War memoir reviews (2 Viewers)

[larso]

Kindling for the Devil's Fires : Journals of an Infantryman by Roy Campbell

Roy grew up in quite austere circumstances, somehow managing to survive a remarkable number of serious injuries. It made him determined and tough and he recovered to play competitive sports, including boxing. He snuck into the National Guard prior to the war and was a weapons platoon sergeant when his 32nd Division is sent to Australia and battle in New Guinea and the Philippines.

Despite not being allowed the training its commander wanted, the 32nd is sent to capture Buna on the north New Guinea coast. Indeed, Roy’s 128th Regiment is the first US unit to be deployed by air. At the time MacAurthur feared that Japanese reinforcements were imminent, so the division was committed post-haste with poor support and supplies. Roy re-equips himself with a BAR and is in the early, failed assaults. Attacking the well emplaced and jungle hidden Japanese is very difficult. The company’s commanders fail and the US force is completely bogged down. Infamously, the divisional commander, amongst others, is replaced and the Allied troops ultimately prevail. These include Australians who Roy sees perform superbly but at appalling cost. For the bulk of the time Red sees barely beyond his foxhole. He does use his hunting smarts to good effect but it is a dismal battle. There follows more stiff action at Saidor and Aitope. At the end only a handful of the 160 men in ‘B’ company remain. By the end of Philippines campaign, he is the only one left.

This book is almost unique in that the author writes about himself in the 3rd person. It felt a bit impersonal in the sense his feelings seemed slightly muted by the technique but I think it has also freed the author to write more specifically about killing and the difficult relationships he sometimes had with commanders. He certainly seemed sorely used at times. Indeed, it is hard to believe that there were many others in the 32nd who fought from the first day to the last. And fight he did. The 32nd encountered the Japanese at their peak and always in significant numbers. Red has a few Bronze Stars by the end, though he doesn’t actually specify which deeds relate to them. Pleasingly, his chest of medals earns him respect and a few perks on his journey home. Not all got a just deal in this regard.

This book is one of a few by 32nd Division men. I think it is just about the best though. No one else to my knowledge has written in detail of the Buna battle. The following battles in New Guinea are also well described in terms of what a front-line solder saw and did. The other standout is the incompetence and arrogance of some of the officers. Promotions went to cronies rather than proficient men – at least as far as Roy saw things. His story and survival to the end pretty much prove his perspective though. This is an interesting and blunt account of war in campaigns that are almost unknown today. Highly recommended!

 

[larso]

'An Image of War' by Mark Henniker

Leo Cooper, London, 1987. Hardcover, 266 pages.

Henniker was a regular army officer who had served in India prior to the war and would go on to brigade command in Malaya after it. His WW2 service started in France as Adjunct of the 2nd Division engineers. Following the start of the German offensive he is transferred to command 253rd Field Company in Montgomery’s 3rd Division. After Dunkirk he is assigned to put together and command the engineer component of the newly forming 1st Parachute division. His war concludes with command of the 43rd Division’s engineers from Holland to Germany. By the end he has a lot of campaigns under his belt!

The German assault on France finds Henniker in England on leave. It is fascinating to read of the efforts to get men back to the front. Unfortunately the situation is unredeemable and Henniker spends most of his time organising the destruction of bridges to hold the Germans up. He is under artillery fire and at quite some risk but he surmounts the biggest challenge, which is crossing the channel back to England.

Unusually he is then posted to the otherwise all volunteer Parachute force. It is absorbing to read of his thoughts on preparing the structure of the airborne engineers. There is specialised equipment to arrange and SOPs to plan. He is also intimately involved in planning the successful raid on Bruneval and the disastrous attack on Germany’s Heavy Water plant in Norway. His insights on the process; the risks and legalities are fascinating. He then precedes the parachute troops sent to Africa, where again he has a lot of organising to do. He participates in the glider assault on Sicily, where he engages briefly in infantry action against the Italians. Italy follows before he returns To England. The 1st Airborne is not called on for Normandy and doesn’t go back into action till Arnhem. Henniker participates here but ironically with the 43rd Division following his re-assignment. This last posting sees some of his most arduous service in commanding the division’s engineer assets in the advance to and through Germany.

