Memoirs and personal accounts of WWII Recommendations.

by SleepswithBears7

I am looking for books written first hand by the people that fought in WWII. I have many of the popular recommendations. (Example: Helmet for my Pillow, With the Old Breed, The Forgotten Soldier, Etc.)

Though I will be happy to look into any recommendations given, I am looking for any Japanese, Soviet, Finnish, Italian, or British memoirs/personal accounts specifically.

I have started a decent collection so far with American and German books. I would like to further it to different corners of the war.

fuzzzybear

You might want to consider "The Execution of Private Slovik". Eddie was the only executed by the US Army since the American Civil War and William Bradford Huie does an excellent job of bringing an unpleasant side of war to light.

correction: he was the only person executed by the US Army for Desertion since the Civil War

There are three books written by submarine captains about their wartime experiences. "Iron Coffins" is about the German u-boats, "Pig Boats" is about Japanese I-Boats and "Clear The Bridge" is on American submarines. Each captain presents us with a frank discussion about the life and problems they experienced on board and the tactical mistakes made by their superiors. I read all three of them back to back and was amazed at the differences between how differently the three countries used their subs and treated their men.

Jon_Beveryman

For the Soviet perspective:

  • Dmitry Loza's Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks is one of my new favorite war memoirs. Loza was an officer in 46th Guards Tank Brigade, rising to the rank of 1st Battalion CO by the end of the war. In addition to describing some of the odd mundanities of commanding tanks in combat (urine from tank crews standing in the top hatch to relieve themselves on the march freezing in the turret ring and jamming it, for instance) he gives a very lucid but very professional description of the various actions he served in, at every level from the actual tactics of individual tanks in contact up to brigade-level tactics and a sketch of the operational picture. It is simultaneously interesting from the personal angle and the professional angle, and Maj. James Gebhardt's translation is quite nice.
  • Various interview excerpts in Merridale's Ivan's War and Alexeivich's Unwomanly Face of War will give you insight into individual lived experiences, both for civilians and combatants. Unwomanly Face is of course centered on women.
  • General Vasily Chuikov's Battle for Stalingrad is a fun read, though of course should be taken with some grain of salt as it is an 'official' and therefore sanctioned & censored memoir. Chuikov commanded 62nd Army during Stalingrad (which was awarded Guards status as 8th Guards Army as a result of its tenacious performance), and his account is unflinching in its depiction of urban combat. Highlights: he claims 62nd Army used more grenades in Stalingrad than it did for the rest of the war, and that one of his divisions (I think 39th Guards Rifle?) set a record in Stalingrad, for requisitioning something like 1500% of their doctrinally-assigned grenade allotment per month.
  • Marshal Zhukov's memoirs are also pretty indispensable, though very top-down and of course very 'official'. Ivan Konev's memoir of the end of the war(Year of Victory) is, in my opinion, a better read if you want a high commander's account, but it lacks Zhukov's political angle and occasional dry wit.