List Challenges
Travel Movies Books Food Other
Sign In
Trending
New
Popular
type to search
Sign In
 Make a List Browse Lists Search Lists Leaders Help / Contact Newsletter

The Good War: Great Fiction About World War II

Since the 1950s and early 1960s, World War II-set popular historical fiction has become a publishing staple and has just about become its own genre. Here are 74 representative novels (and 1 play), selected by a maverick lit. teacher and WWII buff. Some are major literary works. Others are well-done , large scale best- sellers. Still others are turgid melodramas filled with violence, sex, and controversy designed to boost sales. Many of the books here are thrillers, romances, and action/adventure stories; others are serious, smaller scale works, like " The Beardless Warriors" and "Beach Red", that were well done, well received, and are now unjustly forgotten. Finally, some are just unclassifiable. Fiction related to the Holocaust has been excluded; it deserves and requires a list of its own. The list is in no way meant to be definitive or comprehensive; as always, it is personal, subjective, and idiosyncratic.
243 users · 1,420 views
 
made by James Loranger
avg. score: 4 of 75 (5%)
required scores: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 

Vote to Rank List Items

Vote items up or down - login not required
#1
Across the River and Into the Trees
0
0
0
#2
All Clear (Connie Willis)
0
0
0
#3
All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
0
0
0
#4
And Save Them for Pallbearers (James Garrett)
0
0
0
#5
Atonement (Ian McEwan)
0
0
0
#6
Battle Cry (Leon Uris)
0
0
0
#7
Beach Red (Peter Bowman)
0
0
0
#8
The Beardless Warriors (Richard Matheson)
0
0
0
#9
A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
0
0
0
#10
The Big Pickup (Trevor)
0
0
0
#11
Blackout (Connie Willis)
0
0
0
#12
The Bridge Over the River Kwai (Pierre Boulle)
0
0
0
#13
The Caine Mutiny (Herman Wouk)
0
0
0
#14
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
0
0
0
#15
Command Decision (Haines)
0
0
0
#16
Court of Honour (Taylor)
0
0
0
#17
Crack of Doom (Willi Heinrich)
0
0
0
#18
Cross of Iron (Willi Heinrich)
0
0
0
#19
The Cruel Sea (Nicholas Monsarrat)
0
0
0
#20
Dark Voyage (Furst)
0
0
0
#21
Das Boot (Lothar Gunther Buchheim)
0
0
0
#22
The Dirty Dozen (E. M. Nathanson)
0
0
0
#23
Don't Go Near the Water (William Brinkley)
0
0
0
#24
The Eagle Has Landed
0
0
0
#25
Empire of the Sun
0
0
0
#26
The Expendable Spy (Hunter)
0
0
0
#27
Eye of the Needle
0
0
0
#28
Force 10 From Navarone (MacLean)
0
0
0
#29
From Here to Eternity
0
0
0
#30
The Good Shepherd (C.S.Forester)
0
0
0
#31
HMS Ulysses (MacLean)
0
0
0
#32
Gunner Asch Tetrology (Kirst)
0
0
0
#33
The Guns of Navarone (MacLean)
0
0
0
#34
Harm's Way (Bassett)
0
0
0
#35
Hero in the Tower (Kirst)
0
0
0
#36
The Hill (Rigby)
0
0
0
#37
The Human Kind (Baron)
0
0
0
#38
Into the Valley: A Skirmish of the Marines (John Hersey)
0
0
0
#39
Jackdaws
0
0
0
#40
The Key to Rebecca
0
0
0
#41
King Rat (James Clavell)
0
0
0
#42
Long and the Short and the Tall (Willis Hall)
0
0
0
#43
The Long Day's Dying (White)
0
0
0
#44
Mister Roberts
0
0
0
#45
The Naked and the Dead (Norman Mailer)
0
0
0
#46
Never So Few (Chamales)
0
0
0
#47
The Night in Lisbon (Erich Maria Remarque)
0
0
0
#48
The Night Is a Time for Listening (West)
0
0
0
#49
The Night of the Generals (Kirst)
0
0
0
#50
A Night of Watching (Arnold)
0
0
0
#51
Once There Was a War (John Steinbeck)
0
0
0
#52
Partisans (MacLean)
0
0
0
#53
The Polish Officer (Furst)
0
0
0
#54
Run Silent, Run Deep (Edward L. Beach)
0
0
0
#55
Sharks and Little Fish (Ott)
0
0
0
#56
The Sixth of June (Lionel Shapiro)
0
0
0
#57
A Soldier's Legacy (Bõll)
0
0
0
#58
Squadron Airborne (Elleston Trevor)
0
0
0
#59
Stella (Jan De Hartog)
0
0
0
#60
Storm Warning (Jack Higgins)
0
0
0
#61
Summer of '42 (Herman Raucher)
0
0
0
#62
Summer of My German Soldier
0
0
0
#63
Tamar (Mal Peet)
0
0
0
#64
The Thin Red Line
0
0
0
#65
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (Erich Maria Remarque)
0
0
0
#66
The Train Was on Time (Bõll)
0
0
0
#67
Twelve O'Clock High (Lay and Bartlett)
0
0
0
#68
Under the Apple Tree (Wakefield)
0
0
0
#69
A Walk in the Sun (Brown)
0
0
0
#70
War and Remembrance
0
0
0
#71
Where Eagles Dare (MacLean)
0
0
0
#72
The Winds of War
0
0
0
#73
The Wolves (Hans Hellmut Kirst)
0
0
0
#74
The World at Night (Alan Furst)
0
0
0
#75
The Young Lions (Irwin Shaw)
0
0
0
Newsletter · Help/Contact · Privacy · Copyright Claim   © 2025 App Spring, Inc. · This product uses the TMDb API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDb.
Seen It - Movies & TV 
Android & iOS
Seen It is a new app from the creators of List Challenges. You can view movies and shows in one place and filter by streaming provider, genre, release year, runtime, and rating (Rotten Tomatoes, Imdb, and/or Metacritic). Also, you can track what you've seen, want to see, like, or dislike, as well as track individual seasons or episodes of shows. In addition, you can see the most watched/liked stuff amongst your friends. Learn more at SEENIT.FUN