The Most Accurate Author/Researcher

Well I've read a couple of Martin Middlebrook's book and found them riveting. My Uncle was lost on the 4th of the Hamburg raids in the summer of 1943.

I can't comment on accuracy, but the book "Battle of Hamburg" tells the tragic story from all sides, British, American, Luftwaffe and the poor people of Hamburg on the receiving end.

Get a copy and see what you think.

John Lundstrom-"The First Team" and "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign." He is head and shoulders above most others.

Authors that I hold in very high regard on WW2 aviation history:

Christopher Shores;
John Lundstrom;
Christer Bergstrom
Roger Freeman
Francis Dean
Chris Dunning
Raymond Toliver
Williamson Murray

General history
Steven Zaloga
Chester Wilmott
Carlo D'Este
David Glantz (Don't necessarily agree with all his conclusions though)

There are several adjectives that I'd use for the work of Mr Ambrose. None of them would be 'accurate' however…

Atkinson is very prosaic, and a good historian, although he appears prone to some unnecessary embellishment in the name of readability.

Did not realise that this thread was about military writers instead of exclusively writers about military aircraft.

John Keegan is, IMO, the foremost writer about militaries and war in the world today. His books are legendary.

Did not realise that this thread was about military writers instead of exclusively writers about military aircraft.

John Keegan is, IMO, the foremost writer about militaries and war in the world today. His books are legendary.

No worries Ren. I was curious who people thought were very good researchers and had reliable works.

How about Antony Beevor's excellent works on Berlin, Crete, Stalingrad, and Crete.

Another very good book by a writer of fiction, now dead,
"The Road Past Mandalay" auto biographical by John Masters.
Masters was in the Indian Army as an officer in a Ghurka Unit. He served in the Chindits and this is his story of his service in WW2. Fascinating and very well written about the CBI, a theatre somewhat neglected. Probably out of print but if one can get his hands on a copy well worth the trouble.

Crimea_River said:

How about Antony Beevor's excellent works on Berlin, Crete, Stalingrad, and Crete.

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I'll second Antony Beevor. Other authors whom I really think have done their homework include Eric M. Bergerud, Richard B. Frank, and Richard Overy.

Violator said:

I'll second Antony Beevor. Other authors whom I really think have done their homework include Eric M. Bergerud, Richard B. Frank, and Richard Overy.

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Overy's books are very bad .I have Russia's War and Why the Allies Won,theyre both garbage.Stay clear!!!

I think when it comes to general war info, both Ian Hogg and David Mondey rank up there.

How do you people rate Warren Bodie as an author/researcher?

RabidAlien said:

Steven Ambrose
Carlos D'Este
Rick Atkinson

These are three of my favorites, never heard them verified as to their accuracy, but I've really enjoyed everything I've read by them so far.

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Don`t care for Ambrose he`s far to American centric IMHO I`m reading his book on D Day and there is a whole 20 pages on Juno out of 583 or 48 pages total on Gold Juno and Sword and several hundred on Utah and Omaha glad it only cost $3.00 and bargain shop

Although his bibliography is not extensive, Peter Hinchliffe's books are well-written in a lively and engaging style and are well-researched. The Other Battle is an excellent, concise, and well-written history of the WWII British night air bombing campaign against Germany. His biography of the leading Luftwaffe night fighter ace Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, Ace of Diamonds, is also a worthy read.

Ken

All authors make mistakes, and even historians have a theme, a message, that they want to put across. So every author, regardless of reputation has to be considered as potentially wrong or misleading in their comments.

Obviously some authors are better than others, but applying a rule of thumb the best ones are the ones that make it possible to verify their findings. This is is especially true of the ones that are attempting to make some kind of revelation or new discovery known.

Be wary of any authors that make these claims and dont back them up....there are truckloadws of authors out their that will want to say something different and then proceed to be selective or deceptive in their message. If something new is being claimed, you have to be able to independantly verify what that guy is saying or you might end up with a lot of embarrassment.

