WiF Related Books

You could mail me or go to my main World in Flames page.

Here's a great book to add to the 10 Best WiF Must Have list

The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938-1939: The Path to Ruin by Williamson Murray (NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984). He analyzes the changes in the balance of power that permitted Hitler to win in France in 1940. Backed by solid data and original thinking. An eye-opening book!

The rest of my list (in no particular order) would be:

Codeword Barbarossa by Barton Whaley (MA: MIT Press, 1974). [Looks at the whole concept of strategic surprise.]

Oil & War: How the Deadly Struggle for Fuel in WWII Meant Victory or Defeat by Robert Goralski and Russell W. Freeburg (NY:William Morrow and Co., 1987)

Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton by Martin Van Crevald. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).

The Second World War by John Keegan (NY: Viking, 1989).

A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994).

The Origins of the Second World War by AJP Taylor (NY:Atheneum, 1961).

The Great Crusade: A New Complete History of the Second World War by H.P. Willmott (NY: The Free Press, 1989)

Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis (NY: Viking, 1990).

The German Army 1933-1945 by Matthew Cooper (MI: Scarborough House, 1978).

I limited myself to books on strategic topics. There are lots of fantastic books on the tactical aspects of the war and on particular battles ( Enemy At the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad by William Craig is one of my favorites).

From: James Perry (j.perry14@genie.geis.com)

Anyway, I would accept Sogard's nomination of Gerhard Weinberg's A World At Arms as the single best one-volume history of WW2. This book is worth having for the bibliography alone; I went and bought about twenty books I found in Weinberg's biblio, plus many other journal articles!

Next, I think Millett and Murray's Military Effectiveness series is ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSIBLE for WiF. This is a three volume series; the first examines WW1, the second the interwar years, and the third WW2 (so there you have FA, DOD, and WiF!) For the period in question, each volume examines the strategic, operational, and tactical effectiveness of each of the major powers (Japan, US, Britain, France, USSR, Germany, Italy, only China gets left out). I just can't recommend this series highly enough! (I'm going to cheat and call a trilogy "one book"...)

What did Adolf want? After all, he's the guy in the driver's seat from 1933 to (say) 1943! Here you have to distinguish between works on Hitler himself (Joachim Fest is best) and those on the war (ie useful for WiF), and here I'd have to go with Norman Rich's Hitler's War Aims. The state of research has advanced somewhat since Rich published (1973), but Weinberg pretty much covers everything that Rich doesn't.

The British perspective on WW2 is best presented by Field Marshal Alanbrooke's War Diaries, published by Arthur Bryant as The Turn of the Tide and Triumph in the West. (It's this or read Churchill's 6 volume history of the war.) Although much new material has since emerged (most notably about the impact of Ultra) these works remain relevant, even fundamental. I would also encourage everyone to read British Intelligence in the Second World War, especially Volume III, which covers the Western Front from 1943-45.

It's hardest of all to pick a SINGLE book on the US role in WW2; there are many good books on specific battles and campaigns, but no single satisfactory overview. (Would you guys be mad if I recommended the US Army in WW2 series, it's only something like 100 volumes?) Anyway, if pressed for an answer, I would say Robert Dallek's FDR and American Foreign Policy 1932-1945, which at least addresses all the strategic issues.

By far the best works on the Eastern Front are John Erickson's The Road to Stalingrad (June 1941-December 1942) and The Road to Berlin (January 1943-May 1945); these present the war in the East from the Soviet perspective. Erickson's account of the diplomatic interaction between the Big Three is a bit weak, but for WiF, who cares; more importantly, Erickson really knows his Red Army and its campaigns!

It's tough to pick one book on the Pacific War, as most of them start in December 1941 (as if nothing happened in China from 1931-41!) However, the best single work on the Pacific War from 1941-45 is probably Ronald Spector's Eagle Against the Sun. Spector is also weak on politics and diplomacy, but he's good for WiF because he describes the campaigns very well.

Economics is a disgusting subject, but unfortunately you can't understand WW2 (or WiF production) without it. The single best book on this would be Alan Milward's War, Economy, and Society. However, I would strongly encourage every WiFer to read Mark Harrison's "Resource Mobilization for WW2: the USA, UK, USSR, and Germany 1938-1945" in Economic History Review, vol 41, 1988. This is an outstanding article that will give you new insights and ideas on the production system.

From: Keith Pardue (pardue@math.toronto.edu)

D. C. Watt, How War Came

I mentioned this book once before. It's a diplomatic history of Europe in the last year before the war. Excellent narrative, and lots of detail on the perspectives of minor countries. It's much more convincing than Taylor's book. But, some people will find it to be a little easy on Chamberlin, and British diplomats in general.

Samuel Elliot Morison, US Naval Operations in the Second World War

This 15 volume monster also has an abridged form, The Two Ocean War. Morison is a very good writer and gives lots and lots of detail on his subject. My only complaint is that he is occasionally jingoistic, especially about the Japanese, and some of his moral interpretations are a little jarring to me. I read Volume I just before my last WIF game with Lerch, and we wrote lots more naval house rules as a result. (I don't have them, and they're probably rendered obsolete by SiF. Do aircraft have any affect on submarine operations in SIF? I hope so.)

I. S. O. Playfair, et. al. The Mediterranean and the Middle East

This is part of the UK official history and has six volumes in all. I only read the first three and a half; then Playfair got sick and I found that I missed my old friend. The part I read deals with the campaigns in North Africa, up to Torch, Greece, Ethiopia, Syria, Iraq and Iran, as well as the naval campaign. I think it also covers Dakar. The rest deals with Torch and the campaigns in Sicily and Italy. This is most definitely an official history. Readers may find criticism of British command and foreign policy to be a little muted. But, at least one can see why certain controversial decisions, such as the British intervention in Greece, were plausible. He gives the most balanced treatment of the Italian army and command in North Africa that I've seen anywhere. Also, if you want to see the "Territorial" units in action, read about the dramatic contributions of the Nigerian and Gold Coast units in the Ethiopian campaign.

From: Maurice Leutenegger (maleuten@students.wisc.edu)

B.H. Liddell Hart, The Second World War

To me, Liddell Hart's work is authoritative, considering the extent to which his ideas were adopted by the Germans.

Alan Clark, Barbarossa

All contents of these pages Copyright 1997 by David H. Thornley, unless explicitly attributed to somebody else.