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James E Mrazek

Stories of WWII’s elite glider troops and their combat operations, including Eben Emael, Normandy, Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, and more.
 
 Long pursued by civilian thrill seekers and dare devils, airborne gliding came of age during World War II as one of that conflict’s most dangerous combat operations. The armed forces of Axis and Allied nations developed gliders—wooden aircraft that bursts of flak could shred and a poor landing could smash—and flew them into battle at Eben Emael, Crete, Normandy, Arnhem, and Bastogne. 
 
 James E. Mrazek’s riveting account brings to life both the men who carried out these perilous missions and the gliders that proved vital to the success of airborne attacks.

Stackpole Books

Stackpole Military History Series

Airborne Combat: The Glider War / Fighting Gliders of WWII

Will Fey

This German WWII military history offers an in-depth view of armored combat across Europe from the perspective of the Waffen SS.

 The Waffen SS were considered the elite of the German armed forces in the Second World War and were involved in almost continuous combat. In this volume, a former Waffen SS captain offers an in-depth account of their armored combat operations across the European Theater and into the Eastern Front. 
 From the sweeping tank battle of Kursk in southwestern Russian to the bitter fighting among the hedgerows of Normandy and the last great offensive in the Ardennes, forever immortalized in history at the Battle of the Bulge, this chronicle presents a vivid frontline view of the drama.

Armor Battles of the Waffen-SS: 1943–45

Richard Wheeler

The epic battle that turned the tide of the Civil War is vividly recounted in the words of soldiers and civilians who experienced it.

 The Battle of Gettysburg is perhaps the most famous conflicts of the American Civil War. Over the course of three brutal and bloody days in July of 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee attempted an invasion of the north, which was in the end successfully repelled by Major General George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. 

 Though this epic battle has been minutely studied, Witness to Gettysburg offers a new perspective. Historian Richard Wheeler tells the story in both historical and human terms, almost entirely through the words of participants, both soldier and civilian, male and female. 
 The technical statements in these firsthand accounts have been checked against official records and the personal stories have been verified as credible. Through this process, Wheeler has produced a war narrative that is both immediate and authoritative.

Witness to Gettysburg: Inside the Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War

Franz Kurowski

This WWII history chronicles the exploits of an elite German spy unit and offers a rare look into the secret operations of Hitler's military.
 Directed by the German Army’s intelligence service, the Brandenburgers became legendary for their brutally efficient clandestine operations. Trained to be quick, mobile, and self-reliant and steeped in local customs and languages, they operated behind enemy lines around the world. Across the battlefronts of the Second World War—from Western Europe to Romania, Russia, Egypt, Afghanistan, and beyond—they seized bridges and other strategic targets; engaged in sabotage, espionage, and other daring missions; and often disregarding the rules of war in the process. Although the unit was dissolved in 1944, its tactics influenced special forces around the world both during the war and after.

The Brandenburger Commandos: Germany's Elite Warrior Spies in World War II

Sigmund Heinz Landau

A Romanian soldier details serving for Germany on the Eastern Front during World War II in this memoir, featuring firsthand accounts of combat.
 German by ancestry, born and raised in the ethnic welter of post-World War I Romania, Sigmund Heinz Landau left his home to volunteer for the Third Reich during World War II. Serving on the Eastern Front, he saw nearly six years of continuous fighting with a Luftwaffe Flak unit and eventually in the Waffen-SS, from sentry duty to desperate attacks against Soviet T-34s, from the siege of Budapest to the final campaign for Berlin in 1945. Landau’s memoir, written from a unique perspective, offers rare insight into what motivated soldiers to fight—and die—for Nazi Germany.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Goodbye, Transylvania: A Romanian Waffen-SS Soldier in WWII

Norman Franks

This volume collects lively tales of aerial combat from Royal Air Force pilots who flew Typhoon fighters into the frontlines of WWII.

 The Typhoon fighter played a pivotal role in Allied victories from D-Day to the Battle of the Bulge and the final battle in Germany. Through original interviews with RAF veterans, Norman Franks explores what it was really like to fly Britain’s legendary, rocket-firing fighters. 

Typhoon Attack shares stories of flying over Holland or France at low level, seeking out hostile aircraft or targets on the ground; rolling over at twelve-thousand feet, then upside down; attacking trains, ships, flak posts, tanks, and more; not to mention the mind-numbing experience of crash-landing a shot-up Tiffy.

Typhoon Attack: The Legendary British Fighter in Combat in WWII

Samuel W Mitcham

A military historian examines the strategic cunning of Erwin Rommel’s first campaign in North Africa during WWII.

 The legend of “The Desert Fox,” German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, was forged in the North African desert conflicts of World War II. It was here, as commander of Germany’s Afrika Korps, that Rommel ignored orders from German High Command and launched his infamous West Desert campaign into Cyrenaica, now eastern Libya. 
 Driving his exhausted Panzer forces with his indomitable will, Rommel swept through North Africa, where he brought the British Eighth Army to the brink of defeat. Although ultimately curtailed by supply shortages and logistics problems, Rommel nearly claimed the entire region for Hitler.

