WWII books for my father

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Member for

13 years 7 months

Posts: 64

My father loves books on WWII. Not overly detailed and dry ones and not simplistic ones. He loves ones with good detail but backed up with pictures/diagrams. An example would be a good one on D-Day that he has read many times. It does not have to be aviation but inevitably, there will almost always be some aviation involved.

Any suggestions on what I should order for his birthday.

Thanks

Original post

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

Try any of these:

War in the West  -  James Holland

Never Surrender  -  Robert Kershaw

Most Dangerous Enemy  -  Stephen Bungay  ***

The War for the Seas  -  Evan Maudsley

The Storm of War  -  Andrew Roberts

Operation Pedestal  -  Max Hastings

Normandy 44  -  James Holland

Nemesis  -  Max Hastings

Sicily 43  -  James Holland

The Lost Continent  -  Gavin Hewitt

 

All, excellent accounts.

Member for

15 years 3 months

Posts: 22

My suggestions are :

Sigh for a Merlin - Alex Henshaw

Malta Convoy - Peter Shankland (as part of 3 Great War Stories - Malta Convoy; Tinkerbelle & Unbroken)

Member for

13 years 7 months

Posts: 64

Thanks for the recommendations. It is much appreciated.

I ordered all the books listed above and my father has read about 2/3 so far(except The Lost Continent which is book about the Euro crisis and is being read by me).

Therefore, I was wondering if anybody has any other recommendations. This is more for high quality general overview books f the war instead of detailed airplane books(which is what I tend to read).

Thanks

Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 6,535

BB

For a 'nuts and bolts' overview it's hard to better David Edgerton's 'Britains War Machine',  ISBN:  978-0-14102-610-7 or, same author, 'England and the Aeroplane',  ISBN: 978-0-14197-516-0

Best wishes to your dad ! 

Member for

16 years 3 months

Posts: 1,668

A book I enjoyed was return via Dunkirk by Gun Buster - a first hand account of the BEF in 1940. Apparently there were three other books from the same author ( a pseudonym).

I also have the Greatest Raid of All by CE Lucas Phillips- the one that Mr. Clarkson made a programme about on the St. Nazaire raid. The book is good. 

 

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,893

As an aside, the programme was also very good. Personally, I quite like Clarkson anyway, but even if you don't his documentaries are excellent. St. Nazaire, the Arctic Convoys and Brunel are the ones I know about and have seen.