With Christmas and 2012 quickly approaching I thought it might be fun to see what was the best book you have read this year relating to WW2?
I have two books: "Battleaxe Division" by Ken Ford. "Cassino-the Hollow Victory" by John Ellis Lesley
I was sent a privately published book by the family of a Vet from my Dad's unit. It was of his time with the 6th Battalion, The Lincolns when they were at Dunkirk. Extremely well written and a great insight into the day to day efforts to get back to the UK. Sadly unavailable, other than to his family and a few others. I feel priviliged to have been allowed to read the draft before publication and to have been sent the final printed version.
SOE and the Resitance by Michael Tillotson; he tells the story of SOE through the Obituaries that appear in the times linking them to his narrative.
Rommel's War in Africa by Wolf Heckman, excellent book in that the author doesn't set out to idolise Rommel, in fact he goes the other way and points out his many faults.
Tricky. Probably the Bov/Haynes Tiger Manual, as it's such a nice way of covering individual vehicles in a techie but concise fashion. Hope they do more. Closely followed by Lukas Friedli's 'Repairing the Panzers' for it's sheer gleaming nerdiness, and the Final volume in Nigel Watson's Universal Carrier series, because I've waited so long for it to complete the set. I would put a mention in for Michulec's 'T34 - Legendary Weapon' for it's scale alone, but I'm finding it pretty hard to get going on it's OCD-like depths, so can't really say yet.
"Cassino-the Hollow Victory" by John Ellis This is a truly excellent book, very descriptive and well written. I recommend 'Anzio: The Friction of War' by Lloyd Clark. It's a very special book and the epilogue is particularly moving and emotional. I'd also VERY STRONGLY recommend 'Fields of Fire' by Terry Copp. It's probably the best book i've read.
This one. Home - Vehicle Markings of the BEF 1940 How did I ever manage without it ? Guesswork mostly...
This one. Home - Vehicle Markings of the BEF 1940 How did I ever manage without it ? Guesswork mostly... I've been thinking all day of what I thought to be my book of the year and I think you are right Rich. Perhaps the Decade maybe more appropriate as it must surely be one of the most important publications related to the BEF/1940 in recent times.
A very hard call indeed. After The Battle's Cassino book would be hard to pass on. "Donitz Crews" (French L MacLean) a refreshing new approach to the U Boat crews. "The End: Hitler's Germany 1944-1945" Ian Kershaw. (Yet to be read to be honest, but I feel it has to be a potentially "up there"). "The Most Dangerous Enemy: An illustrated history of the Battle of Britain" Stephen Bungay enjoyed this one. "Hitler's Hangman- The Life of Heydrich" Dr Robert Gerwarth. A very good read. http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/book-reviews/36579-ultra-versus-u-boats.html This one was as good as any I bought last year if I had to "vote" I would go for this book. Lastly got this yesterday :"The Last Blitz Operation Steinbock - Luftwaffe operations over Britain January 1944 to June 1944" Ron MacKay and Simon W. Parry. I have spent a few hours on it - not the book you read from cover to cover page by page as it is a "night by night" record of "Operation Steinbock" the bombing of GB from Jan'44 to June'44. As a reference book it is really very good, you pick it up and spend time with it and don't feel it has been time wasted, very well put together.
