Here are 100 books that Swift, Silent, and Deadly fans have personally recommended if you like
Swift, Silent, and Deadly.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Since childhood, I have been fascinated by accounts of the Second World War, particularly the war in the Pacific Theater. Perhaps because I had an uncle and a step-father (Bronze Star awarded for bravery) who fought in that theater. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and traveled in the USS Bennington, CVS 20, too many of the islands captured by the Japanese in blood-soaked battles–Pearl Harbor, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, and the Philippines. Further, I was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan for twenty months, which allowed me to look into World War II history from the other side.
I really enjoyed this book by Rich Rostron for several reasons: I am an enthusiastic reader of World War II historical fiction set in the Pacific Theater.
I loved the format of an old veteran telling his great-grandson the story of the battle. I also really liked the way the author wove the war story into the teenager’s (Kyle) need to learn how to deal with a bully at school.
WWII Naval Combat explodes from the pages of The Burning Sea of Iron Bottom Bay as a US Navy veteran shares his experiences with his great-grandson and the reader. Culminating in one of the most chaotic and destructive naval battles in history, this book tells the story of a Friday the 13th struggle, on a pitch-black night in the waters north of Guadalcanal, that tests the metal of man and machine.
The battle represents a desperate throw of the dice by Admiral Halsey that results in a confrontation where the US Navy is David to the Imperial Japanese Navy's Goliath.…
Since childhood, I have been fascinated by accounts of the Second World War, particularly the war in the Pacific Theater. Perhaps because I had an uncle and a step-father (Bronze Star awarded for bravery) who fought in that theater. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and traveled in the USS Bennington, CVS 20, too many of the islands captured by the Japanese in blood-soaked battles–Pearl Harbor, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, and the Philippines. Further, I was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan for twenty months, which allowed me to look into World War II history from the other side.
I was and am fascinated by accounts of the Battle of Tarawa. As James Dwyer’s book relates, the battle was a brutal series of Navy and Marine mistakes by the attack leaders from day one.
I particularly like the way he uses the fictional voices of Marines and Japanese Rikosentia (basically Japanese Marines) to tell the story of the terrible battle with its ‘horrific’ casualty rates on both sides.
Before the historic battle for Iwo Jima was fought...there was Tarawa!!! Experience the incredible horrors and the distinguished heroism of the battle for Tarawa with a platoon of marines who must fight their way ashore and then battle the Japanese defenders in their hidden bunkers and foxholes! The hellacious fighting for this tiny island took place in November of 1943 and the legendary battle went on for three and a half days between the elite Japanese Rikosentai who refused to give up...and the marines of the Second Division...who refused to stop. When this bare-knuckled brawl was finally over, four Medals…
Since childhood, I have been fascinated by accounts of the Second World War, particularly the war in the Pacific Theater. Perhaps because I had an uncle and a step-father (Bronze Star awarded for bravery) who fought in that theater. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and traveled in the USS Bennington, CVS 20, too many of the islands captured by the Japanese in blood-soaked battles–Pearl Harbor, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, and the Philippines. Further, I was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan for twenty months, which allowed me to look into World War II history from the other side.
I really liked the unique way that author George Feifer approached this final land battle of World War II. I was very interested in how he began the book by using individual American and Japanese recruits as the focal point, even detailing the training they went through.
Not only has he written a complete story of the battle, but he also has included a detailed account of the sinking of the mighty Japanese battleship–Yamato. I doubt if there is a better account of the sinking of Japan’s last hope for a naval victory in print.
Plus, Feifer includes in his work the tragedy of the native non-combatant Okinawans–over one hundred thousand of them perished in the battle. The author gives a wide overview of the entire contest, which is the best I’ve seen.
More people perished during the battle of Okinawa than in the ensuing bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The Battle of Okinawa offers a stunning account of the last major campaign of World War II and the largest land-sea-air engagement in history. Superbly researched and extraordinarily detailed, this masterpiece of military history is told at the level of the participants themselves, soldiers and civilians alike. In examining the disastrous collision of three disparate cultures-American, Japanese, and Okinawan-this book provides an unforgettable picture of men at war and also the context for understanding one of the most ominous events of this…
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States…
Since childhood, I have been fascinated by accounts of the Second World War, particularly the war in the Pacific Theater. Perhaps because I had an uncle and a step-father (Bronze Star awarded for bravery) who fought in that theater. I joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and traveled in the USS Bennington, CVS 20, too many of the islands captured by the Japanese in blood-soaked battles–Pearl Harbor, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, and the Philippines. Further, I was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan for twenty months, which allowed me to look into World War II history from the other side.
I am very pleased with the way author Andrew Rawson begins this book by describing the commanding officers on both sides, and then the weapons the Marines and Japanese soldiers used in the battle. This makes the later descriptions of actual combat more realistic.
