black Effect ( book 2)
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The Blue Effect ( book 3)
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The Author's Website
harveyblackauthor.org

I also can't recommend that trilogy strong enough either. Very readable. Harvey Black writes very convincingly.