# List of authors in war

Many of the authors that served in various real-life wars (and survived) wrote stories that are at least somewhat based on their own experiences. Some of them are outright memoirs or fictionalized accounts of their exploits.

## Greco-Persian Wars

* Xenophon, (Anabasis)

## Gallic War

* Julius Caesar, (De Bello Gallico)

## Napoleonic Wars

* Jakob Walter

## American Civil War

* Ambrose Bierce
* August Hjalmar Edgren
* Walt Whitman Nurse

## Mexican Revolution

* Mariano Azuela, (Los de abajo)

## World War I

* Henri Barbusse, served in France (Under Fire)
* E. E. Cummings, volunteer ambulance driver (The Enormous Room)
* Robert Graves, infantry officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Goodbye to All That)
* Jaroslav Hašek, served in Austrian and Czech armies (who were on opposing sides), (The Good Soldier Švejk)
* Ernest Hemingway, drove ambulances in Italy (A Farewell to Arms)
* William Hope Hodgson, Killed by the direct impact of an artillery shell at the Fourth Battle of Ypres (The House on the Borderland)
* Ernst Jünger, (Sturm, Storm of Steel)
* T. E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia (Seven Pillars of Wisdom)
* C. S. Lewis, British Army, Third Battalion Somerset Light Infantry, served in trench warfare at Somme Valley (The Chronicles of Narnia)
* A. A. Milne, British Army, British Home Guard
* Emilio Lussu, (Sardinian Brigade)
* H. E. L. Mellersh, infantry officer in the East Lancashire Regiment (Schoolboy Into War)
* Wilfred Owen
* Erich Maria Remarque, infantry soldier, wounded in Passchendaele (All Quiet on the Western Front)
* Ludwig Renn, company commander, and a field battalion commander, Saxon Guard Regiment ("Krieg", "Nachkrieg", "War")
* Siegfried Sassoon, infantry officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Memoirs of an Infantry Officer)
* J. R. R. Tolkien, Lancashire Fusiliers, served in trench warfare at Somme Valley, Battle at Thiepval Ridge and assault on Schwaben Redoubt (The Lord of the Rings), 2nd Lt.
* Lajos Zilahy, (Century in Scarlet)
* Joyce Kilmer, killed during the Second Battle of Marne
* Adolf Hitler, served as a lance corporal in the Bavarian Army

## Spanish Civil War

* Alvah Bessie, volunteer, served in the Abraham Lincoln XV International Brigade on the Republican side (Men In Battle; A Story Of Americans In Spain)
* Arthur Koestler, interned by the Nationalists
* Laurie Lee, served on the Republican side (A Moment of War)
* George Orwell, served and wounded on the Republican side (Homage to Catalonia)
* Albert Prago, volunteer, served in the Abraham Lincoln XV International Brigade on the Republican side (Our fight : writings by veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Spain, 1936–1939)
* Gustaf Munch-Petersen, served and died in the International Brigades

