by RNS | Mar 28, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Sukwinder Singh Bassi, Thousands of Heroes Have Arisen (Helion, 2019, 2021)
From the very beginning of World War I, Britain knew it would need all its Empire could give to beat the Germans and their allies. They sent to India to tap into that massive well of manpower. Among those who answered the call was the small but disciplined Sikh community that sent over 100,000 men to fight. Sukwinder Singh Bassi has collected an archive of 700 letters along with other sources to bring the Sikh war to life and to honour their memory.
Bassi introduces the Sikhs and their religion, and how they became loyal soldiers of the crown. They fought all over the globe in World War I and punched well above their weight. Indeed, Bassi argues, ‘bravery and heroism became synonymous with the Sikh name’. The letters begin with favourable Sikh impressions of France, which they viewed as an alien but welcoming place. Their belief in their God led to fatalism and acceptance of war and the environment in which they fought. Thei courage often got them wounded and having to convalesce in English hospitals, though many fretted at having to go back to the trenches while others lamented the cost of war on the Sikh soldiers. Bassi turns to the famed Sikh loyalty to the King that the British had manipulated, particularly through religious texts, but in most cases appears genuine. Of course, part of their desire for victory was to get home quicker.
What they were trying to escape from was the hell of the Western Front. Bassi notes that the Sikhs fought in nearly every major engagement and some were suspicious that they were being used as cannon-fodder. The British withdrew the Indian infantry from the Western Front at the end of 1915, leaving the cavalry behind, but by then many of the Sikh soldiers had seen enough of mud, freezing cold, warplanes, gas, and German shells. Bassi includes mentions from behind the lines where the men could recover from their ordeal. The Sikhs fought in the Middle East, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli, and East Africa, among other flashpoints, and Bassi takes us on a tour of the world at war through their letters. Many letters complain of deprivation compared to the comforts of France, others make brief references to fighting and those killed and wounded, and some speak of their maltreatment when made PoWs. A few Sikhs enlisted in other Imperial armies such as Canada and Australia. Bassi also highlights letters, poems, and newspaper articles from India in addition to letters to family and loved ones from the front. He curiously leaves the topic of recruitment and pay until near the end of his collection. Bassi follows that with a section on sedition and conspiracies, arbitrary British efforts to suppress dissent, and the shocking episode of the Komagata Maru. Bassi concludes with an epilogue on the maltreatment of Sikhs by the British when they returned home from the War, including the infamous Amritsar Massacre.
Bassi’s collection provides a well-rounded look at how the Sikhs understood their war. He prefaces each chapter with a useful summary of what the letters mean when taken collectively. As for those well-chosen letters, they describe a war that is at once familiar but also capture how strange most of this was to the Sikh soldiers. There is some repetition in parts that slow us down, and we’re left wondering at what the censors deleted that might have changed some of the rosy pictures being sketched by the soldiers. Nevertheless, Bassi has made an important contribution to our knowledge of the Great War in all its facets, and his editing skills along with the eloquence of many of the soldiers, makes for an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
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by RNS | Mar 25, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Yves Buffetaut, Ardennes 1944 (Casemate, 2018)
The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler’s last gamble to stave off collapse in the West and perhaps turn the tide of the war. It was doomed to failure, but only because of poor planning, a lack of resources, and the efforts of the Allies both in defence and counterattack. In Yves Buffetaut’s Ardennes 1944, he takes us on a quick tour of the battle accompanied by many excellent photographs and colour plates.
After a brief timeline of events, Buffetaut gets down to business, beginning with the German objectives and the lack of belief in them among the German generals. The soldiers believed, however, but Buffetaut highlights their deficiencies compared to their early offensives. Still, they faced a weakened enemy and broke through the brittle American defences, but Buffetaut is scathing in his critique of the German operation. The Germans lacked resources for such an ambitious plan in mid-winter on muddy and congested roads. Moreover, significant sections of the US defenders would not buckle as the Germans intended. Some German units made surprising progress, notably Kampfgruppe Peiper but he ran out of petrol and stopped at Stavelot. The action flips to Saint-Vith, Houffalize, Clervaux, and of course, Bastogne, via a consideration of Skorzeny’s attempts to infiltrate American lines. Meanwhile, the Allies shook themselves out to create strong defensive lines and prepare to go on the offensive. This was helped by clear weather, allowing for Allied air superiority to take effect. Then the Allies squeezed the salient created by the offensive, known as the Bulge. The Germans withdrew while counter-attacking when they could, but the battle was all but over. Buffetaut next examines the air war over the battlefield, arguing that the Americans inflated their numbers of destroyed enemy planes and vehicles. He also highlights the British involvement on the ground, which Buffetaut gives a bit more space to than their exploits deserve compared to the Americans but is a useful reminder that this was an Allied operation. Buffetaut concludes that Hitler’s Ardennes offensive was delusional, but it prolonged the war in the west.
