Best Ww2 Autobiographies?

What are the best WW2 autobiographies? I have 3 that I'd recommend, although I haven't read many:

1) Going Solo - Roald Dahl
It's short but incredibly funny, gripping and immediate. Roald Dahl worked for Shell in Egypt and when war broke out became a fighter pilot (eventually, after a dramatic crash!).

2) Nicht alle waren Mörder (Not all were murderers) - Michael Degen
In German (so I haven't finished it yet!) Jewish author describes his memories of hiding with his mother in Berlin and the people that helped them, including a young SS officer. Very thought provoking.

3) The Pianist -Wladislaw Szpilman
Heartbreaking but matter of fact. Life in the Warsaw Ghetto - not often depicted. Was made into the Oscar winning film by Roman Polanski.

Anyone else read any other good ones?

 

Not the best, but definitely a good one:
[/

 

I have piles of autobiographies in the bibliography of my web page. Too many to count.

Surviving Bataan and Beyond is a good one...the memoir of a US Army officer in Bataan.

I just got Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, the memoir of a Hong Kong cop held POW in Stanley Camp.

Return to Auschwitz by Kitty Hart, who survived to show the place to her son as an adult, is a shocker.

Airey Neave's three books: They Have Their Exits, Saturday at MI 9, and Nuremberg, are very gripping. He escaped from Colditz, then worked on the MI 9 escape operations, the Pegasus escapes from Arnhem, and served the indictments on the top war criminals at Nuremberg. His death to an IRA bomb in 1979 was a great loss.

Gustav Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary is a mix of history and psychology, the inner thoughts of the top Nazi war criminals.

Flamethrower by Andrew Wilson is a third-person account of a guy who commanded a Crocodile tank.

A lot of autobiographies are self-serving....Tedder's, for example. Truman's was hosed down by his "ghostwriters." Wainwright's was mostly the work of his ghost, Bob Considine, but conveys the flavor of the man. Montgomery's book got him in most of his trouble. Ike tried to avoid offending anybody. Harry Butcher violated a lot of confidences. Bradley's first book is better than his second in some ways. He died before the second one came out, so it's hard to know how much of it is his and how much is his ghost's. Raeder's memoirs are a ghost-written whitewash. Doenitz avoids saying anything about Nuremberg and Spandau. He kind of bellows at you. Hoess reads like a dead man walking, which he was. Churchill's is great stuff, of course. Henry Pu-Yi's is ghostwritten and nearly worthless.

 

The Big Show by Pierre Closterman, one of the best books ever written about serving in the Raf

Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey, one of the first books to come out published in 1941/42, & still one of the best

Moonless night by Jimmy James, a riveting story by one of the great escapers, who made 12 escapes during the war

Between silk & cyanide by Leo Marks, by SOE codemaster, really brings the spirit of the time to life, as well as the agents who he briefied!!

Rod

 

I have to throw With the Old Breed by EB Sledge into the ring. The follow up, China Marine is also worth reading.

Also really liked Bradley's A Soldiers Story.

 

The memoires of Hans von Luck and of George G. Blackburn are the best I have ever read.

"Panzer Commander : The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck"

"Where the all are the guns?"
"The guns of normandy"
"The guns of victory"

The first one is a captivating account of von Luck's career in the wehrmacht and his post-war captivity in Russia. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russion front, the final homeland defense, von Luck has seen it all. He is the complete opposite of the "evil german" prejudice, very intelligent and polyglot and fought with honor and chivalry. This book is a must read for all WW2 buffs.

Blackburn's memoires come in a trilogy. The first one covers his years of training to become an artillery FOO (forward observation officer). I own but still havent read that one because they publied the second and the third before the first one as the publisher tought a book on artillery training wouldnt sell well.
The second one covers the normandy campain, the grueling battles from D-Day onward and the day to day life on the front as a FOO.
The third one describes the liberation of belgium and holland, antwerp and the murderous battles for the scheldt estuary. The complete trilogy is written in the first person, it is completly immersive. As a FOO, he had a clear picture of the big picture and he describes in details battles and accounts from his fellow infantry men. It gives a superb insight on just how formidable was the allied's artillery organization. A single FOO could have up to 216 25pounders firing on a single map reference in about 3 minutes of his radio call. The firepower was such that german soldiers believed allies had a magazine fed automatic 25pounder. Im a grown man and this trilogy gave me a few nightmares.

