 | Decision in Normandy (Penguin Classics) by Carlo D'Este
Buy used from: £1.67 A detailed, balanced and downright exciting overview of the allied invasion of France
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 | The Road to Stalingrad: 1 (Cassell Military Paperbacks) by John Erickson
Buy new: £7.17 / Used from: £3.00 Hard work, but worthwhile. The definitive account of Barbarossa and after
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 | Arnhem 1944: The Airborne Battle, 17-26 September (Penguin history) by Martin Middlebrook
Buy used from: £4.79 Spell-binding allied view on the battles in and around Arnhem constructed from eye-witness accounts
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 | Engage the Enemy More Closely: Royal Navy in 2WW (Penguin Classic Military History) by Correlli Barnett
Buy used from: £22.94 Comprehensive and very readable look at naval actions in all theatres.
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 | The Right of the Line (Wordsworth Military Library) by John Terraine
Buy used from: £0.01 Like the above, but a history of the RAF from 1939-45 for beginners and those already in the know.
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 | The Rommel Papers (Da Capo Paperback) by B.H. Liddell-Hart
Buy new: £10.49 / Used from: £11.54 Rommel's genius even reached writing. Absorbing accounts of the great man's battles
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 | Alamein to Zem Zem by Keith Douglas
Buy used from: £16.98 Tragically short, this is a first-class view of the fighting in North Africa from the neglected poet
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 | Fatal Decision: Anzio and the Battle for Rome by Carlo D'Este
Buy used from: £10.74 Hunt down this out-of-print history of the allied battles up the leg of Italy. D'Este sure can write
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 | Battleship: The Loss of the "Prince of Wales" and the "Repulse" (Penguin Classic Military History) by Martin Middlebrook
Buy used from: £4.34 Buy before it disappears. Moving account of British complacency and the end of the battleship era
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 | Stalingrad by Antony Beevor
Buy used from: £0.46 Even Beevor's (apparent) disgust for the Soviet Union cannot hide the facts of one of history's great turn-arounds. Awe-inspiring
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 | Road To Berlin: Stalin's War with Germany: Volume 2: Stalin's War with Germany Vol 2 (Cassell Military Paperbacks) by John Erickson
Buy new: £7.69 / Used from: £4.00 Erickson's sequel is suitably mammoth to describe this huge theatre of war in which the Soviets turned the tide against Germany
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 | The Price of Disobedience: The Battle of the River Plate Reconsidered by Eric J. Grove
Buy used from: £39.41 New evidence reveals surprising conclusions in this analysis of one of WWII most famous naval duels
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 | The Battle of Hurtgen Forest: Untold Story of a Disastrous Campaign (Spellmount Siegfried Line) by Charles Whiting
Buy new: £14.44 / Used from: £4.94 Gruelling account of this forgotten, bloody battle at the end of the war in which the US are shown in a terrible light
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 | The Other Side of the Hill (Pan Grand Strategy Series) by B.H.Liddell Hart
Buy used from: £203.19 Conversations with defeated German generals is a great place to start an understanding of why the Germans fought and why they fought so well.
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 | Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege 1940-1943 (Cassell Military Paperbacks) by James Holland
Buy new: £5.58 / Used from: £0.50 A real gem. Malta's defence is an incredible story, and Holland is a valuable new talent.
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 | Finest Hour by Tim Clayton
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £0.01 An amazing achievement - deeply moving personal accounts from the time when Britain stood alone
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 | Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
Buy used from: £7.75 A real treat (after the gossipy book on Stalin). Mountains of detail from the BEF side of this strange victorious retreat.
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 | The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (Pan Grand Strategy Series) by Harrison E. Salisbury
Buy used from: £5.99 Apart from being an excellent account of history's deadliest siege, this also begins with a superb overview of the USSR's intial blunders.
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 | African Trilogy by Alan Moorehead
Buy used from: £93.95 War correspondent's account of the fighting in North Africa. Amazing eye witness accounts. Not good as an overview, for that see...
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 | The Desert Generals by Correlli Barnett
Buy new: £6.14 / Used from: £1.98 Still controversial, but this is great place to start for an overview of the battles in North Africa.
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 | Hitler's Panzers East: World War II Reinterpreted by R.H.S. Stolfi
Buy new: £15.95 / Used from: £5.20 And finally, if you ever tire if what was, this is the best guess at what might have been had Germany's battle plans in the east gone according to plan
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