Must Read Books of WW2

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Some excellent books there Perato. I have a copy of "Shattered Sword" that I am yet to read but all the others except for the last title I have read and really loved.

[Chris]

I'm sure this one has come up already, but I've just finished



My review

Definitely a must read memoir, it was absolutely fantastic!

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Totally agree Chris, its an excellent book and one of my favourites on the Battle of Britain.

[Chris]

It's been sitting on the bookshelf for years, can't believe it took me so long to get round to reading it! For me, Spitfire Pilot and The Last Enemy are the other two must-read memoirs from the Battle of Britain.

[Sweetwilliam]

Marc wrote: "Perato wrote: "Watching my bookshelf with only about +60 WW2 books there are handful that I think are a must read for anyone enthusiast about the war. Not maybe because of their content but how the..."

This is an awesome list. I'm set to reread all of Hornfischer's books starting with Neptune's Inferno.



I'll add this one to the list. The narrative of the Japanese fighting man has been a perspective that has been missing from my past reading. This one has it in spades. Add this and With the Old Breed to your list and I would say that you nailed it.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Excellent review Sweetwilliam!

[Sweetwilliam]

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Excellent review Sweetwilliam!"

Thanks Rick. I do not remember reading a narrative by Japanese infantry.

[KOMET]

Here are some books on the Second World War that are well worth reading ---

1) 'The Sinking of the Lancastria: The Twentieth Century's Deadliest Naval Disaster and Churchill's Plot to Make It Disappear' - Jonathan Fenby



2) 'Finding Your Father's War: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army' - Jonathan Gawne



This book is of special interest to those Club members whose fathers served in the U.S. Army (as my late father did, from April 1943 to July 1946) during the Second World War.

3) 'Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945' - ed. by David M. Glantz, Helmut Heiber, and Gerhard L Weinberg



4) 'Big Week: The Biggest Air Battle of World War Two' - James Holland



5) 'Fading Victory: The Diary of Admiral Matome Ugaki, 1941-1945' - Matome Ugaki

[Sweetwilliam]

John wrote: "Yes, that may be due for a re-read."

Marc, I loved all of those books. Severa; are on my favorites list.

[Simon]

Britain's War Machine

MR, Most accounts of WW2 assume the British are weak and feeble, unprepared and dealing with a hugely efficient Nazi machine.

Well not so. Britain was relatively wealthy. This is revisionism red in tooth and claw. The Battle of Britain was a story of two air forces. One was wildly unplanned and improvised. The other was teutonically efficient, disciplined and carefully controlled. They are not the way around you think they are !

Edgerton may over argue his points but he has much validity. Anecdotes on rifle production, plane and tank production, rationing are all very interesting. A book to make you think.

[Simon]

MR, most accounts of WW2 assume the Red Army tore the guts out of the Germans on the Eastern Front.

Well perhaps so, and perhaps not !

The book sees the Allied path to victory in terms of production, technology, and economic power. The war was more a contest by air and sea than a land fight. It shows how the Allies developed a predominance of air and sea power that put unbearable pressure on Germany and Japan's entire war fighting machine from Europe and the Med to the Pacific. Air and sea power dramatically expanded the area of battle and allowed the Allies to destroy over half the Axis' equipment before it had reached the battlefield.

[Jonny]

Simon wrote: "Britain's War Machine

Well not so. Britain was relatively wealthy.

Really? Not for long:

During June, [1940] nonetheless, the president provided as much aid as he could to the democracies. While it still looked as if France would stand, Roosevelt and his Treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, pushed through the sale to the Allies of half a million rifles, 900 field guns and 130 million rounds of ammunition, left over from America’s involvement in the last war. After the French collapse, Britain took on the whole of this contract, using the rifles to equip the Home Guard. On 17 June, to maintain US business confidence and guarantee the continued operation of the industrial plant it had already helped set up, Britain also took financial responsibility for all the orders for new munitions that the French had placed in America over the previous year.
This expenditure raised Britain’s dollar commitments in America over the next twelve months to $1,640 million, at a point when the British estimated they had only $2,000 million in the ‘war chest’ of currency reserves. Still more dollars had to be spent, however, in order to accelerate the war economy. Cut off from its usual ore supplies on the continent by the German advance, the Ministry of Supply bought steel and aluminium from America, as well as precision machine tools to equip British factories. Prodigious overseas spending would help to slingshot British munitions production past its German equivalent, but it also led to an even more rapid erosion of the dollar reserves.

Britain's War: Into Battle, 1937-1941

[Simon]

Britain's War Machine.

Relative to Germany, Britain had more wealth and income. UK vehicle production ran at 700,000 a year. Germany and France together ran at 400,000, you can take this as a proxy for tank production if you like.

