User:Hawkeye7/Book Reviews
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Jeremy Black - Histories of War |
- By Hawkeye7
Jeremy Black is back with another overview work. Readers expecting a conventional account of the development of military history will be disappointed; what they will get is another sprawling overview. Black implicitly and explicitly challenges many common assumptions. For example, hr does not restrict himself to written accounts, but also discusses paintings and films. He criticises the practice of historians (and Wikipedia article writers) of concentrating on a small place or period or both. This is of course absolutely necessary to attain the required level of detail, but has to be done in such a manner as to not lose the big picture in the process. Concentrating on the big picture (a challenge Wikipedia editors face in writing top level articles) results in something akin to this book, with a plethora of details and examples from someone who really knows his military history. (Frequently failing to stick to the time period under discussion doesn't help.) Black never manages to articulate any overarching thematic elements. Indeed, he dismisses any such notion. In this, he is like Jeffrey Grey, who, when asked for examples to demonstrate some principle or other, would ask whether you wanted ones supporting it or refuting it.
That said, there is much in this book that is thought-provoking, if you are the sort of reader who likes to stop after each paragraph and think about it a little bit. "We need to move", Black advises us, "from the idea that there is an inherently rational approach to military history". (p. 173) I particularly enjoyed the chapter on engaging with the present, perhaps because it covers my own area of expertise. The Second World War was a painful traumatic time for many countries in Europe, and few have really come to grips with the history of it. While in Europe last year, I took the opportunity to visit the History of Silesia Museum in Katowice (located in a disused coal mine no less), Omaha Beach and the Musée de l'Armée in Paris. Black correctly notes that commemoration of the D-Day landings has shifted to Omaha Beach, now a preserved battlefield, even for the British and Canadians.
When I first visited the Musée de l'Armée twenty years ago, the galleries for the First and Second World Wars were not yet complete, so I very much wanted to see them. The depiction of the First World War and the events leading up to it seemed very even handed, and it even played down French determination to regain Alsace–Lorraine (lost in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871), which it portrayed as being on the wane by 1914. As expected, coming to grips with the Second World War was far more difficult, and in attempting to do so, the museum presented a fragmented series of diverse viewpoints. The post-war galleries are still under construction, and promise to be even more contentious, painful and difficult to portray.
Of exceptional value is the Notes section up the back! Her you will find a compendium of the latest scholarship on the subject. I highly recommend reading the works cited here. (Not all of them, of course, unless you aspire to be the next Jeremy Black.)
Publishing details: Black, Jeremy (2024). Histories of War. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-03610-148-0. OCLC 1434651519.
Garry Hills - Great at Heart: Gavin Merrick Long |
- By Hawkeye7
When it comes to Australian military history, there are two giants to be considered: Charles Bean, the editor of the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 and the writer of no less than six of its fifteen volumes, and Gavin Long, the editor of Australia in the War of 1939–1945 and the author of three of its twenty-two volumes. Sequels are rarely as good as the original, and so it was the case here; interest in the Second World War was never as great as that in the First, and Long never achieved the same status as Bean and largely remains in his shadow. If proof of that assertion is needed, it is here in the form of this book, which is the first biography of Gavin Long, while Bean has several.
As this book recounts, Bean and Long had a great deal in common; they both came from Bathurst, both were the sons of clergymen, both attended All Saints College, Bathurst, and both became newspaper journalist. (In the Foreword (p. vii), Peter Stanley says that neither ever learned to drive a car, but that is not true - Long did eventually learn to drive, but disliked doing so. (p. 35)) Bean chose Long for the task, and lobbied for him to get the job as editor. As they both lived in Canberra, they were in constant touch. The book makes use of Long's personal diaries and family correspondence, all of which, of course, is now in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Nonetheless, coming to grips with Long the man has proven a difficult task for his biographer.
The most interesting parts of the book are the descriptions of the writing of the history. Unfortunately, this is somewhat disorganised and much more could have been said. In parts it is sketchy. The book also includes a chapter devoted to some controversies about the books. There are more, though, which are not covered. Busts of Bean and Long once stood at the entrance to the War Memorial's research centre (I often saw people putting glasses on the bust of Bean and getting their picture taken with it) but they were removed during recent renovations and are now in storage. It remains to be seen whether this book will restore Long to his place in history, or the War Memorial.
Publishing details: Hills, Garry (2025). Great at Heart: Gavin Merrick Long. Sydney: University of New South Wales. ISBN 978-1-76117-020-1. OCLC 1494081895.
James Hallas - Guam: The Battle for an American Island in World War II |
- By Hawkeye7
James Hallas has previously written about the Pacific War in The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu (1994), Killing Ground on Okinawa: The Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill (2008), and Saipan: The Battle That Doomed Japan in World War II (2019). This book is therefore a sequel of sorts, covering the Battle of Guam. His book on the Battle of Saipan inspired another Wikipedian to improve the article on that battle and take it to FAC. I volunteered to do the same with Battle of Tinian. Having read up this book, I decided to overhaul the article on the Battle of Guam rather than the one I was intending to write, on Operation Forager logistics. My interest has always been on logistics rather than "muddy boots" military history. My problem with many muddy boots historians is that they tend to write about a lot of personal stuff that doesn't quite fit into a coherent account of the battle. This is not the case here! Hallas makes use of a wealth of personal accounts, but he weaves them into a coherent account of the battle. He provides a clear overview of what was going on, and is analytical in parts.
