World War II Memoirs discussion

What do you recommend that's good, inspiring, funny, scary or just damn good writing?

I recently read The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven, which isn't strictly a WWII memoir but does cover his time in the commandos and intelligence. It's also laugh out loud funny and surprisingly blooming good.

What say you?

I haven't read it myself but I know The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz by Denis Avey has had some good reviews.

Not sure what you've read or not, but these are good:

"Naples 44" by Norman Lewis.
"Goodbye, Darkness" by William Manchester
"With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge

To expand beyond WWII, I could also suggest:
"Storm of Steel" by Ernst Junger (WWI) and "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien (Vietnam).

Thanks Jo and Scott will check 'em out and add to the reading pile! A non-combatant view of war that is a very compelling read is War Junkie by Jon Steele. TV cameraman's story, I couldn't put it down.

:)

I love "A Helmet for My Pillow" by Robert Leckie. It's funny, charming and heartbreaking.

Definitely Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, which is a biography. Louie's memoir is Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II. Unbroken is an amazing story.

I have read many personal narratives over the years. With the Old Breed was very good. I read Helmut for my Pillow so long ago that I do not remember it.

Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles was really good. It was the journal of a B-17 co-pilot. He was killed in the war and it was published after. As I read it I remember thinking that that could have been me. He sounded just like a regular guy.

I will check the specific names and titles of others.

I love some of these recommendations - in particular, "A Helmet for My Pillow" and "With the Old Breed" were fantastic. "Unbroken" is an incredible story, but I thought it spent a bit too much time on his early life and - if it's possible with such a fascinating story line - began to drag. I had the chance to read a lot of these books while researching my own book, "My Grandfather's War."

It's the true story of my grandfather's capture at the Battle of the Bulge, imprisonment in a Nazi POW camp, and liberation by Patton's tanks. After returning home, he didn't mention his time in World War II for more than 50 years, until after he had open-heart surgery and came to live with me in the last months of his life. I hope you'll check it out, and I look forward to any other good recommendations that you have!
My Grandfather's War: A Young Man's Lessons from the Greatest Generation

This is a different take on World War II, a recreation of my German grandfather's life and activism to rebuild Germany: Opa Nobody (University of Nebraska Press) . This story is interwoven with my own questions about being active in one's community and raising a family.

Thanks for reading!
All the best,
Sonya Huber

I have to throw out Brave Men and Here is Your War by Ernie Pyle as very strong recomendations. It hits on basically everything you requested in a recomendation.

Pyle captured the everyday life of the avergae soldier in a way that I have not found before or since.

He has a quick tongue-in-cheek wit that is sprinkled throughout his books as he relates the tales of many soldiers and his personal expirience as a war correspondant.

It's a shame that he was killed shortly after arriving in the Pacific, his take on the PTO would have been extrodinary.

Frank wrote: "What do you recommend that's good, inspiring, funny, scary or just damn good writing?

I recently read The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven, which isn't strictly a WWII memoir but does cover his tim..."

Devil At My Heels by Louis Zamperini. He was an Olympian and former Japanese POW. :P :P He was absolutely amazing!!

I'm unsure whether 'Young, Brave and Beautiful, The Missions of Special Operations Executive Agent, Lieutenant Violette Szabo' by her daughter, Tania Szabo is classed as a 'memoir' but I see it as a posthumous memoir following her execution in Ravensbruck concentration camp.
The story puts to shame the diluted film version of 'Carve her Name with Pride'. Though the book is riveting, sad and enlightening, I would only criticise the editing which requires improvement, even though it appears to be written as Tania tells it. However, it does expose some of the weaknesses of SOE in protecting its agents.
I would also recommend The Next Moon by André Hue, an SOE agent parachuted behind enemy lines in wartime France.

As Eagles Screamed by Donald Burgette is excellent. Mr. Burgette was with the 101st Airborne and parachuted into Normandy the night before D-Day. I don't often read a book twice but this one I did and I may read it again. I picked it up the second time just to thumb through it and I couldn't put it down again.

He has at least 3 other books that I have read on the campaigns he participated in. They are all excellent first hand accounts.

Another good read is James Gavin's book "On to Berlin". Gavin was a General in the 82nd Airborne. I enjoyed it a lot.

If you are interested in the German side "The Forgotten Soldier" is good. "A Stanger to Myself" is very interesting. It is the diary of a German soldier on the Eastern front who did not survive the war. They are not sure what happened to him.

Thanks for the new recommendations, I will check these out.

Primo Levi, is by far the best writer regarding Auswitz.

