Book Review: The Railway Man by Eric Lomax

As a book recommended by some publication (don't remember which one) that covered something to the effect of "books about WWII that you should read" or similar this work should have been better.

Not that it isn't interesting or contain a remarkable series of events...its just not that compelling a read.

By that I mean the author does not have his own voice.  Anyone subjected to the awful series of events he was--captured by the Japanese, put to work near (not on) the Burma-Siam railway (of Bridge on the River Kwai infamy), tortured by the Japanese secret police, imprisoned in some of the worst hell holes of POW note, and years later reconnecting with one of his interrogators (not torturors as the book often erroneously states and is put forth to be as this interrogator was just that...an inquisitor and translator, never putting a hand on the author)--could have retold this work.  Again, not that it isn't a remarkable retelling, but its simply that, not a "work".

Little analysis nor much "art" here.  Placing a tape recorder in front of the author and having him simply give his biography would largely result in the same.  Further, his interest in railways and trains as a youth and then his tangential "work" on the Burma-Siam railway does not come off as an effective thread by which the work can be connected from beginning to end.  It comes off forced and not valuable to the tale...distracting more than anything.

None of this is to take away from Eric Lomax's internal fortitude in the face of awful conditions, brutal torture, absence of hope, etc.  He deserves all the credit he received for having the courage to persevere as well as to forgive his former captor.  His retelling of these events just does not amount to an engaging read or shed light on heretofore unknown events.

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

Haven't posted anything here in a while but wanted to for this book.

This work recounts the author's time in the German army during WWII.  Involved in the initial stages of Germany's retreat in the East all the way to the end of the war, the author experienced the worst of what the conflict had to offer and describes it in full detail.

The blood, the cold, the depravity, the cowardice, the heroism, the anger, hatred, frustration, disillusionment, starvation, mutilation...its all here.  Sajer doesn't shy away from his own failings and the work comes across as a beautifully honest recount of his service.  Which isn't to say the book should be taken as a pure academic recap of the German effort of WWII in the East.  It isn't.  It has inaccuracies as others have pointed out.  That's not the overall point and Sajer has been one to say so.

Its more of an emotional synopsis of his experience and the reader comes away with the feeling that no one should have survived what he went through and certainly no one sane could have.

This work is not one to delve into the issues behind Germany's efforts, there is really little mention of Hitler and zero mention of the Holocaust or other well known events of the war and its evils.  If you are looking for that or for Sajer to fall on his knees and beg forgiveness for having fought on the losing side, this is not your book.

If you are looking for an epically honest depiction of the German grunt's viewpoint of how it felt to be driven backwards by the unstoppable masses of Russian soldiers over a period of years through the worst of living conditions, then this is more appropriate.

I have not read a more vivid description of the obscene nature of ground warfare anywhere.  Nowhere else have I felt it better shown the indifferent nature of combatants as to their superiors motives or overarching goals, rather these are purely men fighting for the man next to them and merely in the hope of living to see another day.  Politics and preaching are absent here...as you come to realize, they are in all trenches.

Book Review: The Caine Mutiny

Maudlin, melodramatic, simple, cliche...all of these MIGHT be used to describe parts of The Caine Mutiny...they'd all be partly right and all be significantly wrong.

Some 500+ pages in length this Pulitzer Prize winning work is easy to read.  There are no verbal flourishes or complex structures--yet it fleshes out its characters in ways most novels only aspire to without leaving the reader wishing for plot progress.

Its supposed "main" character is Willie Keith, a young sailor who is an upperclass, spoiled, WASP from NY.  Wouk doesn't shy away from showing all the prejudices of the times (WWII era), blacks, jews, gays, Catholics, women in general, etc. are all viewed as lower than ideal--yet, this is where the book is most progressive.  It is the Jew who rescues Willie Keith and his friend, Maryk during their court martial hearings.  It is May Wynn, the poor Catholic girl, who Willie turns to and away from his WASP mother at the end of the novel.  It is the blacks who stand by and hold their positions on the ship while the white captain jumps overboard to save his precious novel.

At the time the novel was written and following very popular movie made (which I have not seen to date) WWII was only six years behind the audience in 1951.  Likely they were more thrilled with the prospect of reading about the actions on board a minesweeper in the midst of the Pacific War than they were in hearing of the social inequities and conflicts to come foreshadowed here (JFK's election as the first Catholic president, Civil Rights and Women's Rights battles to come) and if someone wants to point out instances of where these parts of the novel were brought up at the time of its publishing you can certainly do so.  To me it seems a book about 15 years ahead of its time.