 

Hi

The best WW2 book I have in my collection is called "With the Jocks" by Peter White he was a Lt. in the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and due to his habit as a boy of keeping a diary, he wrote an almost daily journal of his Regiment's advance into Germany.
The part I found very sad was the friendly fire action in which several of his men were killed.


MaryFM

 

Another good one I am reading, Harold Bond's "Return to Cassino." An American infantry lieutenant at First Cassino, and his return there 20 years later with his family. There's a bit at the start, where he meets a cowardly officer going on the way back down to face court-martial for desertion -- gripping stuff.

 

Got to second the above for "With the Jocks" excellent.
In a similiar vain- 18 Platoon by Syndey Jary- a platoon commander with the Somerset Light Infantry in North West Europe.
Even the Brave Falter by E D Smith- a platoon commander with the Gurkhas in Italy and finally "The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby by Alex Bowlby- again Italy but from a private soldiers/riflemans view.
Ali

 

Just thought on a couple more:

The Jungle in Neutral by Spencer Chapman- guerilla warfare in the Malayan Jungle
Quartered Safe out here by George MacDonald Fraser (of Flashman and Octopussy fame) Burma campaign
Lion Rampant by Robert Woolcoombe- another NW Europe experience
By Tank into Normandy by Stuart Hills.


Would reccommend all of the above depending on your interest.
Ali

 

My Recommendation are four books by same author, Donald Burgett

1. Currahee
2. Road to Arnhem
3. Seven Roads to Hell
4. Beyond the Rhine

These IMHO are great personal stories of one man's journey from boot camp across Europe during WW2.

Blacksheep

 

maybe Patton!!!!

 

Man, I need to get to the library!

 

Von Luck's version of Normandy has been questioned by other German veterans who have accused him of embellishing the truth. I was told at a recent seminar that some former panzer officers would not go on the same British Army battlefield tours as him in the 1970's. I suppose a similar thing is true of all personal accounts, as they are inevitably heavily slanted and other veterans are likely to take issue with them. Supposedly a lot of 101st airborne veterans didn't like the original 'Band of Brothers' book. My late father maintained that a first-hand account of his battalion in Burma was largely a work of the author's imagination.
Can I recommend:
'Accidental Warrior' by Geoffrey Picot (about a mortar platoon officer in Normandy)
'Tank' by Ken Tout (He wrote a number of follow-ups)
'Lancaster Target' by Jack Currie
'The Monastery' by Fred Majdalaney (Company Commander in 2nd Lanacashire Fusiliers at Monte Cassino)

 

"To Hell and Back" by Audie L. Murphy. Much better than the film, and not self serving in the least. Audie's story is very fatalistic and matter of fact.

"On to Berlin" by James Gavin. Not really an autobiography, but good nevertheless. A good account of the 82nd Airborne, who, by the way, did WAY more than the 101st. A good combination of small unit and "big picture" events.

 

To add a couple more for you,'A Winged Life' the Autobiography of David Beaty.is a great read..'Scramble' by Mel Rolfe.... and as mentioned earlier, 'Jack Currie's' Lancaster Target.
cheers. from maurie ex-R.A.F.(now in Australia.) B)

 

It is difficult to disagree with what Kiwiwriter has written about the autobiographies of some of the higher commanders. What I find interesting is that nobody has mentioned the best autobiography written by any of the high commanders namely Slim's Defeat into Victory. An excellent book. And I have read a few

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp

 

I just plain forgot about "Defeat Into Victory."

I write these notes at work between assignments, and I don't have my 8,000 books in front of me.

Sorry.

 

I just plain forgot about "Defeat Into Victory."

I write these notes at work between assignments, and I don't have my 8,000 books in front of me.

Sorry.

That was Defeat into Victory by Field Marshall Slim. he also wrote *unofficial History" which although not about WW2 is still a very good read.

 

I have regularly banged on about 'Defeat Into Victory' on earlier, similar threads. It is profitable to read it in conjunction with Louis Allen's 'Burma: The Longest War', the first work in English to deal in detail with the Japanese.