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Top Ten must have WW2 books in your library

Discussion in 'WWII Books & Publications' started by SgtBrown, Apr 3, 2009.

  1. hucks216

    hucks216 Member

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    As is his follow up - The Storm Of War.
     
  2. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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  3. Ardent Escaper

    Ardent Escaper Member

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    Here's an oldie but a goodie:

    The Great Escape, by Paul Brickhill

    An incredible story of intelligence, determination and courage. The movie only scratched the surface...

    Good reading!

    Marc
     
  4. von Poop

    von Poop Waspish

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    Wahey, a harmless list, I'm in the mood for bit of subjectivity.

    In no particular order (Except no.1, gotta have a number 1).

    1 - War Diaries 1939-1945 - Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke
    (First book I ever read that truly brought the war together for me as an incredibly complex and unified global thing.)
    2 -The Historic Military Vehicles Directory - Bart Vanderveen (blessings be upon him).
    3 - Mechanised Force - David Fletcher
    The Great Tank Scandal - David Fletcher.
    The Universal Tank - David Fletcher.
    (They're three books, but I count them as one because they kind of form a set.)
    4 - The British Army Handbook - George Forty.
    5 - The British Soldier (2 vols) - Jean Bouchery (A Frenchman writes one of the best visual references on the late war British Army; The horror!)
    6 - Mr Churchill's Tank - David Fletcher (It's that man again!)
    7 - Through Hell for Hitler - Henry Mettelmann (Very nearly art.)
    8 - Small Arms, Artillery, and special weapons of the Third Reich - Terry Gander & Peter Chamberlain. (Catchy title, top reference.)
    9 - Tank - Patrick Wright (sort of WW2, but more of a 'social history' of the machine as a whole.)
    10 - British Armour in The Normandy Campaign - John Buckley (doctrinedoctrinedoctrinedoctrine - but a damned fine read nonetheless.)


    I reserve the right to change these choices about every half an hour (Except for Alanbrooke).

    ~A

    By the way...
    You finished a Carver book Richard!?
    Strewth, I've only ever achieved an entirely narcoleptic response to any of his.
     
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  5. von Poop

    von Poop Waspish

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    Anybody for top ten don't have?

    1 - Panzer Aces Vol.1&2
    (Like Barbara Cartland writing for Goebbels)
    2 - SS Steel Rain - Tim Ripley
    3 - SS Steel Storm - Tim Ripley
    4 - Stalingrad - Beevor (How did he make such a clash of arms so dull?)
    5 - The Battle for Spain - Beevor (See above)
    6 - Death Traps - Belton Cooper (Argh!)
    7 - German Army Handbook - James Lucas (Such a disappointment given other excellent titles in the 'Handbook' series)
    8 - Britain's Army In The 20th Century - FM Baron Carver (Top bloke, but no author)
    9 - Lost Victories - von Manstein (Imagine Shaggy singing 'it wasn't me' for hours and hours...)
    10 - Memoirs - Lord Montgomery of Alamein (Nurse! Again, I have massive respect for the man, but he did have a large trumpet, and lord he likes to blow it... I should probably have included Bradley's 'A Soldier's story' too, as the US equivalent of Monty's book for me).

    ~A
     
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  6. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Good Ol' Boy Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Mine's weathered and worn...but that is pretty obvious to most here.

     
  7. MoneyGuy

    MoneyGuy Member

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    So little mention of Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. There are some things I don't like about the book, but I'm just finishing it and have found it engrossing.
     
  8. skipperbob

    skipperbob Member

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    Look for certain authors: Any book by Martin Middlebrook. Takes a certain battle and disects it perfectly.
    Cornelius Ryan: Covered D Day (The Longest Day) - Market Garden, invasion of Holland, and Berlin.
    Roger Freeman and Arthur Price on the airwar over Europe.

    These authors are a good start.
     
  9. TacticalTank

    TacticalTank Member

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    Also check out Albert Axell's "RUSSIA'S HEROES" great stories and of course there true from WWII.
     
  10. TacticalTank

    TacticalTank Member

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    Another great book is "rise and fall of the third reich"
     
  11. A-58

    A-58 Cool Dude

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    I'll add An Army at Dawn to the reader's list.
     
  12. gorehound

    gorehound Member

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    any good books on the Waffen-SS to read.that is the subject i need to research further.
    thanks in advance
     
  13. Martin Bull

    Martin Bull Acting Wg. Cdr

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    There are vast numbers of books on the subject out there. Many are simply rubbish. Which aspect do you need ? Ideological/organizational ? Or 'Waffen-SS in action'.....?
     
  14. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson "The" Rogue of Rogues

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  15. sidemouse

    sidemouse recruit

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    It's interesting that there are practically zero books mentioned on the diplomatic side of the war or the war in Asia.

    I would recommend the following:

    Thorne, Christopher, Allies of a Kind: The United States, Britain, and the War Against
    Japan, 1941-1945.

    Murray, Williamson, The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938-1939: The
    Path to Ruin.

    Wilson, Theodore A., The First Summit: Roosevelt and Churchill at Placentia Bay.

    Sainsbury, Keith, The Turning Point: Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek,
    1943- the Moscow, Cairo and Teheran Conferences.

    McNeill, William H., America, Britain, and Russia: Their Cooperation and Conflict.

    Wright, Gordon, The Ordeal of Total War, 1939-1945.

    Eubank, Keith, Summit at Teheran.

    Beitzell, Robert, The Uneasy Alliance: America, Britain, and Russia, 1941-1943.

    Heinrichs, Waldo, Threshold of War: Franklin Roosevelt and American Entry into WWII.

    Ellis, John. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War.

    D'Este, Carlo, Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome.

    Mawdsley, Evan, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941-1945.

    Liu, Xiaoyuan. A Partnership for Disorder: China, the United States, and their policies
    for the postwar disposition of the Japanese empire, 1941-45.

    Hsiung, James C., and Stevin I. Levine, China’s Bitter Victory: The War with Japan
    1937-1945.
     
  16. USMCPrice

    USMCPrice Idiot at Large

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    I know this is a late reply to Von Poop's comment, but I just read it.

    That has got to be one of the funniest, yet highly accurate statements ever written. If I could still salute that post I wood. Well done sir!
     
  17. LRusso216

    LRusso216 Graybeard Staff Member

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    I don't know if I could choose 10. There might be that many for each theater, in addition to the coming of the war, etc. The list keeps changing with each book I read. Eastern Inferno, Last of the Tin Can Sailors, Neptune's Inferno,... the list is endless.
     
  18. Gromit801

    Gromit801 Member

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    Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
    Fly For Your Life
    Fight for the Sky
    Thunderbolt
    Day of Infamy
    Incredible Victory
    Battleship Sailor • We Will Stand By You
    Churchill's WWII History
    Clear the Bridge
    Nine Lives


    REALLY difficult to stop at ten.
     
  19. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    Enemy at the Gaes by Daniel Craig
    Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
    Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
    Inside the Third Reich by AlbertmSpeer
    Hitler: A study in tyranny by Alan Bullock
    Yalta by S.M. Plokhy
    Frontsaldaten by Stephen G. Fritz
    Code Talker by Chester Nez
    Notes of a Russian Sniper by Vasilli Zaitsev
    FDR's last year by Jim bishop
     
  20. green slime

    green slime Member

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    Some of my favourites:

    The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William Shirer.
    Barbarossa; by Alan Clark
    Into that Darkness; b y Gitta Sereny
    The Wages of Destruction; Adam Tooze
    The Winter War by Eloise Engle & Lauri Paananen
    Beyond Stalingrad; Dana V. Sadarananda
    And Glantz,
     

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