I enjoy learning about history and a good deal of my reading and documentary watching time has been spent on WWII. I’ve easily found sources from the American point of view, the British POV, and even the POV of those who were in the concentration camps. Still, I haven’t found any resources about what it was like for those in the Axis armies or the civilians who supported them. I would be very interested in this because, although I certainly don’t agree with what they were fighting for, I would like to understand it. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you may have of books or films that I might watch (I have Netflix). Thanks!
If fiction is okay - Hans Helmut Kirst, personally I think The Fox of Maulen (aka The Wolves) is his best work. *Night of the Generals *(made into a film with Omar Sharif and Peter O’Toole) and Officer Factory are also good as well.
Inside the Third Reich - Albert Speer
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich - William L. Shirer
The German Generals Talk - Basil H. Liddell Hart
The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, war memoir of a German soldier in the Russian campaign.
Ooka Shohei - ‘Fires On the Plain’ (1951). Tubercular Japanese soldier tries to survive during the last days of the Philippine Campaign.
Sakai Saburo - ‘Zero’. Sakai’s account of his experiences as a Naval Aviator.
Ibuse Masuji - ‘Black Rain’. A novel based on historical records of the Hiroshima bombing and it’s aftermath.
Albert Speer - ‘Inside the Third Reich’.
I don’t know about this book, but Saburo Sakai’s memoir “Samurai!” is excellent.
Adolf Galland - The First and the Last - fighter pilot
Heinz Guderian - Panzer Leader - tank general
Hans-Ulrich Rudel - Stuka Pilot - dive-bomber and tank-buster pilot
Hans von Luck - Panzer Commander - tank officer
F W von Mellenthin - Panzer Battles - tank general
Teddy Suhren - Teddy Suhren: Ace of Aces - U-boat skipper
Erich Topp - The Odyssey of a U-Boat Commander - U-boat skipper
Mitsuo Fuchida - Midway: The Battle That Doomed Japan - naval bomber pilot
And I know it’s the wrong war, but I’ll also recommend:
Georg von Trapp - To the Last Salute - WWI Austrian U-boat skipper
Haven’t read the following yet, but they sound interesting:
Shoichi Yokoi - Private Yokoi’s War and Life on Guam, 1944-72 - holdout on Guam until 1972
Hiroo Onoda - No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War - holdout in the Philippines until 1974
And yes, this is the Captain Von Trapp from “Sound of Music”, in case you were wondering.
***The Blond Knight of Germany: A Biography of Erich Hartmann *** by Raymond Toliver and Trevor Constable. A good book on what it was like to be a Luftwaffe pilot on the Eastern Front.
NB: For those who are wondering, Austria does not have a coastline; Austria–Hungary did. Its main naval base was Trieste.
The Reich Marshal: A Biography of Hermann Goering by Leonard Mosley, who actually knew Goering and was a guest at his estate before the war.
Along the same lines, I just saw another documentary on the siege of Khe Sanh. I would love to hear the Vietnamese perspective of that battle. What could have been going through their minds during the B-52 strikes?
The German Raider Atlantis by Rogge, Bernhard
H J Brennecke (1954). Ghost Cruiser HK33.
Oops, mis-remembered the title - Yes, it is good.
ETA: ‘Stuka Pilot’ - Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Read this. Surprising to say the least. Onoda was an exception among the Japanese stragglers. You’ll understand when you read his book, and then supplements like “The Stragglers.”
Another Japanese book I recommend is “Japanese Destroyer Captain” by Tameichi Hara. It was the best gun and torpedo book I ever read. You’ll understand the reasons behind the spectacular Japanese naval victories during night fighting.
Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier by Siegfried Knappe.
Primarily blast overpressure waves, I suspect.
Here’s another vote for Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich. It’s self-serving as hell but fascinating.
An oldie, but still a goodie–The Rising Sun, by John Toland. WWII from the Japanese perspective, with lots of quotes from soldiers and civilians and some harrowing accounts from Japanese nurses that you will want to skip if you have a weak stomach.