THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion

I have read or own a reasonable selection of biographies for the major players for the British, Commonwealth and US senior (Army & Division) commanders of the Second World War.

I would like to use the expertise and knowledge on this forum to get together a list of books for those lesser known divisional commanders and importantly the brigade commanders of infantry and armoured units, plus their supporting arms and corps (engineers, artillery, ordnance, medics etc).

It is these two levels of command that really effect the Army commanders' strategy and tactics, and yet for many, often part of well known formations, there is seemingly little written about these men.

Here's a good example Brigadier Bryan Fowler Commander Royal Artillery 1st Armd Div in North Africa, who was awarded a D.S.O for his services in 1942 (he had also represented GB at the 1936 Olympics in Polo).

I appreciate many of the people in these positions may have no autobiography/biography but any help gratefully received in tipping me off for books I can read.

Hi Geevee, one book that I read some time back that I enjoyed and covered a US commander that I have heard a fair bit about in general histories but never a full length biography was:

by Robert A. Miller

Aussie Rick thank you for starting the bibliograpy. Cota's is a name I too have seen but not read anything in detail. It is now on my TBR :)

Just had a look to see the availability thru the second hand market and copies are very expensive so I shall have to bide my time...

Fingers crossed a copy turns up soon :)

One that I have not read, but have heard great things about and is considered a classic WW2 memoir

Steve wrote: "One that I have not read, but have heard great things about and is considered a classic WW2 memoir "

Steve thanks - I shall look out for this too. I've not read by Charles B. MacDonald (No photo) either.

He is one of the offical US Army historians and the "Green Books" are superb volumes. He wrote

and The Siegfried Line Campaign (no cover or link) by Charles B. MacDonald (no photo) which I highly recommend.

Company Commander is mandatory for any halfway decent WW II library.

Steve---both of the MacDonalds' works mentioned above are excellent--get em' and read em'...that is all.

From an Australian perspective then one of our finest battle commanders of WW2 was Leslie Morshead. The latest biography is:

by David Coombes

Here is another decent book on one of America's more controversial commanders during WW2:

by Martin Blumenson

Hey Rick...What do you recommend from an Aussie perspective..How about the best WW2 from the Australlian view...i tend to lean towards oral history or Biography works--thanks

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "From an Australian perspective then one of our finest battle commanders of WW2 was Leslie Morshead. The latest biography is:

by [autho..."

Thanks Aussie Rick for both of these.

I found this book today about Brigadier General Oscar Koch. Looks like a good read

Chrissy wrote: "I found this book today about Brigadier General Oscar Koch. Looks like a good read "

Chrissy thanks - as you say it looks good and I've added it to my TBR. If you get around to reading it before me, which is highly likely given my TBR list, I'd be interested in your views.

Geevee wrote: "Chrissy wrote: "I found this book today about Brigadier General Oscar Koch. Looks like a good read "

Chrissy thanks - as you..."

I assure you my TBR list is just as daunting as yours lol. However, I will hopefully find some money and time sometime next year for it. I'll let you know how it is when I do eventually read it :)

I recently ordered a copy of this book after reading a book about Ike, Bradley & Patton and their relationship during WW2. I realised that my knowledge of Bradley was limited so hopefully this book will fix that.

by Jim DeFelice
Description:
He was known as “the G.I. General”— humble, self-effacing, hard-working, reflecting the small-town virtues of the America whose uniform he wore. But those very virtues have led historians to neglect General Omar Bradley—until now. Bestselling author Jim DeFelice, in this, the first-ever in-depth biography of America’s last five-star general, tells Bradley’s full story, and argues that the neglected G.I. General did more than any other to defeat Hitler in World War II.

While General George S. Patton has garnered much of the glory, General Dwight David Eisenhower has claimed much of the world’s respect, and British General Bernard Montgomery has kept the Union Jack flying, as DeFelice proves, it was the unassuming Bradley who actually developed the strategy and the tactics that won the war in Europe. Meticulously researched, using previously untapped documents and unpublished diaries and notes, Omar Bradley: General at War reveals:

* Why Bradley, not Patton, deserves most of the credit for America’s victories in North Africa

* How Bradley—first Patton’s subordinate, then his superior—was one of Patton’s great defenders, while also recognizing his weaknesses, and tried to cover up the infamous slapping incident

* How Eisenhower panicked—when Bradley didn’t—during the early stages of the Battle of the Bulge, delaying an American counterattack that could have saved thousands of lives

* Why Bradley was a radical innovator in the use of combined air, armor, and infantry power

* How Bradley, contrary to those who like to portray him as a staid counterpart to Patton, was one of the most ardent practitioners of fast-moving offensives

* Why Bradley expected the Germans might use radiological weapons at Normandy

Provocative, thorough, original, Jim DeFelice’s Omar Bradley: General at War deserves a place on the shelf of every reader of World War II history.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I recently ordered a copy of this book after reading a book about Ike, Bradley & Patton and their relationship during WW2. I realised that my knowledge of Bradley was limited so hopefully this book..."

