Books to read for IL2?

[Shawn]

Very recently, the title of 'The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was suggested as reading. It is relevant here because it was authored by a French WW2 pilot who lost his life during the war. It is an enormously successful book.... but it is in no way directly related to the war. It is still a classic work well worth the read.

Some months back, I read 'The Big Show' by Pierre Clostermann. He was a Frenchman who flew for the RAF. He did survive the war and recounted his diary that he had kept up so that his parents would know about his life as a pilot when he died (he did not believe he would survive the war). I found it to be a very compelling, and tragic, book.

Any other suggestions?

[shadowgravy]

A lot of suggestions here:
https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/threads/looking-for-suggestions-on-good-wwii-pilot-books.51197/

One of the few pilot autobiographies I've read is "An Ace of the Eighth: An American Fighter Pilot's Air War in Europe" by Norman J. Fortier. I recommend it if you are playing Battle of Normandy or even Battle of Bodenplatte and you'd like a P-47/P-51 driver's perspective.

[cleopa9]

From a German perspective, Stuka pilot (Rudel) is a good read. It was almost mandatory reading for A10 pilots supposedly, but maybe this is just a rumor. Excellent book nonetheless. He was a true nazi, it is known, but a hell of a good pilot. Being Canadian, I think Malta Spitfire (Beurling) is quite good too. Of course, "Le grand cirque " (The big show) is a classic.

[Indigenous 🌎]

May I humbly suggest a few of my personal favorites, in no specific order:

Lydia Litvyak, Soviet Woman Who Became World War II’s Most Successful Female Fighter Pilot.
The Blond knight of Germany, Toliver & Constable (story of the highest scoring ace, Erich Hartmann)

Fly for your Life, Forrester (war saga of Robert Stanford Tuck)
Reach for the Sky (war saga of Douglas Bader)
The First and the Last, Adolf Galland

Stuka Pilot, by Hans Ulrich Rudel
Horrido, by Toliver & Constable (Compilation of Luftwaffe Aces)
Tale of a Guinea Pig, by Page

I Flew for the Fuhrer, by Heinz Knoke
Red Star Against the Swastika, by Emelianenko (Soviet pilot in an IL-2)

Fork-Tailed Devil: The P-38, and
Flying Forts, by Caidin.

Enemy Coast Ahead, by Guy Gibson
Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War Against Germany, by Loza.

Stalin's Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea
Star of Africa, Heaton, et al. (story of Hans-Joachim Marseille)

The excellent, but expensive, series called, Black Cross Red Star--Air War over the Eastern Front, by Christer Bergstrom. This series is incredibly well researched, with rare photos, and an assortment of colored plane profiles.

Although some of these books don't deal specifically with time periods in IL-2, they do fill in some of the voids.

Although, my all-time favorite air war book, Samurai, by Saburo Sakai, et al., is in the Pacific, it is a superb book, with a rare look into the Japanese pilot perspective. Well worth the effort.

Some fiction books, such as the 633 Squadron series, by Frederick E. Smith, or a Piece of Cake, and Damned Good Show, by Derek Robinson (and others by him, as well as, WWI Goshawk Squadron, for example).

St. Ex is great, so too, Clostermann!

[longcheck]

All excellent suggestions and may I add "Helmut Lipfert's War Diary" which chronicles his experience with JG52. There are too many to list.

[<Blank />]

This thread deserves sticky ^^

[Kuban8]

'JG7 - The World's First Jet Fighter Unit 1944-1945, Manfred Boehme, 1992., translated from the German by David Johnston. An excellent book with rare photos. Tells just why the Germans never did effectively use the extraordinary weapon they had with the ME262.

[cleopa9]

If you want to globally know more about aces of WW2, Osprey's "Aircraft of the Aces" series is very interesting. It consists of short (95-98 pages) well illustrated and well documented books written by experts in aviation history; they cover briefly the careers of those who "made ace" flying a specific plane or type of plane. There is also, from Osprey, a series about Elite Units that is as good. Those series, quite obviously, do not have the depth of a biography / autobiography, but the historian in you will appreciate. I just love Osprey Publishing; I own 50 of their books. The authors are just extremely knowledgeable. My present read is about the kamikaze campaign (yes, there is also a series about specific campaigns and theaters of war) and it is fascinating. A lot of info condensed within 95 pages; this is incredible. More technical books about the development of certain planes are also available from Osprey (I recently completed a book about the He177 and it was very informative).

[Shawn]

Thanks for the suggestions! (and the sticky)

[longcheck]

"Thunderbolt" by Robert S Johnson, "To Fly and Fight" (P51) by Bud Anderson, and Pursue and Destroy (P51) by Leonard "Kit" Carson. As with Clostermann, you'll fly in the pilots' seats.

[BRIMStone]

not a WWII historical book, but still a very interesting read, and helpful, is "in pursuit"...a pdf made originally for WWII online, but also of course applicable to IL-2...

https://wiki.wwiionline.com/images/5/50/Ww2_online_inpursuit.pdf

[Rittmeister]

For German Readers:

Die Ersten und die Letzten Memorys from A Galland
Holt Hartmann vom Himmel "Bubi Hartmann" Ace of the Aces
Rudolf Braunburg: Der Verratene Himmel. Novel written by an FW190 Pilot until the End of WW II a lot of Techmic Stuff written from a "Normal" Pilot in this Times.

[capitan Ty-Ty]

Memoirs of a Kamikaze.Kazuo Odachi (back in 2005 original il-2 Sturmovik actually had Pacific Theatre campaigns. That game was much cooler than this... damn I miss those days)

[WilhelM240i]

Gallands book is best. It shows the truth and explains everything. Why someone wins and why someone looses, on a neutral base! i read books about ww2 since 40 yeaars and this book is one of the best.

[longcheck]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26889778-the-kamikaze-hunters

I cannot recall how many times I have "died" in BOS, but this story doesn't recount a game. It is excellent, very poignant and difficult to put down.

[moyer4487]

the forgotten soldier. a german grunt fighting on the eastern front during the war. its ground combat though. its a great book but very intense and terrifying if u can imagine yourself in this dudes shoes. how he survived the war is a miracle itself. its also grapahic. its worth reading. Guy Sajer is the author.