List some ww2 books that you recommend here. List some that you thought were laughably bad. Please keep discussions limited or in another thread if it is not about the quality of the books 
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Recommend:
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Tully and Parshall
An excellent attempt to divine what happened to the Japanese fleet during the operation based on the surviving Japanese naval records.
Trash:
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-1942 by Toll
Read wikipedia, it has more and better information about what happened, and it's free.
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Tully and Parshall
An excellent attempt to divine what happened to the Japanese fleet during the operation based on the surviving Japanese naval records.
Trash:
Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific 1941-1942 by Toll
Read wikipedia, it has more and better information about what happened, and it's free.
List some ww2 books that you recommend here. List some that you thought were laughably bad. Please keep discussions limited or in another thread if it is not about the quality of the books
What is the point in banning discussion on a discussion forum?
And why would I recommend bad books?
He is asking to avoid derails, which can often be historian bashing in this sort of a discussion, and is often unproductive.
I think he means recommend against rather than recommend.
Recommended: Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor - in spite of a few minor errors this remains a superbly written book with good pacing and yet with enough new material (at least when it was written) to interest the more serious historian.
Bad: The Victors by Stephen Ambrose - whilst I quite enjoyed some of his other books, despite some significant historical errors, and he is generally an engaging writer, this book stinks. It is largely plagerised from his earlier books, with very little material that is new. It is simply a lazy money making attempt. By all means, read Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldiers (although do so with a grain of salt), they are both well written and a good infantryman's level eye of the war, just avoid this rehash.
Good: Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; William Shirer
If you haven't read this then stop what you doing and go to your local library. It is a fairly large tome but worth every minute.
Bad/ugly: We March Against England; Robert Forczyk
Information is either incorrect or misrepresented and conflicts with memoirs I have read.
If you haven't read this then stop what you doing and go to your local library. It is a fairly large tome but worth every minute.
Bad/ugly: We March Against England; Robert Forczyk
Information is either incorrect or misrepresented and conflicts with memoirs I have read.
In terms of good books, I can thoroughly recommend the following:
A Helmet for My Pillow - Robert Leckie and (you guessed it...)
With the Old Breed - Eugene Sledge.
Both books give a fantastic account on the life of a line infantryman (marine) in the pacific theatre, both are very different characters but capture the simultaneous requirement and futility of the war against Japan in the same pages.
Avoid
Blood Red Snow (Vergiss die Zeit der Dornen nicht). Either this was a very poor translation or the book was of questionable authenticity. It has been decades since I red it, but I do seem to remember there being many questionable comments about operational detail (e.g. the author states the Russians were using Kalashnikovs).
D Day: June 6, 1944 by Stephen Ambrose. Which should be rather titled 'Omaha Beach, why America iz da bestest and I don't like the British very much'. It read more like a Bill Bryson satirical book on the invasion and not a history book.
A Helmet for My Pillow - Robert Leckie and (you guessed it...)
With the Old Breed - Eugene Sledge.
Both books give a fantastic account on the life of a line infantryman (marine) in the pacific theatre, both are very different characters but capture the simultaneous requirement and futility of the war against Japan in the same pages.
Avoid
Blood Red Snow (Vergiss die Zeit der Dornen nicht). Either this was a very poor translation or the book was of questionable authenticity. It has been decades since I red it, but I do seem to remember there being many questionable comments about operational detail (e.g. the author states the Russians were using Kalashnikovs).
D Day: June 6, 1944 by Stephen Ambrose. Which should be rather titled 'Omaha Beach, why America iz da bestest and I don't like the British very much'. It read more like a Bill Bryson satirical book on the invasion and not a history book.
Good - Anything by John Lundstrom or Barrett Tillman.
Bad - though loath to condemn an author through exposure to but one of his tomes, Gerald Astor's Wings of Gold was an absolute abomination.
Bad - though loath to condemn an author through exposure to but one of his tomes, Gerald Astor's Wings of Gold was an absolute abomination.
