# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**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 19, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/41 "2016-05-19T14:56:49Z")
Another excellent book I’d recommend is _The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s_ by Piers Brendon. Obviously it’s not a history of the war itself. But it’s a very good history of the period right before the war and explains the background of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/42 "2016-05-19T16:35:23Z")
Lots of great choices. I’d add two from Eric Bergurud, covering the land and air war in the SW Pacific: _[Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific](http://www.amazon.com/Touched-Fire-Land-South-Pacific/dp/0140246967)_ and _[Fire In The Sky: The Air War In The South Pacific](http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Sky-Air-South-Pacific/dp/0813338697)_ But before that, go read _[Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire.](http://www.amazon.com/Downfall-End-Imperial-Japanese-Empire/dp/0141001461)_ For bathroom reading, Dunnigan and Nofi’s _[Dirty Little Secrets of World War II…](http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Little-Secrets-World-War/dp/0688122884)_ is a fun read. I also like his ‘50 Books on WW2 bookshelf’ book, mentioned earlier in the thread. Anyone mentioned _[The Boat](http://www.amazon.com/Boat-Lothar-Gunther-Buchheim/dp/039449105X)_ or [_Iron Coffins_](http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Coffins-Personal-Account-Battles/dp/030681160X) yet? Both cover the U-Boat war, from the German side. Though not as personal, covering the tank war from the German side, it’s hard to do better than Mellenthin’s _[Panzer Battles](http://www.amazon.com/Panzer-Battles-Study-Employment-Second/dp/1568525788)_. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/43 "2016-05-19T17:37:43Z")
_ **The Blond Knight of Germany: A Biography of Erich Hartmann** _. The air war on the Eastern Front. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/44 "2016-05-19T17:55:14Z")
The Forger Cioma Schönhaus, a memoir of a German Jew who lived secretly in Berlin during the war, and was responsible for forging hundreds of identity documents that saved other Jews. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/45 "2016-05-19T17:59:56Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > **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. A great description of a great book. Also recommend: Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre 2010 Death Traps: The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II by Belton Cooper 2003 (Kindle) The Tank Killers: A History of America’s WWII Tank Destroyer Force by Harry Yeide 2010 Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman 2012 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/46 "2016-05-19T18:10:46Z")
_Here Is Your War: The Story Of G.I. Joe_ by Ernie Pyle. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/47 "2016-05-19T19:03:16Z")
i have read: the devil’s diary and hanns and rudolf. both were very readable and interesting as the men involved were german jews who fled germany then went back to hunt down 2 main nazis. very interesting with good insights. the devil’s diary had more of how germany slowly descended into hitler’s thrall. ---
**Author:** ![BuckChongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@BuckChongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuckChongo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/48 "2016-05-20T00:38:10Z")
Currahee! By Donald R Burgett, his simple honest account of training with the 101st Airborne and jumping into Normandy. Much like With The Old Breed by Sledge. ---
**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 21, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/49 "2016-05-21T02:13:49Z")
[Stillwell and The American Experience in China](http://www.amazon.com/Stilwell-American-Experience-China-1911-45/dp/0802138527)by Barbara Tuchman Barbara W. Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 in 1972. She uses the life of Joseph Stilwell, the military attache to China in 1935-39 and commander of United States forces and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44, to explore the history of China from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China’s Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents. Her story is an account of both American relations with China and the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed “Vinegar Joe,” Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of The National Review, “one of the historian’s most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story.” ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/50 "2016-05-23T05:49:06Z")
> [@Algernon](#): > > Max Hastings’ _Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945_ (also mentioned by **Little Nemo** is a good single volume history. What I liked most about this is that much of the focus was on the front-line soldier and sailor, and also on the impact of the conflict on the civilian population. The strategic movement of forces on land, sea and air, and the resultant battles were of course covered in the narrative, but served mostly to provide a context for the suffering that occurred by individuals and populations. I also found it interesting that the book covered some battlefronts like Burma and Hungary that rarely get mentioned in a book like this that attempts to document the entire war. If I may do a slight THJ I finished his “Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War” and if “Inferno” is half as good I’ll definitely out it on my reading list. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045/51 "2016-05-23T05:55:17Z")
You can download Len Deighton’s excellent “Blood Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at WW2” by Len Deighton for as low as 5 bucks, almost 900 pages ripping apart the myths of WWII and how many of the events we memorialize were due to incompetence of one or both combatants. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/essential-world-war-ii-books/755045.md?page=2)