Looking for any recommendations. I have read:
Ambrose books
Rise and Fall of the Rising Sun and Third Reich
Forgotten Soldier
With the Old Breed
Ghost Soldiers
Stalingrad
Books about Churchill, Eisenhower, Patton, Rommel
Books abot D-day
Several others that broadly cover the war


Looking for just about anything that covers a specific person, group, detail, battle,etc.

"Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer. French-German soldier fighting with the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.
"Flyboys" by James Bradley. Eight US naval aviators held in brutal Japanese captivity.
"Lost Victories" by von Manstein. War memoir of one of Hitler's most brilliant generals.

"Grenadiers" - Kurt Meyer
"Guadalcanal" - Richard Frank
"Guadalcanal- The Carrier Battles" - Eric Hammel
"Steel Inferno" - 1st SS Panzer in Normandy - Michael Reynolds

Forgotten soldier. German soldier in eastern front

Helmet for my pillow. Follows Marine Robert Leckie through Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Iwo jima. Unbelievable autobiography

Night Drop by SLA Marshall
Good read about the airborne action in support of D-Day

Currently reading "Das Reich; The March of the 2nd SS through France 1944".

Others I recommend:
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors
Halseys Typhoon
Tigers in the Mud - Otto Carius

And while some can't stand him, I like Anthony Beevors "Stalingrad" and "The Fall of Berlin"

Twilight of the Gods by Thorolf Hillblad. He was a Swedish volunteer in the SS Division Nordland.

Bodyguard of Lies by Anthony Cave Brown. A great telling of the Allied deception efforts leading up to D-Day.

I'll second "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors". Damn good book, very very sobering read.

A Higher Call by Adam Makos

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Maj. Dick Winters- yeah, you've read BoB, but I was very satisfied reading his personal thoughts on a lot of this. Very good read.

I feel like there's a few more that I can't recall. I'll look later and add if I can.

Edit: The Fool Lieutenant, a book about a Ranger in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. Thought it was a good read, picked it up at the MSC bookstore a long time ago.

Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers is one of best WW2 books I have ever read.

Just started The Fleet at Flood Tide covering the Pacific 1944 to 1945. It is very enjoyable.

Just finished "Finest Hour" by Tim Clayton. Good overview of 1940 Battle of Britain, including BEF actions in France, the Dunkirk evacuation and naval actions.

To Kingdom Come: An Epic Saga of Survival in the Air War Over Germany by Robert J. Mrazek

Quote:

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On September 6, 1943, three hundred and thirty-eight B-17 "Flying Fortresses" of the American Eighth Air Force took off from England, bound for Stuttgart, Germany, to bomb Nazi weapons factories.

Dense clouds obscured the targets, and one commander's critical decision to circle three times over the city - and its deadly flak - would prove disastrous. Forty-five planes went down that day, and hundreds of men were lost or missing.

Focusing on first-person accounts of six of the B-17 airmen, award- winning author Robert Mrazek vividly re-creates the fierce air battle - and reveals the astonishing valor of the airmen who survived being shot down, and the tragic fate of those who did not.

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Neptune's Inferno
The Fleet at Flood Tide
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

All by James D. Hornfischer

Read them all, thank me later.

YWIA.

CalebMcCreary06 said:

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Neptune's Inferno
The Fleet at Flood Tide
The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors

All by James D. Hornfischer

Read them all, thank me later.

YWIA.

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Don't forget Ship of Ghosts

Yep. Forgot that one.

I would also add In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton.

dcbowers said:

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Have you read the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson? Admittedly, it covers some familiar ground (although his first book, An Army at Dawn, is about the North African campaign), but Atkinson's writing is superb and quite engaging.

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Anyone know if Atkinson is planning a trilogy for the Pacific? That would be fantastic!

The Second World War by Anthony Beevor

[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15808816-a-higher-call][/url]A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-Torn Skies of World War II

by Adam Makos

Thanks for all the replies. I have added several to the list and will start with Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.

CalebMcCreary06 said:

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dcbowers said:

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Have you read the Liberation Trilogy by Rick Atkinson? Admittedly, it covers some familiar ground (although his first book, An Army at Dawn, is about the North African campaign), but Atkinson's writing is superb and quite engaging.

