I liked The Longest Day: June 6, 1944 by Cornelius Ryan.
No Bended Knee by Gen. Merrill Twining, USMC. It’s a memoir of the Guadalcanal Campaign. I’m reading it now and it is quite well done. Guadalcanal was one of the two great allied victories of 1942, and the turning point of the Pacific war on land.
JT
My favourites:
Aline Sax - No step behind (geen stap terug)
John McAleer & Billy Dickson - Unit Pride
Evan Hunter - Sons
Frederick Forsyth - The Odessa File
Michael Romse - Camp Massacre
Leon Uris - Battle Cry
John Harris - The fox from his lair
John Brason - Secret Army
Robert Birton - Moment of glory
Ray Rigby - The hill
And everything from Kirst.
I just picked up another good one: Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster. Yes, the same Webster who was part of the Band of Brothers. This book is pretty much the miniseries from his point of view.
Speaking of which, did anyone read Ambrose’s Band of Brothers? If anyone did, can he tell me if it’s any good?
the forgotten soldier by guy sayer is worth a read if i recall it is about the brandenburg division but i might be wrong.
the book by ambrose band of brothers is well worth reading !
So is “Pegasus Bridge.”
Alan Clark “Barbarossa”
Eric von Mainstain “Lost victories”
Here’s a great book I read recently:
The Greatest US Marine Corps Stories Ever Told
http://ww2db.com/read.php?read_id=76
It’s not all WW2, but a good chunk of it is. Through stories of individual Marines, this book nicely introduces the Marine spirit. Very readable and very enjoyable. I really highly recommend it.
“Enemy at the Gates” by William Craig was my first and still favorite WWII book.
Maple Leaf Against the Axis by David J. Bercuson is a good read on Canadas overall involvement in the war… “overall” because it doesn’t get very specific on individual battles - it covers the basics of Canadas war on land, in the air and at sea.
I’ve got Parachute Infantry and it’s next on my read list.
I like Half a Wing, three engines, and a prayer.
The 8th army from North Africa to the ALps
and finally
Jump dammit about a B-17 airmen evading capture
Hi all!
These are some great reading! I’ll be busy for months! I’ve got a list or two, but do online books count? The CMH has some great stuff! Here’s a link to one of them:
I stumbled across some older paperbacks at a booksale. I can’t say I’ve read all of them yet, but what I’ve read is super!
The Big Show (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1162000)
Thunderbolt (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2369851)
Found this one on Google books. Weighty, but important for the backstory:
Mine is fatherland by Robert Harris
Here are a few books I had great pleasure to read:
European volunteers,the 5.SS-Panzer-Division “Wiking” by Peter Staßner
Death of the Wehrmacht,the German Campaign of 1942 by Robert M Citino
It never snows in September,the German view of Market-Garden and the battle of Arnhem,September 1944 by Robert J.Kershaw
Black Edelweiss, A memoir of combat and conscience by a soldier of the waffen-SS by Johann Voss
In the firestorm of the last years of the war,II.SS-Panzerkorps with the 9 and 10.SS-Divisions “Hohenstaufen” and “Frundsberg” by Wilhelm Tieke
Bridgehead Kurland,the six epic battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland by Franz Kurowski
Grenadiers,the story of waffen-SS general Kurt"Panzer" Meyer by Kurt Meyer
Like a cliff in the ocean,the history of 3.SS-Panzer-Division “Totenkopf” by Karl Ullrich
Das Reich volume 1,2 and 3 by Otto Weidinger
The History of Panzerkorps GroßDeutschland volume 1,2 and 3 by Helmut Spaeter
For research purposes anything in the “then and now” collection.
Just finished “Killing Rommel” by Steven Pressfield. About the war in North Africa, excellent! Also try “War of the Rats” by David L. Robbins which is about the sniper war waged in Stalingrad. Both are fact based fiction works and great reads. “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” should be required reading for this site!
One of my favorite books is: “Soldier of Orange” by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, in English or in the original Dutch language. (I had the honor to meet Mr. R. once on an airplane traveling to Amsterdam).
Another favorite book is the earlier mentioned “The Big Show” by Pierre Clostermann. It was the first pocket book (used) I bought in the US back in 1960 for the grand sum of 10 cents! I still have it, but it is now barely legible. During WWII from, Sep 19 1944 until Feb 25 1945, we were evacuated to a little town called Beers (rhymes with bails) which is approxiamately 10 miles from the German built airbase Volkel in the southern part of the Netherlands. P.C. was based there for some time, and I am sure that he was one of the pilots of the many “Tempests” that came screaming over! One of the pictures in the book was taken at Volkel and that was the reason I originally bought it.