In Ardennes 1944, Buffetaut serves up an appetizer for anyone interested in the Battle of the Bulge. His focus is on the big picture, rarely dipping below Divisional level operations. That created a bit of an uneven structure with too much room given to the British and not enough to some parts of the battle; the bare mention of Bastogne being the most obvious casualty of that approach. Still, the text is informative and interspersed with colour plates of vehicles, accounts of war crimes, and commander profiles. The range of photographs accompanying the text is arguably the highlight of the book. Ardennes 1944 will suffice for those wanting to know what happened without diving into a detailed tome such as Beevor’s book on the battle, but there is enough here to entice further reading.
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by RNS | Mar 23, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Robert Jackson, A6M Zero Mitsubishi (Pen & Sword, 2020)
When I was a wee boy growing up in the 70s, the auld men who’d been in The War mentioned only one Japanese warplane to join the usual discussion of Spitfires and Me109s: the Zero. The men who’d fought in the Far East said they feared it like no other weapon of war. That memory flooded back to me when I opened Robert Jackson’s new book on the A6M Zero. It turns out that there was much more, or maybe less, to the Zero than the auld men spoke of.
The Japanese were slow starters in developing warplanes after World War I, but by the 1930s they were catching up fast spurred on by their growing involvement in China. Jackson points out that evolution paralleled the growth of Japan’s carrier fleet. In 1935, the Japanese Navy introduced a home designed monoplane, the A5M, and the following year the army’s Ki.27 flew for the first time. That would become the standard Japanese Army Airforce (JAAF) fighter until 1942. Jackson surveys the Japanese learning on the job against the Chinese and Soviets in Manchuria where they came off worse against the Soviet planes. The Navy, meanwhile, needed a fighter to escort its bombers in China, and the A6M Zero fit the bill nicely.
Jackson gets into the specifications for the new fighter, which contained some innovative ideas to keep the weight down while producing an elegant, uncomplicated machine. The Navy Zero first saw action in China in August 1940 with stunning results against now obsolete Chinese Soviet-built fighters. The air superiority of the Zero went ominously unnoticed in the West where they were too busy with their own affairs to notice the looming threat. But they noticed them well enough, and to America’s horror, at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, though the Zeros did not get it all their own way against US fighters, perhaps a harbinger of things to come. When the Zeros attacked in the Philippines at around the same time, the Americans in their P-40s quickly developed tactics to at least put them in the fight. Other Allied warplanes fared less well against the nimble Zeros. Jackson follows the victorious Japanese squadrons around the Pacific as the war intensified, and into the Indian Ocean against the British in early 1942. But in May and June 1942, the tides of war were about to change.
Japanese naval ascendancy crumbled at Coral Sea and collapsed at Midway. That became evident over the following months. This was the time when US Wildcats took on the Zeros with innovative tactics while correctly assessing that the Japanese pool of pilots was wearing thin – Jackson also notes how the Americans used captured Zeros to work out their weaknesses for new tactics. The US was also about to bring in new planes that finally tipped the scales for good, most notably the Corsair and Hellcat. In June 1944, the Marianas Turkey Shoot proved American dominance. In desperation, the Japanese launched kamikaze attacks, of which many were in Zeros, but all that did was waste men and machines. Jackson briefly mentions captured Zeros used by other nations after the war and lists the top Japanese aces.
So much for the history of the Zero. Jackson dwells a bit too much on context and the Allies fighting the Zeros rather than the Zero pilots in success and failure, but that is not a significant flaw in a book of this kind. The joy of this book, however, is in the artwork and modelling sections. The colour illustrations of Zeros are out the top drawer as are the many photographs of them. Jackson’s modelling section is thorough with a history of model kits and photographs of some of them built to extraordinarily high standards. Modellers interested in building a Zero will love this book, while those of us who just enjoy the aesthetics of the plane and want some background on it will enjoy this book too.
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by RNS | Mar 22, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
N.S. Nash, Logistics in the Vietnam Wars 1945-1975 (Pen & Sword, 2020)
A successful general needs effective logistics and transport argues N.S. Nash in Logistics in the Vietnam Wars 1945-1975. Moreover, logistics are inseparable from operations. Nash’s case study for these truisms is the conflict in Vietnam that lasted thirty years from the end of World War II. Vietnam is a fitting choice to study logistics because on paper the colonial French and the Americans should have won in a canter, but they did not. How could an army ‘wearing pyjamas’ take down such formidable powers?
Nash points out that Vietnam was a ‘logistical nightmare’. The topography, climate, flora and fauna were all hostile. The country had few roads and lots of forest, much of it was unmapped. It rained and it was hot. This was no place to fight a war. After outlining the deep causes of conflict in Vietnam, Nash turns to the French, attempting to fight a war 8,000 miles away. They mostly controlled the cities and low-lying areas, but their forts out in the country were too disconnected and given the bare minimum to do the job. They also underestimated their highly organized and committed enemy, the Viet Minh who eschewed mechanized support, opting for porters in the field; a wise move because they had the manpower. They also had Chinese logistical backing. The Viet Minh General Giap conducted hit and run missions and guerrilla warfare with great success but struggled when he went toe-to-toe with the French. Then came Dien Bien Phu, a logistical disaster for the French, and one that led to their strategic defeat. Nash notes that the manpower needed for the VietMinh to succeed was ‘mind-boggling’, but they still won a dazzling victory and thus the war.