This is the first memoir I have read by an engineer officer and it is, not surprisingly, quite different to those by infantry and tank men. Being a company and then essentially a regimental commander also brings in a very different perspective. Blowing bridges, crossing rivers, dealing with obstacles - always heavily mined, and planning efficiently for it all is very complex. Henniker does an excellent job explaining it all and makes it interesting! He also gives his thoughts on promoting subordinates, evaluating successes and failures, including his own. There is also his candid appraisal of his divisional commanders, which is absorbing given these included Montgomery, Browning, Hopkinson and Thomas.

While this account has a lot less combat than most war memoirs, it is still an extremely interesting read. The author is a very literate man, he and his father even communicate in Latin at times. Surely you will come across no other war book where knowledge of the Battle of Cannae and the doings of Hereward the Wake provide help on the battlefields of the 1940s. This points also to the remarkable nature of the times. Well born men like Henniker competed in rowing and participated in fox-hunts. They served with and socialised with like-minded fellows in various army postings and all these connections often assisted communication and co-operation during the war. There is nothing pretentious though, it is simply how British society worked at the time, much to its benefit in this context at least. Simply put, this is a very informative memoir of a specialised role in WW2 by an intelligent man from a by-gone time. 5 stars

PS – His books ‘Memoirs of a Junior Officer’, featuring his six years in India (he won an MC) and ‘Red Shadow over Malaya’ are also likely to be very worthwhile reading.

 

[larso]

Tank Commander by Bill Close

Subtitled: From the fall of France to the defeat of Germany
Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2013.Hardcover 164 pages.

This is the account of a Royal Tank Regiment man who managed to survive the tail end of the defeat in France, Greece, numerous battles in the desert, Normandy, Holland and the drive through Germany to the Baltic. Astonishingly he had eleven tanks ‘shot out from under him’. There was a wound or two but very few would’ve had either the luck or breadth of experience of Bill Close. Remarkably he did this all in the 3rd Tank Battalion, where he rose from a sergeant commanding a Dingo scout car to commander of a squadron of Comet tanks.

Following the German attack in 1940, Close and 3RTR are transfered to Calais. It was a disaster. After the first day of combat Close’s Dingo is the only one left out of ten. The tanks are quickly whittled away too though they give a reasonable account of themselves. The regiment may have served a purpose in delaying 10th Panzer Division but it loses all its equipment and many of its vitally needed trained soldiers. Close writes interestingly of what he saw of the debacle and his fortunate escape back to England.

Following its rebuild, the regiment is sent to the desert. Here they swap their new Cruiser tanks for old ones and go to Greece. Another debacle follows. There are no spares and once again much of the regiment is captured. Close is very lucky to get to Egypt and be part of another rebuilding on the unit. There then is involvement in the extensive desert battles. Close is involved with Crusader, Sidi Rezegh, Gazala, Alamein and Mareth. He is constantly up against superior German tanks, which sometimes are literally bearing down on him by the hundred. Many battles are a complete ‘shambles’ but he survives to inspect knocked out Tiger tanks in Tunisia.

Though I have read over a dozen accounts by British tankers, this is the first time I have come across someone who fought at the forefront of the massive Hill 112 and Goodwood battles. The Germans contested these in strength and there are many anti-tank guns and Panthers. These shred away Close’s squadron and he himself is often jumping from his own disabled vehicle to a subordinate’s to continue the fight. A remarkable drive to Antwerp follows the German collapse in Normandy. The advance through Germany is a very tough slog. One small town alone has fifteen ant-tank guns. Close writes that even in the first week of April 1945 the British tank force of 1,000 lost 125 of its number destroyed, with another 500 put out of action for at least a day. This book strongly reveals the scale of the attrition among the men leading the charge. Close saw this coming and had long since stopped making friends.

By the end there would’ve been few who had seen more front line action than Close. Remarkably he is the only tanker memoirist I am aware of to write from the front edge of the big Normandy battles against the panzers. It must be said though that he has a reserved tone about him. He writes quite a bit of being under fire and being hit but it is more informative than vivid. You’ll still learn very useful things, as you will about the deeds of 3RTR in general. This battalion is fortunate to have several memoirs by WW2 veterans and it was interesting to see Close’s perspective. He was quite an admirer of Bob Crisp and his observations will interest fans of ‘Brazen Chariots’. So while I can’t rate this memoir as high as others in terms of compelling narrative, it is still a very interesting read. 4 stars

 

[larso]

Participation by Humprey Kempe

Hawthorne Press, Melbourne, 1973. Hardcover, 200 pages.

