D’Este’s list of ten books about World War II that deserve to be better known

To top off our all-book Friday file, it’s an honor to present a book list from Carlo D’Este, one of my favorite historians. Here he offers up a list of books about World War II that he thinks should be better known.

Carlo adds in a note, "A couple of them (Eisenhower and Toland) were quite well-known when published but with the passage of time may be somewhat forgotten but were nevertheless added to the list. It is highly subjective: there are literally hundreds of fine books that could have been added; these are merely ten that came immediately to mind and are very worthy."

Later this month D’Este will pick up a big fat prize for lifetime achievement from the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.

• Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell, Tug of War: The Battle for Italy, 1943-45
• John S.D. Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods: The Battle of the Bulge
• Lt. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott, Command Missions: A Personal Story 
• Frederick C Sherman, Combat Command: The American Aircraft Carriers in World War II
• Gerald R. Pawle, The War and Colonel Warden (about Churchill)
• David Fraser, Alanbrooke
• R.W. Thompson, The Battle of the Rhineland
• Way of a Fighter, The memoirs of Claire Lee Chennault
• J.D. Morelock, Generals of the Ardennes: American Leadership in the Battle of the Bulge
• John Toland, The Last 100 Days