Best WW2 Related Book You Have Read

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by STEVEN, Feb 17, 2004.

  1. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    In between Lulls in my WW1 research i have been reading a large number of books.(more than any other time in my life).

    to date the best i have red from either war is Tailgunner.there are a couple of books with this title,the one i have red is the one by R.Rivaz,with the forward by Leonard Cheshire.

    it was a genuine couldn't put it down book,the authors descriptions of the events he went through were superb and i could really imagine myself in his place.i would find myself flicking to the end of chapters,to see if he was ok,if he survrived,which of course he would of done,because he wrote the book !!.

    it's a great pity after all he went through he was to die in a post war flying accident.

    recommended.

    Steven :D
     
  2. A difficult question but the book that immediately came to mind was the autobiographical account of his time in Burma as the war drew to a close - Quartered Safe Out Here - by George Macdonald Frasier, who is otherwise known as the great creator of the Flashman Papers.
     
  3. Nick

    Nick Member

    Haven't heard of that one but I have read "Mien Kampf" from cover to cover, I'm no pro-nazi or anything but I thought it would be interesteing to hear about what Hitler said from the man himself instead of all the historians on the History Channel and what not.

    He was a sick man who could have gained alot more power and alot more control and used it in a better way, he justs decided to go the wrong way with it. It's too bad really he had such a brilliant mind(for a while)and put it all to bad use.
     
  4. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    Another book that runs a very Close second to Tailgunner.is "I Flew For the Fuhrer" by Heinz Knocke.i have red it 4 or 5 times,but unfortunately lost my copy some years ago.which was rathering annoying because it was an original copy from the first print.however i red on one of the publishers website's about two months ago that it was being re released,so i'll get myself another copy.

    never forgetting there are two sides in every war,i think you should try to see the conflict from the other sides point of view even if you think it's wrong.anyway another good read.recomended.

    Steven :D
     
  5. Meen Frmr

    Meen Frmr Junior Member

    I would have to site all the WWII books by Stephen Ambrose as being top notch, then would list the Books by Stephen Burgett. I must also add Eugene B. Sledge's fine work, With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. Simply put, a book that Stephen Ambrose praised highly.

    If you can get your hands on any copies, I also would lend very high praise to the books by War Correspondant and GI Joe's Best Friend, Ernie Pyle. Brave Men, Here is Your War, Last Chapter are all the titles I can think of. Truly a fine American.

    A Soldier's Story by Gen. Omar N. Bradley is also quite a book. He wrote it pretty much the way he spoke, plain and simple.

    I'm sure I will think of more, but this is a good start.
     
  6. Friedrich H

    Friedrich H Senior Member

    For the general public, Mr. Ambrose's biased books may be adequate, but for WWII buffs and serious historians, they are not the papero on which they're written. :rolleyes:

    Try "Divine Wind" by Japanese officers in charge of Kamikaze missions. "Stalingrad" by Anthony Beevor, good research and humane book.

    And there are hundreds of other very good tittles, which I can't remember right now, but which I'll try to post later.

    And take an advice, don't read "Mein Kampf". It's a boring, biased and poorly written book, full of unfounded beliefs and 'facts' sustained by prejudiceful judgement. Get any good biography about Adolf Hitler, most particulary Sir Ian Kershaw's two-volume "Hitler" and you'll get a much better picture of the Führer's ideas and contradictions.

    You better read Sir Winston Churchill's "The Second World War" to get a general —if not complete or totally accurate— of the whole conflict by a man who had a key rôle in it and most beautifully written. No other person who has ever written about WWII has used such fine language —a Nobel Literature Price winner language.
     

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  7. No.9

    No.9 Senior Member

    Totally agree with Freddy about Ambrose. For historical accuracy he's awful, but there again he's only acknowledged as a 'gateway' writer, being someone who writes 'colourfully' and serves to stimulate interest and hopefully induce people to enter into proper historical research.

    He wrote to sell books, not to stick to the facts! Depending on what you want to read about, AJP Taylor, Richard Lamb and MRD Foot are to be recommended among the most accurately worthwhile with sensible opinion which is very well deduced and explained.

    No.9
     
  8. Andrew Pittaway

    Andrew Pittaway Junior Member

    One of my favourite books is 'No Moon Tonight' by Don Charlwood. It's a personal account of being in Bomber Command, while another favourite, though sad one is 'Sandakan' by Lynette Silver. This explores the Japanese prison camps in Borneo and the suffering of the local population, plus the stories of the mainly British & Australian prisoners who were systematically murdered by the Japanese before the war ended.

    Regards
    Andrew
     
  9. 'Quartered Safe out there' by GMF is a very good book.

    For me thought he book I would recommend is the recent adaptation of the Allanbrooke diaries. It is brilliant and funny at times but also conveys the tension and fear that those at the top, they being the ones who know how close it came, during the war felt.

    It can be heavy going, and at times you do feel like you are living each day with them but this is to me the joy of the book, it is almost an experience.

    Arm.
     
  10. David Seymour

    David Seymour Senior Member

    Ed. A. Danchev and D. Todman,War Diaries 1939-1945 Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, London, 2001, ISBN0297607316. This book provides Alanbrooke's complete diary, and is a fascinating read. It illuminates the strategy adopted by Britain, and gives insights into many key events. Its 700 pages require a determined strategy in themselves but they are well worth it.

