Your favourite WWII book

As a very good general history of the Pacific War, Eagle Against The Sun by Ronald Spector cant be topped.


The official American Army histories are absolutely essential for anyone wanting to know about its role in the war. Extremely engaging, detailed, and unbiased.

The official USN history by Samuel Eliot Morrison is also essential, for the same reasons. Morrison abridged his multivolume history to make an extremely good 1-volume work called The Two-Ocean War.

 

Ask me tomorrow and you'll get a different answer, but for today I would say that for fiction I would pick Winter - Len Deighton the story of a well to do Berlin family from 1899-1945.
For non-fiction my pick is the hard to find(and rarely looked for) Hitlers Death March - Morris Krantz the true story of a Jewish Polish teenager and his years in hiding in Poland leading up to his joining the resistance and then finally linking up with the Red Army.

 

My favorite book about WW2 is, as is Kai's, the Unknown soldier from Vaino Linna. I also like the movie.
Next on the list are Ernie Pyles two books and Len Deighton's Bomber.

 

My favourites have to be The Second World War by Winston Churchill and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer.

Both go into the politics surrounding WW2 and it makes for very interesting reading.

From a more all boys action orientated flick my favourites have to be 'If you Survive' by George Wilson and despite people questioning its authenticity 'The Forgotten Soldier' by Guy Sajer.

 

Arnhem 1944 by Martin Middlebrrook.Quite simply at the time i read it one of the best books on the battle i still look in it now for reference.

 

An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. The first part of the Liberation series.

 

Yeah I read this and thoroughly enjoyed it... are the other two out yet. I remember waiting for them for a long time but they never seemed to be on the horizon.

 

I can't say I have a favorite as I loved plenty of books... Maybe Kursk: A statistical analysis... I guess the charts and tables even without the shiny colors take my breath away...



Cheers...

 

On the spot, I'd go for:

Sniper on the Eastern Front by Albrecht Wacker

Johnny the partisan by Beppe Fenoglio (novel about the resistance in Italy seen through the eyes of a cultured and idealist student)

Flags of our fathers by James Bradley

 

At Dawn We Slept. Great read, loved the detail. I am not sure it is my favorite but it is about as close as it gets right now. Flags was good, so was Stalingrad, and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.... I like most books, it may border on addiction.

 

Eugene Sledge "With the Old Breed" and Flags of our Fathers.

 

Universal tank by Fletcher is a Must have book
Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke book is now in the post to
Thanks mate

 

It's a shame I read very few WW2 books because they are quite good.

One of the few I have and like is "Tobruk" by Peter Fitzsimons which does an excellent and detailed job of telling the life of Australian soldiers fighting in North Africa (i.e. Tobruk). You may of heard of his previous book, which I think is called "Kokoda".

Anyway, I'll have to read more WW2 books .

Kaiser.

 

"Guadalcanal Diary" by RIchard Tregaskis

Which I read in the sixth grade and the book that originally got me hooked on WWII history (the real deal-not the fantasy version). It also got me wondering just what the actual vets (not the truckdrivers and paper shufflers who fancied themselves "heroes") in my neighborhood went through...
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2211311250030546503WqmbJJ?vhost=good-times

Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis (Used, New, Out-of-Print) - Alibris

 

MY FAVOURITES ARE
THE AFRIKA KORPS
D-DAY BY STEVEN E AMBROSE
SS THE BLOOD SOAKED SOIL
ON HITLERS DOORSTEP

 

I would also have to say The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - Shirer. I know he is very jaded, but there is just so much information in that book. I have been working on it for about 5 years now...I keep flipping all over the place. Hmmm, I wonder how many times I have read it all the way through! I don't think I will ever not have several bookmarks in this one! I actually had to get a hardcover version as I beat the hell out of my paperback copy! All the pages are falling out!

 

ALL AMERICAN ALL THE WAY by phill Nordyke... a pretty exhaustive and wonderfully researched volume on the the 82nd abn Div in ww2... tons of personal accounts... And Shelby Stantons WORLD WAR 2 ORDER OF BATTLE... Excellent reference on american and marine ground units in ww2.. as is his Viet nam order of abttle concerning Viet nam.. I used to be a big Ambrose fan till i spoke to Donald Burgett who wrote CURRAHEE and several other books.... he kinda clued me in on ambrose borrowing things

 

The Interrogator by Raymond F. Toliver (The story of Hanns Joachim Scharff - master interrogator of the Luftwaffe)

The Donald Burgette series (Currahee!, The Road to Arnhem, Seven Roads to Hell, and Beyond the Rhine) = all first-hand accounts

If You Survive by George Wilson (Another first-hand account)

Those are my favorites...there have been others that I like, and some that I loathed.

 

I read that book at LSU in my WW2 history class. I agree with your description, a well written piece showing the average joes doing their jobs.

And I would like to add my favorite book now. "The US Army in WW2" is my choice. It covers each army units individual history from conception until the end of the war, battle honors, combat narratives, organizational tables, casualties, you name, it's got it. It covers each type of division, regiment, independant battlions, and smaller units. It's a must have for all interested in WW2 US Army organization. I give it two thumbs up (that's all I have).

 

I would have to go with Torpedo run by Douglas Reeman. Fiction, simple and probably best for a teenager but that is what I was when it got me interested in the rest of his books. And so my second world war interest began.....for that reason it deserves my award of favourite.

BEST World War 2 book is difficult as I dont have many. I found second world war by Martin Gilbert useful for an overlook of the war and a way of finding specific things that I wanted to know more about, which led me to A bridge too far by Cornelius Ryan which is excellent.

Worth a mention is The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill as a quick read and a way of finding out how accurate the film was/wasn't.