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Anyone know if Atkinson is planning a trilogy for the Pacific? That would be fantastic!

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Ian Toll is taking this on. First 2 books are out: Pacific Crucible and The Conquering Tide.

Have both of those. Reading Crucible now.

Panzer Commander

and I second Halsey's Typhoon

Flyboys was OK, but I thought Bradley was a little weak with some facts. Can't recall details, but I do recall being underwhelmed. Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers is really, really good.

Bought Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors yesterday on Kindle because of this thread. I know the basic story of Taffy 3 and the Battle off Samar, so can't wait to dive into the book!

If you aren't familiar with Taffy 3 I suggest you watch this episode of Dogfights.

If done right the Battle off Samar and Taffy 3 would make one hell of a movie.

Iron Coffins, Herbert A. Werner

Personal account of a U-Boat captain.....fascinating

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath

Judging by the responses, I need to get the Last Stand of the Tin Can sailors off of my bookshelf and finally read it.

I have, and have read, every book that I can find on Tarawa because my father fought there. Some of the earlier books have errors in them. I am about to read one called Tarawa's Gravediggers which is very different from the other books which deal with the ferocity of the fighting on that teeny tiny island. It is about the many Marines buried there, some of whom have had their remains recovered and returned home. I got to meet some of those young folks (archaeologists, anthropologists, etc.) working on finding them and bringing them home. This quote sums up the book and the effort made long ago and being made currently to find these boys:

"It has always been my opinion that if a young man is willing to die for America, at the very least what this country owes him is a marker with his name on it. Tarawa's Gravediggers serves that purpose."

Highly recommend Escape from Davao by John D Lukcas

Quote:

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On April 4, 1943, ten American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts executed a daring escape from one of Japan's most notorious prison camps. Called the "greatest story of the war in the Pacific" by the War Department in 1944, the full account has never been told until now. A product of years of in-depth research, John D. Lukacs's gripping description of the escape brings this remarkable tale to life, so a new generation can admire the resourcefulness and patriotism of the men who fought in the Pacific.

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Great book that was well researched and very well written. It's also a quick read and somewhat different from just a straight historical book on WWII.

Rising Sun by John Toland. It's the story of the pacific war from the Japanese perspective. Enjoyable and enlightening.

Also "A Tomb Called Iwo Jima" is pretty amazing. It's the story of Iwo Jima from Japanese survivors. Some left the island prior to the invasion, and a handful of the narratives are from actual participants of combat. Pure hell for both sides on that island

+1 on Escape From Davao. I had a long discussion with one of the tour guides on Corregidor about this book. If you've read the book you might recall the incidence of the escapees crossing the swamp. That is the same swamp - Agusan del Sur - where a 21 foot saltwater crodocile was captured in 2012.

Along the same lines, Bolomen by Dominador Javallana III is an excellent account of what the author calls "civilian resistance in wartime Illocos. It's an excellent account of guerilla warfare in one particular area of the Philippines, from the Filipino point of view. It's difficult to find in the US - I saw it on Amazon for about $50 in hardbound. I finally found it in a bookstore in Manila for about half that. It was recommended to me by my friend the Corregidor tour guide.

Corregidor by Eric Morris is a pretty intense account of the fall of the Philippines and subsequent events. It's pretty scary how unprepared Douglas MacArthur was for the Japanese invasion, from all of our P-40s lined up in nice neat rows at Clark field making them an easy target (just like in Hawaii one day prior) to the chaotic execution of a 1906 operations plan for the mass retreat onto the Bataan peninsula.

If you're interested in the war in the Pacific, The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose is a good read. It's the companion book to the HBO miniseries by the same name.

Also, I'm always on the lookout for unit histories that have been published. Many WW2 units have historical associations and in the case of my Dad's fighter group in Europe, an active one. I attended a couple of reunions with him and was absolutely fascinated by those old guys and their stories told first hand 50 years later. If you run across a copy of The Bluenose B a s t a r d s of Bodney, it's a great historical account of the one of the top fighter groups in Europe.