Kempe was a farm lad who grew up in South Australia. When war came he enlisted early and was sent as a reinforcement to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment in time to land with the unit on Gallipoli. Following this campaign he then served in Palestine until the end of the war in 1918. The majority of his time here was with a machine-gun squadron which was a 1st Brigade and even division asset.

Much of Kempe’s time on Gallipoli is spent at Quinn’s Post. His descriptions of trench life are quite descriptive. It is a foetid area and supplies and water are few. As for the combat, Kempe uses the strong analogy that it was like being involved in a serious car accident ever hour for a whole day and night. This is very jarring but for the most part he refers to combat itself in the terms of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’. The 3rd is in reserve during the major counter-attack of 19th May. Later, Kemp is wounded and evacuated but returns in July. He is an observer of the Lone Pine and Nek attacks and interestingly sees the red marker flags in the Turkish trench-line.

Following Gallipoli, the Lighthorsemen are reunited with their horses and go into battle in the Holy Land. Kempe is at Romani, Katia, Rafa and Gaza, in fact pretty much all the actions of the Desert Mounted Corps. There are a few places where he reveals elements of his combat involvement. He is part of the machine-gun squadron at this point but is not a Vickers gunner himself. There are certainly casualties inflicted and received. There are also air-attacks and the disconcerting feeling of not being able to find his horse for a retreat! There is considerable detail about much of what he sees, including the awful Jordan Valley, archaeology and the native peoples. He admired Allenby and writes of the importance of being informed of objectives. At the end he comes down with Malaria but he has done the full trip by this time.

The rest of his book is concerned with turning his post-war property into productive land and his thoughts on revisiting the places he fought in as a young man. This was surprisingly interesting. He is even invited to the Middle-East in the late 60s to advise there on agricultural issues. He revisits his old battlegrounds and has some interesting things to say about the political situation as it stood then. The most remarkable thing though was his return to Gallipoli in 1950! Aside from the post-war trips to bury the dead, there was little prospect of visiting there as we know it now. It was quite a feat to arrange it as he did and he must be one of a mere handful who managed it at this early time. The book then concludes with the author’s thoughts on the use of land, water and even synthetic foods. He was quite a thoughtful fellow and quite prescient a times regarding his assessments and predictions.

This is certainly a fascinating book in several ways but the war experiences are my focus. These are quite interesting but the author is a little coy on his personal doings. His descriptions overall are very informative and useful and being written in the 1970s are conveyed in a style that is easily digested. Recommended. 3 ¼ stars

 

[DMNamiot]

Leakey’s Luck by Rea Leakey

With George Forty. Subtitled – A Tank Commander with Nine Lives.
Sutton Publishing, 1999. Hardcover, 158 pages.

Have had this one on the shelf in my collection for a long time! Its a must read for anyone interested in Tank combat.

Dave

 

[larso]

Dave - yes, hasn't it got some incredible stories in it! Yet it's almost unheard of, it was about the last one I found.

 

[larso]

More than Courage by Phil Nordyke

The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment was part of the legendary 82nd Airborne Division in WW2. It took part in almost all of that formations epic battles, as well as several significant others. Accordingly, it has a unique story that I think positions it amongst the very top US combat units of WW2.

The 504ths first action was a drop into Sicily during the invasion of that island. Tragically elements were fired on by the navy and many lives lost. The combat was fierce at times but this was even more the case in the invasion of Italy, where the regiment was hastily flown in to strengthen the Salerno bridgehead. Incredibly, it was then involved in even more extensive combat at Anzio. Indeed, this seems to have been the fortune of the regiment, with each battle exceeding the intensity of the previous one. In Europe this continued with the airborne drop during operation Market Garden and the incredible Waal River crossing. The regiment was then all but expended in especially grinding battles to hold and then force back powerful German forces in the Ardennes.

It is an astonishing combat journey. Nordyke tells the story superbly. He gives sufficient context for each stage, provides excellent maps and suitable pictures but most importantly he tells much of the regiment’s story through the words of its men. He is fortunate to have five or six strong memoirs by veterans of the 504th but he doesn’t overuse these. His excellent research builds on these and each action is explained and revealed through numerous recollections by the men who fought it. It must be said, that these are sometimes extremely powerful and graphic.

