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brassnuts
04-15-2005, 10:05 PM
I've been watching Band of Brothers on the History Channel for this last week. I've never been much of a fan of history, but I love this series, and I'm finding WWII to be a fascinating period in time. Does anyone have any good suggestions for non-fiction books about WWII? Right now, I'm looking for good books that cover a broad spectrum of WWII and aren't to specified on one aspect or another of the war.

IggyWH
04-15-2005, 10:09 PM
A World At Arms...

Game. Over.

theredwave
04-15-2005, 10:09 PM
Band Of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

A_C_Slater
04-15-2005, 10:20 PM
'The life and death of Adolf Hitler' by Roger Payne.

Great story and record of Hitler's private conversations and wacky scheming in his last days in the bunker. Fascinating story of his rise from a homeless bum (literally) to the conqueror of Europe.

Also, 'The Fall of Berlin' by Anthony Beevor. This book chronicles perhaps the most absurd hell insuing chaos to ever occur on the planet. The Russian raping, looting, and burning of Berlin. Very powerful. Also full of desperate "Dr.Evil-like scheming" by Hitler in the end. One such scheme involved building a tank the size of a battleship. A Captain had to end up telling him that one grenade thrown in the exhaust of such a massive vehicle would blow the whole thing to hell. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dynasty
04-15-2005, 10:29 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Band Of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose

[/ QUOTE ]

There are several good books by Ambrose.

wacki
04-15-2005, 10:31 PM
Do you want historical, or novel style WWII?

kdog
04-15-2005, 10:41 PM
TheDropZone.org is a pretty good website with a lot of first person accounts from paratroopers who particiapted in all WWII theatres. There's also a link off it to a sister site with first person accounts from OSS operatives. Pretty interesting.

brassnuts
04-15-2005, 10:51 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Do you want historical, or novel style WWII?

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking of historical when I made the post. However, I was already planning on picking up Band of Brothers along with maybe some other suggestions provided in this thread.

theredwave
04-15-2005, 10:55 PM
D-Day and Citizen Soldiers were also very good and by Ambrose.

pshreck
04-15-2005, 11:00 PM
Flags of Our Fathers...

an absolute must read.

Felix_Nietsche
04-16-2005, 01:03 AM
The Time Life series of WW2 books are very good. Lots of cool photos. usually the 1/2 price book store has loads of these books. They are hardcover and I'm not sure how much they cost.

vulturesrow
04-16-2005, 01:33 AM
At Dawn We Slept (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140157344/qid=1113629289/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/104-9814187-4519128) is an awesome accounting of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This book was the author's life work and it shows.

Freakin
04-16-2005, 02:13 AM
Holy [censored], when I read the topic, I was going to suggest watching Band of Brothers instead.... beat me to it. I saw a bit of "The Last Patrol" on a plane yesterday and called up my friend when I landed to ask if he had seen it/wanted to watch the series.

Freakin

adsman
04-16-2005, 02:59 AM
Unfortunately, Ambrose is a flawed writer. He writes with a bias towards the side that he personally favoured in whatever context of which he is writing, (usually the Americans). He makes broad generalisations and over-simplifies important tactical concepts for the sake of generating page-turning reading. He does this so much that you literally end up turning the pages - skimming through the book to get to some relevant and worthwhile information.

Beevor has also been mentioned, and I would say for specific battles he is one of the best historians writing today. His account of Stalingrad is simply brilliant. He waves no flag - both sides are given exactly the same methodical treatment - and he manages to weave detailed tactical explainations with a nicely balanced human factor.

For a general look at WWII, A World at Arms is indeed game over.