Book Review Micro Book Reviews

Title: Tobruk


Author: Peter Fitzsimons


Publisher: Harper Collins, 2006.


Quick Review: Apologies first off as this may not be a quick review. This is a book I struggled with but persevered as others have mentioned that Fitzsimons’s had access to General Morshead’s letters and I felt they may be of significance. I should state that I am not a fan of Fitzsimons’s books, even though I have been told umpteen times that they appeal to people who would otherwise not read a history book and are therefore good for that reason.

I have two main problems with this book. Firstly, this book is too big. The book is 580 pages long, 525 if you don’t include the endnotes, bibliography and index. Of those 580 pages we don’t get to the Siege until around 120 pages into the book. This makes the book quite a turgid read as I really didn’t need to know every detail about Hitler’s coming to power and the events of the Nazi Party leading to the war, Mussolini’s background leading up to Italy’s entry into the war and a cast of other characters who all appear later in the book to a greater or lesser extent. Fitzsimon’s writes in his introduction that he likes his books to have a “novel like feel”. That may be his intention but parts of the book read more like a screenplay for a Costner like epic. There is a lot of repetition, particularly of Jack Edmondson’s mother. Her dreams, the cat, the dog and her pining for her only son, missing him at Easter, missing him on the farm- I get it! It is a sad story but please make it shorter.

The second problem I have is Fitzsimons’s writing style and language. I understand that digger’s spoke in a colourful tongue and used many colloquialisms and I expect that any historian would quote that language to support a case in a book. The problem is that Fitzsimons’s adopts that tone within his own writing and many of his sentences end up sounding like they were taken from a 1970’s Barry Mackenzie movie. The fighting men become Jerry’s, Pommies, Ities and diggers and the Aussies actions become fair dinkum amazing! Get a load of that Bluey! It becomes annoying and the author doesn’t speak like that in reality.

Similarly Fitzsimons’s adopts the Anzac tone a little too freely and simplistically and falls easily into jingoism. Writing of Jack Edmondson and the 2/17th Battalion’s fighting retreat at Er Regima Pass Fitzsimons writes “..the Germans always seemed to pick Sundays for their special atrocities, and whenever there was trouble the British always seemed to throw the Australians into the toughest situations, using them as cannon fodder, just as they had done at Gallipoli”. That seems to be drawing a long bow considering British and Indian units were doing similar things as they retreated towards Tobruk and the Australians were doing what they had trained for. Hardly Gallipoli, but why let the truth get in the way.

The problem is that by writing so long a book in this style Fitzsimons pretty much kills what is the bones of a very good book. Certainly he kept his researchers busy, travelled extensively himself interviewing and meeting with veterans, including many Afrika Korps veterans. He lays a detailed story out well then smashes it with a sledgehammer.

Overall I found the book a frustrating read. Oddly, I found the last hundred or so pages the best in the book. In these chapters he described what eventually happened to Tobruk after the Australians had left and the fates of the many men he had described. I probably learnt more in this section of the book than the preceding 400 pages. I learnt that General Morshead’s funeral was the biggest seen in Sydney at the time and that the Afrika Korps men who returned to Germany post-war were the only German soldiers allowed to have re-unions. There is some sadness that they were forgotten and their achievements not recognised, although I am sure the mood in post-war Germany was the reason for this.

Maybe I’m just not part of the author’s target audience. Not the first book I would recommend about Tobruk but some useful insights regardless. Bigger is not always better.


Rating out of 5: 2.5

 

Title: The War, the Whores and the Afrika Korps

Author: Jack Barber

Publisher: Kangaroo Press, 1997

Quick Review: A short succinct account of the raising and training of 2/17th Battalion AIF and their experiences at Palestine and Tobruk told by a soldier who was there. The book opens with a description of Barber’s return to the Western Desert on the 50th Anniversary of El Alamein. Very much like the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, Jack Barber visits the grave of his mate Charlie Bell who fell in the Sailent during June 1941 before moving back to his pre-war life, enlistment and war experiences. Strangely for a soldier who went on to serve at El Alamein and New Guinea no mention is made of this- perhaps he was planning another book.