It is a cliché to say that a book could not be put down. I would suggest that there are times with this book that it has to be put down. The intensity of the actions recounted is so incredible that you need time to digest it all. War is inherently violent but the extent of the combat revealed in this book is extraordinary. Sure many books will have face-to-face fighting and killing and the terrible injuries caused by weapons but this is almost a page by page occurrence here. These include some of the grisliest war doings I have ever read. Some truly made me flinch. It is a credit to the author that he was able to elicit such stories, confessions even, from his subjects. War is brutal but the ferocious, sometimes callous deeds can be very grim indeed. This book really spells out what this can mean.

The extent of the combat is also due to the Germans themselves. Sure we have come to expect determined, even fanatical fighting by the Waffen SS and other elite troops like the Fallshirmjagers and HG. Yet even when the 504th clashed with second rank or rebuilding units, like the 29th Pz Gr at Hill 950, they often encountered remarkable commitment. Both sides slammed into each other and Nordyke’s title is proved over and over. At the end of each bitter fight, it was the men of the 504th who prevailed. They defeated elite German forces, including armoured troops. They parachuted, they crossed rivers under fire, they cleared towns and heavy forests. They were often outnumbered and outgunned, indeed, the German 20cm anti-aircraft gun was almost their special nemesis. The men of the 504th believed they were the best soldiers in the world and they proved it again and again.

The US airborne forces were true elite formations. We were all reminded of this by the wonderful Band of Brothers at the start of the century. I have read other airborne regimental histories (187th & 517th) and while worthy, they have not been of the same scope as this volume on the 504th. Phil Nordyke has told the story of the 504th in the most compelling way possible. I can’t recommend this volume enough. It is simply one of the most extraordinary accounts of a regiment at war.

 

[larso]

Millville’s Mac by McNamara

Mac is born and raised in Milville. It is rural and there are lots of adventures (and misadventures) to be had as a youth. He hunts and fishes and does the many chores that were required around the family property. He idolised his grandfather who taught him much about life. He joins the marines and does well enough that he is selected to become a drill instructor. Later, he is chosen for OCS but he is unhappy at college, away from the action and requests a combat posting. At the halfway point of the book, he is sent overseas.

He arrives on Okinawa as a replacement and two weeks into the battle is assigned to L/3/5 of the 1st Marine Division. He is lucky to be immediately placed in the same foxhole as a veteran of a prior campaign who teaches him the ropes. What is quickly apparent is that Mac is not reticent, like many other soldier memorists, to write about combat and killing. Indeed, of the accounts on this thread, McNamara writes the most on individual combat incidents. These include several instances each of bayonet and K-bar fighting. These are literally to the death! These result from Japanese infiltrators at night or full attacks and also on patrol. Most of his killing though is done by sniping and there are several astonishing stories here. Through surviving from luck and battle smarts for the greater part of the campaign, Mac is simply exposed to more opportunities for battle than most. And to emphasise – he also writes much more about this than most.

I did some additional research on McNamara to see if there was more to learn. One source says that ‘McNamara doesn’t know how many men he killed, though he estimates he shot close to 80 men, mostly in the head. “I didn’t mind killing somebody. I didn’t mind at all,” he said. “It bothers me now, it really does.” Another site though has him saying ‘29’ – but this may have been aside from sniping? In anycase he writes of many specific instances. The brutality of fighting the Japanese is legendary and Mac’s account fits the bill. It is though heartening to read of moments of humanity by him, especially the horror at killing civilians in error at night. He is also repulsed by the idea of shooting at unarmed Japanese soldiers trying to swim for safety.

Following Okinawa, he goes with his division to China, where he has several interesting experiences. He made a point of following his grandfather’s advice to ‘not keep your hands in your pockets’ – which meant to speak your mind. This seemed to get him into trouble more so than not. After he left the marines he led an interesting post-war life trying to make it as a pro-baseball player, then as a milkman. Ultimately he ran a barber shop. It is an astonishing story all up about the life of a man in those extraordinary times of Depression and war. While the combat element is very prominent, it is not too lurid or glorified. It certainly tells what fighting was like more than most. 4 ½ stars