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Original poster

Best WWII non-fiction you've read

117 replies

ellecf21 · 05/02/2023 20:50

Mine was Tattooist of Auschwitz. Possibly one of the most incredible stories I've ever read. What's yours?

OP posts:
Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 05/02/2023 21:13

Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer is well worth reading.

JassyRadlett · 05/02/2023 21:13

Oh and Ben Macintyre's Double Cross is fascinating.

Basically anything Ben Macintyre?

Time40 · 05/02/2023 21:12

The Real Dad's Army, which is the war diary of a retired colonel who lived in Folkestone, and ran a Home Guard unit. It's fascinating - and my goodness, it was all go in Folkestone then. I'm surprised anyone stayed for the duration; it was highly dangerous!

Also Nella Last's War, which is another diary (of the lady who was "Housewife, 49" in the Victoria Wood drama). Daily life on the home front. By the time I'd finished it, I was totally in love with her.

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:09

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:08

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

Oops sorry, WW1 not 2!

FenghuangHoyan · 05/02/2023 21:09

Agent ZigZag is supposed to be good and it's my the same guy who did SAS Rogue Heroes..

GnomeDePlume · 05/02/2023 21:08

Operation Mincemeat, Double Cross, Agent Zigzag all by Ben Macintyre.

The detail is fascinating

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:08

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

FenghuangHoyan · 05/02/2023 21:08

FenghuangHoyan · 05/02/2023 20:54

Gurkha - better to die than live a coward

Amazing book.

Ignore this. It's not WW2

JassyRadlett · 05/02/2023 21:07

Also recommend Sarah Helm's history of Ravensbruck which is devastating but so well done, and A Life in Secrets, which is her biography of Vera Atkins.

JassyRadlett · 05/02/2023 21:04

The Nine, The Ratline and The Escape Artist are all outstanding in very different ways. Ben McIntyre's Operation Mincemeat and Kate Vigurs's Mission France are also very good.

frostbeule · 05/02/2023 21:02

A Village in the Third Reich (Julia Boyd & Angelika Patel)

Polkadotties · 05/02/2023 21:00

Polkadotties · 05/02/2023 21:00

The railman

Railway man, even!

Polkadotties · 05/02/2023 21:00

The railman

MillicentTrilbyHiggins · 05/02/2023 20:59

I dunt want to be that person, but although The Tattooist of Auschwitz is based on a true story it is actually fiction.

I really enjoyed it myself, but it is largely fiction.

I absolutely loved The Nine Hundred, by Heather Dunn Macadam. It's the story of the first transport of Jewish women to Auschwitz.

FenghuangHoyan · 05/02/2023 20:54

Gurkha - better to die than live a coward

Amazing book.

YellowHpok · 05/02/2023 20:52

Bella Lasts War. Might have been WW1, but still epic.

TigerDroveAgain · 05/02/2023 20:51

SAS Rogue Heroes