There are so many good books on military history and war that it’s hard to come up with 43. Rather than just read 43, I’ve devoted my life to reading history books. Here is a list of the books in my home library that pertain to World War II. I have a lot more pertaining to other topics, but this is just the WW2 list. I have added about 10-15 more since this list was created about a year ago.
General:
Rise and Fall of The Third Reich by William Shirer
Death of the Wehrmacht by Robert Citino
Luftwaffe Fighter Aces by Mike Spick
Me-109 by Martin Cadin
P-51 by William Hess
German Secret Weapons by Brian Ford
Waffen SS by John Keegan
Panzer Division by Kenneth Macksey
War at Sea by Nathan Miller
One Volume Ed. Of The Two Ocean War by Samuel Eliot Morrison
Fighting Divisions by E. J. Kahn
Judgment at Nuremburg by Joseph Persico
France/North Atlantic:
Strange Victory by Ernest May
Collapse of the Third Republic by William Shirer
France 1940 by John Williams
Battle of Britain by Ira Peck
Operation Sea Lion by Peter Fleming
Hitler’s High Seas Fleet by Richard Humble
Battleship Bismarck by Burkhard Baron von Mullenheim-Rechberg
Black May by Michael Gannon
Seizing the Enigma by David Kahn
North Africa/Italy
An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson
Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson
Beda Fomm by Kenneth Macksey
Afrika Corps by Kenneth Macksey
Fatal Decision by Carlo D’Este
War in Italy by Field Marshal Lord Carver
War in the East:
The Following by David Glantz and/or with Jonathan House:
Stumbling Colossus, The Red Army on the Eve of WW2
When Titans Clashed
The Stalingrad Trilogy: The Road To Stalingrad, Armageddon in Stalingrad and After Stalingrad
Colossus Reborn
Zhukov’s Greatest Defeat (Operation Mars)
The Battle of Kursk
Red Storm over the Balkans
Other authors:
What Stalin Knew by David Murphy
Stalin’s Folly by Constantine Pleshakov
Ivan’s War by Catherine Merridale
Russia at War by Alexander Werth
Fighting in Hell by Alexander Tsouras
Barbarossa by John Keegan
Barbarossa by Alan Clark
Road to Stalingrad & Road to Berlin by John Erickson
The Russo-German War by Albert Seaton
Stalingrad The Fateful Siege by Anthony Beevor
Stalingrad The Turning Point by Geoffrey Jukes
Kursk by Geoffrey Jukes
Battle of the Korsun Pocket
Soviet Blitzkrieg (Operation Bagration) by Walter Dunn
Hitler’s Greatest Defeat by Paul Adair
Red Storm on the Reich by Christopher Duffy
Armageddon by Max Hastings
Battle for Berlin by Earl Ziemke
The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan
Northwest Europe:
US Official Histories:
Cross Channel Attack
Breakout & Pursuit
The Siegfried Line Campaign
Riviera to the Rhine
The Battle of the Bulge
The Last Offensive
Other books:
Decision in Normandy by Carlo D’Este
Breakout by James Mason
Steel Inferno by Michael Reynolds
Airborne Carpet by Anthony Farrar-Hockley
A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan
Hitler’s Last Offensive by Peter Elstob
Bastogne by Peter Elstob
Hitler’s Last Gamble by Trevor DuPuy
A Time For Trumpets by Charles B. MacDonald
Pacific Theater:
The Rising Sun by John Toland
Silent Victory by Clay Blair Jr.
Unrestricted Warfare by James DeRose
Dec. 7 1941 by Gordon Prange
Battleship; the Sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse by Martin Middlebrook
Defeat in Malaya by Arthur Swinson
Fall of the Phillipines by Ward Rutherford
Queen of the Flattops (sinking of the Lexington) by Stanley Johnston
Stilwell and the American Experience in China by Barbara Tuchman
Miracle at Midway by Gordon Prange
Shattered Sword, the Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parschall and Anthony Tully
New Guinea by John Vader
Guadalcanal by Richard Frank
Operation Cartwheel, the Reduction of Rabaul (US Army official history) by John Miller Jr.
Clash of the Carriers by Barrett Tillman
Battle of Leyte Gulf by Thomas Cutler
Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by John Hornfischer
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Downfall; the End of the Imperial Japanese Empire by Richard Frank
Memoirs and Biographies:
Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius
The Rommel Papers (edited by Basil Liddel-Hart)
Panzer Commander by Hans von Luck
Panzer Battles by F.W. von Mellenthin
Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer
Lost Victories by Erich von Manstein
Patton, A Genius for War by Carlo D’Este
Stalin by Constantine Plehashov
Stalin, Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Montefore
Don’t limit yourself to a mere 43. Just read.
I’ve read only some of your list. One of my favorites is PANZER BATTLES by von Mellenthin.
But one I have mixed feelings about is STILLWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA. It makes Chiang Kai-Shek out to be such a poor ally with his reluctance to concentrate only on the Japanese but in the end it was Chiang who saw the big picture. He stated that “the Japanese are a disease of the skin while the communists are a disease of the heart”. Of course Stillwell only had one mission and that was the Japanese. When China was lost to the communists we soon faced war in Korea and more Americans perishing by the thousands.
Great list, Henker...I am keeping it!