That said, The Caine Mutiny is also a supremely entertaining novel.  Largely without battles or military conflict one might think of in a book occurring during WWII, the Caine (a decrepit WWI era destroyer) is relegated to menial duties--towing targets, escorting other, more important ships, etc. It is the personal conflict between the crew of the Caine (and particularly the primary protagonist, Willie Keith and his close crewmates) and its Captain Queeg, that move the story forward.  Herman Wouk's portrayal of a nit-picking, paranoid, under-educated, over-promoted captain is one so famous that the term "Captain Queeg" has become synonymous with virtually any overbearing boss, and rightly so.  I would encourage any business person to read this novel and see if they don't recognize a few Captain Queegs in their own organizations.  In fact, the novel may be an excellent educational tool for businesses in teaching management that any rigid adherence to regulation, focus on the minutia of process vs. the evidence of result can be a significant detriment to a staff and its efficiency.

Lastly, the book is a great, if brief, love story.  Largely "book-ending" the novel as it were, the romance between Willie Keith and May Wynn is far from ornamental.  As Willie grows from spoiled, ignorant, prejudiced boy to a man who can see the "grey" areas that exist in relationships and life in general, so does his relationship with May grow from careless dalliance between an immature sailor departing for war to one of respect and true love for the whole person that May represents.

Couldn't recommend this novel more highly.

This?? Oh Nothing...Just a Fez From a Waffen SS Division Member...

This was within a private collection I visited in the recent past that brought to my attention the fact that there was an ever so nice connection between the Nazis and Muslims of Europe and the Mid-East in WWII.

This division of Bosnian Muslims was one of many efforts made between the Nazis and Muslims throughout Europe and the Mid-East to reach common goals--namely the extermination of those that they both found undesirable.  Hell, even a Grand Mufti from Jerusalem was flown in to assist in the recruiting of Muslims into the Nazi ranks.  They were known for their brutality and massacre of Serbs more than they were for their fighting excellence.  No terrorists here...just your usual genocidal maniacs.  And the skull??  Well its a real skull, just a prop though, not an actual dead Handzar SS Division Muslim...

Cool Photo From Germany...

No, I won't use the "N" word here (rhymes with Yahtzee) as that just brings up all sorts of ugly feelings and makes people think that one is promoting a certain political or sociological agenda.

I just have a fascination with aircraft, militaria and technology in general and thought this was a cool photo.

You have here a Messerschmidt BF-109 undergoing wind tunnel testing.  It always amazes me how advanced some things were some 80 years ago, yet so undeveloped at the same time.  Nowadays this would all be done in a computer or at the very least, in a computerized windtunnel.  With this photo?  Maybe they used high speed (film) cameras and pieces of yarn to try and get an idea of the flow of air over a vehicle.  Lots of slide-rulers and pencil and paper were expended that's for sure.

I also enjoy seeing photos like these as in my minds eye, historical vehicles just kind of appear on the scene and I don't think about all the infrastructure, time, testing and calculation that went into their development.  Seeing one such famous airplane in its build/testing phase just seems kinda cool--as does the scale of the huge windtunnel vs. the airplane itself and the little engineers below.

Book Review: Lost in Shangri-La

It has been a bit since I posted a book review and I wish I had a better one to post about.

Lost in Shangri-La sounded like an interesting book--a crashed military flight leaving a handful of survivors amidst an unmapped area of a tropical island filled with cannibals and Japanese soldiers.  Yup, it sounds interesting till you get into the details.

The plane wasn't shot down, the pilots screwed up and flew it into a mountainside.  The plane wasn't on a military mission they were out sightseeing.  The area may have been generally unmapped but it was known well enough to have earned nicknames and numerous overflights.  The Japanese soldiers that were left on the island were hiding in the jungle hoping to survive without resupply or support from the mainland.  The cannibals might have eaten each other after battle but had little to no interest in the white people who crashed into their midst.

The author sets up all of the dangers present to both the survivors and those who came to rescue them--its just that none of those dangers ever really occur.  The survivors and those who parachuted in to assist them spent a relatively comfortable and safe time recuperating and then were whisked out of the jungle on a specially mocked up glider.

The book just never really captured my attention.  The writing was adequate but nothing more than perfunctory descriptions of events and backgrounds.  You can tell he's really desperate for something to really happen in his tale...its just that nothing ever does.

