Answer by Commander Rathore:
An Officer in the Armed Forces need to know much more than just how to pull trigger of a weapon. They need to respond conclusively to any situation (often with limited information) and effectively lead and inspire others. Therefore, you as an officer will be learning throughout your life in the Armed Forces.
You will have to work hard to learn the unit's tactical standard operating procedure, battle drills, field standards, maintenance procedures, and regulations. Professional development is something you should constantly pursue. Any good program of self-development should include vigorous professional reading. Most of you will find that the weaponry, vehicles (armoured etc), communication equipment and tactics are changing in the services constantly. Thus, you will be keeping yourself updated with every equipment in the unit. Those of you serving in the Indian Navy or Indian Air force as officers will get to operate/maintain different ships and aircrafts every few years. Thus, learning must be a regular habit.
There will be a requirement of passing certain written examination in Armed Forces at every stage. Hence, you will have to study to get good grades in those examination. In addition, you might be tasked to train your subordinates (though you might not be an education officer), for which you will have to prepare and educate them.
We must be aware of how wars are fought and how are situation in war tackled because experience of others will make us wiser. In addition, we need to be aware of the ways our sister forces operate and execute the tasks given to them. Therefore, we must read strategy and tactics. With every passing year, we need to be a better leader so you will need to read books on leadership too.
Lastly, the intelligence reports (current affairs) published monthly/quarterly will be available in every unit in form of secret publication. You must go through them too.
These are some of the books that Officers should read but these are voluminous. So, most of the candidates will find this utterly boring but for officers these books are like War Textbooks. I am giving you some recommended titles.
Books on History:
Battles that Changed History: An Encyclopaedia of World Conflict.
History of the Second World War – Liddell Hart.
Infantry Attacks – F M Erwin Rommel
The Indian Army After Independence – K C Praval.
Books on Strategy and Tactics:
Guerrilla Warfare: Irregular Warfare in the Twentieth Century – William Weir.
Essentials of Military Knowledge – Maj Gen DK Palit.
The Profession of Arms – Gen Sir John Hackett.
Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Books on Leadership:
Platoon Leader – James Mc Donough.
The Officer as a Leader by S L A Marshall.
Small Unit Leadership: A Common-sense Approach - Dandridge M Malone.
Demystifying Military Leadership by Lt Gen H.B Kala.
Follow Me II – Maj Gen Aubrey, “Red” Newman.