10 Favorite WWII Books

[Mustang]

I like lists. I love the clean, orderly, straight forward way they provide information. Here's mine (In no particular order):

1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer)
2. Citizen Soldiers (Stephen Ambrose)
3. Parachute Infantry (David Kenyon Webster)
4. Black Edelweiss (Johann Voss)
5. In Harm's Way (Doug Stanton)
6. The War As I Knew It (George S. Patton)
7. *American Heritage Picture History of World War II (C.L. Sulzberger)
8. Band Of Brothers (Stephen Ambrose)
9. Sea of Thunder (Evan Thomas)
10. Pacific Legacy: Image and Memory from WWII in the Pacific (Rex Alan Smith & Gerald A. Meehl)

I have my next two books lined up already. I'll be reading "At Dawn We Slept" (Gordon W. Prange) next. Then "With the Old Breed" (E.B. Sledge).

Ironically, despite my avatar, I've not read any WWII books specifically dedicated to the air war. I saw the "Best books on flying in WWII" thread, which is perfect for me. Once I finish "With the Old Breed", I'll pick one from that thread.

I'm hoping to get some more varied ideas on books to put on my list. And they certainly can be pictorials as well...I'm a sucker for a high quality pictorial.

Disclaimer: This list is bound to change over time, as I read more books. I'm certainly not implying that these are the best books. Just the best of what I've read, in my opinion.

*This one's for sentimental reasons.

 

[Harp]

Prange's Dawn is the most definitive account of Pearl Harbor
ever written; however, its author's astigmatism toward pre-war intelligence
renders a deep wound to an otherwise fine book.

 

[dhermann1]

I'm coming into the home stretch on Churchill's 6 volume history of the war. It's an absolute must, and of course, very readable. "On Borrowed Time" by Leonard Mosley gives an account of the period directly leading up to Sept 1939. Arthur Bryant's editing of Lord Alanbrookes's war journals is fascinating. He was Chief of the Imperial General staff from 1941 to 45. "The Desert Generals" by Corelli Barnett is still unread on my shelf, but it's a very important one, too.
I've read diaries and memoirs of many of the main British leaders of the time: Anthony Eden, Harold MacMillan, Duff Cooper, Harold Nicolson, etc. All very worthwhile. Particularly fun is "On the Fringes of Power", the collected diaries of Jock Colville, who was Churchill's private secretary throughout most of the war. As you can see, my interest has so far been in the British side of the story. Two more on my unread list are Cornelius Ryan's "The Last Battle, and John Toland's "The Last 100 Days". I also read Steven Ambrose's great bio of Ike. Ambrose is the guy who started me on all this, and he holds a very esteemed place in my pantheon of favorite authors.
I also own bound volumes of the Leatherneck Magazine from 1944 and 1945. (My parents met in WW II when they both worked on the magazine.) It's just packed with fascinating and amazing stories and pictures.

 

[Mustang]

Prange's Dawn is the most definitive account of Pearl Harbor
ever written; however, its author's astigmatism toward pre-war intelligence
renders a deep wound to an otherwise fine book.

I don't doubt there are faults and/or discrepancies in every book to some degree. Would you recommend a different book (or books) in it's stead?

 

[Mustang]

Churchill's 6 Volume Set

I really want to get it. Maybe I'll ask for it from Santa next year. Churchill is such an incredible writer. It's so big though...very intimidating!

 

[Harp]

I don't doubt there are faults and/or discrepancies in every book to some degree. Would you recommend a different book (or books) in it's stead?

Dawn is the most definitive work available. My prior post largely focused on certain
intelligence issues that remain controversial and are still subject to debate, and which were not
fully addressed by Prange before his death; having been too readily dismissed. I wrote a thesis
over these issues some time ago while flirting with a doctorate--taking exception to Prange's conclusions-
but I strongly recommend Dawn.

 

[fourstarbanner]

I must say that the way Ambrose approached the topics for his books are quite original and refreshing. However, the writing style and sentence structure he uses drive me absolutely crazy. :eusa_doh: Maybe its just a personal thing. Has anyone else found a problem with his style?

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I am not sure I've read 10 books on WW II. Some had WW II in them, however.

Recently, I read Flags of Our Fathers and found it to be quite good, and heartbreaking in so many ways.