Another aspect of this book that I liked was Rawson’s account of the tactics planned and used on both sides. His accounts of individual Marines' exploits and decorations are excellent and detailed.
The author ends his book with a short synopsis of the Battle of Okinawa and the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. This is a book I will read again.
Operation Detachment, the US invasion of Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, was the first campaign on Japanese soil and resulted in some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific. If you truly want to understand what happened and why - read Battle Story. Detailed profiles explore the leaders, tactics and equipment of the US and Japanese armies. Nine specially commissioned maps track the progress of the battle and the shifting frontlines. Rare photographs place you in the centre of the unfolding action. Diary extracts and quotes give you a soldier's eye-view of the battle. Orders of Battle reveal the…
I am an author and investor living in windward Oahu who has had a lifelong interest in military history ever since I read a biography of Alexander the Great when I was 12 years old. I have written several books including Hitler’s Great Gamble and MacArthur Reconsidered. For my next project I have transcribed, compiled, and edited 1,100 of General Douglas MacArthur’s daily communiques issued by his Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) headquarters from 1942-45. This collection will be published by McFarland in 2024.
Japanese conduct was unfathomable to the GIs and Marines who confronted them in battle: The enemy would almost never surrender, engaged in suicidal charges, and often feigned death when wounded in an attempt to kill at least one American before expiring. As the Japanese asked no quarter, they also rarely offered it, and those taken prisoner by the Emperor’s soldiers were often murdered and their bodies mutilated.
Then there was the land itself: jungles and marshes of debilitating heat and humidity from which sprang deadly diseases such as malaria, typhus, and cholera which caused multiples of the numbers of casualties suffered in battle.
Touched With Fire chronicles this hellish battlefield as the Japanese advance was slowed, halted, and then reversed over the course of 1942-45.
A brilliant history of the land battles in the Pacific theater of World War II, with stirring personal accounts of the horrifying struggle between the Japanese and Allied forces.
The horrors of WWII in the South Pacific extended far beyond the detonation of atomic bombs. In this revelatory portrayal of the lives of the regular infantrymen who struggled to contain the Japanese advance, Eric Bergerud has given us a compelling and chilling record of the incredible hardships endured by these soldiers, and the heroic efforts that resulted in the reversal of the course of the war. Bergerud spent hundreds of…
I’ve lived across America and have become acutely aware that our country, for all its checkered history, is the greatest multicultural experiment in the history of the planet, with a military that is a huge force for good. These beliefs were the impetus for my book, a book that has brought me into contact with people of all ages whose love for our country expresses itself in selfless service and sacrifice. They inspire me to be of service, too. Love for a nation that exists by social contract is not automatic. It has to be nurtured. I hope this booklist inspires kids and adults alike to cultivate that love.
I read this book as a boy, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s the story of American PT boats in the South Pacific during World War II, and the story behind the title captivated me. Every soldier knows that he or she might be sacrificed by a commander to gain time for a retreat or as part of a super-dangerous mission.
The sailors on the boats in White’s story were living examples of how they could be expendable. Even as a boy, this book made me grateful for what I had and grateful to the members of the uniformed services who protected us. That they would make such a commitment makes me love America even more.
A national bestseller when it was originally published in 1942 and the subject of a 1945 John Ford film featuring John Wayne, this book offers a thrilling account of the role of the U.S. Navy's Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three during the disastrous Philippine campaign early in World War II. The author uses an unusual, but thorough, spellbinding format to tell the story: an interview with four heroic young participants. Ranked "with the great tales of war" by the Saturday Review of Literature, it is a deeply moving book that describes the four officers' extraordinary exploits from the first appearance…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan. The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced, it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run the…
I landed in Samoa when I was 36 and spent the next 26 years there, working for environmental, cultural, and historical resource preservation. The islands took me in. I found in the islands a natural and social intimacy unlike any I had known possible back stateside. I became committed to conserving it from the incursions of continental crudity. My final 13 years there I was State Historic Preservation Officer for American Samoa. Before I left, I wrote a series of novels to share by illustration what I had managed to learn about the cultural interface.
Before M*A*S*H and Catch 22, Michner’s book gave American readers a captivating view of the human side of U.S. soldiers and sailors at war in the South Pacific. This sequential series of interconnected short stories set in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands works like the best TV mini-series. There are not just sailors and marines; there are locals and colonial characters.
A great read. Don’t just take my word for it: it won a Pulitzer in 1947. And yes, the highly successful musical play South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein is based on stories from this Michener classic.