This is a very honest and well written account of events viewed at ground level. There is little talk of strategy or why they were there. This book focuses on daily life- dodging the sun, sledging the cook, fighting the Germans and getting up to a few adventures when not up in the front line. A favourite episode is Barber’s description of locating the wreck of one of the last of the RAF Hurricanes shot down, removing the Browning machine guns and taking them to a Light Aid Detachment. They planned on mounting both the guns on a base but the men of the LAD told them they would not be able to control it. The LAD men returned it to them a few days later, a single machine gun on a mount, which they set up near a bridge awaiting the Stukas. I won’t spoil the story.

A good account of what it was like for a very young Australian soldier during the Siege of Tobruk. If I had a criticism it would be that Barber avoided using specific dates, generalising the timeline to some extent.

Rating out of 5: 4

 

Title: Across An Angry Sea: The SAS In the Falklands War
Author: Lieutenant General Sir Cedric Delves
Publisher: C. Hurst & Co., London, 2018

This is not a history of the SAS in the Falklands. It is an account--a good one--of the activities of D Squadron 22 SAS during the conflict as seen through the eyes of its commanding officer. It is also not heavily focused on the actual physical fighting; instead, we have a loyal portrait of the whole experience as it was viewed from Squadron HQ. This is its strength. Events are mostly narrated not via strict chronology, but at the time and in the sequence that they became known to the author and his close colleagues. The few occasions on which this template is not adhered to are the early flashbacks to pre-war activities (which work), and the brief digression into the strategic decisions being taken further up the chain of command (which feels supplementary).

There certainly is a fair amount being described from the sharp-end, the author having been skimming the sea in helicopters and frequently there on the ground firing, but the narrative more often comes back to his personal decision-making process--the toing and froing between competing options--and what concerns prejudiced certain outcomes over others. The conclusion, very often, once the non-starters had been eliminated from consideration, was that it was impossible for him to say that one option was objectively sounder than another; in these cases, Delves and his men often went with their gut intuition, that being assumed to be a reliable product of their training. While the author does once or twice interlard the text with terms from foreign military philosophers, these feel like ex post facto explanations for the SAS's own more practical maxims. I would probably have cut them.

There is much on the psychological impact of specific news, events and intelligence on the morale of the commander and his men (all plausibly described), and Delves seems to have been correspondingly very alert to the probable impact of British moves on the Argentines' own will to act; in fact, many of the operations staged by the unit had as their objective the deterrence of specific enemy courses of action and the sowing of seeds of doubt in the minds of enemy commanders.

One of the things that I gained from the book, not having a special interest in special forces, was the SAS's place in the chain of command--or their lack of an established one in this case. While most of the task-force sailed for the South Atlantic with only a very broad conception of what they were going to do when they arrived, this seems to have been especially true of the SAS. Flexibility, yes, but to a surprising degree. Delves more or less seems to have decided to place himself at the disposal of Sandy Woodward (whom he admired greatly) and treat him as the supreme commander of the whole venture, even when it became clear that he wasn't; similarly, even after Maj-Gen Moore arrived with 5 BDE (and he is given respect but some of the blame for the enforced pause at San Carlos), Delves and others continued to treat Brigadier Thompson (3 CDO BDE) as 'the boss' and let him deal with the niceties of formal approval. The repeating picture is one of Delves and his men hitching lifts, borrowing bunks, picking up kit on the move and 'pitching' possible initiatives to whoever seemed to have either the authority or the materiel to permit them to take place! Michael Rose, commander 22 SAS (highly praised by Delves), seems to have been doing much the same thing but at a significantly higher level. This mirrors the picture presented in Max Hastings' sketch of him in his own book (reviewed briefly by me on this thread). Hastings also provides the foreword to this book and even features in one amusing scene.

As to specifics, the squadron's major operations were undertaken on South Georgia, Pebble Island (most famously), West Falkland and Mount Kent, but there was plenty of other work between. Much of it was based on intelligence fed down to the unit from Michael Rose, and their various schemes were usually intended to allow the unit to influence the broader strategic picture with specific pinpoint actions--punching above their weight, if you like. The early operations in particular were quite exciting to read about, and Delves' deep admiration for the Royal Navy helicopter pilots and their coolness in absurdly sticky spots is contagious.

