If you haven't read the Flashman series by George MacDonald Fraser I highly recommend it. These books detail the unlikely adventures of an English Victorian-era soldier/intelligence officer in every hot-spot of the British Empire from Afghanistan to Abysinia. They are ribald, politically-incorrect, heavily researched and the footnotes contain a wealth of primary sources. They've certainly introduced me to many distant, dusty corners of history and forgotten personages.

The author himself is a WWII infantry veteran of the Burma theater (check out his book "Quartered Safe Out Here") and post-WWII Libya. His collected "McAuslan" short stories are humorous, but are basically roman-a-clef memoirs of small-unit actions in a MOOTW environment. You can get a complete set of those in one volume from Amazon.UK ("The Complete McAuslan").