Tales of the South Pacific is the iconic, Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece that inspired a Broadway classic and launched the career of James A. Michener, one of America’s most beloved storytellers. This thrilling work invites the reader to enter the exotic world of the South Pacific and luxuriate in the endless ocean, the coconut palms, the waves breaking into spray against the reefs, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes. And yet here also are the men and women caught up in the heady drama of World War II: the young Marine who falls for a beautiful Tonkinese girl; the Navy…
We are three anthropologists who have focused decades of research on the cultures and histories of the beautiful part of the world known as Micronesia. We wrote this book when we realized that the many volumes of history on War in the Pacific focused on the combatants, and told us little of the experiences of the Islanders across whose lands, seas, and airspace the war was fought. Kwajalein, Enewetak, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Peleliu, Saipan, Guam, Tinian—these were not just battlegrounds, but also precious homelands. Our goal was to combine documentary history with interviews of more than 300 elders to tell the story of the war in Micronesia as it was experienced by Islanders who lived through it.
Bennett has produced an outstanding tour-de-force integrating the military history of the Central and Southwest Pacific with the new field of war and environment studies. Bennett goes beyond the immediate impact of combat to consider the military use of natural resources, the effect of bases on islands that never saw fighting, the movement of people, plants and diseases, and the politics of how Islander people and places were used in the war. From how foreign imaginations about the tropical environment affected military planning, to the conflict’s real long-term effects on lands and seas, this book adds essential depth to our view of the war years in this region.
Ambitious in its scope and scale, this environmental history of World War II ranges over rear bases and operational fronts from Bora Bora to New Guinea, providing a lucid analysis of resource exploitation, entangled wartime politics, and human perceptions of the vast Oceanic environment. Although the war's physical impact proved significant and oftentimes enduring, this study shows that the tropical environment offered its own challenges. At the heart of ""Natives and Exotics"" is the author's analysis of the changing visions and perceptions of the environment, not only among the millions of combatants, but also among the Islands' peoples and their…
I have been interested in the Nazi-Soviet War since my high school years, and I am happy to say my views have become more sophisticated in the intervening 50 years! During the Cold War I served as a US Army Armor officer for 28 years and globally across 18 time zones (retired lieutenant colonel). Thereafter, I earned a PhD in modern European history, specializing in the 20th-century German military, from Purdue University. I have researched, taught, and written extensively on all aspects of military history, particularly WWII. My latest book, an operational level [of war] history of Barbarossa for the Campaigns and Commanders series (University of Oklahoma Press, in preparation as of mid-2024).
I give retired US Army Colonel Glantz pride of place here because of his leading role in correcting the history of this conflict. Cold War politics made the Germans ironic but underserving heroes.
Glantz sets the story straight and shows how and why the Soviet Union and Red Army earned the title of victors. This book is very readable and covers the entire four-year war in surprising detail. I consider it a great introduction to his massive body of work.
On first publication, this uncommonly concise and readable account of Soviet Russia's clash with Nazi Germany utterly changed our understanding of World War II on Germany's Eastern Front, immediately earning its place among top-shelf histories of the world war. Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on the subject, much of it the authors' own work, this new edition maintains the 1995 original's distinction as a crucial volume in the history of World War II and of the Soviet Union and the most informed and compelling perspective on one of the greatest military confrontations of all time.…
The Model Spy is based on the true story of Toto Koopman, who spied for the Allies and Italian Resistance during World War II.
Largely unknown today, Toto was arguably the first woman to spy for the British Intelligence Service. Operating in the hotbed of Mussolini's Italy, she courted danger…
My passion for the Battle of Crete flows from my traveler’s experiences of this most beautiful of Mediterranean islands and its people. The Second World War is just one episode in a history that stretches back millennia, yet to this day, it remains ever-present in the minds of Cretans. The landscape, too, still bears the scars of war. Every visitor to Crete has the opportunity to uncover the multiple layers of a rich past. To dig down to the horrors of the twentieth century with its brutal war and occupation does not take long, and it is enormously rewarding. In few places are past and present so closely intertwined.
I know the value of visiting the sites of battle, even decades or centuries after the event. A sense of topography and space acquired in situ can provide insights in ways that pages, maps, and screens cannot. Yannis Prekatsounakis is a native of Heraklion. His book is infused with his own intimate sense of the place where a crucial part of the Battle of Crete raged.
Prekatsounakis, for good reason, laments that the works of many historians on the Battle of Crete lack Greek perspectives. While he delivers them in abundance here, he weaves them with narratives and accounts of German and Allied participants as well. I love the abundance of maps and photographs that complement the author’s own heightened sense of place.
Crete, 20 May 1941: the first campaign-sized airborne assault is launched. Many books have been written about this famous invasion, with the emphasis mainly on the battles for Maleme and Chania. The Battle for Heraklion - an epic struggle - remained largely forgotten and widely unstudied. Yet the desperate fight for Heraklion had everything: street-fighting in the town; heroic attacks against well-fortified positions and medieval walls; heavy losses on all sides; and tragic stories involving famous German aristocratic families like the von Blüchers and members of the Bismarck family. This book highlights personal stories and accounts - and the author’s…