That's a pity - his books on the Eastern Front are excellent, well balanced and well written. I looked at We March Against England on Amazon and just thought - WHAT? No real historian could take that idea seriously.
I will plug two that are very good.
First, those wanting a reappraisal of British armour can read John Buckley, British Armour in the Normandy Campaign. It provides a very good analysis of British technology, tactics, etc... and provides a counter to a lot of the myths that have grown up about Shermans blowing up left, right, and centre whilst German tank commanders sat imperviously in their steel titans. Has the added bonus of not straying into the somewhat apologetic tones of his later work Monty's Men.
Second, those wanting a thoroughly entertaining and well research narrative of the German experience of the war can read Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945. Some very interesting extracts from letters in there, plus a good narrative on the whole.
First, those wanting a reappraisal of British armour can read John Buckley, British Armour in the Normandy Campaign. It provides a very good analysis of British technology, tactics, etc... and provides a counter to a lot of the myths that have grown up about Shermans blowing up left, right, and centre whilst German tank commanders sat imperviously in their steel titans. Has the added bonus of not straying into the somewhat apologetic tones of his later work Monty's Men.
Second, those wanting a thoroughly entertaining and well research narrative of the German experience of the war can read Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-1945. Some very interesting extracts from letters in there, plus a good narrative on the whole.
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Some of my favorites:
The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson (focuses almost exclusively on the American involvement in Africa, Italy and France respectively)
Barbarossa: the Russian-German Conflict, 1941-45 by Alan Clark (the best I've read on the Eastern Front)
A Frozen Hell by William Trotter (I would say the best book available on The Winter War)
Omar Bradley: General at War by Jim DeFelice
Others that I've read but not been overly impressed by:
Manstein: Hitlers Master Strategist by Benoit Lemay (some good information but the author seemed more concerned in vilifying the man instead of just writing about what happened and letting the reader make up their mind).
Anything by Max Hastings (just don't like his style (a bit dry for me) but he seems to be very knowledgeable and thorough).
The Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson (focuses almost exclusively on the American involvement in Africa, Italy and France respectively)
Barbarossa: the Russian-German Conflict, 1941-45 by Alan Clark (the best I've read on the Eastern Front)
A Frozen Hell by William Trotter (I would say the best book available on The Winter War)
Omar Bradley: General at War by Jim DeFelice
Others that I've read but not been overly impressed by:
Manstein: Hitlers Master Strategist by Benoit Lemay (some good information but the author seemed more concerned in vilifying the man instead of just writing about what happened and letting the reader make up their mind).
Anything by Max Hastings (just don't like his style (a bit dry for me) but he seems to be very knowledgeable and thorough).
Not to be a downer, but Alan Clark is rather famous for simply making stuff up whenever he felt like it.
I like to recomend Zhukov at the Oder:The decisive battle for Berlin by Tony Le Tissier.Very interesting about the hard battle for the Seelow Heights in 1945.
Recommend: Defeat into victory by William, viscount Slim
Worst: Stephen Ambrose's book about D-day. Absolute kak.
Worst: Stephen Ambrose's book about D-day. Absolute kak.
I highly recommand Marc Bloch's "Strange Defeat" (it has its own wikipedia page ) on the campaign of France from the French point of view. Marc Bloch was one of the most important interwar historians, creating the Ecole des Annales historiographic approach. In WW2 he was called as an officer and could witness - and be part - of the defeat. He immediately wrote that book, half testimony, half analysis, then entered resistance ; later got captured and executed by the Gestapo.
To this day, this book is a huge "why we fucked-up" account ; many of the post war French institution were based on this book (as in "never again") and is used to this day as a basis for many lectures in politics / social sciences. Sixty years later, when I entered pol-sci university, the teachers were basically saying that if we hadn't read it we were late already.
To this day, this book is a huge "why we fucked-up" account ; many of the post war French institution were based on this book (as in "never again") and is used to this day as a basis for many lectures in politics / social sciences. Sixty years later, when I entered pol-sci university, the teachers were basically saying that if we hadn't read it we were late already.
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