# World War II Non-fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220 "2023-07-18T16:05:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [July 19, 2023, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/41 "2023-07-19T02:19:09Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > (it was for the invasion of Sicily, not D-Day). Yeah, I was conflating it “Double Cross,” also by Macintyre. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/42 "2023-07-19T02:40:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Probably _Day of Infamy_ by Walter Lord, published in 1957. No; that’s just about Pearl Harbor. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/43 "2023-07-19T08:45:48Z")
I have 3 that are quite niche and probably well out of print about the underwater demolitions teams in the Pacific in which my dad served: _Webfooted Warriors_ by Edward T. Higgins. This is about UDT 11 which my dad was in. _The U.S. Frogmen of World War II_ by Wyatt Blassingame. _The Naked Warriors_ by Cdr. Francis Douglas Fane USNR (Ret.) and Don Moore. This one covers the time from the formation of the UDTs in WWII up to the formation of the SEALs in the 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/44 "2023-07-19T13:10:59Z")
A few oral histories for a different perspective: Studs Terkel - _The Good War: an oral history of WW2_ Svetlana Alexievich - _The Unwomanly Face of War: an oral history of women in WW2_ ---
**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:** [July 19, 2023, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/45 "2023-07-19T13:21:34Z")
Max Hastings has authored a number of good books about WWII, including _Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945_. That one can be hard to get through - not because it isn’t well-written, but due to its recounting of civilian suffering during the war, something other authors commonly don’t emphasize. > [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > You might also want to check out _[The Man Who Never Was](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Never_Was_(book))_, written by Lt Commander Owen Montagu, RNVR, serving in the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. He was the one ran Operation Mincemeat (it was for the invasion of Sicily, not D-Day). Montagu also appeared in the 1956 movie _The Man Who Never Was_, playing an Air Vice Marshal. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/46 "2023-07-19T13:28:58Z")
Yes, his character grilled the character playing himself, about the details of the plan. ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/47 "2023-07-19T13:32:52Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > A few oral histories for a different perspective: > > Studs Terkel - _The Good War: an oral history of WW2_ > > Svetlana Alexievich - _The Unwomanly Face of War: an oral history of women in WW2_ Terkel’s book is from people all over the war, heavy combat, behind the lines, I think some people on the homefront, all with different opinions and perspectives on what the war meant. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/48 "2023-07-19T13:56:12Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#): > > Terkel’s book is from people all over the war, heavy combat, behind the lines, I think some people on the homefront, all with different opinions and perspectives on what the war meant. Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature for works including the Unwomanly Face of War. It is primarily a Soviet WWII perspective, so included many women who were in combat and frontline roles as well as ‘home front’ activities. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/49 "2023-07-19T14:25:09Z")
Not military but I would still classify it as WWII non-fiction: “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” by Richard Rhodes. ---
**Author:** ![YellowDog51](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@YellowDog51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YellowDog51)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/50 "2023-07-19T17:30:24Z")
This (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) is excellent. A little heavy on the science in the beginning, but well worth getting through that part to better understand the rest. Also a thorough analysis of Lemay and the fire-bombing raids on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Rhodes also wrote an excellent book on the meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev in Iceland - what an opportunity lost! ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/51 "2023-07-20T01:38:31Z")
_Stranded in the Sky: The Untold Story of Pan Am Luxury Airliners Trapped on the Day of Infamy_, by Philip Jett. Not really about military matters, but very interesting. Pan Am used [large, luxurious flying boats](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314_Clipper) to carry passengers on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights. On the morning of 7 December 1941, when the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor, four of these planes were in the Pacific: _Philippine Clipper_, on the Wake–Guam leg of its flight from San Francisco to Singapore; _Pacific Clipper_, on the final (New Caledonia–Auckland) leg of its flight from San Francisco to New Zealand; _Hong Kong Clipper_, in Hong Kong preparing to leave for Manila; and _Anzac Clipper_, on the San Francisco–Pearl Harbor leg of its flight from SF to Singapore. _Anzac Clipper_ was lucky – the captain was given permission to attend his daughter’s piano recital just before takeoff. If they had departed on schedule, they would have arrived at Pearl Harbor right about the same time the Japanese did. As it was, they were about an hour out when their radio operator heard about the attack, and were able to divert to Hilo. ---
**Author:** ![alovem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@alovem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alovem)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/52 "2023-07-20T07:46:35Z")
[Operation Garbo](https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Garbo-Personal-Successful-Espionage/dp/1849541078), by Juan Pujol García and Nigel West. Interesting account in English of a Spaniard who became a spy, worked both sides of the conflict for what he considered to be the common good, and ended up self-exiled. He apparently played an important role in the tactics of deception and distraction that helped pave the way for the Normandy Invasion. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/53 "2023-07-20T12:00:42Z")
Similarly, there is _Colossus: Bletchley Park’s Greatest Secret_ by Paul Gannon about the computer built to decipher the German Lorenz codes. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2023, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/54 "2023-08-02T20:45:48Z")
_Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win War War II_, by Catherine Musemeche. The focus is on the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2023, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/55 "2023-08-05T06:51:50Z")
A book that was recommended, but I have never been able to find at the library, is _Under the Red Sea Sun_ by Edward Ellsberg. It describes the attempt to clear the port of Massawa in Eritrea after the Italians blocked it with scuttled ships. Supposed to be an entertaining account of bureacratic politics in a remote corner of the war, far from support. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/56 "2023-08-07T00:55:52Z")
Robert Parker wrote a great one-volume treatment [The Second World War](https://www.amazon.com.au/Second-World-War-Struggle-Survival-ebook/dp/B008C7YSLK) which includes much information about countries economies and logistical operations. Len Deighton is an excellent factual writer (as well as fictional) - [Fighter](https://www.amazon.com.au/Fighter-Battle-Britain-Penguin-Classics-ebook/dp/B08QTNLPPW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MDU55SNQS7TS&keywords=fighter+deighton&qid=1691369580&s=digital-text&sprefix=fighter+deighton%2Cdigital-text%2C252&sr=1-1) is his book on the Battle of Britain which skewers quite a lot of the myths about the ‘Stiff Upper Lip and the Boys in Blue’. His book [Blood, Tears and Folly](https://www.amazon.com.au/Blood-Tears-Folly-Objective-Classics-ebook/dp/B08QVG53MP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1L5HN1J92A1J7&keywords=blood+deighton&qid=1691369673&s=digital-text&sprefix=blood+deighton%2Cdigital-text%2C238&sr=1-1) is an excellent read on WW2 up to Pearl Harbour. As you can probably tell, he is definitely not a Churchill worshipper. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220/57 "2023-08-07T01:55:31Z")
Just returned from a WWII themed tour of Europe. The guide, who is now teaching at Sandhurst, recommended "It Never Snows in November; a View of Market Garden & Arnheim. As told from the German perspective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-war-ii-non-fiction/987220.md?page=2)