After the French left, the Americans arrived; slowly at first then in a flood. Their Vietnam War was about to begin; for the North Vietnamese, this was business as usual. They developed the Ho Chi Minh Trail as a logistical artery that the Americans could dent but never sever. Nash decries the hubris of the Americans who underestimated their enemy, believing they could overwhelm them with firepower backed by massive logistical support. They sent General William Westmoreland to manage a war that was beyond his abilities. Nash also criticises almost every aspect of the American war effort from tactics to the draft, but ultimately defeat came down to an unbeatable enemy no matter what the US threw at them. Nash points out that the NV invariably developed answers to American technological superiority, most notably tunnels and crude but effective booby traps. The American air war receives short-shrift from Nash too. Then came the Tet Offensive and the siege of Khe Sanh, both of which were tactical defeats for the North Vietnamese but political victories. Giap had again failed in going toe-to-toe in conventional battles. Nash pauses here to reflect on the inadequacies of the M16 rifle that cost many American lives. When America withdrew, demoralization set into the army, and racism and fragging of officers increased, as did opposition from home. In the end, the Americans left, signing off with two intensive aerial bombardments. The South Vietnamese were left high and dry, vulnerable to the NVA assault that ended the war and reunified Vietnam. Nash concludes with chapters on the painful costs of thirty years of war and the assignment of blame.
Logistics in the Vietnam Wars 1945-1975 is an excellent survey of the wars in Vietnam and viewed from an unusual angle. Nash stresses that this is not a book of battles but of logistical operations; the outline he provides is full of battles, however, though that is very useful for following the action while determining the problems all sides faced. Nash also does not bog his readers down in unnecessary details. Numbers proliferate of course, but they all serve a purpose for Nash’s cogent argument. That results in a perhaps surprising, flowing text that makes this an enjoyable read, and there is an occasional wee snort of derision from Nash over some of the French and American mistakes that keeps the book quite light at times. Nash is also supported by many excellent photographs from the wars. Readers wanting to understand the Vietnam Wars will no doubt eat this up.
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by RNS | Mar 19, 2021 | Beating Tsundoku
Paul Chrystal, War in Greek Mythology (Pen & Sword, 2020)
We humans are curious creatures. We need to explain our world and everything in it, and where we don’t know the answers, we invent them based on where we are now and where we might want to go. Myths, then, emerge from a necessary understanding of the past but are mingled with the present. For the Ancient Greeks, their present included persistent warfare, and the motive and nature of that had to come from somewhere. In War in Greek Mythology, Chrystal collates Greek myths from literature and the arts to explain their symbolism and significance to a warlike people.
By way of introduction, Chrystal attempts to define mythology and its purpose, no easy task. What is clear, however, is that Greek mythology underpins much of Western civilization. Moreover, the mythological stories have survived and thrived through the centuries. With that preamble over, Chrystal gets down to discussing mythology and war. The Greeks, he reminds us, were a warlike people, so it is no surprise they had many Gods that covered all martial aspects. Chrystal lists those from Aphrodite to Thetis before moving onto the Titans and Giants and the struggle for order and power. The story of Zeus’ struggle with Typhon explores his ascendancy to the pinnacle of the gods. Chrystal also narrates the war between Centaurs and Lapiths. The female Amazon warriors receive their own chapter as does the mythical foundation of Thebes. Then there is Heracles, the demi-god whose martial prowess excited the Greeks and Romans as much as his famous twelve labours. The Gods and mortals combined to fight wars, most notably in the Trojan War, which Chrystal dwells on rightly as a cornerstone of Greek mythological history. When wars are over, soldiers return home, but for the Greek Gods and heroes that was often just as tragic an experience with murder, infanticide, and incest just some of the ‘joys’ that awaited them, though it is the women’s suffering that remains the universal post-war experience. Chrystal concludes on a lighter note with the parodic Batrachomyomacia; a war between mice and frogs that echoes the Greek myths. Chrystal’s epilogue brings us into the modern world where the themes in Greek myths have endured, revealing the flexibility of those stories which are seemingly every bit as chaotic as the one the Greeks inherited from their Gods.
Chrystal’s dissection of Greek mythology is more than a collection of interesting and extraordinarily violent stories; he analyses their context and symbolism for a people exploring their world and searching for meaning. His focus is on the warlike aspects of the various Gods and creatures, which creates an interesting quasi-military mythological history. The myths are also reflected in artwork plates, many of them in colour, illustrating the Greek fascination with their myths that echoes through art into the modern period. The result is a fascinating trip into the Greek world both real and imagined.
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