Any good WWII books?

ppopsie · Feb 22, 2009

Enemy Coast Ahead by G. P. Gibson; this is not only about the famous mission, but also describes life in the raf bomber squadrons early in the war.

Pocket Battleship by Theo Kranke Jochen Brenecke; an excellent naval story about the battleship Admiral Scheer and its men.

Juha-sama; Helmut Lipfelt's book is not only a good war story but also a good textbook for real flying, particularly for how to live though pressures and stresses that may occur on while flying an airplane.

I would like to note the writing style of "Samurai" by S. Sakai was quite different from his Japanese language version. In my opinion the former's way of storytelling was much like in western fashion of its time.

B-17engineer · Feb 22, 2009

Thanks a lot guys!

Reason I am asking is because , in New Jersey there was a big windy sotrm, and a tree fell on my neighbors house, so I helped him cut it up and move it which took a good 7 hours.....and I have read a lot of my books and want some more lol thanks again!

ppopsie · Feb 22, 2009

I got a ton of wartime documents from this forum that I am grateful but I am afraid that I won't have enough time to read all of them while I am living.

Bill G. · Feb 22, 2009

B-17engineer:

Kindly let us know which books you read. You certainly have a bunch of excellent books to choose from! And now plenty of reading to catch up on!

Oh yea, how many from our list have you already read?

I am just being curious as to how we all did?

Bill G.

Waynos · Feb 23, 2009

Mention of Enemy Coast Ahead reminds me of how wierd I felt reading Gibsons introduction, specifically the point where he says how fortunate he feels to have survived the war. That was damned spooky.

pbfoot · Feb 23, 2009

As mentione by a couple of other guys Terror in the Starboard Seat is very high on my list as a 1st person story easy to read

slaterat · Feb 24, 2009

Agreed

Terror In the Starboard Seat Dave McIntosh
Hell On Earth Dave McIntosh

1000 Shall Fall Murray Pedan

Battle For Palembang (reissued as Hurricane vs Zero) Terence Kelly

Slaterat

Wildcat · Feb 24, 2009

No moon tonight by Don Charlwood is an excellent account of a navigator flying with Bomber command.

ppopsie · Feb 24, 2009

Wildcat said:
No moon tonight by Don Charlwood is an excellent account of a navigator flying with Bomber command.

Don Charlwood made a bad navigation mistake on his first mission but lived it through, and eventually a tour.

Now I would like to add;
Sigh for a Merlin by Alex Henshaw
Bring Back My Stringbag by John Godley
Spitfire by Jeff Quill

and a host of excellent personal accounts on the war, in Japanese.

mhuxt · Feb 24, 2009

ppopsie said:
and a host of excellent personal accounts on the war, in Japanese.

Hi ppopsie:

Can you recommend any? I can read (most) Japanese, will be in Tokyo mid-March.

In particular, is there anything on the night air defence of the home islands?

Thanks in advance.

ppopsie · Feb 24, 2009

mhuxt said:
Can you recommend any? I can read

Please look at below. I will post the titles later. These are only part of my collection and a fraction of the whole.

B-17engineer · Feb 24, 2009

Wow great collection!

archerynut · Feb 24, 2009

i can second "Panzer Commander" what a great book! if you're looking for
WW2 fiction, "Black Cross" by Greg Iles was an amazing read, as well as "Jackdaws" and "Hornet Flight" by Ken Follett. for me, reading these last two was like watching a movie! the suspense and drama mr. Follett creates is pretty...well i've never read another book that made my palms sweaty and my pulse race like those two. "Eye of the Needle" was pretty good, as was "The Key to Rebecca" but they didn't come close to "Hornet Flight" to which i'm hoping he will write a sequel because he left it WIIIIIIIIIIIDE open!

Elvis · Feb 24, 2009

B-17engineer said:
I was wondering if there were any good WWII books out there that are like, first person accounts, whether its the air-war, ground or on ships was just curious if you guys knew some good books ?

Thanks!

Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but I read a very good fictional tale about 4-5 years ago.
It was called "Hornet Flight".
Basically, its about two people who try to escape from the German's in a DeHavilland Hornet.
I heard that at one time, it was slated to be turned into a motion picture.
People say I look like the book's author.

Elvis

Elvis · Feb 24, 2009

ppopsie said:
Please look at below. I will post the titles later. These are only part of my collection and a fraction of the whole.

Back in the early 60's, my father belonged to a "book-of-the-month-club" and one of the books he got was something that I think was called "From Pearl Harbour to Iwo Jima", or something like that.
It was an account of the Pacific side of WWII.
Do you have that in your collection?
I remember trying to read it as a youngster, but I didn't have the patience back then.
...might have to give that one another going over.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

JUHA said:
Finnish AF aces

Eino "Eikka" Luukkanen's memoirs, translated as Luukkanen, Eino. Fighter Over Finland: the Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot. London: Macdonald Company Ltd.., 1963. (Reprinted 1980 by Arno Press, NY as ISBN 0-405-12191-1. and in 1989 by Time-Life, NY as ISBN 0-80949-620-8.)
see more on him Eino Luukkanen

Juutilainen, Eino Ilmari (translated by Nikunen, Heikki). Double Fighter Knight. Tampere, Finland: Apali Oy, 1996. ISBN 9-52502-604-3.

THANKS!
I'm gonna look for those.

Elvis

mhuxt · Feb 24, 2009

Thanks pposie:

The two hon-do books look like the kind of thing I'm after.

If there's more you could recommend, I'd be most interested. Is there a good specialist bookstore in Tokyo?

Thanks,

Mark

ppopsie · Feb 24, 2009

mhuxt-sama,
hon-do>of these, following are related to homeland air defense in varied degree, and I think are categorized as bunko-bon (文庫本）normally available at larger bookstores in Tokyo;

by Yoji Watanabe
Omoi-Hikoki-Gumo
Haruka-Naru-Shun-Yoku
Shito-no-Hondo-Joku
Hondo-Boku-Sen

by Matsuo Hagiri
Ozora-no-Kessen

by Tsutomu Iwai
Ku-bo Zero-Sen Tai (correctly pronounced title)
Above are from Bun-Shun Bun-Ko

by Tsune-emon Shindo
Shippu-Sento-Tai
from Kojin-Sha Bun-Ko

If you are to use Haneda airport, try Books Fuji on the B1 floor in the old terminal building (for JAL), next to Keiku Line exit. The bookstore is specialized in aviation.

mhuxt · Feb 24, 2009

Many thanks p-popsie, mata yoroshiku.

GhostBlue · Feb 27, 2009

The English translation of Anna Yegorova's memoir, Russian IL-2 pilot, is just of the press(2/25). Here is a link to the translator/editor's site.

Red Sky, Black Death

GhostBlue

BombTaxi · Feb 28, 2009

Slightly OT, and I don't know if you can get this in the States, but a fascinating read is 'First Blitz' by Neil Hanson. It discusses the night raids on London by German bombers in WWI, and shows how the Germans had a very detailed plan to destroy London with incendiary bombs, forcing the UK out of the War. Fortunately for London, the Germans made the common WWI mistake of over-estimating the power of the bomber, and could not get enough aircraft on the raids to make the difference. Nevertheless, it was a well thought-out plan, and could have been deadly, as the Brits had no effective way at all of fighting back.

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