Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944

Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942–1943

Antony Beevor · 520 pages

This gripping history is the definitive account of the battle that shifted the tide of World War II, conveying the experience of soldiers on both sides as they fought in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield.

The Longest Day

Cornelius Ryan · 304 pages

A clear, well-researched, and very readable account of Operation Overlord as told by survivors. Skip the Ambrose book and read this instead.

Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany -- June 7, 1944-May 7, 1945

Stephen E. Ambrose · 512 pages

From Stephen E. Ambrose, bestselling author of Band of Brothers and D-Day, the inspiring story of the ordinary men of the U.S. army in northwest Europe from the day after D-Day until the end of the bitterest days of World War II. In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on t

The Pacific

Hugh Ambrose · 508 pages

'The Pacific' describes the extraordinary true stories of four U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy carrier pilot fighting in the Pacific region during World War II.

The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon

Alex Kershaw · 368 pages

Overview: "It was a cold December morning in 1944, deep in the Ardennes forest of Belgium. Eighteen men of a small intelligence platoon commanded by twenty-year-old lieutenant Lyle Bouck were huddled in their foxholes, desperately trying to keep warm. Suddenly the early morning silence was broken by the roar of a huge artillery bombardment. Hitler had launched his bold and risky offensive against

Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard · 384 pages

Autumn 1944. World War II is nearly over in Europe but is escalating in the Pacific, where American soldiers face an opponent who will go to any length to avoid defeat. The Japanese army follows the samurai code of Bushido, stipulating that surrender is a form of dishonor. This book takes readers to the bloody tropical-island battlefields of Peleliu and Iwo Jima and to the embattled Philippines, w

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944

Rick Atkinson · 816 pages

In the second volume of his epic trilogy about the liberation of Europe in World War II, Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson tells the harrowing story of the campaigns in Sicily and Italy. In An Army at Dawn -- winner of the Pulitzer Prize -- Rick Atkinson provided a dramatic and authoritative history of the Allied triumph in North Africa. Now, in The Day of Battle, he follows the strengthening Am

Is Paris Burning?

Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre · 385 pages

**Is Paris Burning?** Is a 1965 book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre telling the story of the Liberation of Paris during the Second World War. The book examines the military and political actions surrounding the events of late August 1944 around Paris and how these events unfolded. The title is taken from the question reportedly asked by Adolf Hitler following his order to destroy the city

History of the Second World War

B.H. Liddell Hart · 768 pages

We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers

Marcus Brotherton

From Marcus Brotherton, co-author of Call of Duty, comes a new collection of untold stories from the Band of Brothers.They were the men of the now-legendary Easy Company. After almost two years of hard training, they parachuted into Normandy on DDay and, later, Operation Market Garden. They fought their way through Belgium, France, and Germany, survived overwhelming odds, liberated concentration c

The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad

Harrison E. Salisbury · 754 pages

The Gathering Storm

Winston S. Churchill · 737 pages

One of the most fascinating works of history ever written, Winston's Churchill's monumental *The Second World War* is a six-volume account of the struggle of the Allied powers in Europe against Germany and the Axis. Told through the eyes of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, The Second World War is also the story of one nation's singular, heroic role in the fight against tyranny. Pride an

Spitfires

Becky Aikman · 369 pages

The heart-pounding true story of the daring American women who piloted the most dangerous aircraft of World War II through the treacherous skies of Britain.

Enemy At The Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad

William Craig · 457 pages

Stalingrad, the bloodiest battle of WWII, cost the lives of nearly two million men and women. It signaled the beginning of the end for the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler; it foretold the Russian juggernaut that would destroy Berlin and make the Soviet Union a superpower. As Winston Churchill characterized the result of the conflict at Stalingrad: " the hinge of fate had turned." William Craig, aut

Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945

Max Hastings · 640 pages

Armageddon is the epic story of the last eight months of World War II in Europe by Max Hastings--one of Britain's most highly regarded military historians, whose accounts of past battles John Keegan has described as worthy "to stand with that of the best journalists and writers" (New York Times Book Review).In September 1944, the Allies believed that Hitler's army was beaten, and expected that the

At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

Gordon W. Prange · 912 pages

"Fifty years after the attack that plunged America into World War II, 'At Dawn We Slept' remains the greatest account of Pearl Harbor ever written. This gripping study scrupulously reconstructs the Japanese attack, from its conception (less than a year before the actual raid) to its lightning execution; and it reveals the true reason for the American debacle: the insurmountable disbelief in the Ja

Six Armies in Normandy: From D-Day to the Liberation of Paris; June 6 - Aug. 5, 1944

John Keegan · 365 pages

"The armies of six nations met on the battlefields of Normandy in what was to be the greatest Allied achievement of World War II. With dramatic, driving power, John Keegan describes the massed armies--American, Canadian, English, German, Polish, and French--at successive stages of the invasion. As he details the strategies of the military engagements, Keegan brilliantly shows how each of the armie

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany

William L. Shirer · 1,264 pages

A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War

Williamson Murray, Allan R. Millett · 672 pages

"Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett analyze the operations and tactics that defined the conduct of the war in both the European and Pacific theaters. Moving between the war room and the battlefield, we see how strategies were crafted and revised and how the multitudes of combat troops struggled to discharge their orders. The authors present incisive portraits of military leaders on both sid

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand · 514 pages

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Se

Flags of Our Fathers

James D. Bradley, Ron Powers · 379 pages

In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumphs, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that as come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS In February 1945, Am

The Third Reich at War

Richard J. Evans · 926 pages

The final volume in Richard J. Evans's masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a "people's community to serve a war of conquest, and Hitler's campaign of racial subjugation and genocideAlready hailed as "a masterpiece" (William Grimes in The New York Times) and "the most comprehensive history...of the Third Reich" (Ian

A Short History of World War II

James L. Stokesbury · 420 pages

Despite the numerous books on World War II, until now there has been no one-volume survey that was both objective and comprehensive. Previous volumes have usually been written from an exclusively British or American point of view, or have ignored the important causes and consequences of the War.A Short History of World War II is essentially a military history, but it reaches from the peace settlem

The Greatest Generation

Tom Brokaw · 412 pages

"In the spring of 1984, I went to the northwest of France, to Normandy, to prepare an NBC documentary on the fortieth anniversary of D-Day, the massive and daring Allied invasion of Europe that marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. There, I underwent a life-changing experience. As I walked the beaches with the American veterans who had returned for this anniversary, men in