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I was fascinated with WWII as a kid (jr high school). Then I pretty much lost all interest until recently. I promised a friend and former partner I would write a book about his WWII adventures when I finally got time. He died before I had time to write the book, but now I have some time and I am researching it and it has re-sparked an interest. He fought in Africa and Italy which I never knew much about, and pretty much ignored, so I am learning all new things. To start on getting a feeling for the style of writing history as opposed to fiction, I read a book about the Destroyer Laffey which is mostly in the pacific and that rekindled my general interest in the war (great book but it also gave me some things not to do in writing such a book). I am not going to go back to reading nothing but WWII history books and reading them constantly, but I will likely expand my research beyond what I need for the book I am working on. It is all so interesting. Besides I need a general understnading of the times and events
Maybe I will re-read some of the old books I still have around from Jr. high school. I had some really good books, but most were about the Pacific theater.
Pacific theater? That's where my dad was....do you remember titles???
I've been reading about it since 1995. Two works that are the most searing, in my opinion, are grunts eye views of the war, and the two that stand out, amongst so many, are "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge (A Marine in the Pacific whose book was the basis for "The Pacific" by Steven Spielberg) and "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer, a Wehrmacht soldier in Russia (yes, I know many say it is fiction, but it does not detract from the immense power of his story)
Another stellar and powerful read is "Prisoners of the Japanese" by Gavan Dawes, it is a meticulously researched and intense story about the network of POW camps run by the Japanese, and the story of those who were held in them. Both horrific and inspiring.
I'll assume you've read both volumes of "Adolf Hitler" by John Toland, the gold standard IMO on the biography of him, and the most viscerally memorable book I've read on the Holocaust is "The Theory and Practice of Hell" (cannot remember author) who was a Jewish physician at Auschwitz and survived because he was allowed to assist the Nazi's.
All excellent books. Have read them all some of them more than once over the years.
I'm totally enthralled. Have read, read, read over the last several years. Particularly into Hitler (3 bios) and the Holocaust, most recently.
Guess this is a lifelong fascination for many?
My dad was a paratrooper/Purple Heart recipient, another reason I became so interested....hard to imagine my dad at 19 dropping into warfare. Still amazed at the courage of so many.
I read about WWII frequently, along with books about the key political players. Like you, I have read extensively about the Holocaust and continue to do so. I wouldn’t say I’m fascinated by it, but want a deeper understanding of how it nearly destroyed the world.
My interest only started, oh, 8 years ago or so. I come from a Navy family and was born in '43. Late in life, I picked up Samuel Elliot Morrison's multi-volume history of the Pacific War and I've become hooked on books about that. Only lately did I realize that there's also lot of material from the Japanese side on the web. Recently, I finished a book, Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945, in which the authors suggest that the invasion of Japan was never going to happen, with or without the A bomb. There were just too many obstacles. The country was demobilizing after the defeat of Germany and there was insufficient rail and shipping to de-mobilize US troops in Western Europe and, at the same time, mobilize for the invasion; plus there was a lot of high level support in the Congress and around Truman for de-mobilization. Added to that, estimates of Japanese forces positioned to stop the invasion had grown to such large numbers that the Joint Chiefs were extremely worried about high allied casualties when the US public was convinced that WWII was winding down (even if MacArthur believed these estimates were exaggerated). The bomb saved the day...eventually. (The authors don't discuss whether the Invasion plan would have been revived if Japan had refused to surrender, unconditionally, but the implication was that it was dead due to logistical, public opinion, political and logistical problems).
Military history has been a field of interest for me going on thirty plus years now, with particular emphasis on both world wars, but not exclusively. Since, as others have said, it is sometimes hard to find new material about World War II, I often try to branch off into certain topics of the war rather than the subject as a whole. Here are some suggestions that you or others may find worthy of a look if you haven't already read them:
"Reaping the Whirlwind" by Nigel Cawthorne - An interesting collection of the thoughts, feelings, and experiences expressed by members of the German and Japanese armed forces as well as ordinary citizens during the war.
"KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps" by Nikolaus Wachsmann - This is by the far the most detailed and morbidly fascinating account of this subject I have ever read and likely ever will read. I know there are a lot of Holocaust books out there, but this is in a class of its own when it comes to both facts and exploration of the personalities involved.
"The Dark Heart of Hitler's Europe" by Martin Winstone - This is essentially a history of the General Government of occupied Poland, the SS controlled fiefdom ruled over by Hans Frank, Hitler's personal attorney.
"Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and his Regime, Romania 1940-44" by Dennis Deletant - An aptly named book given that most people don't realize just how large a role Romania played in the fighting on the Eastern Front, committing more troops to the conflict then any other member of the Axis.
My interest only started, oh, 8 years ago or so. I come from a Navy family and was born in '43. Late in life, I picked up Samuel Elliot Morrison's multi-volume history of the Pacific War and I've become hooked on books about that. Only lately did I realize that there's also lot of material from the Japanese side on the web. Recently, I finished a book, Implacable Foes: War in the Pacific, 1944-1945, in which the authors suggest that the invasion of Japan was never going to happen, with or without the A bomb. There were just too many obstacles. The country was demobilizing after the defeat of Germany and there was insufficient rail and shipping to de-mobilize US troops in Western Europe and, at the same time, mobilize for the invasion; plus there was a lot of high level support in the Congress and around Truman for de-mobilization. Added to that, estimates of Japanese forces positioned to stop the invasion had grown to such large numbers that the Joint Chiefs were extremely worried about high allied casualties when the US public was convinced that WWII was winding down (even if MacArthur believed these estimates were exaggerated). The bomb saved the day...eventually. (The authors don't discuss whether the Invasion plan would have been revived if Japan had refused to surrender, unconditionally, but the implication was that it was dead due to logistical, public opinion, political and logistical problems).
Check this out, a fascinating read about how U.S. war planners had vastly underestimated what would have awaited an invasion of Japan. It would have been a bloodbath, and I don't think that U.S. troops had the appetite for this type of war, all of those who went there from Europe did not want to be there, and those fighting in the Pacific already were worn out from the brutality, climate, and horror of the mass deaths of the Japanese. It would have been on a much greater scale if Operation Downfall had of been executed.
I'd love to see the island my dad, as a paratrooper, jumped on...Corregidor. There are many buffs into this island in particular, with an organization solely regarding all who served there. I check the website occasionally.... some visit the island and still find war remnants to this day.
my father joined the navy in 1937 and was counting the days till he was getting out when they bombed pearl harbor ..he was on the Pennsylvania and he absolutely never talked about the war..
i cleaned out the entire section of ww2 history in the local library years ago..lol..if im remembering correctly
the jump onto corregidor was especially dangerous as was so small a target to jump on
i have started watching lectures on the internet as of late
Pacific theater? That's where my dad was....do you remember titles???
I looked through our bookshelves quickly to see what I still have around. I found True Stories of WWII soldiers or smelting like that. Then I got distracted by discovering our bookshelves are doubled up, two rows of books on every shelf. You cannot even see the back row, We need to get rid of some books.
I know I had some sort of encyclopedia of WWII which was from the 1940s. It had tons of pictures. the only volumes I had were the pacific theater volumes.
You can simply ask your local librarian. They will find dozens of books on the pacific theater for you.
The book about the destroyer Laffey that I read recently was called "Hell from the Heavens" That was mostly about the pacific theater, although the Laffey supported D-day, not a lot happened. Most of the book is about Kamikaze attacks in the pacific theater. It was eye opening to me. We had almost no defense against Kamikazes and one plane would kill dozens or even hundreds of sailors and sometimes sink the entire ship. If they had used Kamikazes while they still had competent pilots and lots of planes and airbases, Japan may have wiped out most of our Navy.
