The 10 Best WWII Books for Fans of Masters of the Air

Originally published in 1948, when the Second World War was still fresh in the minds of the populace, this New York Times-bestselling “masterpiece” (Boston Globe) has been hailed as one of the great World War II novels. 

Chronicling the lives of three very different soldiers, fighting on different sides of the war, The Young Lions brought home to readers the horrors of war, and the atrocities of the death camps which Allied soldiers encountered as they liberated them. It was adapted into a 1958 film starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Dean Martin.

Tommy was once a mathematician studying at MIT. That was before he found himself onboard the USS Bataan, an aircraft character engaged in a grueling conflict in the midst of World War II’s Pacific theater. 

From Tommy’s childhood in California to the aftermath of the battle for Okinawa, the author bases his lead character on his own father, an intellectual genius who served in the US Navy during World War II in this “historical novel that can be appreciated by anyone, not just the history buffs” (Scene).

In 1940, the Germans are massing just on the other side of the English Channel. As the R.A.F.’s 13 Squadron attempts to regroup at Marshfield air base, they have lost many of their most experienced pilots, and are forced to make do with many green new recruits. 

However, all is not lost, as the camaraderie these pilots experience may just be enough to reach out from beyond the grave in this haunting thriller, imbued with the author’s own wartime record which gives his book a “nerve-racking realism” (Souvenir).

“One must go back to All Quiet on the Western Front to find another novel as charged as this one!” raves the Philadelphia Inquirer of this national bestseller chronicling the lives of a disparate band of Marines who serve in some of the harshest conditions of the war in the Pacific theater. 

Based on the author’s own experiences in the South Pacific, this 1957 classic helped to pave the way for such stories of regular soldiers as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, showcasing both what life was like on the battlefield and on the home front.

“A revelation of unsung heroism distinguished by love of language and lightness of touch” (Kirkus Reviews), The King’s Rifle has been hailed as the first novel to depict the experiences of black African soldiers during World War II. 

It follows fourteen-year-old Ali, who has been sent behind enemy lines in the jungles of Burma. As he struggles to survive, to grow up, and to do what’s right, his unforgettable story is told in this book that Publishers Weekly calls “refreshing and even endearing.”

Jacob Koopman is a 14-year-old boy in a small Dutch town where his family owns a lightbulb factory when war breaks out. He and his brother have been sent to a Hitler Youth camp, yet other members of his family work to help Jewish refugees escape from the Nazis. 

As war descends on one town, one family, we see how the moral dilemmas that it brings with it shake a person’s life in this “astute and riveting” (New York Times) book that Kirkus Reviews calls “an impressive debut.”

Hailed as a “superlative storyteller” by Publishers Weekly, Clark Howard has been the recipient of numerous nominations for Edgar, Shamus, Derringer, and Ellery Queen Reader’s Awards, among others, winning many. In fact, he is one of the most frequently awarded writers in the world of true crime and mystery fiction. 

In The Doomsday Squad, he brings that same sense of thrills and breakneck pacing to the story of a suicide mission during World War II, as seven soldiers agree to act as decoys so that a Japanese sub can be destroyed – a job that none of them are likely to survive.

The first book in the acclaimed Kaspar Brothers series, The Losing Role introduces readers to German actor Max Kaspar, conscripted by the SS and forced to try to infiltrate the Allied forces by impersonating a US officer. 

Inspired by real events, this unforgettable WWII espionage thriller is packed to the gills with “excellent dialogue, well-crafted characters, and enough dramatic tension to saw a Panzer in half” (New Podler Review of Books).

This “supremely well told” (Evening Standard) novel of naval rescue takes its title from the motto of the Royal Air Force’s Air Sea Rescue Service. Originally published in 1953, it was made into a 1954 film of the same name, starring Michael Redgrave. 

When a plane goes down in the North Sea, the four survivors find themselves stranded on a dinghy, along with war secrets that would be devastating in enemy hands. Together, they must try to survive long enough to get the vital intelligence back to the Allied forces and prevent it falling into the hands of the Germans.

War is often as much about waiting as it is about fighting, and few books capture that better than this “fiercely authentic” (Sunday Telegraph) novel which follows three commandos, cut off from their forces and hiding out in a barn in the French countryside, as they await the inevitable attack from the German soldiers who lurk just beyond the next hill. 

The result is a “gripping read” (Sunday Times) that was hailed by Leslie Charteris, author of the Saint novels, as “the best thing of its kind I’ve ever read. I literally couldn’t put it down.”