The Caine Mutiny, read so long ago, I could not tell you what year I read it.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, did have information in fiction form on Vonnegut's experience being a POW in Dresden when it was firebombed.

The Diary of Anne Frank, both the book and the play. It devasted me. I first read it when I was 15, the same age Anne Frank was when she died.

I had a collection of History of World War II that I acquired from a publishing firm for which I worked. Read many articles and material from those magazines.

I can't recall any others, but I am sure there were. Mostly, I have seen WW II movies and documentaries, most of the good ones.

karol

 

[Naphtali]

Spitfire by Len Deighton -- analysis of Battle of Britain and aircraft involved.

The Ultra Secret by Frederick Winterbotham -- the first history of the German Enigma machines and how their encryption was broken.

Lonely Vigil Walter Lord -- history of coast watchers in south Pacific.

 

[AARP]

The absolutely best WWII book I have ever read (And I've read quite a few; Don't bother to list them though) is Battle Cry by Leon Uris. The author does an outstanding job writing a fictional novel from the viewpoint of both a Seregeant and a Private in the Island-hopping campaign. One of the reasons Uris tells this story so well is because he was a private in the marines and saw the war for what it was. I advise you all to read this story. You will not be able to set it down. http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Cry-Leon-Uris/dp/006075186X

 

[Spitfire]

I really want to get it. Maybe I'll ask for it from Santa next year. Churchill is such an incredible writer. It's so big though...very intimidating!

Please observe that Churchill himself edited the 6 volume thing down to a two volume - and recieved a Litteratureaward for it!
It is absolutely worth a read.

 

[dhermann1]

Churchill

I'm, about 100 pages into vol 6 (tho since I don't have vol 1 I haven't read it), and I can say it's pretty much a very easy read. People find it hard to believe, but a lot of WSC's stuff was ghost written, under his very strict supervision and editing. The only problem I have with it is that he interpolates somewhat long memos from the time, and those can get a little dull. He saves a lot of the other background material for the appendices. I have only skimmed these appendices. I read "My Early Life", which I WHOLEHEARTEDLY recommend, and I also want to read his 4 volume tome on WW I, "The World Crisis". Can't beat Churchill with a stick. Agree with him or not, approve of him or not, he's just wonderful. My fondest wish is to approach life with the utter zest that he had.

 

[Jay]

I must say that the way Ambrose approached the topics for his books are quite original and refreshing. However, the writing style and sentence structure he uses drive me absolutely crazy. :eusa_doh: Maybe its just a personal thing. Has anyone else found a problem with his style?

I'll agree it seems kind of weird. Plus I always end up reading the cited number-things as part of the sentence. Damn things drive me crazy.

Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone read Prisoner of War by Kenneth W. Simmons. I got it from the local Air Victory Museum when they were ridding their stagnant collection of old books* and this was one of the best. B-24 bombardier in England is shot down and lands in the town he just bombed, barely escapes getting killed by locals, and eventually ends up at Dulag Luft and becomes part of the group tunneling out, etc. One of the best books I've ever read, and yet I haven't seen it in print recently. A shame, really.



*For 2 bucks apiece, they let me and my nephew fill a plastic shopping bag with old books about aviation, WW1, WW2, pretty much anything... When they saw how we wedged enough books to fill out the bag into a big cube, they gave us another...

 

[AmateisGal]

Wow. I don't know that I can narrow my list down to the top 10.

For fiction, I have to say Ken Follett's books - Jackdaws, Hornet Flight and also Greg Iles's books - Spandau Phoenix and Black Cross are at the very top of my list.

Nonfiction - Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. Chilling and horrifying and a definite MUST READ.

Flags of Our Fathers - I loved how it was written - highly readable and very personal.

Nazi Germany and the Jews by Saul Friedlander

 

[Mustang]

I must say that the way Ambrose approached the topics for his books are quite original and refreshing. However, the writing style and sentence structure he uses drive me absolutely crazy. :eusa_doh: Maybe its just a personal thing. Has anyone else found a problem with his style?

I've read quite a few of his books, but it was quite a while ago. If my memory serves me correctly, I do seem to recall getting somewhat agitated (maybe frustrated is a better word) every once in a while when it came to his writing style. Then again, maybe my memory is playing tricks on me[huh] :eusa_doh:

Please observe that Churchill himself edited the 6 volume thing down to a two volume - and recieved a Litteratureaward for it!
It is absolutely worth a read.

