Reddit reviews The Story of World War II: Revised, expanded, and updated from the original text by Henry Steele Commanger

Not really... there are a ton of accounts of the war, both from soldiers and from civilians. Go to your local library and have a look around. The Russians were amazing in the war and don't get nearly enough credit, at least as far as I was taught in America.

Here's my favorite quote of all the documents I've read about WW2, spoken by a Red Army soldier from Kirghizia during the siege of Stalingrad:

>The city is tired, the house is tired, the stones are tired. We are not tired.

This was when Hitler was literally trying to destroy the city--not just capture it, or overtake it, but destroy it. Entirely. He ordered that every man in the city be killed (this was literally his exact order), and the women "deported", most likely to death camps. His primary reason for such destruction at the cost of millions of men's lives, including his own soldiers? The city's name.

Here's the quote of a German corporal writing home to his father about Russians in Stalingrad:

>Father, it's impossible to describe what is happening here. Everyone in Stalingrad who still possesses a head and hands, women as well as men, carries on fighting.

The true horrors of WW2 occurred on the Eastern front. But, the Pacific front was perhaps filled with the most disgusting, sadistic moments--especially if you include the 2nd Sino-Japanese war (Japanese occupation of mainland Asia, specifically China, where the Rape of Nanking happened). The Bataan Death March alone stands as a record of how terrible the Japanese military was.

Here's a (truncated) quote from Lester Tenney, an American soldier who was in the Death March, taken from the book The Story of World War II by Donald L. Miller, a book mostly comprised of quotations from people who experienced the war. The previous two quotes were also quoted in this book. Here's one of Tenney's stories (he tells quite a few about the march):

>On that fifth day of the march, I witnessed one of the most sadistic and inhumane incidents of the entire march... the guard ordered us to stand up and start walking. One of the men had a very bad case of malaria... When ordered to stand up, he could not do it. Without a minute's hesitation, the guard hit him over the head with the butt of his gun, knocked him down, then called for two nearby prisoners to dig a hole to bury the fallen prisoner. The two men started digging, and when the hole was about a foot deep, the guard ordered the two men to place the sick man in the hole and bury him alive. The two men shook their heads; they could not do that...

>Without warning... the guard shot the bigger of the two prisoners. He then pulled two more men from the line and ordered them to dig another hole to bury the murdered man... They dug the second hole, placed the two bodies in the holes, and threw dirt over them. The first man, still alive, started screaming as the dirt was thrown on him..."

He goes on to tell stories about decapitation, random killings, and even an officer on a horse who rides along the line swinging his sword in an attempt to decapitate random prisoners--including nearly killing Tenney himself. All of this, however, is nothing compared to the Japanese in mainland Asia, but I don't have anything on hand to quote from.

This is the kind of stuff that really should be read, and the kind of stories that must be told, because there's no way to say "war is bad" without describing, in detail, why. It's like telling a toddler not to touch a hot stove... without knowing the truth of the feeling, it can't be understood.

If you want to read more about life in the war, check out "The Good War" by Studs Terkel, which is entirely comprised of interviews with survivors of the war, families of soldiers, regular civilians during the war, etc. Gives a great portrait of every aspect of life during that time, not just the battles themselves. It doesn't give enough about the Eastern front, however, which is disappointing to me.

If you're curious about how absolutely ludicrous the Eastern front, notably the Russians, were, check out Ivan's War by Catherine Merridale. Absolutely fascinating. Also, listen to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History series about it. Really well presented and, though long, never boring. It's free on iTunes, under the podcast listings.

edit - Spelling, grammar, etc.

edit 2 - Forgot to mention that if you don't like non-fiction and haven't read All Quiet On The Western Front, this is basically a story designed to "stop war" by telling of its atrocities. Though I think it's technically fiction, the author was in the war (WWI in this case, and on the German side) and bases the story on his own/the others soldiers he served with's experiences. The scene where the narrator returns home on leave made me cry my eyes out. Short book but very powerful.

Nope, but I on Thursday I finished a 650 page book about the WW2 experience. That should count for at least something. Anyways, the wish for this such wounds was repeated by multiple soldiers on multiple fronts and made to sound like it was a common sentiment. Here's a link if you're interested.