Another good book is his autobiograhy with Clay Blair



Bradley has alway been one of my personal heros. I have a first edition of this one sitting on my bookshelf.

Very nice!

This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France and Germany, 1944-45
by Russell F. Weigley

(looks like there may be two volumes to this book)

Looks like a very interesting book Tom, and pretty massive by the sounds of it as well! I have read one book by this author (The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo) and found it to be an excellent read.

This book is going to be a must read for me, it just arrived today and it looks pretty damn good:


by Paul Freyberg
Description:
Bernard Freyberg, V.C. is a richly enthralling portrait of an outstanding and versatile personality who is also the most decorated soldier in the British army. It will be of special interest to all concerned with the two world wars, while its broad frame of reference will delight readers who enjoy outstanding biographies.

Just came across this book which sounds interesting but appears to have a heftly price tage:


by William C. Sylvan
Description:
During World War II, U.S. Army generals often maintained diaries of their activities and the day-to-day operations of their command. These diaries have proven to be invaluable historical resources for World War II scholars and enthusiasts alike. Until now, one of the most historically significant of these diaries, the one kept for General Courtney H. Hodges of the First U.S. Army, has not been widely available to the public. Maintained by two of Hodges's aides, Major William C. Sylvan and Captain Francis G. Smith Jr., this unique military journal offers a vivid, firsthand account detailing the actions, decisions, and daily activities of General Hodges and the First Army throughout the war. The diary opens on June 2, 1944, as Hodges and the First Army prepare for the Allied invasion of France. In the weeks and months that follow, the diary highlights the crucial role that Hodges's often undervalued command -- the first to cross the German border, the first to cross the Rhine, the first to close to the Elbe -- played in the Allied operations in northwest Europe. The diary recounts the First Army's involvement in the fight for France, the Siegfried Line campaign, the Battle of the Bulge, the drive to the Roer River, and the crossing of the Rhine, following Hodges and his men through savage European combat until the German surrender in May 1945. Popularly referred to as the "Sylvan Diary," after its primary writer, the diary has previously been available only to military historians and researchers, who were permitted to use it at only the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, the U.S. Army Center for Military History, or the U.S. Army Military History Institute. Retired U.S. Army historian John T. Greenwood has now edited this text in its entirety and added a biography of General Hodges as well as extensive notes that clarify the diary's historical details. Normandy to Victory provides military history enthusiasts with valuable insights into the thoughts and actions of a leading American commander whose army played a crucial role in the Allied successes of World War II.

This title may also cover some unknown and also the better known US commanders of WW2, and put their command practices into perspective:

by Michael R. Matheny
Description:
Military commanders turn tactics into strategic victory by means of operational art, the knowledge and creative imagination commanders and staff employ in designing, synchronizing, and conducting battles and major operations to achieve strategic goals. Until now, historians of military theory have generally agreed that modern operational art developed between the first and second world wars, not in the United States but in Germany and the Soviet Union, whose armies were supposedly the innovators and greatest practitioners of operational art. Some have even claimed that U.S. forces struggled in World War II because their commanders had no systematic understanding of operational art.

Michael R. Matheny believes previous studies have not appreciated the evolution of U.S. military thinking at the operational level. Although they may rightly point to the U.S. Army s failure to modernize or develop a sophisticated combined arms doctrine during the interwar years, they focus too much on technology or tactical doctrine. In his revealing account, Matheny shows that it was at the operational level, particularly in mounting joint and combined operations, that senior American commanders excelled and laid a foundation for their country s victory in World War II.

Matheny draws on archival materials from military educational institutions, planning documents, and operational records of World War II campaigns. Examining in detail the development of American operational art as land, sea, and air power matured in the twentieth century, he shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, U.S. war colleges educated and trained commanders during the interwar years specifically for the operational art they employed in World War II.