Finally, despite having had 'a good war' and gone on to high command, the author makes no bones about his errors and the consequences of them. While, as mentioned above, there is much contextualisation of why and how those errors came about, Delves isn't afraid of damning his younger self with adjectives as strong as 'emotional', 'foolish' and 'unprofessional'; a good number of times the reader is given a phenomenologically themed sketch of how the author viewed the situation on the ground, a sketch that is then gradually unpicked as one by one his assumptions turn out to be wrong. I have read previously that the joint SAS-SBS operation in support of 2 PARA's assault on Wireless Ridge was a shambles; it appears that this was indeed the case, but the reasons for that are interesting and well described here.

One minor criticism is that although I thought Chapter Eleven, that briefly covers the reactions of family members and of RHQ in the UK to the deaths of a number of the men in a helicopter crash, was well-written and valuable, it should have been placed elsewhere, perhaps at the end. This, in my view, was an editorial error. The book also ends rather abruptly, but I've decided that I quite like that; it sticks with the subjective narrative template and reflects the squadron's own surprise that the last big operation they were anticipating was not going to be required after all.

There are a few moments of good humour. I shan't spoil them all, but my favorite was on Mount Kent. One of the troops has picked up an Argentine wandering around, likely a commando, seemingly lost, after a contact the previous night. The man irritates everybody by repeatedly trying to walk off and ignoring orders, so Delves instructs a Spanish-speaker with him to tell him off. Said man wags his finger at the surly prisoner and reels off with a Latin flourish:

"Para usted, mi amigo, la Guerra es terminado'

(For you, my friend, the war is over)

Decent maps but no photos, complete glossary and index, supplementary appendix on weapons and equipment.

Rating out of 5: 4.5

 

Title: Tiger 131: From Africa to Europe


Author: Bruce Oliver Newsome PHD


Publisher/Year/ISBN (optional) : Tank Archives Press 2020, 978-1951171063, History and Science


Quick review: The first complete story from both sides of how Tiger 131 was captured in April 1943, in Tunisia. I was amazed to read that Tiger 131 had probably fought for two days against parts of four battalions of tanks and six battalions of infantry before it succumbed. The book takes the story through its recovery, demonstrations, delayed shipping, intelligence exploitation, and the failure to get the intelligence to the troops. The book tells how Allied intelligence tracked Tigers in Sicily, Italy, Normandy, and Germany, and concludes with the fate of the captured Tigers. An interesting insight is that Tiger 131 was probably the Tiger featured in a British film about Arnhem, produced in 1945 to 1946. An impressive tour de force, with plenty of reading material.


Rating out of 5: 5

 

dreadful book, like all James Holland

 

Title: Afrikakorps Diary 2021


Author:

Publisher/Year/ISBN (optional) : 978-1951171155, https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1951171152

Quick review: The Afrikakorps diary from 1942, adjusted to 2021.


Rating out of 5: 5

 

Title: Tobruk, The Great Siege Reassessed.

Author: Frank Harrison

Publisher: Brockhampton Press, 1996

Quick Review: I finally managed to get through Frank Harrison’s Tobruk- the Great Siege Reassessed and feel like I should read it again as it contains a lot of detail. Harrison writes in the introduction that it is a book in three parts- the story of the Australian 9th Division, the story of the British 70th Division and an appraisal of Rommel in 1941. There is actually a fourth part upon which the story starts and ends, that being Harrison’s personal story of his time at Tobruk with a small group of fellow signallers attached to the Tobruk Tank Brigade during the Siege. The strange part about this being that Harrison touches upon many personal experiences within the text at odd times and yet oddly doesn’t reveal a lot about himself to the extent that there is only one picture of Harrison within the book, that being an IWM photo of the HQ ACV in action with the author’s back turned to the camera.

He may well have been shy but as the book was published in 1996 he had plenty of time to research his own book and pay critical attention to the work of other authors. I am familiar now with the role of the AIF during the Siege and Harrison gives a good overview of their time there and in particular of General Morshead, who Harrison felt really had the wood over Rommel. The second part of the book looks at the role of 70th Division and the TOBFORCE break out. Harrison does the division justice and pays a lot of attention to the actions of the artillery and tank men who were in many cases unsung heroes. This was the section of the book I need to read more about as I became a little lost in the detail.

The final section is an appraisal of Rommel’s performance in the desert up to the end of 1941 and as much as Harrison respected Rommel he was very aware of his rash side, in fact he considered him a killer of his own generals early on in the campaign. I can’t help but think that some of the criticisms of Rommel in Fitzsimons book originated from Harrison’s analysis. All up this is a good book but probably not the best introductory read to Tobruk. I took a fair bit away from the book to think about.

