WWII veteran authors

[Djeserit]

I'm sitting here on Memorial Day and trapped inside for a few hours. Watching American TV; it's all war movies today.

Playing a mental game trying to make a list of books by authors who are/were veterans of WWII era.

Rules:
- The writer saw military service during the WWII era, say 1935 (Ethiopia) to 1945. (WWII did not start in 1941; I just saw an American documentary that actually said that.) Second Sino-Jap war is OK, First Sino-Jap war doesn't count.
- Can be from any country, may be serving in the armed forces anyplace (Hemingway, Orwell).
- Did not necessarily see combat (Gore Vidal, William Brinkley).
- Didn't necessarily write about war, books could be about anything (Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf).
- Fiction or poetry only, non-fiction doesn't count.

Authors:
Most Prominant:
George Orwell (Eric Blair) (Spain, PUOM militia, shot in the neck)
Hemingway (Spain, OK he was just a war correspondent, but he was shot at, and he was an ambulance driver in the frst war.)
Farley Mowat (tank driver in Italy, became so nihilistic after the war he didn't want to live around people anymore, decided wolves were more friendly)
Gore Vidal (garrison duty in Alaska, never saw actual combat, but boyfriend was a marine killed at Iwo Jima I think)
Joseph Heller (B-25 bombardier, 60 missions, mostly with no opposition)
Kurt Vonnegut (infantryman, captured Battle of the Bulge)

Lesser known:
William Brinkley (Propaganda officer in the South Pacific, wrote Don't Go Near the Water based on his experiences)

Here's where you come in...

I know there are a lot of Military/history buffs on this forum. Help me out; add your favorite book(s) to the list. I got some serious vacation time coming up, so maybe I'll get some reading done while I'm away from DDO...

[RabidKoala]

Just WWII or WWI and II?

[Djeserit]

Just second war, there are no movies about the first war today for some reason.

I included Hemingway because, as a journalist, he did come under fire from Fascist troops in Spain. His service as a Red Cross ambulance driver in WWI gives him much cred, but isn't the reason I included him on the list.

WWI will have to be on another thread, starting with just ambulance drivers:

John Dos Pasos
EE Comings
Somerset Maugham

as well as Papa.

[Djeserit]

Yukio Mishima doesn't count, btw, faked an illness to avoid military service.

[donblas]

L Sprague de Camp (SF writer) was a researcher at the Philadelphia Naval Yard (with Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein) in WWII, became Lt Commander in Navy Reserve

[Vellrad]

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
Wrote the book "A World Apart"
About Soviet labor camps during the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_World_Apart_%28book%29


Tadeusz Borowski
Wrote series of short novels, few about living in occupied city, but mosty about living in German concentration camp.
Novels was published in tome "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentleman".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Wa..._and_Gentlemen


Aleksander Kamiński
Was writing about resistance during the first few years of war, he wrote couple of books, I don't know if they was transated to English, and, if yes, their English tittles.


This may be a little off from your request, however Hanna Krall wrote book- interview with the last living survivor of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, book was translated to English as "Shielding the Flame". This is very interesting reading.

[Djeserit]

Very interesting. Will definately look into those. Edit - ordered both Polish books, the internet is a wonderful thing

I left out Primo Levi, because La tregua is non-fiction.

Didn't know that about L Sprague de Camp, thanks for the info.