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Looking for books about wars in Africa

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  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Vancouver, the "wet coast"
Looking for books about wars in Africa
Posted by castelnuovo on Saturday, December 21, 2019 11:40 PM

Not WW2 books but books about numerous bigger and smaller wars/conflicts/actions etc that happened after WW2, 1950s 60s 70s etc. I read tons of books about wars in Europe, have few more to read about WW2 in the pacific and now would like to expand to post WW2 Afica.

Many thanks Smile

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: USA
Posted by keavdog on Sunday, December 22, 2019 12:07 AM

Check out Osprey books.  Great stuff.

Thanks,

John

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Western North Carolina
Posted by Tojo72 on Sunday, December 22, 2019 6:58 AM

Anything about Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck and his WWI campaign in German East Africa,fascinating.The one by Edwin Hoyt was very good.

A little off your topic,but had to put it out there.

I also read one about Katanga by Christopher Othen

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Sunday, December 22, 2019 10:27 AM

There are so many post WWII conflicts to choose from in Africa- border wars, wars of independence, civil wars, Cold War proxy wars, communist and Islamic insugencies.... It has not been pretty there.

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Sunday, December 22, 2019 11:07 AM

One thing I find really useful about Wikipedia are the footnotes to the more well-written articles.

As Carlos notes, it's a very difficult subject considering the atrocious human suffering that seems attached to the manner in which these conflicts occur. For instance, 2 million people starved to death in the Nigerian Civil War.

Do share what you find readable, I'm interested.

 

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Sonora Desert
Posted by stikpusher on Sunday, December 22, 2019 11:34 AM

One book I can suggest was a history of the French Foreign Legion, “March or Die”. Although only the last few chapters cover the subject area, and it was written in the early 80’s or so, it does cover the Algerian War of Independence well. At least as far as the Legion’s involvement is concerned. Another book that I did read and was ok was titled “Mercenary” by the former commanding officer of a mercenary commando that worked with the Belgian Paras in the Belgian Congo during 1964. 

The long running war between Angola and South Africa is a very interesting conflict to study which ran the gamut from special operations to armored warfare and jet dogfights.

 

F is for FIRE, That burns down the whole town!

U is for URANIUM... BOMBS!

N is for NO SURVIVORS...

       - Plankton

LSM

 

  • Member since
    September 2015
  • From: The Redwood Empire
Posted by Aaronw on Saturday, December 28, 2019 6:57 PM

I have several Osprey books on the various post WW2 African wars and they provide a nice overview.

I find the African and South American wars very interesting (1930s and post WW2) but just haven't had the time to do a great deal of reading on them. I have a pile of books saved on my Amazon wish list.

I haven't read them, so not an endorsement but a few that have caught my eye:

Recce: Small Team Missions Behind Enemy Lines by Koos Stadler

Continent Ablaze: The Insurgency Wars in Africa 1960 to the Present by John W. Turner

Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War 1961-74 by John P. Cann

Portugal's War in Angola by W.A. van der Waals

Biafra: the Nigerian Civil War 1967-70 by Peter Baxter

Katanga 1960-63: Mercenaries, Spies and the African Nation that waged war on the World by Christopher Othen

Wars and insurgencies of Uganda 1971-1994 by Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz

The Flechas: Insurgeant hunting in Eastern Angola 1965-74 by John P. Cann

The Paras: Portugals first elite force in Africa 1961-74 by John P. Cann (if you search John P. Cann he has done a bunch of book on Portugal's wars in Africa).

Zambezi Valley Insurgency: Early Rhodesian Bush War Operations by J.R.T. Wood

Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80 by Peter Baxter

Bush War Rhodesia 1966-80 by Peter Baxter (search Peter Baxter he has written several books on African Wars)

 

Not post war but I have read The Great War in Africa 1914-18 by Byron Farwell. It covers all of the conflicts in Africa during WW1 where most books just look at the operations surrounding Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa. To be fair that was the big show in Africa at the time and it accounts for the bulk of this book as well. A very overlooked part of WW1 and quite interesting, nothing at all like the trench warfare in Western Europe.    

 

Fiction but Frederick Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War is a good read about a mecenary operation to overthrow an African nation. 

 

 

  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Vancouver, the "wet coast"
Posted by castelnuovo on Saturday, December 28, 2019 10:45 PM

Thank you all for suggestions. Will look 'em up :-)

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: USA
Posted by keavdog on Sunday, December 29, 2019 3:55 AM

I'm not familiar with the recent wars but spent some time reading about the late 1800 imperial wars.  Chelmsford, Wosley, Gordon and Kitchner.  Did a couple figures as well.

Thanks,

John

  • Member since
    April 2006
  • From: Denver, Colorado
Posted by waynec on Monday, January 13, 2020 10:57 PM

 

Three Sips of Gin: Dominating the Battlespace with Rhodesia's famed Selous Scouts

by Timothy Bax
Amazon Kindle
 
look toward the bottom for related books.

 

Никто не Забыт    (No one is Forgotten)
Ничто не Забыто  (Nothing is Forgotten)

 

  • Member since
    September 2015
  • From: The Redwood Empire
Posted by Aaronw on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 6:41 PM

After going though my Amazon list for my earlier post I ended up ordering Continent Ablaze which is on my earlier list. It does a pretty good job of highlighting all of the major African wars from 1960 into the 1990s (it was published in 1998). Not super detailed, Rhodesia for example gets 18 pages, but certainly enough detail to help you decide which conflicts you want to explore in more depth.

 

There were plenty of used copies available on Amazon, I think I only paid around $10. 

  • Member since
    May 2015
Posted by Griffin25 on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 9:21 AM

There's also the Africa @ War series by Helion publishing. Its similar to Osprey style books. I think there are 30 of them. 

 

 

Griffin

  • Member since
    July 2008
  • From: Vancouver, the "wet coast"
Posted by castelnuovo on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 11:22 PM

Thank you all Smile

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: Seattle, WA
Posted by Surface_Line on Tuesday, January 28, 2020 7:31 PM

Sorry for the late reply.  Wilbur Smith has written novels about a family over a period of several hundred years against the background of southern Africa.  AsI read, needed to keep checking history books and maps to visualize the descriptions in Smith's books.  Very enjoyable.

 

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