Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: Wanker on February 06, 2002, 03:10:55 PM
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Mine is John Toland. I grew up reading his books, and I still find myself re-reading his books today.
Here are his major war books, in order of my affection for them:
The Rising Sun -- Japan's view of WW2
But Not in Shame -- Story of WW2 from Pearl Harbor to Midway.
No Man's Land -- Chronicles 1918, the last year of WWI.
Adolf Hitler -- Amazing biography of Hitler.
The Last 100 Days -- Events of the last 100 days of WW2.
Battle: The Story of the Bulge -- Engrossing account, one of his first books.
Infamy -- Fascinating look at the investigations of Pearl Harbor
In Mortal Combat -- Interesting book on the Korean Conflict.
Some of these books are out of print, but all can be found at the library. What really turns me on about him as an author is that he gives not only the big picture, but also tells of the human struggle, through his many interviews with people who were in the battles.
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Edwin P Hoyt
Kamikazes
Guadalcanal
The Militarists
Japan's War
Yamamoto
U-Boats
Hitler's War
Carrier Wars
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Hmm. A good question.
Christopher Shores is quite good, and quite professional.
And Len Deighton, although maybe not the most authentic one has a way of putting things up nicely, and stirring things up as well. A highly readable author. Did anyone read "Bloood tears and folly":)
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Read the Wild Blue by Stephin Ambrose (spelling?) It is a great book.:cool: :D :) ;)
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Anthony Beevor for his work "Stalingrad"....the best book I have read on the subject.
I like Ambrose too, but I was mortified when I heard he admitted plagarism recently.....but, he did a great job with "D-Day" and "Band of Brothers".
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My two favorites are John Keegan ("The Face of Battle", "The Mask of Command", "The Price of Admiralty", "Six Armies in Normandy" and two excellent single volume histories of the First and Second World Wars) and Alistair Horne ("How Far From Austerlitz?", "The Fall of Paris, 1870", the "Price of Glory" [about Verdun], "The Fall of France 1940", and "A Savage War of Peace" [about France and Algeria in the 1950s]).
Horne assumes a great deal of background knowledge on the part of the reader, and also has an irritating habit of inserted untranslated phrases in French which have me wracking my dim memories of college and high school language classes. He is also a dedicated Francophile (which makes you wonder why he only writes about the most gloomy events in French history).
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Martin Middlebrook by a long long shot, his research on bombing raids (both american and british) is just simply the best to be found, he also did some great work on naval convoys, WWI battles and even Falklands/Malvinas war.
Recommended.
Kisters
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Gerhard L Weinburg's "A World At Arms" atm. It's a collective history for the entire war, but a big book.., It's over 1000 pages.
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Originally posted by Curval
Anthony Beevor for his work "Stalingrad"....the best book I have read on the subject.
I agree completely, Curval. That book is just about the best history book I've ever read.
Charles MacDonald and Stephen Ambrose are also good reads. I was disappointed about the plagiarism stuff as well, but the books are still good.
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Martin Middlebrook by a long long shot, his research on bombing raids (both american and british) is just simply the best to be found, he also did some great work on naval convoys, WWI battles and even Falklands/Malvinas war.
Recommended.
Kisters
Aye! I just got done reading "The First Day on the Somme" By Martin Middlebrook. Excellent book, very engrossing.
Now I'm just finishing up "The First World War" by John Keegan, yet another fantastic historical document.
If you have an interest in the Great War, I highly recommend these two books(and authors).
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I have to go with Keegan. He has the best mix of ease of reading/Scholastic reputation in my opinion.
Did anyone ever read Studs Turkel's "The Good war?" I only read the first interview, but it looked like a very good read. Not what you would typically get from a WWII history book.
-Sikboy
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I agree with sikboy
keegan's Second World War was a great book with tons of info on WW2
........Wadke.....
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Reading a bio on Yamamoto.Edwin Hoyt.
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Probably the best military history book I have read was
Brute Force-How the allies won WW2
By John Ellis.
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Erik Maria Ramarque (SP?)
