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423. The Patrol
by Ryan Flavelle
This Canadian book about the war in Afghanistan was a pleasant surprise and it's a pity I took so long to get around to reading it. I'd put it as one of the two best books I've read about Canada in Afghanistan, the other being The Taliban Don't Wave (Review 141). It's notable that both were written by frontline soldiers. Too many of the others are love letters to the Canadian Army written by journalists; I guess they know what sells. The Patrol, perhaps not surprisingly, is centred on a week-long patrol through Taliban territory in Kandahar province in 2008. Flavelle was the company commander's radio operator. He was also a reservist and in civilian life a university student. Flavelle readily admits to not being the greatest soldier and in fact describes himself as geek. But he was there and tells his tale well. The combination of fear, danger, boredom and physical exhaustion make for a realistic picture of life in an ordinary infantry section. He is also reflective and honest. It all makes for a good read - and with luck will provoke some thought and reflection on the part of the reader.
422. Churchill and the Admirals
by Stephen Roskill
The Royal Navy's official historian for the Second World War, Captain Stephen Roskill, takes a look at the often thorny relationship between Britain's prime minister during the conflict and the senior officers of the Senior Service. Those who thought that as former First Lord at the Admiralty in both World Wars Churchill had some kind of affinity with the Royal Navy will have their eyes opened by this well-informed book. Roskill knew many of the British admirals featured in the book and their staffs, he even served under a few of them, and he also had an access to official documents unavailable for one reason or another to other historians. Churchill was not always a good picker of men and had many impractical and unrealistic ideas.: Not always an easy man to work with. The first few chapters are concerned with Churchill's first stint at the Admiralty during the First World War, including the Gallipoli fiasco. During the Second World War, Roskill singles out the Far East, including Singapore, and the invasion of the Dodecanese islands off Turkey as two of Churchill's major errors. But there were many, according to Roskill, and Churchill could prove vindictive, particularly to those admirals he felt lacked offensive spirit. His meddling often proved a menace but those who had the right approach and a strong argument could often deflect Churchill. This a fascinating look not only at Churchill but the internal politics of the Royal Navy.
421. Gurkha
by Colour Sergeant Kailish Limbu
It might be best to start off by saying what this book is not. It is not a history of the Gurkha regiments of the British Army. Nor is it the story of how a Nepalese boy from a remote hill village rose to the rank of Colour Sergeant. The book focuses on 30 days in 2006 spent manning an isolated and almost constantly besieged police compound in the heart of Taliban country. More than that it is about a corporal's war in Afghanistan and as such it makes for interesting and worthwhile reading. The book gives an excellent insight into how the Gurkhas see themselves and view combat. The author uses to device of a keen would-be protege to allow Limbu to recount his childhood and the rigorous selection process involved in joining the Brigade of Gurkhas. I say "author" because text is actually copyrighted by an A R Norman rather than Limbu. Perhaps because the subject is Nepalese, the reader is spared the synthetic squaddie-speak of all too many recent ghost-written rank-and-file accounts of Britain's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would say this is a worthy addition to the canon of modern British military memoirs.
420. Mud, Blood and Poppycock
by Gordon Corrigan
A former senior Royal Gurkha Rifles officer attempts to puncture many of the myths surrounding the First World War , which in the general modern British consciousness was both futile and a case of "lions led by donkeys". Corrigan will get little argument from me when it comes to Britain having very little choice when it came to entering the war against Germany. Nor would I disagree with his general contention that the British commanders did the best they could in very difficult circumstances - though perhaps he is too kind to the first commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir John French. And he could easily have found several senior officers who served under Aylmer Hunter Weston, who was almost example of the type of general who populates British of popular imagination, who would have had some legitimate criticisms of him. Corrigan explains that the realities of the military partnership with France meant offensives across ground that favoured the German defenders went on far longer than made sense. But Corrigan may have over-egged the pudding sometimes in his enthusiasm. The chapter that causes the most concern is the one that looks at the over 300 British military executions. While he correctly points out that almost a third of those shot were repeat offenders, his contention that no mistakes at all were made his harder to accept. What human enterprise is 100% error free? And although JFC Fuller, whose opinion Corrigan quotes, did spend some time in the trenches he was a staff officer and not the experienced frontline commander implied. This should be a fascinating read for anyone looking for an antidote to the pervading myth-laden version of the conflict peddled in Britain today.