    David
     
  11. David Seymour

    David Seymour Senior Member

    My basic reference text on WWII is The Oxford Companion to the Second World War, Oxford, 1995, ISBN0192141686. Grand Strategy, Intelligence, Weapons, Politics, Society, Battles. 1,750 cross-referenced articles by a host of authorities. Brilliant.
     
  12. CROONAERT

    CROONAERT Ipsissimus

    Originally posted by Nick@Feb 17 2004, 05:43 PM
    I have read "Mien Kampf" from cover to cover, I'm no pro-nazi or anything but I thought it would be interesteing to hear about what Hitler said from the man himself instead of all the historians on the History Channel and what not.

    Same here. To anyone interested in the background of not just WW2, but the 20th Century as a whole, this is a "must read". It's now been translated into Hebrew.
     
  13. CROONAERT

    CROONAERT Ipsissimus

    By the way, I wouldn't put "Mein Kampf" down as the "best" WW2 book. I found Anthony Beevors "Stalingrad" a riveting read, so I'd put that up there with Charles Macdonald's "Battle of the Bulge" ,Gerald Reittlinger's "SS - Alibi of a Nation" and Charles Whiting's "The Long March on Rome", "44" and "45" as my favourites.
     
  14. Meen Frmr

    Meen Frmr Junior Member

    I have to disagree about Dr. Ambrose's work. For this WWII buff, they are more than adequate. His books on Eisenhower and Nixon are wonderful reads. The best thing he did was make history interesting. His books were good enough for the veterans he wrote about in his books (and not just those in Band of Brothers).

    If books that interest "Serious Historians" involve reading the likes of At Dawn We Slept, thank-you, no. I slugged through that book and Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe over the better part of 6 months and they both left a dry feeling in my mouth. Albert Speer's Inside the Third Reich was another book that took forever to read. If one could manage to stay interested up to the point Todt is killed, it would constitute a good read, but slow going.

    Enola Gay would also be a good book, for those interested in the biography of Gen. Paul W. Tibbetts.
     
  15. Friedrich H

    Friedrich H Senior Member

    Amboses's interviews of veterans are not as worth as one would believe, since he included what he believed was right and not what really happened.

    A professional historian must inlcude complete facts, not what he thinks is worth it.
     
  16. Steven Wright

    Steven Wright Junior Member

    I do think that for the most part Ambrose's books make great reading and he should probably be commended for introducing certain aspects of the past (including World War II) to people who otherwise wouldn't have touched it.

    Interestingly, I've had occasion to talk to several guys who were part of Company E, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division (the Band of Brothers), and while they are appreciative of Ambrose for telling their story -- they do say that they story that he tells is not necessarily the one that they told him.

    SJW
     
  17. No.9

    No.9 Senior Member

    No dispute about the financial success Ambrose had with his books, scripts, TV/film rights, merchandise and tour company. History is not all known but does comprise considerable fact. Once in possession of facts they cannot be changed and called history, event if the facts are relatively boring and unspectacular.

    Veterans are just as capable of selective, poor and, let’s say, fanciful memory as anyone else. Assuming they are accurately drawing from good memory, unless they were an officer they are extremely unlikely to be able to speak about anything other than what they personally did and saw from their very limited position in a battle. A man making an assault from the sea on a cliff-top position cannot tell what it was like for a paratrooper to assault the same position after being dropped inland behind a forest, and of course vice versa. [​IMG]

    Ambrose’s work is based on fact which many find a very absorbing read, however, much is as accurate as ‘Saving Private Ryan' – in other words, it’s not history. Hope I’m not shattering anyone’s elusions here, but even the core action of the Ranger rescue mission was pure invention. Private Ryan (in real life Sergeant Frederick ‘Fritz’ Niland of the 82nd Airborne Div.) made his own way back to the beach where Father Francis L. Sampson arranged his return home. [​IMG]

    No.9
     
  18. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    Ref: Stephen Ambrose -

    Don't knock the guy too much chaps (god rest his soul). Whilst as you say fine for interested buffs and not for more purist historians, he has as someone else said here made history interesting for the masses. If is isn't for people like this much of what more hardcore buffs or intellectuals take for granted could dissapear through lack of interest and consequently funding.

    Take Richard Holmes in the UK, yes a Professor of history and no doubt a purist compared to Ambrose but again much of his work is diluted for the masses but what an engaging read it makes. To be bogged down in fine details and unit movements in every book is not always required to tell a story to take the reader back to the battlefield.

    Keeping history alive is what it is all about. There are definitely good arguements for teaching the truth with respect in the classroom rather than holywood truths... which certainly U571 and the propsed new Tom Cruise Battle of Britain Film illustrate.

    Ryan
     
  19. MalcolmII

    MalcolmII Senior Member

    An interesting point on Prof Richard Holmes is to compare his ' Army Battlefield Guide, Belgium and Northern France ' published by HMSO and his ' War Walks ' books published for the BBC. In the former he dissects Arras 1940 in detail and in 'War Walks ' does an editted version.
    Ambrose did a good book on ' Pegasus Bridge ' which was very readable.
    My favouite , based on fact , book is Tank by Ken Tout.
    Aye
    MalcolmII
     
  20. salientpoints

    salientpoints Senior Member

    An interesting point on Prof Richard Holmes is to compare his ' Army Battlefield Guide, Belgium and Northern France ' published by HMSO and his ' War Walks ' books published for the BBC. In the former he dissects Arras 1940 in detail and in 'War Walks ' does an editted version.


    Exactly my point - well illustrated Malcolm. As long as it gets readership I'm all for it.

    Ryan
     

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