Primers on War and Combat?

[StudentofWar]

I'm new to the defense and military game so I was wondering if anyone here would be willing to recommend some classic and contemporary primers on War and combat that would be considered essential reading.

Any suggestions?

 

[PullerRommel]

I would recommend from mini-military library
The Art Of War-Sun Tzu
Principles of Maritime Strategy-Julian S. Corbett
Guerrilla Warfare-Ernesto "Che" Guevara
The Book of Five rings-Miyamoto Musashi

 

[riksavage]

The following are both informative and excellent reads:

War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare - by Robert Taber

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam - by John A. Nagl (on the Westpoint reading list)

Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph - by T.E. Lawrence (all time classic)

 

[Grandstrat]

Modern Strategy - Colin Gray

Strategy in the Contemporary World - Bayliss, Wirtz, Gray, Cohen

On War - Clauswitz (can't argue with a classic)

 

[Manfred2]

What are you interested in?

Air, Naval or Ground?

Techncal, Tactical, operational or strategic?

On War is a good one to start with, and pretty straight-forward. After that, you might want to pick an area of interest to guide your efforts.

 

[StudentofWar]

What are you interested in?

Air, Naval or Ground?

Techncal, Tactical, operational or strategic?

Really all of the above and then some.

On War is a good one to start with, and pretty straight-forward. After that, you might want to pick an area of interest to guide your efforts.

Thanks, good advice.

Anything else you guys would recommend?

 

[Combatintman]

With so many books around it does really depend as other posters have said what your interests are. Warfighting and Insurgency for instance are so different that you will struggle to find anything in one title that covers both although both Sun Tzu and Karl Von Clausewitz have bits of both.

My additional recommendation is a book called Roots of Strategy which has the following titles in one volume:

Art of War by Sun Tzu
Military Institutions of the Romans by Flavius Vegetius Renatus
My Reveries Upon the Art of War by Marshal Maurice de Saxe
The Instruction of Frederick the Great for His Generals
The Military Maxims of Napoleon

The book is published by Stackpole Books.

 

[StudentofWar]

I see that many people agree that my reading should be focused on specific areas rather than just on the broad topic of "War" or "Combat".

Since I would like to take the advice of those here, into what major categories would you place the various forms of Armed Combat? I mean, I know that there are things like Guerilla warfare, Counterinsurgency, etc., but what other areas are there that I could learn quite a bit about in print?

Please excuse my ignorance. I'm an almost absolute newbie at this, so I would definitely appreciate additional help in this respect.

 

[Combatintman]

Studentofwar - you really need to give us a clue, there are more books on the military than you can shake a stick at. However to broaden to the counterinsurgency side, anything by General Frank Kitson is good - his classic work is Low Intensity Operations. You might also try:
Counterinsurgency Warfare Theory and Practice by David Galula
Modern Warfare A French View of Counterinsurgency by Roger Trinquier

A good website for COIN ops with lots of reference is - smallwarsjournal and that will give you some reading ideas as well.

Another good internet resource is the Federation of American Scientists - this has a large amount of background info on kit as well as giving you access to the US Army Field Manuals (FMs).

 

[stud40111]

Good thread.

Anybody care to add to it?

 

[Ender]

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-thry.htm
This has a decent number of full books/essays/handbooks on it. Probably will use it myself to read 'On War' soon.

 

[Twister]

It's better for you to start with "Art of War' by Sun Tzu. Most modern military tactics inspired from this book.

 

[Alatien]

Great thread, much useful information.

I am looking for some books or primers on electronic warfare. Can anyone recommend something in this field?

 

[cavalrytrooper]

Books are great but

I suppose you can read the books and you will learn. The men that wrote the books learned what they knew from experience. They either learned from trial and error, from someone who had already tried certain ideas and they either worked or they didn't. Some just had the ability to lead. It was good old on the job training. The viet cong didn't read any books, they just did it. I'm sure the Taliban are operating on the same principle. If there is the will there is a way.