Best WWII non-fiction you've read

And another fiction

The Night Watch. Sarah Waters

Lots of wonderful suggestions above.

Here are some more

Non fiction

Armageddon. Max Hastings
The Past is Myself. Christabel Beilenberg
Swansong. Walter Kempowski
Village of Secrets. Caroline Moorhead
Our longest days. Edited by Sandra Kia Wing

Fiction
All for Nothing. Walter Kempowski
The Honeyed Peace. Martha Gellhorn
Pied Piper. Neville Shute

Inge’s War by Svenja O’Donnell was well worth reading

Anything by Anthony Beevor.
Stalinfrad
Fall of Berlin.
And the book Blitzed by a German author. Just incredible
And Inside The Bunker by JP Donnelly

I haven’t read the entire thread to see if this book was mentioned, I really enjoyed ‘A woman of no importance’ true story of a ww2 spy

I’ve found my people! I think a lot of there books are based on people and real events but are fictional to they sometime blur timelines or people. My contributions are:

The nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The three sisters by Heather morris
This diamond eye by Kate Quinn
the huntress by Kate Quinn
Beneath a Scarlett sky by mark sullvan
the last green valley by mark sullvan
Code name verity by Elizabeth wein
The Tom wild series by Rory clements
The little war time library by Kate Thompson
When we had wings by Ariel lawhon, kristina mcmorris and Susan meissner
Code name Helene by Ariel lawhon

The diaries of Victor Klemperer. Son of a rabbi who survived in Dresden all through the war-time thanks to his gentile wife and kept incredibly detailed diaries throughout.

All of Primo Levi’s books, especially “If This Is A Man”!

Five Days that shocked the World by Nicholas Best. Eyewitness accounts of Europe in the final days of the war. Some accounts from famous people, really interesting.

Schindler s List by T Keneally

If this is a Woman - about the women's concentration camp ar Ravensbruck

The Blitz by Julia Gardiner. Really interesting and harrowing.

Berlin by Sinclair Mackay

Hitler's British Isles - about the occupation of the Channel Islands

Auschwitz by Laurence Rees

The Ticket Collector from Belarus - about the only Nazi to be put on trial in the UK. Absolutely loved this book.

Hunting Evil - about how Nazis escaped Germany at the end of the war and how some of them were brought to justice

Their Darkest Hour by Laurence Rees.
This once is excellent. He interviews all sorts of people about fheir experience in the war. The accounts from nazis are particularly chilling, no remorse what so ever.

Hitler's furies by Wendy Lower. About women in the Ukraine who helped the Nazis. The accounts from the nurses who killed children with disabilities are horrifying.

The Alice Network

Hitlerland. The pre-war third reich through the eyes of American/British ex-pats is fascinating

"If this is a woman: Inside Ravensbruck" by Sarah Helm. About the only woman'only concentration camp. You'll need a strong stomach and a resilient midset as the medical experiments described are brutal. What really interested me was the extent to which the prisoners divided themselves into factions. The Russian Soviet prisoners saw themselves as superior to the Jewish prisoners and deprived them of food when they could. And everyone hated and despised the lesbians.

Also, "Berlin" by Anthony beevor, which is about the final assault on Berlin by the Russians. Divided between the experiences of ordinary Berliners and the devastation wreaked by the outraged Russian army as they flooded into Berlin.

I’ve PMd you about this @Countmeout

The latter 2 for myself I should have said.

I’ve read The Cut Out Girl some time ago @LemonJuiceFromConcentrate . Can you remember if it would be suitable for a tweenager? (Because I can’t) My granddaughter has got into war fiction since reading Anne Frank. I got her Behind the Bedroom Wall and Someone named Eva but she devours books so looking for other suitable books.
On the back of this thread I’ve bought A woman in Berlin and I shall bear witness.

The colditz story.

The Cruel Sea is only lightly fictional.

forgot to mention: while at school (so around the time of the TV series) i read the 2 (or e? or more?) books by Major Pat Reid about his time in Colditz, and their escape. It is absolutely fascinating.

i think there's quite a stretch on the definition of non-fiction in some of these.

I will echo the Beevor book about Stalingrad (and if you want a fictional account try Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann)
Women of Steel by Michelle Rawlins (she's now writing fiction about the women in Sheffield from that period)
and also echo the Spike Milliigan books

The Choice by Dr Edith Eger. Strictly speaking, it's not entirely a WW2 book, but it is the story of her survival and life after. It is a compelling read.

'Reach for the sky' - Paul Brickhill
Was one I loved as a teen. It was full of wonderful heroism. (It is the story of Douglas Bader -Royal airforce pilot who was not deterred by air-crashes, deaths, or losing his own legs.)

How the girl guides won the war.

Not sure what this thread is really asking for, as most of what is asked for is actually fictionalised versions of fact, so not non-fiction at all.

Soo........Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker - fictionalised
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose - non-fiction
Into That Darkness by Gitta Sereny - non-fiction

A Brilliant Little Operation by Paddy Ashdown - account of a daring commando raid in Bordeaux by a small group of special forces men in canoes and their attempted escape through occupied France. Paddy Ashdown was in the special forces himself before becoming an MP so brings his own insight to it.
Also second Band of Brothers & The Colditz Story.