05-08-2009, 12:17 AM | #1 |
Language Lover
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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. |
05-08-2009, 02:28 AM | #2 |
Zealot
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Winston Churchill's magnum opus is available at Fictionwise - all 6 volumes of The Second World War
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05-08-2009, 03:53 AM | #3 |
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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 |
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'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 |
Crab In The Dark
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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 |
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05-12-2009, 11:59 AM | #6 | |
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Quote:
@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. |
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05-12-2009, 12:33 PM | #7 |
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I recommend The Rising Sun by John Toland, WWII from the Japanese perspective.
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05-12-2009, 12:49 PM | #8 |
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You may want to try Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. The mini-series was based on this book.
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05-12-2009, 01:08 PM | #9 | |
Crab In The Dark
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Quote:
@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. |
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05-17-2009, 11:35 PM | #10 |
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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 |
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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").
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05-18-2009, 11:58 PM | #12 |
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I loved Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Ted W. Lawson.
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05-19-2009, 12:22 AM | #13 |
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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 |
05-20-2009, 02:29 AM | #14 |
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The Great Escape
The Colditz Story for the Allied POW angle |
05-22-2009, 09:25 AM | #15 |
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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 |
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