 In this stirring account of Rommel’s first campaign, Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr. takes the reader into his subject's strategy, mindset and viewpoints.

Triumphant Fox: Erwin Rommel and the Rise of the Afrika Korps

Ore J Marion

Thomas Cuddihy

Edward Cuddihy

A gripping true story of the WWII Guadalcanal Campaign—told with no-holds-barred honesty and humor by a Marine who was there.

 In August of 1942, Allied forces led by U.S. Marines came ashore on Guadalcanal, launching the first major land offensive against Imperial Japan. M. Sgt. Ore J. Marion of L Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment was among them. Here, Marion and other men of L-3-5 share a personal account of their experiences over the course of this grueling and protracted campaign. 
 The stories contained in these pages are harrowing, profane, heartbreaking, irreverent, and deeply human. As with many personal accounts, some memories recorded here are at odds with the official accounts in Washington’s archives. Rather than presenting a clean and consistent narrative, On the Canal reflects the messy business of warfare and human memory.

On the Canal: The Marines of L-3-5 on Guadalcanal, 1942

Donald B Kraybill

“Reveals the heart and soul of the Amish culture. This is the best introduction to Lancaster’s Amish community.” —Steven M. Nolt, author of A History of the Amish
 
 More than eight million people visit Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, every year to experience the culture of the oldest Amish community in the world. This book by the leading scholar of the Amish explains the uncommon lifestyle of these simple-living people who intrigue so many visitors. 
 
 Mini-essays on all aspects of Amish life, from dress and spirituality to horse-and-buggy transport, are accompanied by beautiful full-color photographs. The author also discusses myths about the Amish, their selective use of technology, the recent media attention to Rumspringa, and the tragedy at the Nickel Mines school.

The Amish of Lancaster County

George Webster

A firsthand account of aerial warfare from a USAAF veteran who flew in fighter bombers during WWII, perfect for military aviation enthusiasts.
 
 George Webster, a flight radio operator on a B-17 during the second world war, gives readers a first person account from the inside of a bomber plane. Focusing on the 92nd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, including missions to the Schweinfurt ball-bearing plant and Berlin, Webster’s memoir is vivid and intimate, describing the bitter cold at high altitudes, gut-wrenching fear, lethal shrapnel from flak, and German fighters darting through the bomber formation like feeding sharks. One of the first accounts of being shot down over Sweden, The Savage Sky is as close as you can get to experiencing aerial combat while still staying firmly planted on the ground.
 
 “If you want to know what it was really like to fly in a bomber—read this!” —George Murdoch, Armchair Auctions

Savage Sky: Life and Death on a Bomber over Germany in 1944

Action-packed stories of legendary tank soldiers in some of the bloodiest engagements of World War II, from North Africa to the Eastern Front.
 
 With brash courage and finely honed skill, Germany’s black-clad panzer troops blasted their way into the annals of military history as feared and fearless fighters. Leading from the turrets of Panthers, Tigers, and other lethal machines, these men spearheaded the Third Reich’s offensives on the Eastern Front, in the West, and in Africa, turning T-34s and Shermans into burning wrecks and battling on even when all seemed lost. Franz Kurowski captures the essence of World War II tank combat: the rattling of tracks, the fire and smoke of rounds hitting home, the guts of the commanders who led from the front.

Panzer Aces III: German Tank Commanders in Combat in World War II

Johannes Steinhoff

A German air force officer’s first person account of aerial battle during the invasion of Sicily in WWII.
 
 In an account of unusual power, Luftwaffe ace Johannes Steinhoff draws from his personal World War II diary to recount the final days of the German air force on Sicily in June and July 1943. Facing crushing odds—including a commander, Hermann Goring, who contemptuously treated his pilots as cowards—Steinhoff and his fellow Messerschmitt 109 pilots took to the skies day after day to meet waves of dreaded Flying Fortresses and swarms of Allied fighters, all bent on driving the Germans from the island. A captivating narrative and a piercing analysis, this book is a classic of aerial combat.

Messerschmitts Over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander

Robert A Doughty

This military history examines the development of French Army doctrine from the end of WWI to the disastrous German invasion of WWII.

 The importance of military doctrine has never been more powerfully demonstrated than in May of 1940, when France suffered a swift collapse in the face of German aggression. Though the French had spent twenty years preparing for just such an event, their military was defenseless against the type of fighting they suddenly faced. Few defeats have been so unexpected. 
 In The Seeds of Disaster, military historian Robert Doughty examines the doctrinal origins of this historic failure. Doughty traces the development of the French Army’s military doctrine from 1919 to 1939, revealing how its fundamental misunderstandings of modern warfare led to an elaborate yet inept system of defense.

The Seeds of Disaster: The Development of French Army Doctrine, 1919–39

Gerald R Kleinfeld

A history of the 47,000 Spanish soldiers who volunteered to fight for Hitler in Russia during World War II.
 Although Spain claimed neutrality during World War II, 47,000 Spaniards volunteered to fight on behalf of the Third Reich. Known as the Blue Division, they battled the Soviets on the Eastern Front and played a key role in the pivotal siege of Leningrad. Set apart from the Wehrmacht by stark differences in culture, tactics, and command structure, these volunteers fought—many of them to the death—with courage and tenacity against strong opposition, extreme temperatures, and insufficient supplies for what they believed was their chance to secure Spain’s place in a new and changing Europe.