Rating out of 5: 4.5

 

Title: Run The Gauntlet- The Channel Dash 1942

Author: Ken Ford

Publisher: Osprey Publishing, 2012


Quick Review: This is a relatively short book at eighty pages but I found it to be a good introduction to the ‘Channel Dash’. It is brief but looks at the planning of both the British and Germans in a logical way. I wasn’t aware of the German preparations, particularly those of the wonderfully named head of the Luftwaffe Signals, General Wolfgang Martini, who cunningly devised a plan to jam British radar stations over a long period of time before the dash. This book covers the German preparations well.


The Germans seemed to gain all the luck in the dash and the British seemed to be up against it from the outset. The book covers the plans for Operation Fuller in a bit more detail than the German side and the author makes some good points in the conclusion. Yes a lot of British men and materiel were wasted trying to stop the dash and yes the Germans were lucky and made a lot of noise about their success, but ultimately they just tied themselves up in a port closer to home and didn’t increase the threat to allied shipping or the Royal Navy.


Another point the author makes is that of the ineffectiveness of bombing by RAF Bomber Command. He mentions that during the inquiry into the failure of Operation Fuller that Air Vice Marshal Baldwin had admitted that armour-piercing bombs needed to be dropped from 7,000 feet to be effective and that all he expected of his bombers was for them to distract the enemy ships whilst the torpedo bombers and destroyers did the damage. The RAF bombers were particularly ineffective during the operation, which goes against the main reason why the British capital ships weren’t involved- fear of bombers. I guess they didn’t have a crystal ball.


A short but informative book.


Rating out of 5: 4

 

Title: Marching To Captivity- The War Diaries of a French Peasant 1939-45

Author: Gustave Folcher (Translated by Christopher Hill)

Publisher: Brassey’s, 1996

Quick Review: This is a book I started reading tentatively and ended up enjoying considerably. This is mainly due to the author’s perspective and the clarity of his writing- he was a very good observer of what was occurring around him.

Gustave Folcher was a French ‘peasant’ who wrote this account of his six years of captivity, drawing largely upon small diaries he kept during those years. The word ‘peasant’ I feel is used quite loosely here and a better term might be agricultural worker, for, although he had worked on the land since age thirteen, his writing is very clear and concise and he obviously had some education.

He writes early in the book that unlike his comrades he didn’t like playing cards during any free time that came his way, so he started writing a book. Most of the early sections of the book describing the Battle for France are very immediate, whereas there are later sections of his time in captivity where you can clearly see that they were written at a later date, possibly to protect the author if the diaries had been found.

The book starts in August 1939 when Folcher was called up to the 12th Zouaves, whom he describes as an Algerian regiment. He had completed his military service during 1930-31, so I assume he was a reservist. His regiment travels initially to the north east corner of France, just behind the Maginot Line, where they seem to spend weeks just marching around literally in a large circle. Folcher is moved to the machine gun section of his unit, but at no stage does he ever express any confidence in the French soldiers or those commanding them that they have the ability to push the Germans back. Once the Germans do attack France, Folcher’s unit is continually on the retreat and the suspense in this section of the book is added to by his descriptions of constant air attack and artillery fire upon him and his fellow soldiers. He describes the deaths of several of his friends just before he was captured by the Germans during the fighting around Sedan.

Folcher and his comrades were transported to Germany, where he elected to do farm work in the village of Schorstedt, near Stendal. They work in a Kommando on a small farm where they are guarded, although towards the later stage of the war it seems they are largely left on their own and are directed by a farmer. They strike up friendships with the Germans and keep themselves occupied with work and their cooking. It is clear that they miss France and he makes some clear observations about the differences between French and German people and is very critical of the prisoner exchanges the Vichy Government introduced whereby French workers electing to move to Germany would free up French soldiers and allow them to return home. Folcher didn’t want a bar of that and was happy to remain a prisoner.

The final section of the book I found the most interesting, where, through Folcher’s eyes you can see the decline of the Reich over time. The village he is kept at becomes more and more involved in the war as the night bombing raids turn into daylight raids, news is heard that the Allies have landed in France and finally the Americans arrive in the village and appoint Folcher and his friends to guard over the German citizens and fleeing German soldiers.

