In this section I am listing many of the books that I have read cover to cover on the subject of WWII (Hey, its ok to be proud of slogging all the way through books like William Shirer's The rise and fall of the Third Reich :). I am including brief personal comments intended to describe four main points: Writing style, level of documentation, any apparent bias the author had, and the purpose of the book.
Ambrose, Stephen: D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (Touchstone Books, New York, New York, 1994).
Personal Comments- Excellently written and documented. Truly a joy to read. Includes short stories of personal lives in the vast panorama of this enormous battle. Ambrose definitely sees American and British troops as heroes and leaves the reader feeling the same.
Blair, Clay: Hitler's U-Boat War 1939-1942: The Hunters (Random House, New York, New York, 1996).
Personal Comments- This 900 page hardcover monster is an extremely detailed account of the U-Boat campaign in the first half of WWII. Combined with his second volume (covering the second half of WWII) Blair has written approximately 1,800 pages on the subject. It seems that practically every merchant ship sunk is recorded in this definitive book, and unfortunately the stories of each individual melee tend to become blurred together after reading about the 200th sinking. Still, Blair manages to hold the many individual stories together as a well defined whole, and the reader never gets lost in the details. I doubt if a better book will ever be written on the subject.
Blandford, Edmund L.: Hitler's Second Army, the Waffen SS (Motorbooks International, Osceola, Wisconsin, 1995).
Personal Comments- This book uses many personal accounts to paint a picture of the Waffen SS as a soldier's army. Shying away from tales of atrocities, he approaches the Waffen SS from the angle that it was an elite army under different jurisdiction from the regular army. Blandford also avoids the mistakes made by other authors who use personal accounts, such as MacDonald, who seemed to place undue emphasis on relatively insignificant events when he could find people to talk about them. Blandford instead uses the accounts only as examples of some soldier's experiences, not as source material for the whole war.
Caidin, Martin:The Tigers are Burning (Hawthorn Books, New York, New York, 1974).
Personal Comments- Discusses the battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history. The first 2/3's of the book were ghastly to read. Caidin repeats himself many times in his description of the importance of this battle. I found myself skimming page after page until I reached an interesting point. Finally, in the last third of the book, Caidin reaches the meat of the battle and rescues a tragic attempt and converts it to merely a mediocre one. The writing tries too hard to pull the reader into the scene, making the entire effort seem like an exagerated tale. To top all of this, Caidin is apparently both fascinated by and deathly afraid of communists. Several chapters were devoted to creating stereotypes of the Russian soldier as a fearless, inflexible brute willing to die for his cause. There is good information in this book, but its 230 pages could easily have been boiled down to 50 if all the chaff had been seperated out.
Costello, John: The Pacific War 1941-1945 (Quill, New York, New York, 1982(.
Personal Comments- A combination of good writing with short chapters of an average 20 page length helped this book to march along smartly. Excellent appendices include well drawn maps, comparative charts, notes, bibliography, and index. After reading this book I understand for the first time the importance of some of the tiny islands that caused so many casualties in battles. Names like Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan finally have meaning other than "some battle out in the Pacific".
A surprising bias the writer has is in his obvious dislike of MacArthur. He paints MacArthur as a man possessed by one goal: the liberation of the Phillipines. Everything in his war aims headed towards this goal to the detriment of all others, even when these aims were counterproductive to the overall Pacific campaign. Similarly, the British military is painted in grim colors, though the Australians are given due credit for their remarkable performances at Guadalcanal and other battles.
Harries, Meirion and Susie: Soldiers of the Sun, the Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army (Random House, New York, New York, 1991).
Personal Comments- Well written, with documentation at the end of the book organised by chapter and page instead of using footnotes. As the title suggests, it is based on the Imperial Army, with less information than I would have liked on the Imperial Navy.
Horne, Alistair and Montgomery, David: Monty, the Lonely Leader 1944-1945 (Macmillan London, New York, New York, 1994).
Personal Comments- Well written and documented. Horne gives a personal view of Monty as a whole person, not just as a general. Attempts to be impartial as far as Monty's ideosyncrasies and strategies go, but definitely sides with the British when political conflicts between Britain and the U.S. come into play.
