Reccomend me a book on WW2

Anyone got any reccomendations? Looking at factual books rather than fiction. Getting more interested in modern history after watching a few programs recently.

where to start? It was a long, big war with lots going off all over the world at the same time.

single campaign? early or late? Or just a big overview?
military campaigns, strategic bombing, island hopping, The Holocaust?

Any Anthony Beevor. All outstanding(though Stalingrad is my favorite).

Big overview to start with I think. I know the basics taught at school quite a few years ago but only recently found out for example that the former King Edward could have been a nazi sympathizer.

Churchill’s History of WWII is a great read http://www.amazon.co.uk/Second-World-War-Winston-Churchill/dp/0712667024 . You can decide what is fact and what is fiction.

I’ve enjoyed Anthony Beevor. Read Stalingrad and Berlin. Not light reading but worth it.
Can’t see one book covering the whole thing. Found out the other day we invaded Iceland in 1941, doesn’t get mentioned much.

Of course all the real action takes place on the Eastern Front. Everything else is a side show. read Chris Bellamy’s Absolute War for a mind blowing insight http://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-War-Soviet-Military-Classics/dp/0330510045/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329338384&sr=1-1 also very easy to read.

big overview..

ww2 by phillip warner.

nice balance of depth and range.

Any of the anthony Beevor books are good – very long and detailed, ‘Berlin’ is a bit of a depressing slog though to then end at times, Beevor’s D-day is very good, the Ambrose D-Day book is a little lighter reading, along with the other Ambrose books.

Quartered Safe out Here is a good read for an insight into the Far East campaign, Bill Slim’s book, ‘Defeat into Victory’, is very good and an insight into the problems of the larger picture.

Kenneth Sandford’s book Mark of the Lion. About one man rather than the war as a whole, so may not be what you’re after, but definitely worth a read.

All of WW2 in one book.

Just recently finished reading ‘the man who broke into Auschwitz’ an amazing book, well worth checking out if you have not read already.

True story about a British soldier who marched into Buna-Monowitz!

Go in to a good second hand book store and you can usually buy (for peanuts) some really good books. Try and get some books by authors from Germany, France etc. Get another view point.

Panzer commander by Hans Von Luck is a good book. Stephen E. Ambrose has written some good books.

I’m reading Hunting Evil by Guy Walters at the moment, very enlightening.

Most Secret War, R. V. Jones. for a discussion of the technology race that was going on.

APF

Beevor, +1

First Light by Geoff Wellum. Lovely, stunning, scary, moving, and awesome.

A Bridge too Far by Cornelius Ryan. As above.

Some good reccomendations there looking at amazon. Think i will look in the 2nd hand book store in town on sat to start and see if they have anything

Beervors a reasonable shout, although I would really strongly recommend “The Third Reich” by Michael Burleigh, for a fuller and details study of National Socialism. Chilling that it was only 80 years ago, and yet there are reoccuring themes to thir support and sociiological ideas that we should not lose sight of, in how we treat each other.

+1 for first light by Geoff Wellum, absolutely brilliant book, laugh out loud on one page, moved to tears on the next, haven’t met anyone who’s read it who didn’t love it.

I am halfway through ‘all hell let loose’ by Max Hastings. Its an interesting overview.

‘Black May’ by Michael Gannon, the defeat of the U-Boats (the one thing that really worried Churchill)

‘Slim, master of war’ by Robert Lymam, the forgotten army turned around and defeating the Japanese

+1 for Most Secret War

+1 for Winston Churchill’s books. Fascinating stuff.

What about the bombing war?

Among the Dead Cities

John Keegan The Second World War

Laurence Rees Nazis A Warning From History

Laurence Rees Auschwitz Nazi & the Final Solution

Mark Roseman The Villa The Lake The Metting

The first three are very good and when I’ve finished my current read I’m looking forward to starting the last one.

How how much do you want to spend?

http://www.saswardiary.co.uk/

They wouldn’t get much more interesting than this. Lovely thing to own as well

I tend to read Bigraphical books

The forsaken army – Heinrich Gerlach. The story of one of the German survivors from Stalingrad

Accidental agent – John goldsmith – an account of an SOE operative in France working with the resistance.

teh classics Dambusters, 633 squadren, reach for the sky of course

Just finished “All hell let loose” by Max Hastings.I`ve read the Anthony Beevor boooks on Stalingrad,D Day (and Hastings book) and Berlin too,but “All hell let loose” really puts the whole war and all the western allies campaigns in context when you start looking at them against what happened on the Eastern front.

Essential reading if you want to get a comprehensive overview.

I can also thoroughly reccomend Guy Sajer`s book which is his first hand expereience and strory of fighting on the Russian front.

Blood, Tears and Folly

very readable and pre war english political history is covered to a limited extent to

Quartered Safe out Here is a good read for an insight into the Far East campaign,

+1 But then I love most of George Macdonald Fraser’s stuff.

Stalingrad and Berlin by Antony Beevor are outstanding.

Wartime by Paul Fussell is probably lesser known than the above blockbusters but is a fascinating read nonetheless.

The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquhart is an amazing personal memoir, the story of a Scot taken prisoner by the Japanese in the fall of Singapore.

+1 for Stalingrad – probably the only war book I’ve started and finished – we are very lucky people in the place and time we live

Whilst they’re still alive, go find someone who was involved, and talk to them. Learned more from my parents (both active participants) than I would from any book.

Catch 22 is the closest to how it was, apparently.

Forgotten Highlander.
I had this on audio book for walking the dog, it took about 8/9 walks to finish it and for 4/5 of those walks I had tears in my eyes.
Fantastic book that I’d recommend in a flash.

Popski’s private army , is a very good read . I rated Stalingrad too .

With the Old Breed: At Peleiu and Okinawa.

With The Jocks – an outstanding book about a reluctant lieutenant – a very personal book written from his notes he (illegally) took during the campaign.

And personally I found Stalingrad a boring read and didn’t complete it. I have Berin too so can’t even face starting it.

For Death Camp reading – Primo Levi. Hauntingly good reads.

The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts

Excellent read

+1 for Len Deighton’s Blood,Tears and Folly
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Tears-Folly-Objective-World/dp/0099520494/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329381219&sr=8-1-fkmr0
Also quite good is Dr Richard Overy’s Why the Allies Won