The captive becomes the captor in Folcher’s case and he displays a lot of humanity towards the Germans before returning home to France. His observations of the fall of Germany are insightful and I particularly liked this section on Nazi indoctrination as he approached some young captive Germans-

“In this column there are some oldsters, but the majority are youngish, idolising Hitler, and they slept in the uniform of the Hitler Youth, little bayonets at their side, before becoming soldiers, and only dreamed of even greater conquests, promised by their God Adolf. I talked with some of them this morning. Many were hardly more than 15 years old, others 16 or 17. They had been soldiers for three or four weeks. Two told me their stories, they were crying. Four weeks ago they were at home, near to their mum, and now they’re far from seeing her again. That affects me, I’m touched, but we can’t be doing with sentiment, its war. I asked them why they hadn’t revolted instead of adoring their great Adolf right up to the last minute. They are funny people, it has to be admitted. Although Germany is more or less half overrun at the moment, they don’t want to give in and they continue to resist.

I can hear, as I write, the guns booming, seemingly northwards towards Hamburg. They will resist right up to the last man, they will never give in”.

If I had any criticism of the book it would be that the translation is a little clunky- I’m not sure if Frenchmen called themselves ‘mates’ and ‘blokes’. Minor criticism aside, I found this to be an insightful and well written book about a Frenchman’s war.


Rating out of 5: 4.5

 

Nice review Waddell!

'Mates' and 'blokes' might be loose translations for French colloquial 'copains', 'potes, 'types' ou 'pays' (the latter referring to acquaintances from the same region or village).

The original book in French:
https://www.amazon.fr/carnets-Gustave-Folcher-languedocien-1939-1945/dp/2707132527

Michel

 

Thank you for bringing this title to my attention (or curses for adding another book to my want list )
Great review and very interesting sounding book

 

Title: Venturer Courageous- Leonard Trent V.C, D.F.C.

Author: James Sanders

Publisher: Hutchinson Group Publishing, 1983

Quick Review: Several years ago I completed a few subjects of a Modern History course. It was a bit of a toe in the water, feeling out if it was something I wished to pursue. I ran into a little trouble with a lecturer about being overly descriptive and was told to concentrate more on analysis. At the time I took it on the chin and thought the lecturer a pedant who was overly academic. Having just finished this biography of Group Captain Leonard Trent V.C, D.F.C, I now think that lecturer was right!

First, some details about the book. Venturer Courageous- Group Captain Leonard Trent V.C, D.F.C by James Sanders was published in 1983, three years before Trent’s death. The author was a well-known New Zealand newspaper journalist who also flew as a pilot with RAF Coastal Command during WW2. Wing Commander Laddie Lucas, who wrote the forward to the book, stated that this was important as only someone who had flown could really ‘transmit’ the story and that Sanders was an exceptional writer. Having read the book I disagree with the first point, and whilst acknowledging that Sanders writing is very clear and descriptive, it often felt like I was reading a feature story in a newspaper rather than a good appraisal of Leonard Trent.

Trent had an amazing career. He had joined the RNZAF in 1937 and after qualifying as a pilot he headed to England in 1938 to gain experience with the RAF. He was first posted to 15 Squadron, where he flew Fairy Battles and was sent to France during the Phoney War. In December 1939 the squadron was re-equipped with Blenheim IVs, which Trent flew during the Battle for France and over Dunkirk. After spending time on Douglas Bostons at a training unit he was transferred to the newly formed 487 NZ Squadron, who were equipping with Lockheed Ventura bombers. During a daylight raid in May 1943 on a power station in Holland (Operation Ramrod) his squadron was literally destroyed. Trent was shot down, captured and sent to Stalag Luft III.

At Stalag Luft III, Trent fell in with Roger Bushell and was involved in the Great Escape. Fortunately for Trent during the escape he was the seventy ninth Kreigie through the tunnel, the first man apprehended by the prison’s guards. He later was among the officers who led the prisoners on the Long March, and after returning to England after the war served with the RAF until around 1962 before retiring. Quite a record, with a VC being awarded along the way.

According to the introduction, the majority of the book was put together with recordings that Trent made, his photographs, diaries and an account he wrote of the Long March. Herein lies my problem with the book. Sanders certainly does a great job putting all this information into a readable descriptive story, however, at no point does it ever feel like he actually interviewed Trent, nor questioned him about events. It merely feels like he put the recordings into a readable story. I may be wrong, however, that was the impression it gave.

