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Guys,

I'm interested in becoming a better student of World War 2, in particular the European Theater of Operations. The problem is, I don't know where to begin. I tend to buy books in no particular order, i.e., with no particular plan or course of study that will help me become a better student.

I am seeking advice from others on a course of study. Alternatively, I would like to know from others whether the books from Osprey publishing is a good place to start. I was thinking of purchasing books from the "Essential Histories" series and then drilling down to more detailed books from their "Order of Battle" and "Campaigns" series. From there, I would check the cites and purchase the individual books that they cite to for their authority.

Thoughts anyone?

The two I would start with would be William Shirers Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Winston Churchill Second World War.

Two great books that cover the socio/political background of the whole conflict. From their I would then pick an area that interests you and from the details within those books narrow it down to whatever suits your appetite.

HiHi

As you may know it's not really my era, but 2 I found interesting reads leading up to and including the War are AJP Taylor 'English History 1914-1945' & Anthony Edens 'Facing the Dictators', both cover areas not so often covered by the more military books

To add a bit to Booties suggestion a good way to follow things through is to check out the Bibliographies normally given at the end of a book, and if you want to check out for bias read the acknowledgements at the front of books eg praise for say Christopher Hill lets you know the guy is likely to be a screaming Pinky with strong revisionist tendancies etc :) For fining things down to fine detail look closely at the Footnotes or references quoted in the main text.

All the Best
Peter

Guderian Wrote:I am seeking advice from others on a course of study. Alternatively, I would like to know from others whether the books from Osprey publishing is a good place to start. I was thinking of purchasing books from the "Essential Histories" series and then drilling down to more detailed books from their "Order of Battle" and "Campaigns" series. From there, I would check the cites and purchase the individual books that they cite to for their authority.

Osprey books are beautiful, well illustrated books but they have a couple of drawbacks. Firstly the are very expensive and second they can be patchy on how well they cover some subjects.

The reason they are expensive is they have limited print runs. How many people are going to buy a book on Jagdgeschwader 51. A high price in this case is understandable. However, even there campaign histories are expensive, at £15 or $30 for 100 pages and these books have a wider audience.

How well their books cover each subject varies from book to book. Generally they do OK but as they are so short so,me titles inevitably miss out some relatively important stuff. I would say if you want to get some Osprey books just choose the ones for battles you are really interested in, else it will get expansive very quickly.

As a general source for reading on the ETO other better books are avaliable. Try the classics such as Beevor's Crete and Stalingrad, Ryan's 'A Bridge to Far', Alan Clarke's 'Barbarossa', etc. They give good overviews of there various subjects as well as being great reads.

If you've got a good library close by check out The History of the European Theater of Operations series. Published by the US Army in the 60s it consists of 10 500+ page volumes, including the following:

Cross-Channel Attack
Breakout and Pursuit
The Lorraine Campaign
The Sigfried Line Campaign
The Riviera to the Rhine
The Ardennes: The Battle of the Bulge
The Last Offensive: The Rhineland and Central Germany

It's old, and being a US Army publication American centric, but has great detail on the period from June 44 to April 45 in the west. And great maps!

I've picked up a couple volumes of the histories (there are other's besides the ETO), for $10-$15 each. Hard to find, but every now and then a used bookstore has them

Chester Wilmot's "THE STRUGGLE FOR EUROPE" is the best i've ever seen, it was written within 7 years of the end of the war and has the lot, fast-moving text, neat maps, and transcripts of HQ logs of both sides..

http://www.amazon.com/Struggle-Europe-Wo...1853266779

Map list in book-