WWII (non-fiction) recommendations

snape · 05-08-2009, 12:17 AM

I'll start the topic off with a few of my favorites:

In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton. I can't remember how many times I said "Wow" while I was reading it.

David Howarth's The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure as well as The Sledge Patrol: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Victory were fantastic. While the titles seem a little too similar, the books weren't redundant in the least.

Unfortunately, I don't think any of these are available electronically.

I'd still recommend them without reservation.

Snowman · 05-08-2009, 02:28 AM

Winston Churchill's magnum opus is available at Fictionwise - all 6 volumes of The Second World War

Snowman

BlackVoid · 05-08-2009, 03:53 AM

If you want an overview of the war, the best is:
History Of The Second World War
by B. H. Liddell Hart
http://www.amazon.com/History-Second.../dp/0306809125

Also good:
Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard B. Frank
Panzer Leader by Heinz Guderian
Samurai! by Saburo Sakai - account of a top japanese ace.

Sparrow · 05-08-2009, 05:28 AM

'Stalingrad' by Antony Beevor

Won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction, the Wolfson History prize, and the Hawthornden prize.

It's quite good.

wayspooled · 05-08-2009, 10:55 AM

Some of my favorites, but most are only available for Kindle. A few in PDF by the publisher by the publisher directly or specialty shop (At least I didn't see them when I just looked.)

I'll tell you right off though, I'm more interested in personal memories and scholarly research than I am in touchy-feely retroactive rewritings of history for the purpose of selling books. So you'll see that theme.

Quartered Safe Out Here - George MacDonald Fraser (war in Far East/Burma)

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 - Rick Atkinson

Admiral Arleigh Burke - E.B. Potter (general pre-war navy and war in the Pacific mostly)

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour - James Hornfischer

Down to the Sea - Bruce Henderson

The Depths of Courage: American Submariners at War with Japan, 1941-1945 - Flint Whitlock and Ron Smith

The Bravest Man: Richard O'Kane and the Amazing Submarine Adventures of the USS Tang - William Tuohy

The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections - Tom Brokaw

Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito, and Roger Pineau

Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - William Manchester (audiobook only I think)

With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda

The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II by Olga Greenlaw and Daniel Ford

Panzer Leader by Heinz Guderian

snape · 05-12-2009, 11:59 AM

Quote:

I'm more interested in personal memories and scholarly research than I am in touchy-feely retroactive rewritings of history for the purpose of selling books.

Same here.

@wayspooled - Your list looks a lot like my shelf. I have several of the titles you mentioned, but some of the others I haven't read yet. I'll have to track them down.

Another that I found fascinating was Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya.

Greg Anos · 05-12-2009, 12:33 PM

I recommend The Rising Sun by John Toland, WWII from the Japanese perspective.

BenG · 05-12-2009, 12:49 PM

You may want to try Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The mini-series was based on this book.

wayspooled · 05-12-2009, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by snape

Same here.

@wayspooled - Your list looks a lot like my shelf. I have several of the titles you mentioned, but some of the others I haven't read yet. I'll have to track them down.

Another that I found fascinating was Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan, the Japanese Navy's Story by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya.

Ralph Sir Edward, aye, that John Toland book I vaguely remember as being most excellent. I read it a long time ago and I think it was probably the first WWII book I ever read from an Axis perspective.

@snape - Neat

I'll check out the Midway book, thanks! Another book that I've been told is very good but which I haven't read myself is "The Magnificent Mitscher" by Theodore Taylor.

rampo · 05-17-2009, 11:35 PM

War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John Dower
The Pacific War 1931-1945 by Saburo Inega
A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan by Kappa Senoh
A Diary of Darkness: The Wartime Diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi by Kiyosawa Kiyoshi
Hiroshima by John Hersey

YGG- · 05-18-2009, 08:05 AM

On the german side on the eastern European front, Kaputt by Malaparte is irreplaceable; it's also a litterary masterpiece (and --I think-- one major inspiration if "the kind ones").

CleverClothe · 05-18-2009, 11:58 PM

I loved Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted W. Lawson.

sirbruce · 05-19-2009, 12:22 AM

All of these books and not one biography of Patton?

I confess I don't know which Patton book is the best but there are many:
http://www.generalpatton.com/library.html

Blue Tyson · 05-20-2009, 02:29 AM

The Great Escape

The Colditz Story

for the Allied POW angle

davef · 05-22-2009, 09:25 AM

Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Diaries
All in actual books... I read a lot of WWII stuff before I got my PRS700.