After 1945, in the face of nuclear warfare, the American military largely abandoned operational art. But since the Vietnam War, U.S. commanders have found operational art increasingly important as they pursue modern global and expeditionary warfare requiring coordination among multiple service branches and the forces of allied countries.

My thanks to Aussie Rick for sight of this which is published 1st Feb 2013:

by Roger Broad

Description:
Britain's great battlefield generals of the Second World War like Montgomery and Slim would have failed had not General Sir Ronald Adam been appointed Adjutant-General in 1941. As the army's second most senior officer, he was responsible for providing the man- and womanpower for battle. He revolutionised recruitment practices and introduced scientific selection procedures to find the officers, NCOs and technicians that a modern army needed. Adam also recognised that soldiers needed to believe in the cause they were fighting for. This too led to controversy when the soldiers began to debate political issues about post-war Britain. Did Adam's espousal of such discussion groups lead to the Labour landslide in 1945? How did this career soldier of conventional background, when given the authority, come to tread on so many toes, kick so many shins and break up so much of the War Office's most revered items of mental and organisational furniture? This book reveals the true story of a Modern Major-General.

Here is a new title due out in a few months (August) that I am sure will interest a number of the groups members:

by Russell Miller
Description:
In 2011 the National Army Museum conducted a poll to decide who merited the title of 'Britain's Greatest General'. In the end two men shared the honour. One, predictably, was the Duke of Wellington. The other was Bill Slim. Had he been alive, Slim would have been surprised, for he was the most modest of men - a rare quality among generals. Of all the plaudits heaped on him during his life, the one he valued most was the epithet by which he was affectionately known to the troops: 'Uncle Bill'.

Born in Bristol in 1891, the son of a small-time businessman, he was commissioned as a temporary Second Lieutenant on the outbreak of the First World War. Seriously wounded twice, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, he was awarded the Military Cross in 1918. Between the wars he served in the Indian Army with the Gurkhas and began writing short stories to supplement his income.

Promotion came rapidly with the Second World War, and in March 1942 he was sent to Burma to take command of the First Burma Corps, then in full flight from the advancing Japanese. Through the force of his leadership, Slim turned disorderly panic into a controlled military withdrawal across the border into India. Two years later, having raised and trained the largest army ever assembled by Britain, Slim returned to drive the enemy out of Burma and shatter the myth of Japanese invincibility which had hamstrung Allied operations in the East for so long.

Probably the most respected and loved military leader since the Duke of Marlborough, he later became a popular and successful Governor-General of Australia in 1953, was raised to the peerage, and died in London in 1970.

This masterly biography has been written with the full cooperation of the Slim family.

Also posted in the New Release thread.

Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaigns of France ..."

I have read this book and it is a stand alone. It is a very good overall book and brings up a number of points that are good starting points for more reading. Like the manpower shortages and the things that were thought up to try and alleviate them.

Dj wrote: "Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign..."

Have you read Jean Smith's bio of Eisenhower? It is "Eisenhower in War and Peace" and an excellent example of the biographer's art.

Manray9 wrote: "Dj wrote: "Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: T..."






So I have started reading this, but set it aside to catch up on some other stuff.
D'Este is fast becoming one of my favorite WWII authors.

As far a WW II commanders are concerned, I think we Americans often neglect Royal Navy figures. I endorse:


"Cunningham" by John Winton

Looks like an excellent book, thanks for posting the details Manyray9.

Thanks Manray9 - I think many Brits would struggle to know who ABC was, which is a shame.

I'm a supporter of in my view another forgotten commander: Admiral Sir Philip Vian. His book Action This Day is not listed on GR, but he is mentioned in many books on the Med involving the RN, and later he was commander of the naval air assets of the British Pacific Fleet that supported the USA so well.

Geevee wrote: "Thanks Manray9 - I think many Brits would struggle to know who ABC was, which is a shame.

I'm a supporter of in my view another forgotten commander: Admiral Sir Philip Vian. His book Action Thi..."

Thanks. I have read Vian's book -- perhaps 5-6 years ago. I couldn't find it for purchase in the U.S., so I obtained it via inter-library loan. John Winton, author of the ABC bio, also wrote:

The Forgotten Fleet about the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet.

Thanks Manray9 I've not read this; and how apt is the title as few people in either the US or Britain probably know of this fleet and the story of its use. For me one of their operations that is little mentioned is the raid on Palembang. Had it been in Europe I am sure many books would have been written on it and about the men taking part.