Laffey was exceptional in that it fought off attacks by 21 Kamikazes and still sailed home (sort of, it was towed to the first repair base). It was basically destroyed and lost nearly a third of its crew though. Still the 21 Kamikazes killed more than 21 sailors, wounded 70 and took a destroyer out of action. I would guess the resource cost to produce 21 airplanes is less than the cost in resources to produce a destroyer. That was a best case scenario for ht navy. Other ships lost hundreds of crew members and sunk very large ships in attacks by only a handful of Kamikazes. For various reasons, they usually could not shoot them down. at times, even if they shredded the plane and killed the pilot before impact, the plane still hit the ship and sprayed flaming gasoline all over everyone and everything (including stored ammunition). Not to mention the bombs that most of them carried. Thus, it would appear Kamikazes could have offset the imbalance in resources and manpower if they were used earlier.\.
I looked through our bookshelves quickly to see what I still have around. I found True Stories of WWII soldiers or smelting like that. Then I got distracted by discovering our bookshelves are doubled up, two rows of books on every shelf. You cannot even see the back row, We need to get rid of some books.
I know I had some sort of encyclopedia of WWII which was from the 1940s. It had tons of pictures. the only volumes I had were the pacific theater volumes.
You can simply ask your local librarian. They will find dozens of books on the pacific theater for you.
The book about the destroyer Laffey that I read recently was called "Hell from the Heavens" That was mostly about the pacific theater, although the Laffey supported D-day, not a lot happened. Most of the book is about Kamikaze attacks in the pacific theater. It was eye opening to me. We had almost no defense against Kamikazes and one plane would kill dozens or even hundreds of sailors and sometimes sink the entire ship. If they had used Kamikazes while they still had competent pilots and lots of planes and airbases, Japan may have wiped out most of our Navy.
Laffey was exceptional in that it fought off attacks by 21 Kamikazes and still sailed home (sort of, it was towed to the first repair base). It was basically destroyed and lost nearly a third of its crew though. Still the 21 Kamikazes killed more than 21 sailors, wounded 70 and took a destroyer out of action. I would guess the resource cost to produce 21 airplanes is less than the cost in resources to produce a destroyer. That was a best case scenario for ht navy. Other ships lost hundreds of crew members and sunk very large ships in attacks by only a handful of Kamikazes. For various reasons, they usually could not shoot them down. at times, even if they shredded the plane and killed the pilot before impact, the plane still hit the ship and sprayed flaming gasoline all over everyone and everything (including stored ammunition). Not to mention the bombs that most of them carried. Thus, it would appear Kamikazes could have offset the imbalance in resources and manpower if they were used earlier.\.
Laffey was exceptional in that it fought off attacks by 21 Kamikazes and still sailed home (sort of, it was towed to the first repair base). It was basically destroyed and lost nearly a third of its crew though. Still the 21 Kamikazes killed more than 21 sailors, wounded 70 and took a destroyer out of action. I would guess the resource cost to produce 21 airplanes is less than the cost in resources to produce a destroyer. That was a best case scenario for ht navy. Other ships lost hundreds of crew members and sunk very large ships in attacks by only a handful of Kamikazes. For various reasons, they usually could not shoot them down. at times, even if they shredded the plane and killed the pilot before impact, the plane still hit the ship and sprayed flaming gasoline all over everyone and everything (including stored ammunition). Not to mention the bombs that most of them carried. Thus, it would appear Kamikazes could have offset the imbalance in resources and manpower if they were used earlier.\.
I've always been amazed by the bravery and skill of Lieutenant Shunsuke Tomiyasu and his attack on the USS Enterprise, effectively mothballing her in dry dock for the rest of the war. Even those onboard had respect for him, and how he managed to avoid getting hit, using subterfuge to fool the deck gunners, and then corkscrewing down for a perfect hit that took him all the way into the lowest deck of this carrier.
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