General WW2 history/D-Day histories

[mattbacon]

For various reasons, I was recently thinking about the books I learned about WW2 and D-day from. I've got a fair old military history bookshelf, but its mostly more "general" military history and strategy, rather than specific unit/weapon histories. So I thought it was worth listing which ones I like/rate, and finding out what other people recommend.

From the more "academic" end of the spectrum, I think HP Willmot's "The Great Crusade" is probably the best single-volume history of WW2 that I've read, though John Keegan's "World War 2" runs it close. (Keegan's "The Battle for History: Refighting WW2 " is also a very interesting read, looking at who wrote what, why in the extensive literature of WW2) At the more popular end, Len Deighton's "Blood Tears and Folly" takes some beating, IMHO. As a compendium the three volumes of "The War in the Air/On Land/At Sea" which are selections from many highlights of more contemporary journalism, analysis and memoirs, edited by Gavin Lyall, Ronald Lewin and John Winton in the late 60s and reissued several times since are also highly recommended - they are responsible for many of the less "general" books on my shelves, as the extracts persuaded me to track down the original works.

For D-Day and after, I turn to first to Keegan again: "Six Armies in Normandy" is excellent. Max Hastings' "Overlord" is also outstanding, with more of a complete overview. Tony Beevor's "D-Day" is sadly not up the very high standard of his Stalingrad and Berlin:45 books, but it's not dreadful either, despite what some of the reviewers on Amazon would have you believe. Stephen Ambrose's books are good additional material, but they are narrower in scope and perspective, and on their own distort the true picture of events, it seems to me.

Although neither general histories of WW2 nor (yet) about D-Day, I include James Holland's "Fortress Malta", "Together We Stand" and "Italy's Sorrow", because I believe he is working his way toward a fairly complete history of the Second World War in Europe and the Mediterranean, and all three are very good books, I think. His "Battle of Britain" (actually a history of the Fall of France AND the BoB, with probably more material on the former than the latter) I found slightly a let-down after the quality of the other three...

So... what more general military history books do YOU rate?

bestest,
M.

[jssel]

I like all things 8th Air Force and so I have The Mighty 8th by Roger Freeman. I have other books that some sections were copied line for line, so it must be good.

[Karaya]

I'm sure I've mentioned it elsewhere but this is one of the most informative and interesting books I've read regarding the German perspective of the Normandy campaign. Most histories tend to take a strategic view of the entire campaign however Panzers in Normandy often takes you down to the tactical and even individual level. Well worth a read.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panzers-Normand ... 0900913290;

[Karaya]

Far more controversial but just as interesting is Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis.

Read this over the Christmas holidays and trust me you'll need a week or two of free time since it weighs in at 643 pages.

This is one of those books where you will either wholeheartedly agree with or shake your head in disgust at the author.

Without giving too much away Ellis claims, and is amply supported by evidence, that the Allies won WW2 through sheer weight of numbers and industrial capability and that despite this advantage the war lasted for longer than it should have due to the incompetence, conservatism and in-fighting between Allied commands, commanders and politicians. Like I said you will either strongly agree or disagree but that should not discourage you from reading this book.



http://www.amazon.com/Brute-Force-Allie ... 0670807737;