Matt Heffernan's

Recommended

Reading List

   Please find below a listing of recommended World War II autobiographies, biographies and historiographies categorized by subject. These books do not cover grand strategy nor provide the geopolitical viewpoint of the war. Instead, these books all focus on the experiences of the common man in World War II. Feel free to walk a few "pages" in their shoes.

U.S. Navy

1. Rendezvous in the Coral Sea by Randolph Chitwood.

            A great book by a survivor of the sinking of the USS Wasp (CV-7).

    2.   Flyboys by James Bradley.

    3. Queen of the Flat-Tops by Stanley Johnston.

    4. The Men of the Gambier Bay by Edwin P. Hoyt.

    5. USS Yorktown at Midway by Captain Stanford E. Linzey.

    6. The Ship That Held The Line by Lisle A. Rose.

    7. The Last of the Tin Can Sailors by James D. Hornfischer.

    8. Carrier Down by Thomas I. Bradshaw & Marsha L. Clark.

    9. The USS Arizona by Joy Waldron Jasper, James P. Delgado & Jim Adams.

    10. The Franklin Comes Home by A.A. Hoehling.

    11. Crossing the Line by Alvin Kernan.

    12. The Unknown Battle of Midway by Alvin Kernan.

    13. Battleship Nevada by Brigadier General David C. Henley.

    14. Trapped at Pearl Harbor by Stephen Bower Young.

10th Mountain Division

1. Soldiers on Skis by Flint Whitlock and Bob Bishop.

2. See Naples and Die by Robert B. Ellis.

3. Ski the High Trail by Harris Dusenbery.

4. The North Apennines and Beyond with the 10th Mountain Division by Harris Dusenbery.    

5. I Soldiered with America's Elite 10th Mountain Division of WWII by Carl V. Cossin.

6. Mountain Troops and Medics by Albert H. Meinke Jr., M.D.

7. The Last Ridge by McKay Jenkins.

8. The Journal of a U.S. Army Mountain Trooper in World War II by H. Robert Krear, Ph.D. (Self-published) 

9. One Soldier's Story by Bob Dole.

10. Packs On! by A.B. Feuer.

11. What'd You Do In The War, Dad? by Robert W. Parker.

Airborne Exploits

1. Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose.