419. Napoleon and Wellington
by Andrew Roberts
This book could well be titled "A Tale of Two Egos". Highly readable British historian Andrew Roberts takes a look at the changing attitudes of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington to each other over the years. It is an interesting approach and Roberts pulls it off. The book is not a biography of either man but a fascinating glimpse at the characters of the pair who came within a few miles of each other at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 but never met. In the early years both appear to have taken a respectful interest in the other's career, despite their public pronouncements, but over the years following Waterloo this changed. The touch-paper for Napoleon's change of heart seems to be his erroneous belief that Wellington was behind his exile to St Helena. For Wellington the tipping point appears to have been Napoleon's decision to leave money to an a man who tried to shoot the British general dead. Wellington emerges far from the modest man he is often portrayed as, but he kept his later poor opinion of the former French ruler out of the public domain to ensure his own victory at Waterloo would seem all the more remarkable. Napoleon came to believe his defeat was the fault of everyone but himself. He often comes over as more of a mafia-style gangster than a social and military visionary. This proved to be a good and worthwhile read.
418. Rob Roy
by WH Murray
This is a highly readable account of one of the most famous Highlanders in history. How true it is is another question. WH Murray was better known for his excellent guide book to the West Highlands and writing about hillwalking than as a historian. He appears to have avoided falling for many of the legends but he takes a far more charitable view of the old rogue than academic historian David Stevenson (Review 370). For example, Murray believes young Rob was at the Battle of Killiekrankie while Stevenson thinks not. The first half of this book is short on actual fact about Rob but gives an excellent picture of life in the Highlands of the late 17th Century and the lives led by the clan leaders. I think Murray may have been over-generous in his assessment of Rob's character and prowess and under-estimates his duplicity but his claims are well worth considering. It is also clear that the script-writer for the Liam Neeson 1995 film leant heavily on this book.
417. Air Force Blue - The RAF in World War Two
by Patrick Bishop
Top British military writer Patrick Bishop makes no claim that this is a history of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945. Instead he looks at the RAF through the lens of those who served in it in a bid to capture the temper of the times. But the overall picture is not ignored because it is needed to put the events described in context. Bishop is not uncritical of the policies of the air force brass; both before and during the conflict. But he seems to believe that the RAF was the best of the three armed services and cites the fact that the Americans respected it far more than the Army or the Royal Navy. The first few chapters look at the Royal Flying Corps and the inter-war years. Most branches of the RAF get a chapter to themselves, Fighter Command, Bomber Command, Coastal Command and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. There are also chapters on experiences in the Middle and Far Easts. Bishop's selection of experiences is sure-footed and interesting. Bishop had already written several books focusing on the RAF in World War Two, including The Fighter Boys and the Bomber Boys, but he seems to have found a number of fresh and unjustly neglected voices to help make his points.
416. The Age of Fighting Sail
by C S Forester
Perhaps author CS Forester, creator of fictional Napoleonic seaman Horatio Hornblower, felt more comfortable with the British-American war of 1812-14 than he did with the German Second World War pocket battleship Bismark (see Review 336) when it came to forays into non-fiction. This is a far better book. Despite the title, the book is not a wide-ranging look at sea warfare in the Nelson era. Instead, Forester focuses in on what the Canadians call "The War of 1812". But most Canadian books focus on the land campaign and the British prefer not to discuss the war at sea against the Americans. Forester makes a strong case for the Royal Navy being outclassed both in the quality of its vessels, officers and crews. The Royal Navy, he argues, was simply over-stretched and did not have enough skilled crewmen to man the guns or work the sails. The results were predictable. Though the Americans did not win every battle, they won enough of them to worry the British, who had been labouring under the impression that they had a God-given right to naval dominance. Forester has written a very readable account of real-life battles which could just have easily been fought by his fictional Hornblower. He does a good job of giving the lay reader an idea of just how tricky it was working with wind and tide to actually bring the ships into action.