Eisenhower - Crusade in Europe
Charles DeGaulle - War Memoirs
Raeder, Edward - Grand Admiral
Speer, Albert - Inside the Third Reich
MacArthur, Douglas - Reminiscences
Alanbrooke - Diaries (bit of a slog, this one..but interesting)
Moran, Lord - Churchill at War
Montgomery - Memoirs
Mussolini - My Rise and Fall
Shirer, William - Berlin Diary and of course Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Goebbels, Joseph - Final Entries (Diary entries from spring 1945)
Ciano, Galeazzo - Diary (haven't read this one yet)
Mannerheim, Carl - Memoirs (WWII and after in Finland)
Doenitz, Karl - Memoirs
Sonnenfeldt, Richard - Witness to Nuremberg
Clark, Mark - Calculated Risk
Bradley, Omar - A Soldiers Story

Other good stuff (not autobiographical):

Potter, Elmer - Nimitz
Sorley, Lewis - Thunderbolt (Abrams)
Irving, David - Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe
Meacham, Jon - Franklin and Winston
Reuth, Ralf - Goebbels
Padfield, Peter - Himmler
Hart, BH - The Rommel Papers
Colville, John - The Fringes of Power
Gamble, Bruce - Black Sheep One
Ambrose, Stephen - Eisenhower
Eberle, Henrik - The Hitler Book
Lee, Bruce - Marching Orders
Morrison, Samuel - History of US Naval Operations in WWII (15 volumes)
Manchester, William - The Arms of Krupp (last part covers WWII)
Brinkley, David - Washington Goes to War
Millar, George - Bruneval Raid
O'Neill, Richard - Suicide Squads
Ambrose, Stephen - Citizen Soldiers
Overy, Richard - Interrogations (transcripts of post-war interrogations..haven't read this one yet..)
Ambrose, Stephen - D-Day
Pyle, Ernie - Here is your war
Eisnehower - D-Day to VE Day: Eisenhower's report on the invasion of Europe
Glantz, David etc. - Hitler and His Generals (transcripts of military conferences...haven't read this one yet either)
Shirer, William - This is Berlin (pre-war Berlin)
Various: Reporting World War 2 (Library of America volume)
Miller, Russel - Behind the Lines
Binney, Marcus - The Women Who Lived for Danger
Beaven, Colin - Operation Jedburgh

05-08-2009, 12:17 AM	#1
snape Language Lover Posts: 111 Karma: 71544 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Current: PRS-350, Kindle PW // Previous: PRS-505, Kindle 1, Kindle 2	WWII (non-fiction) recommendations I'll start the topic off with a few of my favorites: In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors by Doug Stanton. I can't remember how many times I said "Wow" while I was reading it. David Howarth's The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure as well as The Sledge Patrol: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Victory were fantastic. While the titles seem a little too similar, the books weren't redundant in the least. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these are available electronically. I'd still recommend them without reservation.

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05-08-2009, 02:28 AM	#2
Snowman Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 3566 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: London UK Device: iPhone 5, Kindle K3, Kindle Voyage	Winston Churchill's magnum opus is available at Fictionwise - all 6 volumes of The Second World War Snowman

05-08-2009, 03:53 AM	#3
BlackVoid Evangelist Posts: 415 Karma: 510423 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony PRS-505	If you want an overview of the war, the best is: History Of The Second World War by B. H. Liddell Hart http://www.amazon.com/History-Second.../dp/0306809125 Also good: Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard B. Frank Panzer Leader by Heinz Guderian Samurai! by Saburo Sakai - account of a top japanese ace.

05-08-2009, 05:28 AM	#4
Sparrow Wizard Posts: 4,395 Karma: 1358132 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: UK Device: Palm TX, CyBook Gen3	'Stalingrad' by Antony Beevor Won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction, the Wolfson History prize, and the Hawthornden prize. It's quite good.

05-08-2009, 10:55 AM	#5
wayspooled Crab In The Dark Posts: 486 Karma: 2328180 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Virginia Device: Tablet PC until a 10" comes out that I like	Some of my favorites, but most are only available for Kindle. A few in PDF by the publisher by the publisher directly or specialty shop (At least I didn't see them when I just looked.) I'll tell you right off though, I'm more interested in personal memories and scholarly research than I am in touchy-feely retroactive rewritings of history for the purpose of selling books. So you'll see that theme. Quartered Safe Out Here - George MacDonald Fraser (war in Far East/Burma) An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 - Rick Atkinson Admiral Arleigh Burke - E.B. Potter (general pre-war navy and war in the Pacific mostly) The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour - James Hornfischer Down to the Sea - Bruce Henderson The Depths of Courage: American Submariners at War with Japan, 1941-1945 - Flint Whitlock and Ron Smith The Bravest Man: Richard O'Kane and the Amazing Submarine Adventures of the USS Tang - William Tuohy The Greatest Generation Speaks: Letters and Reflections - Tom Brokaw Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Midway - The Great Naval Battles As Seen Through Japanese Eyes by Tameichi Hara, Fred Saito, and Roger Pineau Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - William Manchester (audiobook only I think) With Wings Like Eagles by Michael Korda The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II by Olga Greenlaw and Daniel Ford Panzer Leader by Heinz Guderian

05-12-2009, 12:33 PM	#7
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,247 Karma: 35000000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	I recommend The Rising Sun by John Toland, WWII from the Japanese perspective.