This new book may interest a few members who enjoy books on combat leaders of WW2:


by Robert W Walker
Description:
Except for Douglas MacArthur, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is the most decorated soldier in American history, having earned his Congressional Medal of Honor and every other medal offered by the United States to the foot soldier for combat heroism. As a young man, he wanted to have a career in the military, but his father, President Theodore Roosevelt, discouraged this. Ted went to Harvard, and dreamed of one day following his father into the White House. Things did not go well for him politically; he had only two one-year terms in the New York State Assembly and a failed run for the New York Governorship. Other positions held in his working life included: carpet salesman, bond salesman, investment banker, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, big game hunter, Governor General of Puerto Rico, Governor General of the Phillipine Islands, and editor and VP at Doubleday Publishing Co. Yet the army was where his niche obviously lay: he served as Battalion Commander in WWI; after the Armistice, he and four other non-career officers founded The American Legion, as it exists today. After seeing combat in North Africa, Sicily and Italy (under Eisenhower) during WWII, he assisted in the preparation for D-Day. On Utah Beach in Normandy, under enemy fire for hours, Roosevelt served as assistant Division Commander of the 4th Infantry Division. His death, some weeks after D-Day, came just before he was to be promoted to Major General, an unheard-of-honor for any reserve officer.

About the Author:
Robert Wells Walker was born and raised in the small city of Florence, Alabama. After attending the local public schools, a BS degree from the University of Alabama and a two-year stint as a lieutenant in the Army preceded his admission to Law School at Emory University. After earning an LLB degree and passing both the Alabama and Georgia bar exams, he returned to Florence, where he practiced law and raised cattle for the next 36 years. Now retired from law, he still has cattle and cherishes his time spent with his children and grandson. Other pleasures include playing duplicate bridge and fishing in the beautiful Tennessee River. For this biography of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., Walker did extensive research in New York State and Texas, uncovering personal documents and photographs which are available to the public for the first time in The Namesake.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "This new book may interest a few members who enjoy books on combat leaders of WW2:


by Robert W Walker
..."

TR, Jr. was one of the last in the great American tradition of the citizen-soldier. He followed in the footsteps of Nathaniel Greene, Andrew Jackson, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Richard Taylor and his father.

I read this book last month and was not as excited about it as I thought I would be. There is not much new information in the narrative but it is still an interesting look at two men who were the ideal warriors.

by Dennis E. Showalter

Synopsis

General George S. Patton. His tongue was as sharp as the cavalry saber he once wielded, and his fury as explosive as the shells he’d ordered launched from his tank divisions. Despite his profane, posturing manner, and the sheer enthusiasm for conflict that made both his peers and the public uncomfortable, Patton’s very presence commanded respect. Had his superiors given him free rein, the U.S. Army could have claimed victory in Berlin as early as November of 1944. General Erwin Rommel. His battlefield manner was authoritative, his courage proven in the trenches of World War I when he was awarded the Blue Max. He was a front line soldier who led by example from the turrets of his Panzers. Appointed to command Adolf Hitler’s personal security detail, Rommel had nothing for contempt for the atrocities perpetrated by the Reich. His role in the Führer’s assassination attempt led to his downfall.

Except for a brief confrontation in North Africa, these two legendary titans never met in combat. Patton and Rommel is the first single-volume study to deal with the parallel lives of two generals who earned not only the loyalty and admiration of their own men, but the respect of their enemies, and the enmity of the leaders they swore to obey. From the origins of their military prowess, forged on the battlefields of World War I, to their rise through the ranks, to their inevitable clashes with political authority, military historian Dennis Showalter presents a riveting portrait of two men whose battle strategies changed the face of warfare and continue to be studied in military academies around the globe.

Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris was a controversial figure, especially after his destruction of Dresden when the war was basically over. A very complex fellow.

