Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Good WWII history books

Looking for some quality reading material about WWII. Mostly interested in the ground war in Europe but any decent historical account is good.

Looking for good analytical history with a good strategic and especially tactical overview that also gets into the personal experiences of the participants. Stephen Ambrose's "Citizen Soldiers" and "Band of Brothers" are decent examples.

Sledge's "With the Old Breed" and George's "Shots Fired In Anger" are good personal accounts (great personal account in the former) but I'd like to get into more big picture type material while trying to avoid books like one about which this reviewer states, "This is a very difficult book to review. Because there is some really good wheat buried in some really uninspiring chaff. I agree with other reviewers that the writing style is dry and reeks of bureaucratic military lifelessness..."

I know there are at least one or two history buffs here so let me know what you recommend.



Added: I'm trying to remember the title of one book mentioned here a while ago - "The Army Learns to Fight" or "An Army Goes to War", something like that, about lessons learned by our inexperienced forces in North Africa and how those were applied later on. That's a general idea of what I'm looking for.

Ghost Soldiers, Code Talkers, and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors. All great reads but in the Pacific, not your chosen area but well worth your time.

Victor Davis Hanson's "The Second World Wars" is a very good overview of the entire WWII era, including the events leading up to the "war" as Americans understand it.

The Fall Of France by Dr. Julian Jackson.

A concise and clear understanding of just exactly what happen in May, June 1940 without all the stereotypical BS. If you are interested in understanding history get the complete story.

I'm not sure if this fills all of your wants, but look up "The Liberation Trilogy" by Rick Atkinson. It covers the war in northern Africa and Europe from 1942-1945. Very informative and interesting in my humble opinion.

Read “The Gathering Storm” by Churchill, or most of it, decades ago. Need to redo that and the other volumes as well. What I mainly recall is the debate over how big the guns should be on the battleships; 14” vs 16”. IRC, they found out the hard way that the correct answer was 16”.

The best I know of is History of the Second World War by B. H. Liddell Hart.

I've read it through several times over the years.
LINK

The best book I have read about WW II in Europe is "The Last 100 Days" by John Toland. It was published in 1964, and the author interviewed many of the men involved, including Generals and Field Marshals from both sides of the conflict.

Another favorite of mine is "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sager. A brutal first-person account of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

I like Victor Davis Hanson. Here's a link to one of his books entitled The Second World Wars:

https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Second+World+Wars:+How+the+First+Global+Conflict+Was+Fought+and+Won&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLQz9U3SMqpNFLi1U_XNzRMS8spL0pLStaSyk620k_Kz8_WTywtycgvsgKxixXy83IqHzG-YuQWePnjnrDUA8ZJa05eY7zJyIVHvZAVF5trXklmSaWQFBePFNxKDQYpLi44z0iEC-KErILC-DIjk2SBxb-mMSqVG2XsujTtHFuSYIwSA8Mbx1AHKSNB-9-GG1g_vbHXEuJi9yz2yU9OzBGM-WnicGbTe3stYS6OkMSK_Lz83ErBCneLA7cPvbdXUuTskv11Xzvyvb1gYs2_-WaXzBwkWBQYNBgMH1myOqyfwnhAi-EAI1PTvhWH2Fg4GAUYrJg0mKqYOBh5FrG6h2SkKgSnJufnpSiE5xflAMnEomIrBY_8coUSoJRbZlFxiYJ7Tn5SYo6Cc35eWk5mcglQTbGCW35pekaJQiJYYx4AXQVmmG8BAAA&npsic=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWpOScw-XwAhUgGVkFHXczDCsQ-BYwLHoECAEQMg

Watch his videos on YouTube.

If the Battle of Midway interests you, I hear that "Shattered Sword" is the one to read.

Had a friend to loan me Helmet for my Pillow couple days ago .

On To Berlin by Gen. James M. Gavin (aka "Jumpin' Jim), Viking Press © 1978. This is an excellent read of both tactics and strategy written by a man who was involved in both. Also comments on mistakes made and learned. He concentrates of course, on the use of airborne troops, but also on the overall use of our (and Britain's) troops against a formidable enemy.

L.W.

It's quite difinitive for sure, but it's a tedious read. That's the nature of taking several hours of combat and covering the subject minute by minute. But the information between those two covers is amazing in breadth.

I literally inherited over a dozen boxes of military history books.

Have not sorted them. Theyre like new.

Two best WWII books (for overall war, rather than specific battles).

The Second World War, John Keegan
The Second World War, Martin Gilbert

Two of the UK's finest historian, both give great coverage. Gilbert's book gives a lot more detail and it's about twice as thick.

Crusade in Europe, written in 1947 by Eisenhower, give a good overview of the war in Europe from a strategic and political point of view.

A book I read a while back and really enjoyed is "Frontsoldaten, The German Soldier in World War II", by Stephen G. Fritz (yes, his name is really Fritz), by University of Kentucky Press. Quick check shows it's cheap at that monopoly bookstore on the interwebs. It's not about specific battles, strategy, or tactics per se, just what it was like to be a German soldier in WWII. If The Forgotten Soldier is the novelization of that experience, this is more of a guidebook, if that makes any sense.

"With the Old Breed' ....I have read the books mentioned above and they are all good but this is the best, IMO


'Iron Coffins"....another good one

My favorites are the primary source, first hand accounts of German "phantom raiders" Disguised surface raiders like the Atlantis and Pinguin (Penguin in German), Orion, etc....if you can find them.

Beyond the Rhine by Donald Burgett is a pretty good read

TreeMutt, that is a great book on the war in the Atlantic. My copy is a little used. 😁