Is the book worth a quick recap of a somewhat interesting sidebar event that occurred during WWII?  Sure, but an entire novel and being declared "The Most Incredible Rescue Mission of WWII" on its cover gives away its pretense at trying to be another best selling WWII tale that the public can't seem to get enough of--this one just isn't quite worth it and certainly not at some 300 pages, much of which is unremarkable filler.

Book Review: A Dawn Like Thunder

This focused and personal account of of one specific flight group in the Pacific during WWII covers in detail what can be argued to be the two most pivotal battles of that campaign.

The Battle of Midway and the Guadalcanal campaign can be viewed as the turning points in the naval and ground efforts and torpedo squadron eight played a key role in each.

Author Rober Mrazek pulls no punches in this work, feeling free to critique all levels of the Naval forces involved--from individual squadron commanders to full blown Admirals, none who deserve blame escape it.

And that's perhaps the most revelatory part of the book--that the US forces could be mismanaged, misdirected and poorly lead and yet still, due to both luck and skill, end up victorious.  Torpedo Squadron Eight benefited from both of these factors to become the most decorated group of Naval aviators in US history.

Initially assigned outdated and outclassed aircraft the fliers of this squadron were often presented with suicidal missions and faced them without hesitation.  There is no real happy ending here as virtually every individual Mrazek introduces you to via devoted chapters will meet their fate either via accident, flak or the hands of a skilled Japanese pilot.  The chances of returning alive from taking part in both of these battles seems to be nearly zero.

A Dawn Like Thunder is a solid work covering a detailed look at one specific unit during two key events of a long campaign.  It covers these events from the 100,000 foot level in terms of overall strategy, movements and decisions to focus on a smaller group of individuals.  This doesn't make the book bad, just a tad limited in its scope.  If you already know the basics of Midway and Guadalcanal this book makes an excellent addition to your detailed knowledge of the events, but make sure you obtain a broader view of these events from other works as well.

Book Review: The Big Show

The full title here is actually The Big Show: The Greatest Pilot's Story of World War II by Pierre Clostermann.

I still haven't figured out whether this title means the "greatest PILOT'S story" or the "greatest pilot's STORY" though I'm hoping its supposed to be the latter and not the former as it would be incredibly presumptuous of Clostermann to call himself the greatest pilot ever...

Still, the novel itself is a solid read and a good recap of the airwar in Europe.  Clostermann was certainly worthy of admiration as he volunteered for the free French Air Force and served in the RAF and the FFAF from '42 through the end of the war.  The book itself is drawn from the daily diary Clostermann kept throughout that time.

The book keeps some of the repetitive nature of a day to day diary but recounts enough of the major events from a fresh perspective to keep things quite interesting.  Clostermann pilots a Spitfire in Southern England, is shipped off to the near arctic North, conducts operations prepping for the Normandy invasion, becomes one of the first Frenchmen to land back in France and helps hasten the Nazi downfall through his destruction of numerous trainyards, airfields and supply transports.

While not the biggest ace of the war, Clostermann was no slouch shooting down an estimated 18 air to air victories (though this most recent, more precise estimate is a substantial decline from the 33 in the official record and cited by the author and amusing given the author's frequent issue with American aviators' overestimate of their tallies).  Included under his claimed victories are those over numerous FW-190s, ME-109s as well as some early jets such as the ME-262s and Arado 234s.

The anecdotes contained in this work are what makes it most worth reading.  Clostermann doesn't pull any punches in describing both his adversaries and allies and carries a particular distaste for Americans it seems going well beyond the "overpaid, oversexed and over-here" cliche that was common at that time.

His descriptions of air to air combat are the highlight.  This is true "knights of the air" stuff with Clostermann strapping himself in to a machine always seemingly on the edge of control, heading into a joust with an equally aristocratic knight.  As his friends fall one by one you can hear the stress tearing him to pieces and feel the associated affects on his health.

DeGaulle, Spitfires, Tempests, Churchill, Americans, Germans, English, free French, V1s, wartime atrocities, suicidal missions, drunken escapades, carousing for women, near death landings, bailouts, happanstance encounters, courage, failure, cowardice, stupidity--all the things that make war...war, are here.

Clostermann would go on in later life to fly ground attack missions the Algerian War, be a major critic of the Falkland War in the early 80's and later the first Gulf War but whatever his later views his work here was regarded by William Faulkner as the finest book of aviation to come out of WWII.  I haven't read enough to know whether this is true or not, but I'm betting The Big Show isn't a bad place to start either.