My main interest in the book concerns Trent’s time at Stalag Luft III and the Long March, as the Senior British Officer after the escape attempt was a man I have researched, Group Captain D.E.L Wilson, whom Trent made several observations upon within the book. Both men were on the Long March and for that section of the book the author draws upon Trent’s diaries and accounts, as well as letters Trent wrote to his wife whilst still in captivity after the march. The letters are insightful and give the impression that Trent was in very low spirits, understandable if you consider that in the space of two years he had lost nearly all of his squadron, had been shot down, had undoubtedly lost friends and acquaintances during the escape and the march, and had not seen his wife and young daughter for years. You might think that this would be a good time for a writer to dig a little deeper and question Trent about these things? How was he feeling? How did he cope? How did others cope? No. The author just rolls on into his post war career. Zero analysis on a topic that I am sure would be of interest to many.

This is my frustration with the book. I have thought about why the book was written this way and have considered that it may well have been due to the time it was written. Perhaps Trent didn’t want to open up with the author and delivered his recordings as his final word. Perhaps the author and Trent were both of that stiff upper lip generation who didn’t open up about these things. Either way it seems like an opportunity lost.

If you want a good description of Leonard Trent’s life this book certainly delivers that. Superficially I learnt a lot about the public Trent, but little of the personal side of the man. Perhaps he was just a very private individual.


Rating out of 5: 3.5

 

Title: THEIRS THE STRIFE - The Forgotten Battles of British Second Army and Armeegruppe Blumentritt, April 1945

Author: John Russell

Publisher/Year/ISBN (optional) : Helion Paperback January 2021

Quick review: A superbly researched study of some of final British actions of the War in Germany. 97 photos and 74 maps included. The perfect antidote to the 'and then they crossed the Rhine and the war ended' narratives seen in some popular histories.

Excellent.


Rating out of 5: 5

 

Title: Abandon Ship: The Real Story Of The Sinkings In The Falklands War


Author: Paul Brown


Publisher/Year/ISBN (optional) : Osprey / 2021 / 978-1472846433


Quick review: This book goes in to the details of the sinking of the 6 British ships lost in the Falklands War as well as the loss of ARA Belgrano. Each chapter covers a single ship and the build up to the moment the ships were hit are fairly brief but do give a good outline of the circumstances especially where the onboard actions in the build up was a factor in the sinking with the narrative concentrating more on the events from that moment on detailing the attempts, or lack thereof, to save the ship and the conclusions from the official inquiry reports, which pull no punches, which the author obtained in un-redacted form with Freedom of Information requests. Unfortunately requests to the Argentine authorities for reports regarding Belgrano were unanswered.
Each chapter reveals a lot of details that would be unknown to many. Two negative aspects for the general reader, and they are small ones, is that a knowledge of naval procedures is helpful in following the narrative. Also I think for each chapter there should of been a set of line drawings of each ship showing the impact points and paths of the projectiles that hit them to give readers a general idea.


Rating out of 5: 4 out of 5.

 

Title: Come to Dust

Author: Robin Maugham

Publisher: originally, Chapman and Hall, 1945. Ace Books 1961

Quick Review: I think this is a desert war memoir more people should know about, as it seems to be quite obscure now(?) but I rate it extremely highly. It is to some degree fictionalized - 4CLY becomes the "Crendon Yeomanry", the first person perspective character is "Robert" and not "Robin", and so on. I imagine some of the dialogue to be made up too, particularly when the author questions a captured German officer. The author is also supposed to have rescued a lot of men, but must have downplayed that in his text.

The narrative covers from the start of Operation Crusader until some point during Operation Gazala when the author/main character is wounded. It is not a long book (my Ace books copy is 128 pages) - some days receive more focus than others. The book was written when the author was in hospital in 1945(?) but he also notes having put down the manuscript for some time and taking it up again. But it has the great strength, then, of being written when the events were still pretty fresh in his mind. There is not a lot of general regimental history, but there are a few map reference points mentioned which makes me wonder what documents, if any, he had access to while writing it.