June 1940 the USA provided aid ? until Dec 1940 the UK paid in cash, France and the UK had ordered more than the USA could supply. Lend lease didn't pass till March 1941 and took some time to build up. Do you recall Darkest Hour and how FDR had bugger all to offer in May 1940 ? How many American boots hit the ground in 1940 ? (Billy Fiske aside)

I'd be wary about relying on the USA, for WW1 they were 4 years late, their first major battle was St Mihiel, their Field and Medium artillery was French, the Heavies were British, the tanks and planes were French. For WW2 they were 27 months late.

Sure the US Navy ran some convoy protection prior to Pearl, but they'd also shown extreme reluctance to translate US Sailors being killed into War on Germany, good thing Hitler declared war on the US 11.12.41.

Britain's War Machine has an interesting story on the rifle crisis. We source a nillion Lee Enfields from Canada. A miilion from the Savage Arms Corp of the USA. 700,000 from Australia. 400,000 from India, and the 2 million made in England. A total of 5.3 million rifles. So why a crisis ? Well France wasn't expected to collapse. The British Empire planned a war using the RN and the RAF, not using mass armies. 55 Divisions became one target. Quite simply you might plan for a sort of war (no mass arrmy) but then you find you need a mass army. The rifles were found.

And a dimension of wealth and income Germany did not have was Britain's world-wide trading links, resources flowed into the UK. Very quickly meat ships from South America switched from high quality chilled meat to frozen, it could just be piled up. Rationing gave Britons a boring diet with less or no meat, dairy, fruit ... but no one in the UK went hungry. Works canteens were off ration. It was not like occupied Europe where people scrabbled for the last turnip. British workers were to be kept happy and productive.

A story on aircraft and ship production. The USA has a productivity edge over the UK ? or does it ? The USA's planes have long production runs, but have to then go into modifying Finishing Factories. The UK makes its modifications on the production line, they are responsive to what the RAF wants. Include the Finishing Factories and the two nations' productivity is similar.

The Liberty ship ? what a great US idea ! only it was a British design. The UK also made them, taking about 400,000 houts to make one, the US took at first 1,000,000 man hours, this reduced. The UK preferred to use skilled labour on warships, more difficult to make than Merchant Ships.

Simon A

[Michał]

I'd love you guys to have access to read these books in English. I have them in Polish because this is our theater of history, an they are published for polish historians to read. If by any chance I could participate with someone better qualified in it then me, I'd love it. UPA is Ukrainian organization
---
Zima w bunkrze by Stepan Stebelski (there isn't even polish edition on goodreds)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Memories of the commander of the UPA sotnia, Stepan Stebelski "Chrin". Written in the UPA bunker in Bieszczady in the winter of 1947-1948.
----
Bylem Dowodca Brygady Swietokrzyskiej
Antoni Bohun-Dabrowski

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

"Bohuna" is a description of the march to the West of the Świętokrzyska Brigade of the National Armed Forces, the only independence unit that managed to connect with the Allies. The brigade was formed in the summer of 1944 from NSZ units fighting against the Bolsheviks in the Lublin and Kielce regions.
---
Pamiętniki Partyzanta by Józef Wyrwa

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...

The diaries of Partisan, a Hubal native, the legendary commander of a partisan unit, which became part of the National Armed Forces and later joined the 25th Infantry Regiment of the Home Army
Time is running out.

There are fewer and fewer eyewitnesses of the Second World War. Many episodes from the history of the underground army have not yet been published, to the detriment not only of its soldiers, but also - and above all - for future generations...
---
Generał Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz ostatni Kmicic II RP. I wyklęci żołnierze wojny polsko-sowieckiej 1920 roku by Marek Cabanowski

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Marek Cabanowski's book is a popularizing genre - in places it even comes close to an essay on the life and activities of Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz - its goal is to bring the figure of the general out of oblivion. The author does not pretend to be scientific - he encourages you to open the forgotten pages of history. Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz is shown as a Polish officer, but the author tries to avoid explicitly specifying the general's nationality. A lot of space and attention is devoted in the book to the presentation of mutual relations between the nations that make up the Republic of Poland.
---
Moje cztery kampanie. Wspomnienia z kampanii wrześniowej, francuskiej, libijskiej i włoskiej by Władysław Filip Łuczyński

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Approached the commander of the 2nd commando company, Lieutenant F. Kępa, to arrange additional fire tasks. Leaning over the map, we did not notice that the commander of the Polish commandos, Major W. Smrokowski, approached us and said: "Let's go to this hill and see what is there." It was an order to attack Monte Freddo for the 2nd company of commandos.
---
Wojna, wojna, wojenka by Stanisław Kosicki