Like all battles, mistakes were made by both sides and these are discussed. The Marines chose to land on either side of their objective, Apra Harbor, and capture it with a double envelopment. This meant landing exactly where the Japanese had prepared defenses, resulting in heavy casualties. On Saipan, the Japanese had responded to the landing with a vigorous counter-attack, so this should have been anticipated, but was not by the 3rd Marine Division, although the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was prepared. For their part, the Japanese were repeating tactics that had already failed on Saipan. At the same time, the book is characterised by its close attention to detail. For example, Samuel Eliot Morison wrote in his account of the campaign in New Guinea and the Marianas (p. 380):
Only one member of UDT 3 was killed.
Hallas writes of the incident (p. 154):
Thirty-one-year old Chief Warrant Officer Ralph A. Blowers was killed when his landing craft got hung up on a coral head and came under fire from shore. A bullet hit the chief in the neck and severed his spinal cord, killing him instantly... Chief Blowers was brought back to the Dickerson and buried at sea the same evening.
This book is not for the squeamish. The reader should be prepared for graphic accounts of the Japanese dishing out beatings, rapes and beheadings by the score, with the occasional instance of torture and cannibalism. Accounts of combat are engaging but graphic, like the example above. All in all, this is an excellent account of the battle, and if you want to know about the Pacific War in general, this would be a great place to start.
Publishing details: Hallas, James (2025). Guam: The Battle for an American Island in World War II. Essex, Connecticut: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-7689-9. OCLC 1440217490.
Douglas Porch - Resistance and Liberation: France at War, 1942–1945 |
- By Hawkeye7
This book is the sequel to Defeat and Division: France at War, 1939-1942 (2022). In two volumes, Douglas Porch, a professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Postgraduate School, attempts to write a history of France in World War II. The subject area is vast, and as is depressingly usual for European countries, the history of the war is mythologised, politicised and contested, so this was never going to be an easy task. Porch is well-equipped to undertake though. First of all, he knows his stuff. He knows, for example, about the 1916 uprising in Algeria (which doesn't have a Wikipedia article in English or French). He draws heavily on French sources, which is necessary, because key works like Julie Le Gac's Vaincre sans gloire: Le corps expéditionnaire français en Italie (2013) are not available in English.
This volume opens with Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942. The chaos of the first days in the French command is detailed, as officers at different levels struggled to decide whether the fight the Allies, the Axis or both. Or neither. Eisenhower felt that the Tunisian campaign would be widely studied after the war, given the the British, French and Americans all suffered calamitous defeats that lengthened the war by many months. This never happened; the whole campaign has been swept under the rug.
Would that the French could do this with 1940! The reasons for the disaster were many, and the search for scapegoats has been extensive. Porch asserts that the French Army was not prepared for modern war in 1940. Nobody else was either, but France copped it. Restoring France to its status became De Gaulle's quest, and is a major theme of this book. He reckoned that the British, Americans and Soviets were going to win the war with or without France, so the priority was on restoring the empire, restoring France's status, and avoiding another revolution at home. (If there was an event that loomed larger than 1940, it was the previous defeat at the hands of Germany in 1871.) At the same time, it would not do for France to be liberated by what they regarded as an inferior culture.
The Army of Africa was a colonial force. Its officers and most of the NCOs were French, but the troops were largely illiterate Muslim conscripts from Morocco and Algeria. That created a problem for modern warfare with new equipment supplied by the Americans, because there was not enough skilled personnel to man the required logistical units, compelling a reliance on the Americans for this support. One workaround that Lodge highlights was the recruitment of large numbers of women, an act of desperation rather than feminism. The generals were generally pro-Giraudist or even pro-Petainist in their political inclinations, and they filled their staff with like-minded officers. Some were out of touch with modern military tactics. Many of the pieds-noirs did not see much value in liberating metropolitan France either. The other source of manpower was the évadés, but in the eyes of the Army of Africa, too many of them were Jews, or Gaullists.
De Gaulle chose Alphonse Juin to head the French Expeditionary Corps in Italy. Initially, this was considered an odd choice due to his pro-Vichy and pro-Axis sentiments, and he was still under investigation for collaboration, but he was a Saint-Cyr classmate of De Gaulle (who continued to refer to him as "tu" even after he had him placed under house arrest) and hated Giraud, which De Gaulle clearly regarded as another point in Juin's favour. It turned out to be an inspired choice, as Juin was one of the few French officers with the tactical acumen to lead the CEF in successful battles that rehabilitated the military reputation of France. Allied generals were disappointed that Juin was passed over for command of the French First Army in favour of Jean de Lattre.
This book suffers from poor editing. In addition to the occasional typo, the author has a habit of telling the reader things more than once, and sometimes abbreviations are introduced before they are explained. The editor should have caught these. You will need to keep your MilHist French handy. For example, English speakers do not usually refer to metropolitan France as "the Hexagon". Nonetheless, this is an indispensable reference for the reader - or writer - on the subject.
Publishing details: Douglas, Porch (2024). Resistance and Liberation: France at War, 1942–1945. Armies of the Second World War. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-16114-5. OCLC 1389183924.