In reply to Bobling:
> ...If you are interested in that sort of thing then I can't recomend highly enough Simon Murray's "Legionnaire". I've read that four or five times I think and it's fantastic every time...
Well, that sounds worth reading. I will put that on my list, too. I do like the first hand accounts from people who've actually lived and experienced something. I've recently read three books by a chap called Kemp who travelled from England to join the Spanish Nationalists as a youngster in their civil war, then worked for the British behind enemy lines in eastern Europe during ww2 and ended up in the Pacific at the Japanese surrender. There was some action in the books to liven things up, but also lots of interesting information about the cultures of the people he was working alongside, and the politics of the situations which made the books a good read.
I'll add, to give political balance, that I also read Laurie Lee's account of fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish war, not just Kemp's with the Nationalists. You've probably read them, but if not they are worth the time.