Hitler's Spanish Legion: The Blue Division in Russia in WWII

Combat biographies of seven ace pilots flying for the Nazi German air force during World War II, featuring in-the-cockpit accounts of aerial dogfights.
 Whether providing support for the blitzkrieg in Poland and France, bombing British cities and industrial centers, or attacking Allied fighters and bombers in the light of day and dark of night, the Luftwaffe revolutionized aerial warfare and experienced some of World War II’s most harrowing combat. For the pilots who carried out these missions, every flight meant possible death and certain danger. Franz Kurowski puts readers in the cockpit with seven of these men—three day-fighter, on night-fighter, one close-support, and two bomber pilots—who were among the most successful ever to take to the skies.

Luftwaffe Aces: German Combat Pilots of WWII

A rare account of a non-German, Erik Wallin, who fought in the Nazi Party’s Waffen-SS during World War II—a no-holds-barred narrative of the Eastern Front.
 
 This is the exciting true story of Erik Wallin, a Swedish soldier who volunteered for the Waffen-SS during World War II. Wallin served in the Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion of the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division “Nordland,” a unit composed largely of men from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Sent to the Eastern Front, the 11th SS fought in the Courland Pocket in late 1944 and then battled the Red Army along the Oder River and in Berlin, where the Soviets destroyed the division.
 
 Few memoirs of non-Germans in the Waffen-SS exist, and Twilight of the Gods ranks among the very best.
 
“Provides an insight into how a Waffen-SS soldier reflects on the recent past . . . [and] how the SS myth was created . . . direct and raw.” —Samuel de Korte, Traces of War

Twilight of the Gods: A Swedish Volunteer in the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Nordland" on the Eastern Front

The third volume in this definitive reference on the German Army in WWII, covering the organization, combat histories, and commanders of each division.

 Military historian Samuel Mitcham is a noted expert in Germany’s ground forces during the Second World War. In his three-volume German Order of Battle, he presents the most detailed and authoritative reference work on the subject to date. Mitcham’s narrative histories highlight the organization, commanders, experiences, and casualties of each division, as well as sources for further research. 
 Taken together, these volumes are the most comprehensive and accessible reference available on the Germany Army in World War II, unmatched in the information compiled on each division from inception to destruction. Volume Three covers the Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and Waffen SS Divisions.

German Order of Battle: Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and Waffen SS Divisions in WWII

Alexander V Pyl'cyn

A WWII Soviet officer recalls leading a battalion of convict-soldiers in this rare firsthand account of a Red Army penal unit.

 Alexander Pyl’cyn was eighteen years old when he was drafted into the Red Army in 1941. He went on to serve with great distinction, earing the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Great Patriotic War, and the Order of the Red Star for his actions during the war. As the commander of a penal battalion on the Eastern Front, he led an unruly band of convict-soldiers, Gulag prisoners, and former Soviet POWs deemed untrustworthy. 
 Relegated to the most difficult and dangerous assignments, Pyl’cyn’s unit was called up to break through the enemy’s defenses. He led his penal unit through the Soviets’ massive offensive in the summer of 1944, the Vistula-Oder operation into eastern Germany, and the bitter assault on Berlin in 1945. Though his men suffered massive casualties, and he himself withstood multiple wounds, he survived the war to tell this incredible story.

Penalty Strike: The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander, 1943–45

WWII fighter pilots share stories of flying into battle from Berlin to Tokyo in Mustangs, Spitfires, Flying Fortresses and more.

 In Flying American Combat Aircraft of World War II, U.S. Air Force veterans recount thrilling tales that put readers in the cockpit. These personal remembrances of aerial combat offer vividly detailed depictions of fighting across Europe as well as in the Pacific. 

 The twenty-nine contributors also cover a wide range of America’s WWII-era combat aircraft, including the B-25 Mitchell, B-29 Superfortress, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-40 Kittyhawk, B-18 bomber, and many others. Their stories are enhanced by dozens of photographs of the planes and the pilots who flew them.

Flying American Combat Aircraft of World War II: 1939–45

Hans Wijers

A compilation of first-person accounts from German soldiers on their experiences at the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II, featuring rare photos.

 Real battles. Real Soldiers. Real stories. 
 By the fall of 1942, the battle for Stalingrad had become a fight for every street and building, and nowhere was the struggle more intense than in the bombed-out factories in the northern half of the city. There, amidst crumbled stone and twisted steel, German soldiers fought from room to room against a Soviet enemy who appeared never to tire. Meanwhile, Soviet offenses outside Stalingrad had trapped the German 6th Army inside the city. Erich von Manstein attempted to break through and relieve the encircled army, but to no avail. Both stories—the fierce battle for the factories and Manstein’s relief effort—are told here in the words of the men who were there.

Stackpole Military History Series - The book series

Stackpole Military History Series - The book series

Stackpole Military History Series books in order

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