James Hornfischer's "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" is one I'll always recommend--hands down the best book on naval warfare in World War II I've read.

If you want something really big and filling, pick up "The Greatest War" by Gerald Astor--about 1000 pages of primarily personal accounts of Americans in World War II.

Although written in novelistic form, a recent book of mine that is currently featured as a GR giveaway is a true memoir. As early readers put it, the book is "unflinching, stark and painfully compelling," "a psychological tour de force," "a haunting chronicle of war and its aftermath," and "a riveting child's-eye account of growing up in Germany under the Nazis and then the Russians; laced with extraordinary photos and posters from those times, it combines memory with testimony."

Perhaps you would like MY NAME WAS FIVE: A Novel of the Second World War.

This month, I am giving away 10 free copies of the paperback version at GR. You can read much more about it at my GR blog or view sample chapters by visiting www.mynamewasfive.com.

I was only a child during WW II, but after my U.S. Army service as a 1955 draftee I was privileged to become a friend of Gen. Oscar Koch, living in retirement in my town. Gen. Koch served nearly 40 years in the Army and spent WW II as intelligence chief for Gen. George S. Patton Jr. He was arguably the best intelligence officer in U.S. Army history.

I was a journalist and Gen. Koch invited me to collaborate on a book on his experiences in combat intelligence. That book, "G-2: Intelligence for Patton," was published in 1971 and still is in print. It helped to earn for Oscar Koch some of the acclaim he deserved.

But there was so much more to this man. I still miss him to this day. My 10th book, published in March, is "Patton's Oracle: Gen. Oscar Koch, as I Knew Him." It is a personal memoir about my friendship and work with Gen. Koch and my effort to bring the full story of his sterling intelligence work to light. He is my personal hero. I invite you to consider his amazing story.

Hi all,

Would definitely recommend the brilliant Bomb Girls by Jacky Hyams. Not technically a single memoir, as it spans loads of interviews with former "bomb girls" working in UK munitions factories during WWII. I thought it was incredibly informative and it was written in a wonderful, sensitive manner.

I feel that the munitions side of history/memoirs is sometimes overlooked, so I was very glad to get the chance to read something that was so great.

The best memoir (labeled a novel for assumed legal issues) about WWII I have read, so far, is Heinz Kohler's "My Name Was Five".

By the way, I just noticed that Heinz Kohler is a member of this group.

Hi, everybody,

I just joined this group and was looking for an introductory thread but could not find one.

So I'll say hi in this discussion. I was born in Germany, in 1939. Please read my Goodreads profile. My early-childhood memoir, titled "Time Travel into Babyhood" is in the process of being published. It tells about about Hitler's Germany from the frog's perspective.

Is this group still alive?

I'm teaching 9th grade English, and I will be teaching A Separate Peace in the fall. I want to pair it with another text - a memoir - that details the Japanese view of the war.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you so much!
Katie

I haven't read either one, but you can try So Sad to Fall in Battle or Japan At War. The latter is fairly long (400+ pages), so I'm not sure if that will work for a 9th grade English class. Maybe just parts? There is also Reaping the Whirlwind which tells about World War II from both the German and Japanese sides, so perhaps half of that book would work for you.

When it comes to personal memoirs, there is Japanese Destroyer Captain and Samurai.

Oh Katie, I do not know how to help with a Japanese view of the war, but kids of that age really enjoy my book which is an eye witness report of watching the bombing of Pearl Harbor as it was seen by a 12 year old. It is all true and touches young teen agers as it is about a boy almost the same age as they are. It is called "From Shaniko to Pearl Harbor". It is available on Amazon or direct from me.

Bob, I'll be reading it, even if I can't use it. Maybe we will change our focus!

A Higher Call by Adam Makos

I have put up a web site if any of you are interested in seeing my Dad's letters to Mom written from July 1944 to January 1946. They provide a wonderful account of his walk through the snow fighting in WWII.


HeWroteHerEveryDay.com

I recently read A Lucky Child and it was fantastic. Thomas Buergenthal's account of his time in Auschwitz, and many other concentration camps, was truly eye opening. Currently I am reading The Bedford Boys: One small town's D-Day sacrifice which tells the story of the boys of Bedford Virginia and how most all of them died on D-Day as told by the few survivors and family members.

I am really enjoying The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Stud Terkel. Lots of first hand accounts of people who were touched by the war, both soldiers and civilians.

Im currently reading We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers. First hand accounts of life before, during, and after the war as told by the survivors that were part of Easy Co., the 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. A fantastic read.