Having said that, its all too easy to get into your comfort zone, and read stuff that is simply stroking your ego or lining up with nationalitic pre-conception. Sometimes you have to accept writers that challenge your pre-conceptions.....

Authors need to be logical and simple in the ideas and facts they want to express. They need to be intersting not cludgy and ponderous

So whi do I like. Coming from a simulations design background, Im a little old school

James Dunnigan, Eric Goldberg, Richard Berg, Al Nofi, Paul Astill, Roger Keating, Ian Trout. Not names all that well known, but these guys have carved reputations in a field that is challenging and unforgiving at times. Harry (?) from WIF fame is a good researcher, but he has admitted to me on occasions his German bias. On the other hand Jim has admitted some allied bias as well. And yes, most of these guys I have met and known at some point.

All these guys have written books (except Keating and Trouty), but their reputations were carved in the gaming world.

Book authors that I like, though I havent met or spoken to them include Costello, Hayward, Chant, Murray, Gunston, Westermann, Barnett, Yoshida Akira, Boyd, Bartier, Trouros, Hardesty, Bergstrom, Freeman, Rohwer, Madej, Shelby Stanton and Samuel Mitcham just to name a few

Old school, if biased one is hard pressed going past Morison, Toppe, and the various official histories....always a great place to make a start. AJP Taylor is a legend, and ought not be dismissed just because hes as ancient as Methuselah

I have generally found the least accurate to be autobiographical works, as they usually contain "how I won the war " statements, and lots of innaccuracies.

If I were to name a single book in my own collection it would have to be AGS Enser : A Subject Bibliography of the Second World War (Books In English), Andre Deutsche 1977 (566 pages), Contains a very long list of books on just about every wwii subject you can think of. A somewhat smaller book concentrating on aircraft and aircraft weapons is J. M. G. Emory, Source Book Of World War II Aircraft - A Concise Directory and Bibliography Blandford Press (1986) 269 pages.

Both these Bibliographical books are a bit old, but I have not seen anything simlar since then. They are still very useful to me, because I will go to one of these older works, and they will give me a lot of clues about newer stuff which i then migrate toward

Thanks parsifal. I was curious because over the years I've seen many threads and posts about some authors like William Green or Eric Brown but never about other well known guys like Dr. Alfred Price or Eric Mombeek. I was curious as to why.

You've missed Bruce Robertson (now deceased,) James Goulding (likewise,) Ray Sturtivant (also deceased,) Michael Bowyer, Chaz Bowyer, Danny Morris (Aces Wingmen series,) Leo McKinstry, Robert Bracken (Spitfire the Canadians,) Christopher Shores, Chris Thomas (2nd TAF series.)
Edgar

Although I'm qualified in history to postgrad level, I find David Glantz virtually unreadable. Too much info, too many minutiae, and the narrative seems to fall apart beneath the sheer number of primary sources. I'm sure he has his place, but it isn't on my bookshelf. I'm not a big fan of Stephen Ambrose either, very American-centric, and to my mind more focussed on patriotism than history at times.

OTOH, Beevor is highly readable and well-researched. Lynn MacDonald is excellent for WWI, telling the story through oral history and using the narrative only to link the accounts and provide an overview that the soldiers could not have had. I'm currently reading Edward Lengel's work on the Meuse-Argonne and that seems to have detail and readability in the right balance. Outside our period, but still fascinating, N.A.M Rodger is perhaps the best naval historian of recent times, and his work on the Royal Navy is exhaustive and highly readable. I would also rate Martin Bowman, only read one of his books but was very impressed.

I agree with Bowman. Have his "Battles With the Luftwaffe" with Theo Boiten - very good.

I'd say Airlife book could be pretty well researched - I only have the one, by Anthoney L. Kay.
To me it seems from an engineering point of view, very well researched and put together, but in a techy way - which I understand, and so obviously does he.