Spitfire & dhermann1 (and any others who'd care to chime in)...Would I be missing a lot of good stuff if I were to get the "Abridged", two volume version instead of the full set?

My problem isn't that I don't want to read the whole thing, it's just that time (wife+children+work+misc. activities/obsession=time) only permits so much reading, and I'm really trying to broaden my horizon's, so to speak. I want to read more about the pacific war as well as the air war in general...and in specific. After perusing this site, I've come to realize how little I know about the air war. :eusa_doh:

 

[Fletch]

7. *American Heritage Picture History of World War II (C.L. Sulzberger)

My mom was chief copy editor on this. She swears to this day that Sulzberger plagiarized sizable passages from other writers, and that his stint as a war correspondent consisted largely of hanging out in hotel bars in R&R areas and drinking like it was going out of style.

A book that pulls together a lot of lesser-known history of the early war in Europe is Richard Collier's 1940 The World in Flames. It pays particular attention to the invasions of Norway and Finland, which don't get a lot of attention in the big picture.

 

[Mustang]

My mom was chief copy editor on this. She swears to this day that Sulzberger plagiarized sizable passages from other writers, and that his stint as a war correspondent consisted largely of hanging out in hotel bars in R&R areas and drinking like it was going out of style.

Nice . Maybe that's why Ambrose rewrote it in the new, revised/updated version ...I have that version too!

As footnoted, my main reason for including it is sentimental. I received it as a Christmas present when I was REALLY young (probably 6 or 7), and would take it over to by grandpa's house and we would pour over the pages and he would talk about the war, both his involvement and general discussion. I loved every second of it! I still have it. It's pretty beaten up though. It was my first book about WWII.

 

[Trotsky]

Here goes:


1. In Command of History by David Reynolds: This is the book about Churchill writing his history of the War. A very good read, I really like Reynolds and was lucky enough to meet him.

2. SAS with the Marquis: About a chap with the 1st SAS in the months after D-Day. He jumped in with a small team and tore ass around France looking for the shit. He found it too.

3. Hitler's U-Boat War Volumes 1 and 2 by Clay Blair: Massive volumes that paint a fairly complete picture of U-Boat operations. Well written and the same author had a volume on the American Sub war in the Pacific.

4. Hostilities Only: Training with the Wartime Royal Navy: Exactly as it says, well done and illustrated.

5. The Battle of Okinawa by George Fiefer: Again, self explanatory. Good read that tells the battle from both sides. Next time you get into a debate about the validity of the Atomic Bomb, have them read this book.

6. Touched With Fire by Eric Berger: About the war in the Pacific, details aspects of the fight from all sides, really good read. My copy is annotated by its previous owner who served in mortars, judging from his scribbles.

7. Eyewitness War edited by the Imperial War Museum: a volume of personal accounts from all sides of the war. While just snippets they provide a good, personal view of the Second World War.

8. Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius: The German perspective on things. Carius is very good at writing this homage to the men he served with, under and commanded. He was in a unit of Panzer VIs, also known as Tigers.

9. He Who Dares: Another SAS personal account, I do not have the book in front of me, but the author served with the SAS in Italy and France, I believe.

10. Winged Dagger: Cheating, I suppose, but Roy Farren is one of the godfathers of the SAS and died just recently in Canada. I do WWII SAS as a reenactor and these books provide such good insight into the man on the ground and how he reacted to and dealt with problems that arose. In many ways the WWII SAS were pirates of a sort and suffered similar casualty rates for it.

Now I have read many, many books on the Second World War and these 10 are much more recent. In reality it would be far too difficult to come up with 10 I consider the best.

 

[Cobden]

I recommend eveyone read HMS Ulysses by Alistair MacLean. He's more famous for his Boy's Own type adventure novels (Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone), but this is very different indeed. A brilliant book

 

[dr greg]

forgotten

This one amazed me, i'd never heard of it
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Huertgen-Forest-Charles-MacDonald/dp/0812218310
and I really like this one
They hosed them out;: A story of Australian air gunners in the Royal Air Force by John Beede, a great read