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Memories of a Kedyw soldier, the real prototype of Maciek Chełmicki, the hero of the novel "Ashes and Diamonds". Kosicki's true story differs significantly from the one presented in "Ashes...".
---
Dziewięć lat w bunkrze. Wspomnienia żołnierza UPA by Omelan Płeczeń

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

An authentic account of a soldier of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army hiding in the years 1947 - 1956 in bunkers and forests of the districts of Przemyśl, Sanok and Lesko, intertwined with the memories of UPA fights from 1944-1947 and the "Wisła" operation.
---
Wielki rajd by Mychajło Duda (there isn't even polish edition on goodreds)

Memories of the commander of the UPA group, which broke through Czechoslovakia and Austria from Przemyśl to Bavaria.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Operation "Wisła" continues, the loop around the UPA tightens. I get an order to break through to the American occupation zone in Germany.

['Aussie Rick', Moderator]

Sounds like some very interesting books there Michał! My wife is very happy that I can only speak/read one language - cuts down on the number of books I can buy!

[Simon]

Jonny wrote: "Simon wrote: "Britain's War Machine

Well not so. Britain was relatively wealthy.

Really? Not for long:

One proxy for tank production is car production. The UK 700,000 a year, France and Germany combined, 400,000 a year. Edgerton touches on income & wealth in UK and Germany, we had butter, they had guns. Whilst the Nazi empire fed its workers on turnips, the British brought in food and resources from across the world.

The book opens with a magnificent survey of British trade and manufacture at the beginning of the war, designed to underpin an argument for which Edgerton makes bold claims of novelty. Far from being a plucky underdog in 1940, he says, Britain was a first-class power, with the world's largest navy, the greatest aircraft production of any country and a small but uniquely mechanised army – pre-war appeasement having gone hand in hand with rearmament. Her leaders were rightly confident in their ability to wage a devastating war of machines. The British army did not lose nearly all its equipment at Dunkirk; it had enough spare capacity left at home for Churchill to send tanks to Egypt in August 1940. Nor was Britain "alone" between June 1940 and June 1941: she had behind her a vast empire and global financial investments. These resources enabled the British to fight the war as they chose rather than as they had to, and to pay a much lighter price than most of the other belligerents.

The crisis of the Battle of the Atlantic, Edgerton argues, came not in 1943 but in late 1941. Nor was Britain ever really under siege or blockaded. Imports stayed at pre-war levels in value, most food was not rationed and was available in quantity. Meat and cheese imports actually increased. Oil products, fuel oil, petrol, aviation spirit and lubricating oils were all imported in unprecedented quantities. Contrary to popular belief, Churchill's wartime coalition was one of the most techno-literate in British history, with four scientifically trained ministers; most of the important work in wartime science was not done by prominent intellectuals such as JD Bernal but by obscure figures within the military bureaucracy; and Barnes Wallis and Frank Whittle did not have to struggle against Whitehall indifference – they were cosseted and indulged by the authorities. As for wartime solidarity: "The second world war brought the classes together, but neither side liked what it saw."

How convincing is all this? Edgerton himself makes two major qualifications to his thesis. British confidence in victory in 1940 turned out to rest on a colossal underestimation of the Germans' capacity to exploit labour and resources in the European nations they conquered. And, great as Britain's resources were, they proved quite unequal to the extra challenge posed by the Japanese victories in late 1941. Thereafter, the British relied on the wealth and manufacturing strength of the United States to carry them through. But even beyond that, many of Edgerton's other targets belong more to popular mythology than to historical orthodoxy. Churchillian rhetoric apart, no serious historian has ever suggested that Britain was "alone" in 1940. Accounts of the desert war bring out the major contribution made by Dominion troops; only a major industrial power could have sunk the Bismarck or devastated Hamburg.

Even where Edgerton is undoubtedly right, his argument is not helped by some strange omissions. He says nothing about industrial relations, gives no coherent overview of scientific policy-making or weapons procurement, and makes no comparisons with other countries. When it comes to assessing how the great machines performed on the battlefield, he tends to go awol: the discussion of tank design is strewn between different chapters and proves disappointingly inconclusive; there is no proper explanation of why British air defences did not work at all in 1940 yet could shoot down V1 rockets in 1944. It is not clear whether Edgerton supports or disputes the claim made by Churchill's critics – that most of the scientific work that really determined the outcome of the war, such as radar, was done before 1940, under Chamberlain's patronage, whereas Churchill and his crony Lindemann pursued many expensive mare's nests.