2. Pegasus Bridge by Stephen E. Ambrose.

3. Battling Buzzards by Gerald Astor.

4. Fighting with the Screaming Eagles by Robert M. Bowen.

5. Drop Zone Sicily by William B. Breuer.

6. Currahee! by Donald R. Burgett.

7. A Screaming Eagle in Holland: The Road to Arnhem by Donald R. Burgett.

8. Seven Roads to Hell by Donald R. Burgett.

9. Beyond the Rhine by Donald R. Burgett.

10. Strike and Hold by T. Moffat Burriss.

11. Those Devils in Baggy Pants by Ross S. Carter.

12. The Devil's Own Luck: Pegasus Bridge to the Baltic 1944-45 by Denis Edwards.

13. Granddaddy was Airborne! by Bart Hagerman.

14. Night Drop by S.L.A. Marshall.

15. On Time On Target by John McKenzie.

16. Beyond Valor by Patrick K. O'Donnell.

17. Parachute Infantry by David Kenyon Webster.

18. All the Way to Berlin by James Magellas.

19. D-Day with the Screaming Eagles by George Koskimaki.

20. Hell's Highway by George Koskimaki.

21. The Battered Bastards of Bastogne by George Koskimaki.

22. Men at Arnhem by Geoffrey Powell.

23. Silent Wings at War by John L. Lowden.

24. Descending from the Clouds by Spencer F. Wurst and Gayle Wurst.

25. Behind Hitler's Lines by Thomas H. Taylor.

26. Beyond Band of Brothers by Major Dick Winters.

27. Sergeant Nibley, Ph.D. by Hugh Nibley & Alex Nibely.

28. The Filthy Thirteen by Richard Killblane & Jake McNiece.

29. A Paratrooper's Panoramic View by Robert L. Wilson & Philip K. Wilson.

30. A Perfect Hell by John Nadler.

31. Jump into the Valley of the Shadow by Dwayne T. Burns.

32. The First Men In by Ed Ruggero.

Rangers

1. The Fool Lieutenant: A Personal Account of D-Day and World War II by Marcia Moen and Margo Heinen.

2. Reflections of Courage on D-Day & the Days that Followed by Marcia Moen and Margo Heinen.

3. The Road to Victory: The Story of the Elite WWII 2nd Battalion Rangers by Pfc. Morris Prince.

Infantry

1. Citizen Soldiers by Stephen E. Ambrose.

2. D-Day: June 6, 1944 by Stephen E. Ambrose.

3. June 6, 1944: The Voices of D-Day by Gerald Astor.

4. A Blood-Dimmed Tide by Gerald Astor.

5. Beyond the Beachhead by Joseph Balkoski.

6. Fragments of my Life with Company A, 116th Infantry Regiment by John J. Barnes.

7. The Malmedy Massacre by John M. Bauserman.

8. Foot Soldier by Roscoe C. Blunt, Jr.

9. Normandy to the Bulge by Pfc. Richard D. Courtney.

10. Good Morning But the Nightmares Never End by Charlie Dukes.

11. Voices of D-Day by Ronald J. Drez.

12. G Company's War by Bruce E. Egger and Lee MacMillan Otts.

13. Crossing the Sauer by Charles Reis Felix.

14. Visions from a Foxhole by William A. Foley, Jr.

15. Roll Me Over by Raymond Gantter.

16. One Man's War: A Memoir of World War II by Harold J. Gordon, Jr.

17. The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle by J. Glenn Gray.

18. Into the Mountains Dark by Franklin L. Gurley.

19. Unsung Valor by A. Cleveland Harrison.

20. The GI's War by Edwin P. Hoyt.

21. The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo by Glover S. Johns.

22. One More Hill by Franklin Johnson.

23. Before Their Time by Robert Kotlowitz.

24. A Test of Faith and Courage by Oscar B. Ladner.

25. The World Within War by Gerald F. Linderman.

26. O'er the Land of the Free by Samuel Lombardo.

27. Company Commander by Charles B. MacDonald.

28. A Ramble Through My War by Charles F. Marshall.

29. Discovering the Rommel Murder by Charles F. Marshall.

30. Up Front by Bill Mauldin.

31. The Deadly Brotherhood by John C. McManus.

32. Hey, Mac! This is Serious Business! A Guy Could Get Killed! by William F. McMurdie.

33. Nothing Less Than Victory: The Oral History of D-Day by Russell Miller.

34. To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy.

35. Infantry Soldier by George W. Neill.

36. Naked Heart by Harold Pagliaro.

37. The Last Kilometer by A. Preston Price.

38. Brave Men by Ernie Pyle.

39. Recon Scout by Fred H. Salter.

40. Not in Vain: A Rifleman Remembers World War II by Leon C. Standifer.

41. Through My Eyes by Leon Weckstein.

42. Enemy North, South, East, West by Robert Weiss.

43. If You Survive by George Wilson.

44. Soldier Boy by George K. Zak.

45. My Brother, Hail and Farewell! by Edward Zebrowski.

46. Americans Behind the Wire by J. Frank Diggs.

47. A Soldier's Journal by David Rothbart.

48. Sixty Days in Combat by Dean P. Joy.

49. Shavetail by William L. Devitt.

50. Other Clay: A Remembrance of the World War II Infantry by Charles R. Cawthon.

51. The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw.

52. The Boy's Crusade by Paul Fussell.

53. Where the Birds Never Sing by Jack Sacco.

54. Bootprints by Hobert Winebrenner and Michael McCoy.

