Best WWII non-fiction you've read

ellecf21 · 2023-02-05T20:50:52+00:00

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

TigerDroveAgain · 05/02/2023 20:51

SAS Rogue Heroes

YellowHpok · 05/02/2023 20:52

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

FenghuangHoyan · 05/02/2023 20:54

Gurkha - better to die than live a coward

Amazing book.

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.

Polkadotties · 05/02/2023 21:00

The railman

Polkadotties · 05/02/2023 21:00

The railman

Railway man, even!

frostbeule · 05/02/2023 21:02

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

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.

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.

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

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:08

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

GnomeDePlume · 05/02/2023 21:08

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

The detail is fascinating

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..

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:09

GiltEdges · 05/02/2023 21:08

The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker

Oops sorry, WW1 not 2!

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.

JassyRadlett · 05/02/2023 21:13

Oh and Ben Macintyre's Double Cross is fascinating.

Basically anything Ben Macintyre?

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 05/02/2023 21:13

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

Countmeout · 05/02/2023 21:14

Travellers in the Third Reich.

moggerhanger · 05/02/2023 21:23

JassyRadlett · 05/02/2023 21:13

Oh and Ben Macintyre's Double Cross is fascinating.

Basically anything Ben Macintyre?

I came on to recommend this book. I found myself reading it with my jaw dropped, periodically saying "they'll never get away with that, surely!" But they did.

Riverlee · 05/02/2023 21:34

Schindlers list

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 05/02/2023 21:36

Night by Elie Wiesel (Holocaust)

whatausername · 05/02/2023 21:37

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.

Is it the one by Norman Longmate or Rodney Foster? Both appear to have been colonels and used the same book title! Or was it by someone else entirely?

BakingQueen14 · 05/02/2023 21:39

Not strictly non fiction (based on a true story) but mine would be The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.

whatausername · 05/02/2023 21:40

whatausername · 05/02/2023 21:37

Is it the one by Norman Longmate or Rodney Foster? Both appear to have been colonels and used the same book title! Or was it by someone else entirely?

Show quote history

Think it might be Foster if it's a diary-style book!

tobee · 05/02/2023 21:41

Home front diaries:-

Mr Brown's War

These Wonderful Rumours!: A Young Schoolteacher's Wartime Diaries 1939-1945 by May Smith

Sand in My Shoes by Joan Rice (mother of Sir Tim)

Betty's Wartime Diaries by Betty Armitage

We Are At War: The Diaries of Five Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times by Simon Garfield

Books by Stephen E Ambrose

D Day
Citizen Soldiers
Band of Brothers
Wild Blue
Pegasus Bridge

Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster

Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R Burgett

4.7 out of 5 stars

4.6 out of 5 stars