Books

[StefanM]

Hi all,

My partial reference book list which I have limited to English language editions only. It is a mix of out-of-print and more recent

— Cazalet, V.A., With Sikorski to Russia, London, 1942.
— Chapman, Guy, Why France Collapsed, London, 1968.
— Ciechanowski, Jan, The Warsaw Rising of 1944, Cambridge, 2002.
— Cienciala, Anna M., Lebedeva. Natalia S., Materski, Wojciech, (editors), Katyn A Crime Without Punishment, New Haven, 2007.
— Coutovidis, John and Reynolds, Jaime, Poland 1939-1947, Leicester, 1986.
— Davies, Norman, Europe At War 1939-1945, No Simple Victory, London, 2006.
— Davies, Norman, God’s Playground, A History of Poland, vol. II, New York,1982.
— Davies, Norman, Rising ’44 ‘The Battle for Warsaw’, London, 2004.
— Erickson, John, The Road to Stalingrad, London, 1975.
_ Fiedler, Arkady, Squadron 303, London, 1943.
— Fest, Joachim, Hitler, London, 1977.
— Foot, Michael R.D., Resistance, London, 1976.
— Garliński, Józef, Fighting Auschwitz, London, 1975.
— Garliński, Józef, Hitler’s Last Weapons, London, 1978.
— Garliński, Józef, Intercept, London, 1979.
— Garliński, Józef, Poland in the Second World War, London, 1975.
— Garliński, Józef, Poland, SOE and the Allies, London, 1969.
— Garliński, Józef, The Swiss Corridor, London, 1981.
— Hawes, Stephen and White, Ralph (editors), Resistance in Europe: 1939-1945, London, 1975.
— Hinsley, F.H et al, British Intelligence in the Second World War, volumes I and II, London, 1979 -1981.
— Iraneck-Osmecki, George, The unseen and silent; adventure from the underground movement narrated by paratroops of the Polish Home Army, N.Y. & London, 1954
— Irving, David, The Death of General Sikorski, London, 1967.
— Judt, Tony, Postwar. A History of Europe Since 1945, London, 2005.
— Keegan, John, The Second World War, London, 1989.
— Kemp, Peter, No Colours or Crest, London, 1958.
— Korboński, Stefan, Fighting Warsaw, New York, 2004.
— Koskodan, Kenneth, K, No Greater Ally. The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in WWII, Botley, 2009.
— Langer, Rulka, The Mermaid and the Messerschmitt: War Through a Woman's Eyes, 1939-1940, London, 2009.
— Leslie, R.F., Polonsky, Antony, Ciechanowski, Jan M., Pełczyński, Z.A., The History of Poland since 1863, Cambridge, 1980.
— Lukas, Richard C, Forgotten Holocaust—the Poles under German Occupation 1939-1945, New York, 2005.
— Lukowski, Jerzy and Zawadzki, Hubert, A Concise History of Poland, second edition, Cambridge 2006.
— MacDonogh, Giles, After the Reich—The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation, New York, 2007.
— Mawdsley, Evan, Thunder in the East—the Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945, London, 2005.
— Mikołajczyk, Stanisław, The Pattern of Soviet Domination, London, 1948.
— Ney-Krwawicz, Marek, The Polish Home Army 1939-1945, London, 2001.
— Olson, Lynne and Cloud, Stanley, A Question of Honor, New York, 2003.
— Peszke, Michael, Poland’s Navy, New York, 1999.
— Peszke, Michael, The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II, Jefferson North Carolina, 2005.
— Polonsky, Antony, Politics in Independent Poland, 1921-1939, Oxford, 1972.
— Polonsky, Antony (editor), The Great Powers and the Polish Question 1941-45, London, 1976.
— Polonsky, Antony and Drukier, Bolesław, The Beginnings of Communist Rule in Poland, December 1943-June 1945, London, 1980.
— Prażmowska, Anita, Britain and Poland 1939-1943 — The Betrayed Ally, Cambridge, 1995.
— Prażmowska, Anita, Civil War in Poland, 1942-1948, Basingstoke, 2004.
— Prażmowska, Anita, Britain, Poland and the Eastern Front, 1939, Cambridge, 1987.
— Raczyński, Edward, The British-Polish Alliance, London, 1948
— Rees, Laurence, World War Two Behind Closed Doors, London, 2008.
— Reitlinger, Gerard, The Final Solution, London, 1971.
— Salmonowicz, Stanisław, Ney-Krwawicz, Marek and Górski, Grzegorz, Polskie Pańswto Podziemne, Polish Underground State, Warsaw, 1999.
— Schellenberg, Walter, The Schellenberg Memoirs, London, 1956.
— Seale, Patrick and McConville, Maureen, Philby, The Long Road to Moscow, London, 1973.
— Slessor, John, The Central Blue, London, 1956.
— Speer, Albert, Inside The Third Reich, London, 1971.
— Sword, Keith (editor), Sikorski: Soldier and Statesman—A Collection of Essays, London, 1990.
— Walker, Jonathan, Poland Alone: Britain, SOE and the Collapse of the Polish Resistance, 1944, Stroud, 2008.
— Waydenfeld, Stefan, The Ice Road: An Epic Journey from the Stalinist Labour Camps to Freedom, Edinburgh, 1999.
— Wilkinson, Peter, Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative, London, 2002.
— Williamson, David G., Poland Betrayed. The Nazi-Soviet Invasions 1939, Barnsley, 2009.
— Zaloga, Steven J, Poland 1939 The Birth of Blitzkrieg, Botley, 2002.
— Zamoyski, Adam The Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in World War II, Barnsley, 2009.
— Zawodny, Janusz, Death in the Forest, London, 1971.
— Zawodny, Janusz, Nothing But Honor, London, 1978.