05-12-2009, 12:49 PM	#8
BenG Home Guard Posts: 4,729 Karma: 86721650 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Alpha Ralpha Boulevard Device: Kindle Oasis 3G, iPhone 6	You may want to try Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The mini-series was based on this book.

05-17-2009, 11:35 PM	#10
rampo Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Alexandria, Virginia Device: iPod Touch, Kindle1	War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War by John Dower The Pacific War 1931-1945 by Saburo Inega A Boy Called H: A Childhood in Wartime Japan by Kappa Senoh A Diary of Darkness: The Wartime Diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi by Kiyosawa Kiyoshi Hiroshima by John Hersey

05-18-2009, 08:05 AM	#11
YGG- Dry fruit Posts: 1,157 Karma: 1047086 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Paris, France Device: Bookeen Opus + HTC Desire HD	On the german side on the eastern European front, Kaputt by Malaparte is irreplaceable; it's also a litterary masterpiece (and --I think-- one major inspiration if "the kind ones").

05-18-2009, 11:58 PM	#12
CleverClothe Guru Posts: 618 Karma: 493394 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Device: iRex iLiad, Onyx Boox 60	I loved Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted W. Lawson.

05-19-2009, 12:22 AM	#13
sirbruce Provocateur Posts: 1,859 Karma: 505847 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Columbus, OH Device: Kindle Touch, Kindle 2, Kindle DX, iPhone 3GS	All of these books and not one biography of Patton? I confess I don't know which Patton book is the best but there are many: http://www.generalpatton.com/library.html

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05-20-2009, 02:29 AM	#14
Blue Tyson Blue Captain Posts: 1,595 Karma: 5000236 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini	The Great Escape The Colditz Story for the Allied POW angle

05-22-2009, 09:25 AM	#15
davef Member Posts: 13 Karma: 60 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: PRS-700	Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Diaries All in actual books... I read a lot of WWII stuff before I got my PRS700. Eisenhower - Crusade in Europe Charles DeGaulle - War Memoirs Raeder, Edward - Grand Admiral Speer, Albert - Inside the Third Reich MacArthur, Douglas - Reminiscences Alanbrooke - Diaries (bit of a slog, this one..but interesting) Moran, Lord - Churchill at War Montgomery - Memoirs Mussolini - My Rise and Fall Shirer, William - Berlin Diary and of course Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Goebbels, Joseph - Final Entries (Diary entries from spring 1945) Ciano, Galeazzo - Diary (haven't read this one yet) Mannerheim, Carl - Memoirs (WWII and after in Finland) Doenitz, Karl - Memoirs Sonnenfeldt, Richard - Witness to Nuremberg Clark, Mark - Calculated Risk Bradley, Omar - A Soldiers Story Other good stuff (not autobiographical): Potter, Elmer - Nimitz Sorley, Lewis - Thunderbolt (Abrams) Irving, David - Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe Meacham, Jon - Franklin and Winston Reuth, Ralf - Goebbels Padfield, Peter - Himmler Hart, BH - The Rommel Papers Colville, John - The Fringes of Power Gamble, Bruce - Black Sheep One Ambrose, Stephen - Eisenhower Eberle, Henrik - The Hitler Book Lee, Bruce - Marching Orders Morrison, Samuel - History of US Naval Operations in WWII (15 volumes) Manchester, William - The Arms of Krupp (last part covers WWII) Brinkley, David - Washington Goes to War Millar, George - Bruneval Raid O'Neill, Richard - Suicide Squads Ambrose, Stephen - Citizen Soldiers Overy, Richard - Interrogations (transcripts of post-war interrogations..haven't read this one yet..) Ambrose, Stephen - D-Day Pyle, Ernie - Here is your war Eisnehower - D-Day to VE Day: Eisenhower's report on the invasion of Europe Glantz, David etc. - Hitler and His Generals (transcripts of military conferences...haven't read this one yet either) Shirer, William - This is Berlin (pre-war Berlin) Various: Reporting World War 2 (Library of America volume) Miller, Russel - Behind the Lines Binney, Marcus - The Women Who Lived for Danger Beaven, Colin - Operation Jedburgh