WWII reading list

RogerBW and the players

Roger has not necessarily read all of these.

Stephen Bull, Second World War Infantry Tactics (Pen & Sword, 2012; concentrates on the Germans, British and Americans)
Robert A. Doughty, The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1918-39 (how the core ideas of the post-WWI French military set it up for defeat in WWII)
Heinz Guderian, Panzer Leader (not at all reliable, everything he did was brilliant, everything Hitler did was terrible, definitely no Nazis in this here Wehrmacht)
War Office, Handbook of Small Arms, 1929 (reprinted by Naval & Military press, and a surprisingly good read)

Roger Hill, Destroyer Captain (much practical detail, good on stress too)
Parshall and Tully, Shattered Sword (the battle of Midway from the Japanese perspective)

Eric “Winkle” Brown, Wings On My Sleeve (essential)
John Comer, Combat Crew (an account of being a B-17 crewman over Europe in 1943-44)
Ed Dover, The Long Way Home (Pan-Am Clipper caught in the Pacific in 1941, taking the westbound route back to the USA)
Adolf Galland, The First and the Last (he makes being a fighter pilot sound desperately boring)
John James, The Paladins (social history of the RAF up to 1939)
Charles Lamb, [To] War in a Stringbag (Fairey Swordfish pilot)
Ulrich Steinhilper, Spitfire On My Tail, Ten Minutes to Buffalo, Full Circle (Bf109 pilot and later PoW in England and Canada)

Sir John Hackett, I Was a Stranger (escaped PoW after Arnhem hiding with the Dutch resistance)
Leo Marks, Between Silk and Cyanide (SOE cryptographer)

Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game (not strictly WWII; Jutland and the thinking that led up to it)
Roger Hesketh, Fortitude (the crucial D-Day deception plan)
John Keegan, The Battle For History (1995 overview of other histories of the war)
Ian Kershaw, The End: Hitler’s Germany, 1944-45 (Penguin, 2011; Mostly about why Germany kept fighting so long after the situation was hopeless)
Ian Kershaw, Fateful Choices (ten major decisions and the thinking that led to them being taken the way they were)
Kenneth Macksey: Why the Germans Lose at War: The Myth of German Military Superiority (aggressively revisionist, but a solid high-level treatment of the European theatre)
Heinz Magenheimer, Hitler’s War (how Hitler ran his war)
Stanley G. Payne, Franco and Hitler (why Spain never formally joined the Axis)
Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (the economic perspective and influence on policy)
Walter Warlimont, Inside Hitler’s Headquarters, 1939-45 (the author was Jodl’s deputy, and in charge of the Operations staff who weren’t in close contact with Hitler)
Gerhard L Weinberg, A World At Arms (a sizable general history, strong on the politics and alliances)

Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb (most of what you need for alternate Manhattan Projects)

Roderick Bailey (introduction), The Secret Agent’s Handbook (a reprint of the SOE illustrated catalogue of special-ops equipment)
Ewen Montagu, The Man Who Never Was (Operation Mincemeat; avoid Ben Macintyre’s book of that title)

John Carter, Sex And Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons (Parsons and his black magic)
Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah (L. Ron Hubbard and his connections with Crowley and Jack Parsons)
Heather Pringle, The Master Plan: Himmler’s Scholars and the Holocaust (the SS-Ahnenerbe)
Richard Spence, Secret Agent 666: Aleister Crowley, British Intelligence and the Occult (technically non-fiction, how Crowley was secretly working for military intelligence)