Wilfred Owens
Siegfried Sasson
T.E. Lawrence
Sven Hassel :)
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I like Eric Hammel's accounts of the war in the Pacific.
Aces Against Japan 1 & 2
Carrier Strike
Carrier Battle (not sure if that is the title or not, but it is very similar)
The last two are very readable, informative, and accurate books on the Battle of the Eastern Solomons and the Battle of Santa Cruz. Both are somewhat forgotten CV battles, being overshadowed by the historical Coral Sea Battle, the improbable victory at Midway, and the Marianas Turkey Shoot.
-math
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Keegan and Ambrose are my givens. But I also like B. H. Lidell Hart - a la "Rommel Papers" & The history of the Second World War.
Jay
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I like Ambrose, and for flying books I though Edward H. Simms is very good, you might wanna check out Simms
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Surprise noone has mentioned Bruce Catton, Civil War historian. No author I ever read so seamlessly explained the ins and out of any war as well as he.
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Pierre Clostermann http://user.tninet.se/~ytm843e/closterm.htm
And all FAF/LW pilots biographs...
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Herodotus. Livy's history of the Punic Wars also very good.
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Originally posted by Seeker
Sven Hassel :)
lol...hey I read 'em all man.
Porta was my favourite character...
Was Sven Hassel for real though? I have heard that his books were pure fiction, others claim he was a real guy who fought in a penal regiment as wriiten in the books.
Anyone know the facts?
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the best history is written by the people who were there - i'll take an autobiography (Clo-Clo's was great) over a historian's book anyday
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Originally posted by whgates3
the best history is written by the people who were there - i'll take an autobiography (Clo-Clo's was great) over a historian's book anyday
I dissagree
Seriously, if you ask me about my time in the Navy, I'll tell you some great stories, but you'll probably want to look at my service record to get the stories right :)
-Sikboy
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Ja, no doubt - read Yeager's autobio just after Bud Anderson's (cebudanderson.com) and noticed some conflicts - i guess i find someone bending the truth due to good `ol fasioned honest egotism easier to stomach rather than someone who wasn't there & has a political axe (hachet, maul, wedge, pulaski...) to grind....although i'd prefer to read the truth, but i'd wager your navy stories are a better read than your service record
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Keegan
Cornelius Ryan
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Cornelius Ryan was the one who hooked me early on. Longest Day, Last Battle, Bridge Too Far. All must haves. Really humanized things instead of just the facts.
Took a while for Ambrose to grow on me, then he blew it with that sorry effort and the 'borrowing' of text from other authors. Wild Blue was a dud.
Roger Freeman-His 8th AF stuff is tops
Edward Joblonski-Flying Fortress-speaks for itself.
Steve Birdsall-Flying Buccaneers, Log of the Liberators etc. Great stuff.
John Stanaway-Kearby's Thunderbolts, Possum Clover & Hades, Attack & Conquer, etc etc. You want to know 38s in combat, he's the guy.
Alfred Price-Too many to list.
Martin Middlebrook-His book on the Nuremburg Raid is one of the very best.
Bruce Robertson-Kinda forgotten now, but one of the greats. Heinz Narrowa is another in this group.
Jeez the list is long and could be a lot longer
BTW Seeker? You forgot Robert Graves, Issac Rosenberg and Edmund Blunden on your list of WW1 Poets
Dan
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I forgot to add one of our own: Eric Bergerud.
He is a fine writer and a pretty good AH pilot too. :)
I don't know if Tony Williams flies here but his book on automatic cannon is superb.
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My favorite is Edward Jablonski for his 4-volume "Airwar", a very comprehensive history of airpower in WWII. It contains some riveting accounts of air battles from every theater.
And, as Guppy35 mentioned, "Flying Fortress" was very good as well.
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I didn't forget 'em, I just don't like 'em much :)
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>>Did anyone ever read Studs Turkel's "The Good war?" I only read the first interview, but it looked like a very good read. <<
Sikboy:
I read it several years ago. It was an excellent read. It was one of my first experiences reading a book written that way. More of an account of personal accounts.
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Edward Sims: 'The aces talk'