## World War II

* Brian Aldiss, Royal Corps of Signals, saw action in Burma (Non-Stop, [No Time Like Tomorrow])
* Kingsley Amis, Royal Corps of Signals (Lucky Jim)
* Philip Appleman
* Ashley Bryan, Operation Overlord, Omaha Beach (Artist and Author, Wrote Infinite Hope: A Black Artist's Journey from World War II to Peace about his experiences )
* Isaac Asimov, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station, United States Army (Foundation)
* J. G. Ballard, interned as a boy in Shanghai (Empire of the Sun)
* Capt. Edward L. Beach, Jr., United States Navy (Run Silent, Run Deep)
* Earle Birney, Canadian Army (Turvey)
* Pierre Boulle, British Special Forces (Bridge on the River Kwai)
* Flt. Lt. Arthur C. Clarke, Royal Air Force (2001: A Space Odyssey)
* Col. Hal Clement, pilot Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 68th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, European Theatre (Mission of Gravity)
* L. Sprague de Camp, Philadelphia Navy Yard Naval Air Experimentation Station (Lest Darkness Fall) pilot
* Roald Dahl, Royal Air Force, saw combat in the Mediterranean and was a flying ace. Wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
* Anthony Faramus, survived Fort de Romainville, Buchenwald and Mauthausen concentration camps (Journey Into Darkness. 1990)
* Frank Kelly Freas, United States Army Air Forces, South Pacific
* Samuel Fuller, – (The Big Red One)
* H. L. Gold, United States Army (Beyond Fantasy Fiction)
* William Golding, participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, commanding a landing ship that fired salvoes of rockets onto the beaches, and was in action at Walcheren at which 23 out of 24 assault craft were sunk. (Lord of the Flies)
* .Günter Grass Nobel Prize 1999, Waffen-SS, Germany. Tin Drum
* James Gunn (author), U.S. Navy (This Fortress World)
* Dashiell Hammett, was assigned to Army Intelligence on the Aleutian Islands. He assisted in writing Battle of the Aleutians... He went on to write a number of detective novels
* Sven Hassel, Danish-born penal regiment soldier
* Robert A. Heinlein, Lt., graduate of the United States Naval Academy. Served in U.S. Navy aboard USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Roper (DD-147), Philadelphia Navy Yard (Stranger in a Strange Land)
* Joseph Heller, served in 12th Air Force (Catch-22)
* Herman Wouk, served in the Navy, Pacific (The Caine Mutiny)
* Frank Herbert, U.S. Navy Seabees (Dune)
* James Herriot, served in the Royal Air Force
* L. Ron Hubbard, U.S. Navy (The Way to Happiness)
* James Jones (author), 25th Infantry Division, United States Army, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal (From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line)
* Lt.Col Jorma Karhunen, Finnish fighter ace and Mannerheim Cross awardee, a notable fiction and history author
* Cyril M. Kornbluth, United States Army. Bronze Star recipient for service as heavy machine gunner at the Battle of the Bulge (The Space Merchants)
* R. A. Lafferty, 1st Sgt., United States Army Pacific Theatre (Fourth Mansions)
* Alistair MacLean, Royal Navy (HMS Ulysses)
* Sgt. Väinö Linna, served in the Finnish army
* Norman Mailer, served in South Pacific (The Naked and the Dead)
* Harry Martinson, Swedish volunteer in Winter War (Verklighet Till Döds)
* John Masters Gurkha officer, served in North Africa and Burma with the Chindits (Bhowani Junction, The Road Past Mandalay)
* Samuel Menashe, United States Army, served in the Battle of the Bulge.
* Nicholas Monsarrat, served in the Royal Navy
* Sgt. Frederik Pohl, United States Army Air Forces, 456th Bombardment Group, European Theatre (Gateway)
* Douglas Reeman, served in the Royal Navy
* Cornelius Ryan, war correspondent in the US Army
* J.D. Salinger, United States Army, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, active at Utah Beach on D-Day, in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. (The Catcher in the Rye)
* Harvey Shapiro, United States Army Air Force, flew 35 combat missions over Europe as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
* Col. Konstantin Simonov, Soviet Army (The Immortal Garrison)
* C.J.R. Tolkien, served in the Fleet Air Arm
* Leon Uris, United States Marine Corps, Pacific Theatre, Guadalcanal, Tarawa (Battle Cry)
* A. E. van Vogt, Canadian Department of National Defence (Slan)
* Pvt. Gore Vidal, United States Army (Julian)
* Pvt. Kurt Vonnegut, United States Army infantry soldier, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, survived bombing of Dresden as a POW (Slaughterhouse Five)
* Lt. Evelyn Waugh, Royal Marines, later Royal Horse Guards served in Crete and Yugoslavia (Men at Arms, The End of the Battle)
* Jack Williamson, U.S. Army Air Corps (Darker Than You Think)
* William Woodruff was a Major in the 24th Guards Brigade of the British 1st Infantry Division at Anzio. Vessel of Sadness is based on his experience of the battle.
* Cpl. John Wyndham, Royal Corps of Signals, landed at Normandy (The Day of the Triffids)
* Richard Yates (novelist)

## Korean War

* "Richard Hooker"

## First Indochina War

* Pierre Schoendoerffer

## Vietnam War

* David Drake
* David Hackworth, in US Army (Vietnam Primer, About Face, Steel My Soldiers' Hearts)
* Joe Haldeman
* Gustav Hasford
* Ron Kovic
* Karl Marlantes, US Marine Corps (What it is Like to Go to War, Matterhorn)
* Tim O'Brien
* James Robinson Risner
* Senator Jim Webb
* Tobias Wolff
* Stephen Wright
* Robert Jordan US Army helicopter gunner

## Falklands War

* Robert Lawrence, (When The Fighting Is Over)

## Gulf War

* "Andy McNab"
* "Chris Ryan"
* Anthony Swofford, in US Marines (Jarhead (book))

## Iraq War

* Colby Buzzell

## Afghanistan War

* Weston Ochse