WW2 book recommendation

[SKC]

Just finished reading "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos last night. What an incredible story. (The book was released a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled onto it.)

[from Amazon]
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber's tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler-and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."

The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as "top secret." It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."

If you enjoy true WW2 stories, I highly recommend it.

Any other WW2 favorite reads?

A Higher Call

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

Sounds like a great book.

I really loved this book. I can't imagine a better single-volume history of WWII:

The Storm of War

 

[OSUFanbigtime]

Wild Blue Yonder or something like that by Stephen Ambrose. It's about bomber pilots.

 

[SKC]

Originally posted by OSUFanbigtime:
Wild Blue Yonder or something like that by Stephen Ambrose. It's about bomber pilots.

The Wild Blue. Looks like a good one.

 

[JimmyBob]

Killing Patton is a must read. After that, try these tomes:

D-Day - Stephen Ambrose (1994)

The Second World War - John Keegan (1989)

 

[SKC]

Originally posted by JimmyBob:
Killing Patton is a must read. After that, try these tomes:

D-Day - Stephen Ambrose (1994)

The Second World War - John Keegan (1989)

JB, Killing Patton is on my shelf and next in line to read.

Thanks for the other suggestions.

 

[The Duke]

I just got Killing Patton for Christmas.

Others I've enjoyed over the years:
- Shattered Sword (about Midway)
- Unbroken
- Forgotten Soldier (eastern front, required reading at the academies)
- At Dawn We Slept (Pearl Harbor)
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[GreenEggPoke]

Flags of our Fathers was an eye opener for me.

 

[frankeaton]

WEB Griffin, I have been reading his books for 30 years

he starts with the Army, a book on the LT's the Captain, The Majors etc

then he get into the Philidelphia PD

always a rich guy that get any women he wants

 

[OSUFanbigtime]

Wild Blue Yonder or something like that by Stephen Ambrose. It's about bomber pilots.

One of the best books that I have ever read

 

[Anodyne]

Just finished reading "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos last night. What an incredible story. (The book was released a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled onto it.)

[from Amazon]
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber's tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler-and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."

The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as "top secret." It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."

If you enjoy true WW2 stories, I highly recommend it.

Any other WW2 favorite reads?

A Higher Call

When random people learn I'm a history perfesser, they often feel compelled to tell me about the most recent history book they read. It's one of my favorite things about the line of work. My optometrist was telling me about this book today, as he was running me through the old 'one. two. or one. two, again, or...one' routine. He said he's not a history buff by any means, but loved the book so much that he's buying some other WWII books to read now.

 

[SKC]

No clue how I made it this far without ever reading it, but zipped through "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. It just astounds me what that generation lived through.

Kids just out of HS today are worried about things like what new iDevice they'll get or if they're getting enough exposure on social media. Kids in the 40s were concerned about whether their plane would make it back to base that day or if the next step they take would be their last thanks to a mine. I can't even process what it would have been like to live in that era.

 

[SKC]

Another great one is, "Until We Meet Again" by Michael Korenblit. It's about his parents, Meyer and Manya and their experiences beginning in Poland at the beginning of the war, through the concentration camps, then to Ponca City (they ran the Dixie Dog for years). Another incredible story.

 

[ctdub]

Just finished reading "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos last night. What an incredible story. (The book was released a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled onto it.)

[from Amazon]
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber's tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler-and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."

The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as "top secret." It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."

If you enjoy true WW2 stories, I highly recommend it.

Any other WW2 favorite reads?

A Higher Call

Read this a couple months ago. Good book.

 

[Marshal Jim Duncan]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0143126830/amazon0156-20/

 

[pokes r us]

Just finished reading "A Higher Call" by Adam Makos last night. What an incredible story. (The book was released a couple of years ago, but I just stumbled onto it.)

[from Amazon]
"December, 1943: A badly damaged American bomber struggles to fly over wartime Germany. At the controls is twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant Charlie Brown. Half his crew lay wounded or dead on this, their first mission. Suddenly, a Messerschmitt fighter pulls up on the bomber's tail. The pilot is German ace Franz Stigler-and he can destroy the young American crew with the squeeze of a trigger...

What happened next would defy imagination and later be called "the most incredible encounter between enemies in World War II."

The U.S. 8th Air Force would later classify what happened between them as "top secret." It was an act that Franz could never mention for fear of facing a firing squad. It was the encounter that would haunt both Charlie and Franz for forty years until, as old men, they would search the world for each other, a last mission that could change their lives forever."

If you enjoy true WW2 stories, I highly recommend it.

Any other WW2 favorite reads?

A Higher Call

The best history of World War II is Churchill's six volume set. Pack a lunch because it is by no means a quick read.

 

[CarrolltonPoke]

Winston Groom's "1942: The Year that Tried Men's Souls" is a great book that is about 10 years old. Even better is "A Storm in Flanders" but it is about WWI.