55. Men of Honor: American GI's in the Jewish Holocaust by Jeff Donaldson.

56. The Longest Winter by Alex Kershaw.

57. Taught to Kill by John B. Babcock.

58. From Anzio to the Alps by Lloyd M. Wells.

59. Unless Victory Comes by Gene Harrison.

60. You Can't Get Much Closer Than This by A.Z. Adkins, Jr. & Andrew Z. Adkins, III

61. The Bridge at Remagen by Ken Hechler.

62. Blood from a Stone by Yaron Svoray & Richard Hammer.

63. The Americans at D-Day by John C. McManus.

64. The Americans at Normandy by John C. McManus.

65. Arn's War by Edward C. Arn.

66. Yank by Ted Ellsworth.

67. Combat Officer by Charles H. Walker.

68. Across the Dark Islands by Floyd W. Radike.

69. War Stories III by Oliver North.

70. The Dead of Winter by Bill Warnock.

71. The Ordinary Infantrymen: Heroes Then, Heroes Again by Imogene Woods & 12 Infantrymen.

72. D-Day Survivor by Harold Baumgarten.

73. Omaha Beach & Beyond by Sergeant Bob Slaughter.

74. Alamo in the Ardennes by John C. McManus.

75. Crack! & Thump by Captain Charles Scheffel.

76. The Bloody Forest by Gerald Astor.

Armor

1. Raid! by Major Abe Baum, Richard Baron & Richard Goldhurst.

2. Death Traps by Belton Y. Cooper.

3. Tanks for the Memories by Aaron C. Elson.

4. They Were All Young Kids by Aaron C. Elson.

5. The View from the Turret by William B. Folkstad.

6. Patton's Best by Nat Frankel and Larry Smith.

7. Tank Driver by J. Ted Hartman.

8. By Tank Into Normandy by Stuart Hills (British).

9. Another River, Another Town by John P. Irwin.

10. Strike Swiftly by Marvin Jensen.

11. Hit Hard by David J. Williams.

12. Tank! by Ken Tout.

13. Tank Warfare in the Second World War: An Oral History by George Forty.

14. A Tanker's View of World War II by C. Windsor Miller.

15. Honor Untarnished by General Donald V. Bennett.

16. Tank Twins by Stephen Dyson.

17. Troop Leader by Bill Bellamy.

18. Cutthroats by Robert C. Dick.

19. Mount Up! We're Moving Out! by Vernon H. Brown, Jr.

Artillery

    1. Howitzers, Grasshoppers, and the Holy Right Hand by John Niesel.

Engineers

1. Storming Ashore by Kenneth H. Garn.

2. The GI Journal of Sergeant Giles by Janice Holt Giles.

3. Combat Engineer by Jack L. Scott.

4. A Combat Engineer Remembers by Norman C. Southergill.

Medics

1. The Medic by Leo Litwak.

2. A Surgeon in Combat by William V. McDermott, M.D.

3. Our War for the World by Brendan Phibbs, M.D.

4. Doctor Danger Forward by Allen N. Towne.

5. Combat Medic: World War II by John A. Kerner, M.D.

6. Battalion Surgeon by William M. McConahey, M.D.

7. The Way I Remember It by George A. Flynn.

8. Medic! by Robert "Doc Joe" Franklin.

9. A Medic's War by Tyler Fisher.

Supply

1. The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II's Red Ball Express by David P. Colley.

U.S. Marines

1. Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley.

2. Nightmare on Iwo by Patrick F. Caruso.

3. The Last Lieutenant by John C. Shively.

4. God Isn't Here by Richard E. Overton.

5. On The Canal by Ore J. Marion.

6. With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge.

7. The Quack Corps by Arthur W. Wells.

8. The Bloody Battle for Suribachi by Richard Wheeler.

9. Coral Comes High by George P. Hunt.

10. Goodbye, Darkness by William Manchester.

Army Air Force

1. The Wild Blue by Stephen E. Ambrose.

2. Old Man in a Baseball Cap by Fred Rochlin.

3. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted W. Lawson.

4. An Ace of the Eighth by Norman "Bud" Fortier.

5. Woodbine Red Leader by George Loving.

6. Flying School: Combat Hell by Ellis M. Woodward.

7. A Mighty Fortress by Charles Alling.

Holocaust

1. Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning.

2. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi.

British Commonwealth (excluding Airborne & Armor books)

1. Once Upon a Wartime by Peter Layton Cottingham.

2. Oh, What a Lovely War! by Stanley Swift.

3. Storm from the Sea by Peter Young.

4. The Guns of Normandy by George G. Blackburn.

5. With the Jocks by Peter White.

Home Front

1. Once Upon a Town by Bob Greene.

German

1. Panzerjager: Tank Hunter by William B. Folkstad.

2. Condemned to Live by Franz A.P. Frisch and Wilbur D. Jones, Jr.

3. Frontsoldaten by Stephen G. Fritz.

4. Panzer Commander by Hans von Luck.

5. Soldat by Siegfried Knappe.

6. The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.

7. Black Edelweiss by Johann Voss.

8. Loyalty is My Honor: Personal Accounts from the Waffen-SS by Gordon Williamson.

9. Tigers in the Mud by Otto Carius.

10. Five Fronts, Four Years by Georg Grossjohann.

11. Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson.

12. Skorzeny's Special Missions by Otto Skorzeny.