World War Two Books

MaggieNF

Hi, I'm wondering can someone recommend me books on WW2, I've seen a lot from the side of the Germans, was wondering did anyone know of any interesting ones written from the side of the Allies?

Thanks

666irishguy

If you are interested in the US Pacific campaign a good read is 'With The Old Breed' by Eugene Sledge. It's a memoir of his time in the Marines in the Pacific campaign. I think it might also be what inspired the TV show The Pacific.

MaggieNF

Looked that up on goodreads, it sounds like what I want to read about, have you read it?

karl tyrrell

world war 2
a complete photographic history
more than 2,500 photographs and maps
edited by Hal Buellhttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lfJvZFh9L._SY300_.jpg

cdb

Russia's war by Richard Overy. Looks at the war from a Russian perspective. And why the allies won by the same author. Manages to portray many interesting aspects on the economic and manufacturing output of all sides and explores what might have been if different choices had been made. Well worth reading in my opinion.

666irishguy

MaggieNF wrote: »

Looked that up on goodreads, it sounds like what I want to read about, have you read it?

Yeah I read it a few years back after that TV show came out, It's one of the best of the man on the ground memoirs out there. He doesn't censor himself at all. It's an honest account of what he observed and did. I have read a few memoirs and I think Sledge's book holds nothing back and is definitely a must read. There's a book by a British guy called Stuart Hills called 'By Tank Into Normandy' that is very good as well.

roashter

The Forgotton Soldier by Guy Sajer
It's about French man who fought for the Germans on the eastern front. Excellent book

tawfeeredux

Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, covers one of the key turning points of the war from both Russian & German perspectives.

chasmcb

Naples 44 by Norman Lewis is a great read. Lewis was a British intelligence officer seconded to the Americans when they landed in southern Italy. Book is less about combat operations than the Allied occupation of Naples, the black market, the lunacy of military bureaucracy, the whole gamut of interactions between troops and Neapolitans.

I recently read the "non-fiction novel" HHhH about the assassination, by Czech commandos, of Reynhard Heydrich, the Nazi supremo in Czechoslovakia. That was excellent also.

Aenaes

Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. It follows one company of paratroopers from training through to the end of the war.

Jimmy Iovine

This is totally useless information to you but I bought my dad a great book a few years ago. He said it was one of the best he had read on WWII. If I find out the name, I'll post it on here.

I bought him Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940-45 by Max Hastings last year and he was very impressed by it as well.

LenaClaire

I have always liked The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan. It is a really solid description of D-Day.

old gregg

I've just started Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin by Tomothy Snyder. The blurb reads:

In this revelatory book Timothy Snyder offers a groundbreaking investigation of Europe's killing fields and a sustained explanation of the motives and methods of both Hitler and Stalin. He anchors the history of Hitler's Holocaust and Stalin's Terror in their time and place and provides a fresh account of the relationship between the two regimes. Using scholarly literature and primary sources in all relevant languages, Snyder pays special attention to the testimony of the victims: the letters home, the notes flung from trains, the diaries found on corpses.

Not an easy read and pretty grim but a brilliant study.
The Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9561568-bloodlands

MaggieNF

Thanks for all the recommendations every one, definitely not short of books to read

youcancallmeal

Nemesis by Max Hastings, fascinating book about the war in the pacific

two wheels good

Stalingrad - Antony Beevor. Anything by Beevor is worth a look

Fiction: Alan Furst. He's written many. "Dark Voyage" is one I remember enjoying.

MaggieNF

two wheels good wrote: »

Stalingrad - Antony Beevor. Anything by Beevor is worth a look

Fiction: Alan Furst. He's written many. "Dark Voyage" is one I remember enjoying.

you are the 2nd person to recommend the Beevor one, it's definitely high up on my to-read list

Zeek12

Beevor also wrote another excellent WWII book called BERLIN.
It deals with the final months in that city before end of the war and the impact on the ordinary people as the allies closed in and defeat was becoming inevitable.

Curly Judge

William L. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich gives a great [and very readable] account of both the cause, progress and results of WW2.
I think that if you want to read just one book about the war in Europe you could do lot worse.

ledgebag1

Anything by Max hastings

Richard j evans trilogy on the third reich is well worth reading.

dr.bollocko

Helmet for my pillow by Robert Leckie was one of the main inspirations for the pacific TV show. Nemesis by max Hastings is good as a very conclusive one book explanation of the war in the pacific.

Band of brothers is really well paces fast and furious sort of war story but context is good and band of brothers is sort of light going. Currently reading all hell let loose by Hastings. It's a very good overview also. Very dense.

If you're looking to get hooked I'd start with band of brothers or d:day by Stephen E Ambrose. Stalingrad by Beevor is meatier stuff again. But if you just want to learn more about the subject I'd recommend Max Hastings.

BostonB

A Bridge Too Far - Cornelius Ryan
First Light - Geoffrey Wellum
The Big Show (Le Grand Cirque) - Pierre Clostermann
Lightning Strikes: The Story of a B-17 Bomber - Andy Hartles

MaggieNF

Zeek12 wrote: »

Beevor also wrote another excellent WWII book called BERLIN.
It deals with the final months in that city before end of the war and the impact on the ordinary people as the allies closed in and defeat was becoming inevitable.

Do you mean "Berlin: The Downfall 1945" or a different one?

Zeek12

MaggieNF wrote: »

Do you mean "Berlin: The Downfall 1945"

Yeah, that's the one. Sorry, I forgot to include the full title!

MaggieNF

Zeek12 wrote: »

Yeah, that's the one. Sorry, I forgot to include the full title!

no problem, It's one I had an interest in already so just wanted to be sure I had the right one!

Gneez

Liddell Hart's History of the Second World War

It covers everything, the guy was in the war, he was interviewing other vets and writing on the war directly after it ended.