Kemp, Anthony: The Maginot Line, myth and reality (Military Heritage Press, New York, New York 1988).
Personal Comments- A small book that can be read in one long sitting, Kemp describes the actual manufacture and design of the infamous Maginot Line. Most people have an idea of a sort of "Great Wall of China" extending across the German/French border; here we can find the facts. He explains why the Maginot Line was outmoded by Blitzkrieg tactics, and why it extended only from the area south of Belgium up to the Ardennes.
Liddle-Hart, B. H. The Rommel Papers (A Da Capo, New York, New York, 1953)
Personal Comments- This is a fairly well written book that is basically the journal of Erwin Rommel during WWII. Besides the last chapter or two that deal with his death, the entire book was written in Erwin Rommel's own pen. It was fascinating to read a book on the war that at first showed such optimism about the war, then slowly slipped into despair as the Germans lost all hope of victory.
MacDonald, Charles B. A Time for Trumpets: the Untold Story of the Battle of the Bulge (William Morrow and Company, inc., New York, New York, 1985)
Personal Comments- Similar to the style of Steven Ambrose, MacDonald uses many individual stories of the men involved in the Battle of the Bulge to paint a larger picture. Unfortunately, I found myself floundering in tiny details and had a difficult time putting them all together. For example, a skirmish which involved 30 men would have more written about it than a major battle involving entire armies, and would end up appearing to be more decisive. Additionally, this book has been one of the most pro-American biased World War II history books I have ever read. Documentation was good, with added appendices which named the various divisions, battalions, etc, which served in the battle.
Neufeld, Michael J: The Rocket and the Reich; Peenemunde and the coming of the ballistic missile era (Free Press, New York, New York, 1995).
Personal Comments- Well documented, including appendix describing various models of rockets. Describes the evolution of the rocket project leading to the V-2 and the failed attempt at producing a guided anti-aircraft missile named the wasserfall. Neufeld obviously felt a little resentment at the U.S.'s turning a blind eye to the warcrimes committed by the Peenemunde rocket scientists when the U.S. needed their expertise in their own rocket programs.
Rudel, Hans Ulrich: Stuka Pilot (Ballantine Books, New York, New York, 1958).
Personal Comments- In this book, Ulrich recounts his adventures as a Stuka pilot on the East Front during World War II. One is struck with wonder that Ulrich managed to survive many of his encounters, such as the time when he was shot down over enemy lines, captured, escaped, was chased by hundreds of Russians, and finally made it to friendly lines, all while stark naked! Although this book is good entertainment, I have to say that it was not a balanced account and rather wildly pro-German.
Shirer, William: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Simon and Schuster, New York, New York, 1960).
Personal Comments- Very well documented. Considered by many to be the definitive account of the German Third Reich, and especially of National Socialism. At least 2/3's of the book is written about the period of time leading up to the onset of the war. If you are interested in how Nazism swept over Germany and how Hitler gained control, this is the book to read. One word of caution, though: this book is extremely difficult to read due to the mummified dryness of the writing.
Weinberg, Gerhard: The World at Arms (Cambridge press, Cambridge, England, 1994).
Personal Comments- Very well written and documented. If you were to read just one book on World War II, or if you are looking for a good overview from which to begin a study of WWII, this is the book I would suggest. It covers the war from the political, economic, and military motives behind each country's actions. Major battles and events are all covered, and the strategic significance of seemingly disjointed theatres of war (like how the outcome of the battles in North Africa would effect Europe) are explained.
Werth, Alexander: Russia at War 1941-1945 (Carrol and Graf, New York, New York, 1964).
Personal Comments- Slightly pro-Stalin in terms of history. Gives good reasons (other than selfish ambition) for the Soviet occupations of the Baltics and Finland as preparatory steps for the inevitable war with Germany. The slant of the book is more political than military, much like William Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich".
Young, Peter: The World Almanac of World War II (World Almanac, New York, New York, 1981).
Personal Comments- Reads like a dictionary or encyclopedia. Full of facts and data, very short on personality.
