# Essential World War II books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 17, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045 "2016-05-17T23:21:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/1 "2016-05-17T23:21:20Z")
I know we’ve got a lot of WWII buffs on the boards and I’m looking to expand my book collection a bit and, hopefully, my understanding of the conflict. Put simply, what books would you see as absolutely essential reading and indispensable for any self-described Second World War geek when it comes to building a library on the topic? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/2 "2016-05-17T23:26:00Z")
Gordon Prange - **At Dawn We Slept, Dec. 7, 1941, Miracle At Midway, Target Tokyo**. Winston Churchill - **The Second World War** Paul Brickhill - **The Great Escape** P. R. Reid - **Escape From Colditz** The classics - Cornelius Ryan - **The Longest Day, The Last Battle** Lots more when I get to school and can check my bookcase. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/3 "2016-05-17T23:28:53Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Gordon Prange - **At Dawn We Slept, Dec. 7, 1941, Miracle At Midway, Target Tokyo**. > > Winston Churchill - **The Second World War** > > Lots more when I get to school and can check my bookcase. Cheers **silenus** , I’ve read an abridged version of Sir Winston’s volumes, not heard of the one by Prange though so I’ll give it a look. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/4 "2016-05-17T23:30:52Z")
The first two by Prange will give you an unbelievably deep look at Pearl Harbor. Personally I like **Target Tokyo** , which is the story of the Sorge spy ring. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/5 "2016-05-17T23:38:54Z")
A really good overview is Gerhard Weinberg’s _A World at Arms_ - erudite and readable A couple from senior participants: Churchill’s _Second World War_ - to see what history written by an eloquent victor looks like 😉 Allan Brooke’s _War Diaries_ - somewhat a counterpoint to the above Personal favourite: Anthony Cave Brown’s _Bodyguard of Lies_ - It’s probably been superseded in many ways, but one of the early attempts to map out just how sneaky the Allied intelligence effort was ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/6 "2016-05-17T23:47:54Z")
A few first-person narratives: George Grider - **War Fish** Richard O’Kane - **Clear the Bridge!: The war patrols of the USS Tang** A few from Martin Caidin - **Black Thursday, The B-17, Thunderbolt!, Samurai, Fork-Tailed Devil** **War Fish** is Grider’s story as he rose through the ranks of the US Submarine Force to become the captain of the sub with the highest tonnage sunk record for the war. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/7 "2016-05-17T23:59:51Z")
Alistair Horne: _To Lose a Battle: France 1940._ ---
**Author:** ![FasterThanMeerkats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@FasterThanMeerkats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FasterThanMeerkats)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/8 "2016-05-18T00:01:16Z")
William Craig - **Enemy at the Gates** - how crappy Stalingrad was Guy Sajer - **The Forgotten Soldier** - great German perspective on how crappy the Russian front was William Manchester - \*\*Goodbye Darkness \*\*- how awful the pacific theater was for a foot soldier James Hornfischer - **The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors** - how horrible it is to be in an actual naval battle Stephen Ambrose’s works - all about the same, but interesting for American perspectives Paul Brickhill - **The Great Escape** - the quintessential prison break story (echoing **Silenus** ’s recommendation) Also, Jeff Shaara’s three novels of WW2 - historical fiction, but the best immersive way to pick up history I’ve ever read ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/9 "2016-05-18T00:05:27Z")
\*\*The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich \*\*by William L. Shirer ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/10 "2016-05-18T03:58:01Z")
_Is Paris Burning?_ by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Several books by **Ben Macintyre** - Agent Zigzag Double Cross Operation Mincemeat ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/11 "2016-05-18T04:02:41Z")
I would throw in Audie Murphy’s To Hell and Back ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/12 "2016-05-18T06:10:29Z")
Some good general histories of the war: _Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945_ by Max Hastings _The Second World War_ by Antony Beevor _A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II_ by Gerhard L. Weinberg One problem with these books is they all tend to be written from a Western perspective and ignore the war in Asia. So you might want to also check out _Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945_ by Rana Mitter You definitely want to read Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy: _An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945_ If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary, you should check out _Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food_ by Lizzie Collingham. It’s an unusual general history of the war that considers it from the viewpoint of food production and distribution. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/13 "2016-05-18T07:17:59Z")
\*Heisenberg’s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb \*by Thomas Powers \*Japan’s Secret War: Japan’s Race Against Time to Build Its Own Atomic Bomb \*by Robert Wilcox \*The Ultra Secret \*by F.W. Winterbotham ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/14 "2016-05-18T07:22:56Z")
_American Caesar_ by William Manchester. An excellent biography of Douglas MacArthur, warts and all. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/15 "2016-05-18T08:21:17Z")
**Antony Beevor** Ardennes 1944 Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Stalingrad ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/16 "2016-05-18T08:35:23Z")
_To Lose a Battle_ by **Alistair Horne** is a really detailed account of the defeat of France in 1940, including the history and the politics that led to the French military being starved of resources and utterly unprepared to fight a modern (in 1940) army. If you think the French lost because they didn’t put up a fight, you really should read this. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/17 "2016-05-18T12:38:58Z")
_Pacific Crucible_ and _The Conquering Tide_ (about the war in the Pacific) by Ian Toll. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/18 "2016-05-18T12:57:52Z")
**Shattered Sword** , by Parshall and Tully, about the Battle of Midway. Deconstructs a lot of the myths surrounding the battle, and points out the flaws in the thinking and strategy by the Japanese brass which led to their losing both the battle and the war. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/19 "2016-05-18T14:04:19Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > _Pacific Crucible_ and _The Conquering Tide_ (about the war in the Pacific) by Ian Toll. I’ve been looking for books on the war in the Pacific for some time now and these look interesting. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/20 "2016-05-18T14:14:46Z")
I second the recommendation of Shattered Sword. Another of Cornelius Ryan’s books that I didn’t see mentioned but ought to be is **A Bridge Too Far**. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045.md?page=2)