The book gives a very good impression of what life was life as a tankie in the desert at that time. They start with Crusaders and eventually get some Grants too, although by that point in time the author is the regimental intelligence officer driving around in a scout car. They are involved not only in the Operation Crusader fighting - he is with brigadier Gatehouse when the latter's HQ was nearly overrun - also the push west after, and the withdrawal in the face of Rommel's later renewed advance.

The great strength of the book is what I think I would call emotional honesty. There's a lot about fitting in with different crews, especially in the early part of the book when tanks break down and the author takes over another one or otherwise joins a new crew. There are also occasional descriptions of dealing with the horrible memories of battle or not being able to keep them down - awful, but also I think really valuable in its honesty.

Highly recommended.

Rating out of 5: 4.5 out of 5

 

Title: The Peenemunde Raid 17-18 August 1943

Author: Martin Middlebrook

Publisher: Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2000

Quick Review: Having previously read a few of Martin Middlebrook’s books on First World War subjects I knew what to expect with this book. Originally published in 1982, it follows the same patterns of research of his early books. That is lots of research and contact with people who were witness to the raid.

Consequently this book looks at the Peenemunde Raid from the viewpoint of many participants- the Germans involved in the V2 rocket programme, the labourers, the RAF boys and the German night fighter pilots. It is written in a very straightforward manner and I would recommend it as an introduction to the raid.

There is plenty of detail on the planning of the raid and the methods employed by the pathfinders to illuminate the bombing zones and the bombing plan. The descriptions from the RAF aircrew and German night fighter pilots really bring the story to life and Middlebrooks charts the many losses on the raid (both British and German). Sadly many women and foreign workers were killed during the bombing of the dormitories and there are some poignant descriptions of the aftermath of the bombing.

One aspect of bombing employed by the RAF that I was not aware of was the use of time delay fuses in many of the bombs. The delay ranged from six hours to three days and kept the salvage crews on their toes. Middlebrook writes objectively and makes the point that the whole point of the raid was to prevent the production and launching of V2’s that could reach targets like London and Antwerp although the crews did not know it at the time.

Rating out of 5: 4.5

 

You might want to try 'The Lost Graves of Peenemunde' by Sean Feast as a companion book to this Waddell. It details some of the crews lost on the raid. There's also a really good WW2TV interview with Steve Darlow on youtube about the book.

 

Yes. That is on the Fathers Day list

 

Title: The Bader Wing

Author: John Frayn Turner

Publisher: Airlife Publishing, 2000

Quick Review: This is an odd little book that becomes very muddled in areas, particularly the author’s defence of the Big Wing strategy. If you are looking for a descriptive account of the activities of the Bader Wing (12 Group) during the Battle of Britain then this book will likely meet your needs. If you are looking for a well-supported defence of the Big Wing I would recommend looking elsewhere.

The author never really approaches the analysis of the Big Wing correctly, in that he merely uses the numbers of enemy aircraft downed by 12 Group during that brief period of time they could use the strategy during the battle. There is no doubt that they shot down many enemy aircraft, however, there is no direct comparison with similar squadrons (11 Group?) and the numbers were always going to be high as the Germans were sending over all the aircraft they could at the time.

So no solid analysis and another doozy towards the end of the book-

“What has been built up into the Big Wing controversy stemmed solely from mutterings in the mess by the pilots of the Duxford Wing against the 11 Group habit of calling them off the ground too late, so that they arrived in the battle area at a disadvantage. This was coupled with the fact that 11 Group headquarters used to complain when they were late- which was duly passed to them by 12 Group headquarters. The result was a vicious circle, with 11 Group saying that 12 Group took so long to get off the ground. Towards the latter part of the Battle of Britain matters did improve.”

Almost reads like the controversy was a storm in a teacup. I came away from the book understanding why 12 Group (Bader) were pushing for the Big Wing, particularly why they wanted early warning to gain height and position themselves above the enemy. By the same token the author explains why 11 Group were not in a position to adopt the strategy due to their closeness to the incoming enemy aircraft.

The final part of the book contains the opinions of many of the ‘few’ who Bader flew with. Oddly enough the majority of them gave the same reasons as to why the Big Wing could be effective but noted that they were difficult to form, particularly as they grew bigger. They also acknowledged that it was a strategy that would not work for 11 Group. I came away thinking they had a much better understanding of the Big Wing’s advantages and limitations than the author.

Rating out of 5: 2.5