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D-Day: The Battle for Normandy and 12 Other Great War Books
From Helmand Province to Normandy, the Battles of Britain and Stalingrad we present a guide to great War Books. Don't hit the beach without one.
Quick lads to Waterstones.
With the release of Stalingrad in 1999 author and former army officer Anthony Beevor established himself as one the best military historians around, blending eye witness accounts with elegant and thoughtful recreations of the events on some of the 20th century’s most kinetic battlegrounds. You want to know what happened at the Seelow Heights or how German women felt about their Russian ‘liberators’ then look to his Berlin: The Downfall. On the other hand if you go west and desire an idea of what men thought during the assault on ‘Bloody’ Omaha beach then D-Day: The Battle For Normandy can put you right in the middle of the blood-soaked sand and shingle. He’s also written books on the battle for Crete, Paris after the Allies liberated it and an essential history of the Spanish Civil War. Edwin Starr might have noted war is hell, but Beevor and the other authors here takes the reader as close to the action as you can get without the chance of getting cut in half by a round from a German 88mm flak gun.
The Beevor trilogy: D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
, Berlin: The Downfall and Stalingrad. Essential books about three of the most deadly campaigns of the Second World War. Eyewitness accounts and Beevor’s expressive and sympathetic writing makes for military history of the highest order.
Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop. The story of the Battle of Britain told in the voices of the guys who fought it. Former Telegraph journalist Bishop creates substance out of the myth — moving and elemental.
3 Para by Patrick Bishop. Welcome to Helmand Province. It’s 2007 and 3 Para battle group have just turned up to engage with the Taliban. Bishop talks to the guys at the sharp end of the war and weaves a fantastic tale of courage and comradeship.
Infantry Officer by Anthony Stuart Irwin and Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey. Both of these books were written in the thick of the Second World War and offer unflinching (for the times) accounts of the French debacle in May 1940. There was also an accompanying Navy Officer book, written by the young Ludovic Kennedy.
The Enemy at the Gate by Andrew Wheatcroft. 1683 and the Ottoman Turks are knocking on Vienna’s front door, eager for an Apfelstrudel or two. Surrender means death and enslavement to the Viennese, but the Hapsburg armies stand firm. Given the west’s current entanglement in the east, this is a potent and very pertinent account of one of Hapsburg Europe’s greatest moments (of which there weren’t that many).
Last Man Standing by Lyn Macdonald. It’s the spring of 1918 and the German army is striving to break through the Allied lines. Haig issues the order to fight to the last man. Macdonald interviewed the last survivors of these tumultuous battles for this excellent book (check out her other books on the First World War).
Men of Honour by Adam Nicolson. A life on the ocean wave is bloody and fearsome in this account of the Battle of Trafalgar and the men who fought it. Fancy a glass of Nelson’s blood? This was the name of the brandy in which they pickled the dead hero to take home — it didn’t deter those sailors who queued up to take a nip from it.
The Taste of Battle by Bryan Perrett. This has a family hero on the cover in action at Arnhem, while inside there’s a collection of fictional accounts of 20th century battles based on true-life accounts. Gripping stuff.
English Civil War by Diane Purkiss. Cavaliers and Roundheads square up to each other on the battlefields of old England, while Oliver Cromwell oversees the creation of the New Model Army, one of the greatest fighting forces of Europe. Narrative history of the highest order that plugs the reader right back into the killing fields of Naseby.
Death’s Men by Denis Winter. Originally printed in 1978, this is an exceptionally powerful account of the British Tommy in the First World War, how he lived in the filth and mud of the trenches, how he fought and how he died. One gruesome photo within its pages speaks volumes for the dreadfulness of this conflict — a dead soldier who had been vertically shaved in half by a shell. Such photos were never released at the time in fear of affecting morale.
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COMMENTS
Read the Beevor's but none of the others, will hunt them down if they're as good. How about a list of Vietnam Books, some great reads like Despatches.
cheers, will check these out. I also liked Patrick Cockburn's The Occupation (war and resistance in Iraq)
If you like your football as well as military history, i'd recommend 'McCrae's Battalion' by Jack Alexander. As The Times said when first released - 'Magnificent, compelling, quite simply the best football related book of the year.' but it's much, much more than a football book. Very humbling.
The Axe — Timoty O’Leary: If I die in a Combat Zone; Stephen Wright: Meditation sin Green; general history: Michael Maclear Vietnam, the 10000 day war and a fictional novel from the Vietcong side The Sorrow of War. Sarah, thanks, have got Jon Lee Anderson’s The Fall of Baghdad on my shelves waiting to be read Stainless thanks, will look out for it
Correlli Barnett's Engage the Enemy More Closely remains the definitive book on the Royal Navy in WWII. It's suprisingly a real page turner. Niall Ferguson's the Pity of War offers an alternative to many of the standard interpretations of WWI. THough for total WWI nerds Hew Strachan's The First World War, Volume One: To Arms, goes into minute detail about 1914, and some of the more esoteric african fronts. Sadly he hasn't got round to vol 2 yet. Shelby Foote's The Civil War: A Narrative History is a 3000 page 3 volume monster that will keep you occupied for months.
Beevor's Stalingrad is a great book but I feel the Enemy At The Gates by William Craig is a slightly version of that terrible battle. Fighter by Len Deighton is a highly detailed account of the Battle Of Britain and is well worth checking out.
Yeah Fighter’s good, as is Bomber, will try the other.
And then there’s a novel by Alexander Baron, From The City, From the Plough, based on the writer’s Normandy experiences. Poignant and powerful.
"Swiftly They Struck: The Story of No. 4 Commando" by Murdoch C. McDougall - Is also a good book, if you can find it. It's written in such a matter of fact kind of way that you end up reading pages over and over to realise what's actually being achieved. The author drops into a paragraph lines like "at that time, they had not slept for more than an hour in over 90 days. So fatigue was becoming a problem."! Quite funny in places also.
What was the criteria for this? Any list of war literature this long must include at least one Vietnam offering, The Sorrow of War by Bao Minh is the most affecting books I have ever read, also Dispatches or A Rumour of War are great books.
The Naked Island - Russel Braddon Unbroken - Louis Zamperini Both equally essential i'd say, amazing accounts of POW's
Rob, will keep an eye out for it. Peter — it started off as a non-fiction list but has expanded, read the Sorrow of War and you’re right very effecting Rick — I remember the Naked Island when I was growing up All — recently enjoyed the Junior Officers’ Reading Club plus Paradise Lost, which is about the Greek Turkey war and the ethnic cleansing of Smyrna in the 1920s
Leo Marks - Between Silk and Cyanide, great book on the code breakers who's contribution to the war effort cannot be over stated
Check out 'With the Old Breed' - Eugene Sledge. You will not find a grittier account of battle... The Pacific tv series was primarily based on it i think.
Guy Sajer's 'The Forgotten Soldier' is a harrowing account of a french/german infantryman's experience fighting on the eastern front. Amazing & great to get a perspective of WW2 from the Axis side.
How about the following WWI - Letters from a Lost Generation by Vera Brittain & Four Friends (This is a book of correspondance between the auther/poetess vera brittain , her fiance, her brother and two of their friends. It gives a middle class personal view of WW1). Another WWI one is Sapper Martin: The Secret War Diary of Jack Martin by Richard Van Emden (Another personal account, this time of a lowly soldier). From Vietnam is a book called Chickenhawk by Robert Mason (about his experiencesas a helicopter pilot in vietnam.
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