Then there is the writing. Initially, Edgerton's boyish enthusiasm – and the illustrations and tables that generously stud the volume – sweep the reader along. Soon, though, his assumption of knowledge on the reader's part, blurring of big points, fluffing of anecdotes and habit of offering lists of names instead of argument begin to irritate. Academic point-scoring seems to matter more than clarity.

In particular, Edgerton seems obsessed by two classic predecessors – The People's War (1969), Angus Calder's romantic evocation of wartime solidarity, and The Audit of War (1986), Correlli Barnett's savage critique of the wartime coalition's failure to address the long-standing weaknesses of British industry. Edgerton first took on Barnett during a series of exchanges in the London Review of Books and New Left Review in the 1990s – exchanges that, even if he didn't win them, helped establish his reputation. Now, in Britain's War Machine, he dismisses Barnett as a "declinist" and does not engage with his detailed arguments at all, yet the whole book is a celebratory counterblast to Barnett's pessimism, a piece of historical public relations. Equally, Edgerton plays down the important work of scientists such as Patrick Blackett and Solly Zuckerman largely because Calder's very brief examination of wartime science, written 42 years ago, before the Ultra story had emerged, made far too much of it.

One reason why books on the second world war keep coming is that historians have opened up new perspectives by moving away from the battlefield to subjects such as medicine or nutrition, once thought of only specialist interest. Two years ago Adam Tooze transformed perceptions of the Holocaust by placing it firmly within Nazi economic and social policy; more recently, Lizzie Collingham pulled off a similar trick with food. Both writers offered full-scale, narrative-driven reassessments of their subjects. By contrast, David Edgerton's book, though brilliant in places and consistently lively, stimulating and authoritative, represents a missed opportunity.

[Dj]

Simon wrote: "Jonny wrote: "Simon wrote: "Britain's War Machine

Well not so. Britain was relatively wealthy.

Really? Not for long:

One proxy for tank production is car production. The UK 700,0..."

Good Heavens. At the start, I was thinking of maybe taking a look at this, and by the end, I was full-on skip. Thanks for the review. Very well done.

[Ari]

I recently read a great book called "Fly For Your Life". It's the official biography of the Robert Stanford-Tuck. Stanford-Tuck was the first Spitfire ace of World War 2. It's a first hand account of the Dunkirk evacuation and The Battle of Britain from the cockpit of a Spitfire.

It was truly a great read.

Fly For Your Life: The Story of Spitfire & Hurricane Ace Robert Stanford Tuck

[Marc]

Ari wrote: "I recently read a great book called "Fly For Your Life". It's the official biography of the Robert Stanford-Tuck. Stanford-Tuck was the first Spitfire ace of World War 2. It's a first hand account ..."

I agree, an excellent book. I read it back in high school in the early 80's.

[Christine]

All books on the Frank family by Melissa Mueller, Carol Ann Lee, Miep Gies, Hannah Pick-Goslar and Willy Lindwer are highly recommendable.

[Christine]

Herman Wouk: The Winds of War and the sequel.

[KOMET]

Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airman's Firsthand Account of World War II by Philip Handleman



This is a fascinating story about one of the few Tuskegee Airmen still living -- Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr., USAF (retired) -- who saw combat in Europe during the final months of World War II with the 332nd Fighter Group, flying bomber escort missions and fighter sweeps. During one of these missions, Stewart shot down 3 German fighters, a rare achievement for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).

[Rory]

Christine wrote: "Herman Wouk: The Winds of War and the sequel."
Hi Christine,
When I was a kid the miniseries was on tv and it was so awful that I skipped the books. Then when I joined Audible, I picked it up as a free credit and actually enjoyed huge parts of it and War&Remembrance---really can't read first without reading second book. Audible narration was fantastic.
Granted certain parts of the story were corny as Wouk is horrible with romance in all his books, and main character needed a teleportation device to be everywhere at same time; yet, the story still held up. It's the usual follow these soap opera of two families before and during the war, as you get a side of history, which actually makes it worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed the parody of the manstein/kesselring/vonmelinthin memoirs. He captured their tone perfectly. Anyone that has read Lost Victories should skim Wouk just for these sections alone.
Wouk gives birds-eye view of Tassafronga which is probably only time that battle appears in fiction, mentions the Eastern front as part of a character's "analysis", puts you on the receiving end hearing about fall of Singapore and its effect on morale, and comes at topics from a different angle. Surprisingly he skips around Italy and Normandy and other battles mostly covered in most other war fiction.
Thanks for adding this to the list, Christine--many purists would skip it as the history wasn't "perfect" or like me they remembered the horrible mini-series, but as novel of the war, it is enjoyable especially as he strayed off the overbeaten paths.
And I highly recommend Audible version over simply reading it.