by Robin Neillands

Synopsis

The bomber campaign against Germany is one of the most contentious of World War II. Was anything achieved by the deaths of thousands of German civilians-many of them women and children? Or were all means justified against Nazi Germany? Acclaimed military historian Robin Neillands examines every detail of the allied campaign led by British Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris: the strengths and fundamental flaws, the technical difficulties and developments and, above all, the day-to-day, night-by-night endurance of the crews flying to the limit in discomfort and danger, facing flak and enemy fire. Personal experiences of British, American, Canadian, Australian and other ally fliers play a key part in this account, along with those of German airmen and civilians. Though The Bomber War discusses Guernica and the destruction of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it concentrates on the European theater, on Germany's air war against the allies - over Warsaw, Rotterdam, London and Coventry-which led the fierce allied raids carried out against Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin and the Ruhr and-most notorious of all-the tremendous destruction of Dresden in the last months of the war. Robin Neillands also examines the complex moral issues involved in the air war, and of the case made against "Bomber" Harris. This is a timely addition to the history of conflict; the age of free-fall bombs has passed, but many veterans-on both sides-are still alive to state their case, and to tell a knew generation what their war was like.

read my book Night Fighters, with interviews from both sides. I was hit hard for my assessment of Harris.

Dj wrote: "Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign..."

This book is a classic, and Weigley was my thesis adviser at Temple University. RIP boss.

To add to Jill's post I have this book on Harris which is supposed to be fair and balanced on the man and his work during WWII: Bomber Harris: His Life and Times by Henry Probert

I've got the same book Geevee, will try and read it one day soon.

I might be wrong, but I thought that Audie Murphy was the most decorated solider of the war.


'Aussie Rick' wrote: "This new book may interest a few members who enjoy books on combat leaders of WW2:


by Robert W Walker
..."

The information wasn't all that new, but the presentation was. I found it a very enjoyable read. The compare and contrast was very nice.



Jill wrote: "I read this book last month and was not as excited about it as I thought I would be. There is not much new information in the narrative but it is still an interesting look at two men who were the i..."

I have to get my copy rebound. It is starting to pop out in sections. Very annoying.

Colin wrote: "Dj wrote: "Tom wrote: "This is supposed to be a classic , havent read it .. Yet

Eisenhower's Lieutenants: T..."

Eisenhower's Lieutenants is a good starting point, but I've moved heavily into reading the ETO over the years. I've read these two in the last year, and I liked them a lot.



This latter one covers the selection process for corps and field army commanders. Marshall worked with his theater commanders to select the talent.

This one, on the other hand, was a horrible mess.

When addressing leadership, especially when talking about the Western European Theater in 1944-45, certain decisions are always the controversy. I like the views expressed in here: .

This one has an interesting what-if, that has this wargamer looking to try out some options. It necessarily touches on personalities within the high command, since the disconnect between Eiesnhower and Devers appears to be one of several factors in the decision.

I went in a somewhat different direction.





15 Stars by Stan Weintraub.



Some of these are better than others, although I wouldn't put any of them on the level of Eisenhower's Lt's.



Lee wrote: "Eisenhower's Lieutenants is a good starting point, but I've moved heavily into reading the ETO over the years. I've read these two in the last year, and I liked them a lot.

[bookcover:Corps Comman..."

Thanks gents, a good range of recommendations to help this thread and people's reading along.

History has not treated Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival kindly due to the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese on December 8, 1941. Churchill called it the worst British capitulation of military troops in history. I have always been curious if Percival should be held fully responsibile for the British failure to hold the city......was he a weak commander or a victim of circumstances beyond his control;ie.; the military priority of moving troops and material to other theaters of war.
I found a book that might shed some light on Percival's leadership and I hope it is objective. Any other suggestions or thoughts?

by Brian Farrell

Hi Jill, I've wanted to get hold of Percival's own account entitled The War in Malaya published in 1949 for some time, which is very scarce and pricey (no record on GR as far as I can see).

Some over good books on Singapore that may give you a bit more detail on why it fell and who was responsible are these titles:

by Colin Smith

by Peter Thompson

This book offers something different for why the British lost Malaya and Singapore, the efforts of a traitor in the British forces:

(no cover) Odd Man Out: The Story Of The Singapore Traitor by Peter Elphick
Description:
Two days after the start of the 1941 invasion of Malaya, Captain Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, a New Zealander serving in the Indian Army, was caught sending secret codes to the Japanese. The authorities ordered an immediate blackout of all information on his arrest, and the secrets he betrayed were ordered to be suppressed for 100 years. This book looks at these secrets and how they enabled the Japanese to win the air war and then dominate the campaign. It also looks at the reasons behind his behaviour and what caused his guards to become his executioners.

By the same author:

by Peter Elphick
Description:
The fall of Singapore in February 1942 was the largest capitulation in British military history, and Winston Churchill's "worst disaster". This text aims to present the full story of the fall of the supposedly impregnable fortress, using documentation and interviews with survivors on both sides.