Headed for the beach? Going on vacation? Spending some quiet days away from it all? It's that time of year when many folks have an opportunity to catch up on their reading, and when newspapers and magazines recommend the latest fat, juicy fiction to pass the lazy summer hours.
   We've decided to offer our own summer reading list for students of the Second World War. Like summer fiction, these are mostly thick books but, unlike summer fiction, these are all tomes of historical substance. In picking ten great summer reads, we used two criteria. First, the book must be a serious, factual, informative study written by someone who knows the subject. Second, the quality of writing must transcend military prose, making all these titles as pleasurable to read and as hard to put down as the best beach fiction.
   It was a tough job sorting through all the candidates for this summer reading list, but in the end we came up with ten titles guaranteed to fill the bill. In every case, these are books that impart a great deal of information and do so with style. And upon finishing each of these books, we enjoyed them so much we wanted to turn back to the first page and start all over again.
   So here they are, ten great WWII books for your summer reading pleasure. But don't forget to put on your floppy hat, dark glasses, and sunscreen before losing yourself in these pages....

Balkoski, Joseph. Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy. Harrisburg: Stackpole Books, 1999. A superb account of the human face of battle

Barnett, Correlli. Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War. New York: Norton, 1991. Full of insights, fresh perspectives, and the scent of saltwater

Bidwell, Shelford. The Chindit War: Stilwell, Wingate, and the Campaign in Burma: 1944. New York: Macmillan, 1979. Penetrating and opinionated

Blair jr, Clay. Silent Victory: The US Submarine War against Japan. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975. The ultimate submarine book

D'Este, Carlo. Bitter Victory: The Battle for Sicily, 1943. New York: Dutton, 1988. A tour de force

Gamble, Bruce. The Black Sheep: The Definitive Account of Marine Fighting Squadron VMF 214. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998. Riveting and cinematic

Stewart, Richard. Sunrise at Abadan: The British and Soviet Invasion of Iran, 1941. New York: Praeger, 1988. From top-level diplomats to the lowliest sepoy

Terraine, John. A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939-1945. New York: Macmillan, 1985. The best book on the RAF. Published in the UK as The Right of the Line

Urwin, Gregory J. W. Facing Fearful Odds: The Siege of Wake Island. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. An epic, moving account

Weigley, Russell. Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981. Written with a deep understanding of military leadership

Reviewed 5 July 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Bill Stone
May not be reproduced in any form without written permission of Stone & Stone