[dorava]

Peszke, Michael, The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II, Jefferson North Carolina, 2005.

what did you think of this one?
D

[dorava]

Iraneck-Osmecki, George, The unseen and silent; adventure from the underground movement narrated by paratroops of the Polish Home Army, N.Y. and London, 1954

and this one?


maybe rather than lists, it would be helpful to identify the good ones.....
thank you
D

[dorava]

The Defence of Poland(sept 39)}by Neugerbauer
is a very good one on the 39 campaign

[dorava]

another thing is that we should seperate the reference books from historical books,,

for example

Sawickis two books

Odznaki Wojska Polskiego 1918-1945

a must have for anyone who is at all serious about collecting

and also his
Dokumenty I Odznaki Wojska Polskiego
1918-1945

both very good reference books
D

[StefanM]

Peszke, Michael, The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II, Jefferson North Carolina, 2005.

what did you think of this one?
D

His research is very thorough and his rigorously objective approach is admirable but his work can tend be heavy reading for the non-acedemic reader (like me) but great for reference

Peszke does not fall into the usual trap of either blaming Britain or the US (or both) for Poland's prediciment without looking at Poland's own political failings, of which there were many. So IMO he presents a more balanced picture of events and outcomes.

[StefanM]

Iraneck-Osmecki, George, The unseen and silent; adventure from the underground movement narrated by paratroops of the Polish Home Army, N.Y. and London, 1954

and this one?

If you can only read English and you can find a copy on the second hand market and you are interested in memoir accounts of cichociemni buy it !! It is without doubt the best collection of cichociemni stories ever compiled, and was written when these events were still fresh in mind and in some cases the cichociemni fight was still going on in Poland!

Bellona of Warsaw have recently republished the Polish language edition Drogi Cichociemnych which was first published by Bellona in 1993 based on the 1973 Polish edition published in London. The differences between the only English edtion ever printed of 1954 and later Polish editions published in London is the real names of the cichociemny were published and also the names of the instructors and some other 'flights' information etc., This was not possible in 1954 as many cichociemny still had families in Poland who might have been at risk of arrest if the names had been published in '54.

A 'mini' A6 size two volume edition of Drogi Cichociemnych which was a 'banned book' under the communists but was was clandestinely published by the underground 'Kurs' press in 1985-6. This was based on the 1973 Polish edition published in London... but you will need a magnifying glass to read it

This is the Bellona edition which you can buy online from any of the major Polish online stores such as Empik and Merlin etc.,

[dorava]

Iraneck-Osmecki, George, The unseen and silent;}

expensive book
the least expensive copy is $200

I have already ordered the
Silent and Unseen. I was a Polish WWII special ops commando
by Baluk Stefan

many thanks for the recommendations!
D

[StefanM]

Any recommendations of memoir books (English or Polish) on the anti-communist resistance in the early post war period?

[3 DSK]

Please allow me to say that this is one of the best threads on all the forums. I will add some titles published in the UK regarding specific units.

The historian inside of me is thrilled of joy