Stephen Ambrose World War II Books

August 03, 2010

One of my favorite pastimes is reading oral histories of World War II. There are many great books by a lot of good writers, but my favorites are the books by noted World War II historian, Stephen Ambrose. The first one I was aware of is the famous Band Of Brothers. Chronicling the exploits of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, it's a riveting book that was made into a great HBO miniseries.

Ambrose didn't stop there, however. He wrote, in my opinion, the definitive book on the D-Day invasion. It's the most in depth book about the war I've ever read. It's fantastic. It gives an even greater appreciation of what these American heroes did 65 years ago.

Ambrose did more to showcase the individual soldiers than any other author of the time. Citizen Soldiers is a great example of this. It gave me greater insight of what these men went through to defend our country against Germany and Japan. There was supposed to be a version set in the Pacific theatre but Ambrose passed away before it could be completed. It's a shame that we can't get any more fantastic books from this great author. If you have any interest in World War II, these books are must reads.