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Mistake Not... |
Jonathan Parshall, Anthony Tully. Shattered Sword: The Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway. Excellent book about Midway and some new perspectives on that battle. ___________________________________________ Life Member NRA & Washington Arms Collectors Mistake not my current state of joshing gentle peevishness for the awesome and terrible majesty of the towering seas of ire that are themselves the milquetoast shallows fringing my vast oceans of wrath. Velocitas Incursio Vis - Gandhi | |||
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Age Quod Agis |
^^^^This one, along with the Definitive Guadalcanal book reference earlier, the Trilogy of the european war written by Rick Atkinson and the Ian Toll books, Pacific Crucible and Fleet at Flood Tide. All are modern scholarship, and draw much more heavily on Japanese sources than earlier works were able to do. In addition, these books eschew much of the triumphalism of earlier books, and are less likely to take the word of some of the participants at face value. These books benefit from the time that has elapsed between the events that they record, and today. Good reads all. This is not to say that earlier books such as The Rising Sun, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich aren't good. They are. But they tend to be kind of one sided, and don't highlight the mistakes that the US and Allies made, and the challenges they faced, and still overcame, to be victorious. "I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation." Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II. | |||
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| I have lived the greatest adventure  |
Not about the military aspect of WWII, but Making of The Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes is fascinating. It covers in tremendous detail the science leading up to the development of the bomb, the development itself, the use of the bombs and the aftermath. Phone's ringing, Dude. | |||
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| Member |
Trading with the Enemy By, Charles Higham Silent | |||
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| If you're gonna be a bear, be a Grizzly!  |
One of my favorites was a book of cartoons by Bill Mauldin. I don't remember the name, but after looking at covers on Amazon, I believe it was Bill Mauldin's Army. Here's to the sunny slopes of long ago. | |||
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"Those Devils in Baggy Pants" by Ross S.Carter. I believe it was written in 1948. Carter describes his wartime experiences as a member of the 101st Airborne. Many of the soldiers in his narrative have nicknames. The author did this so his mother would not know how dangerous his WWII exploits were. The character generally accepted to be Carter is "The Arab". At one time this book was required reading for all airborne candidates at Ft. Benning. I first read this book well over 60 years ago. It's as good a tale of combat in the ETO as those written by Leckie and Sledge about the Pacific. ------------------------------------------------------------ "I have resolved to fight as long as Marse Robert has a corporal's guard, or until he says give up. He is the man I shall follow or die in the attempt." Feb. 27, 1865 Letter by Sgt. Henry P. Fortson 'B' Co. 31st GA Vol. Inf. | |||
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The memoir of General Omar Bradley - "A Soldier's Story". Great read, one of the books which the movie "Patton" was based on. | |||
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Member |
"The Forgotten Soldier". Great true story of a young Alsacian (sp?) teen that gets drafted into the German army and sent to the Russian front. clarior hinc honos. | |||
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goodheart |
For an overview of the entire war from the standpoint of economic production, relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the major powers, and perspective of who won and who lost, I recommend Victor Davis Hanson’s The Second World Wars. Agree with the Rick Atkinson trilogy for lots of details on what the GI’s went through. _________________________ “Remember, remember the fifth of November!" | |||
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I have enjoyed any of Stephen Ambrose's books, but here are a few others: Descent into Darkness, Pearl Harbor, 1941: The True Story of a Navy Diver (great book on the Salvage divers right after the attack) Back Home - Bill Mauldin (great read for "after the war") Operation Drumbeat – Michael Gannon (must read for the U-boat war) Hells Angels - Jay A Stout (not bad regarding the air war in Europe with B-17's) There was also one other book on the B-24 squadrons in the pacific, cant think of the name, but a great book on that topic | |||
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This was recently re-released. A one hour audio with the author discussing Neptune's Inferno on Midrat's (podcast about the Navy) https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/midrats/e/58409675 | |||
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Info Guru |
Really excellent suggestions in this thread. There are a few I haven't read yet - looking forward to correcting that! Here are a few off the beaten path that I really enjoyed: The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb Incredible story of a special ops mission - amazing it was able to be planned and carried out. The Forgotten Soldier: The Classic WWII Autobiography Written by a German soldier who served on the Russian front. We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance Amazing story of survival and evasion - wouldn't believe it if it was fiction. The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis The Lipizzaner breed was almost wiped out in WWII and would have been if not for this mission to save them. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams | |||
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There have been some excellent recommendations given covering all aspects of WW2. Here are a few more; John Toland's "Battle: The Story of the Bulge," love James Hornfischer's books on Naval battles in the Pacific and on the Eastern Front check out Jason Mark's "Island of Fire" which covers the fight for the Barrikady Factory in Stalingrad. Also check out the works of Charles McDonald, Cornelius Ryan, John McManus, and Joseph Balkoski. | |||
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Member |
On my list next I have: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East Train how you intend to Fight Remember - Training is not sparring. Sparring is not fighting. Fighting is not combat. | |||
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| Eschew Obfuscation |
I'm just finishing this book. It is excellent. _____________________________________________________________________ “One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.” – Thomas Sowell | |||
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Armed and Gregarious |
The Liberation Trilogy, by Rick Atkinson: - An Army At Dawn - The Day Of Battle - The Guns At Last Light A detailed, yet entertaining account of the US Army ops in the ETO. Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, by James Scott. Again, very detailed, but entertaining account of the raid. I thought I knew a lot about this particular subject, but learned a great deal. The book was so well written, it inspired me to read another book by the same author . . . The War Below: The Story of Three Submarines That Battled Japan, by James Scott. I only read it because the previously mentioned book so well done. Prior to reading this, on a scale of 1 to 10 my interest in submarines was about maybe slightly above 1. It was such a great book I'm currently looking for more books on the subject. The Men Who Killed The Luftwaffe, by Jay Stout. A great book that details both the problems and successes of the USAAF in WWII. Again, a topic I though I knew very well, but again learned many things about what really happened. ___________________________________________ "He was never hindered by any dogma, except the Constitution." - Ty Ross speaking of his grandfather General Barry Goldwater "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want." - William Tecumseh Sherman | |||
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| california tumbles into the sea |
D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches by Stephen E. Ambrose (1994). | |||
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