• Memoire/Battlefield Memoire

      'Gamp VC' by Brian Izzard 

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      Subsunk
       Number of Views: 62 
      1. Categories:
      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Naval,
      5. Non-Fiction
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      The Wartime Story of Maverick Submarine Commander Anthony Miers

      Miers, as both a VC holder and a successful wartime RN submarine commander (HM Submarine TORBAY) is a name which crops up frequently in various lists and names of blocks around naval bases. However, to drill down further into his story is to find a controversial, ruthless and driven man who was determined to make his mark on the world, and who had the fortune of a war in which to prove himself. Opinions on him remain deeply divided to this day, something which was clearly the driving force behind Mr Izzard’s work.

      Briefly, Anthony Miers, whose father fought and died with the Cameron Highlanders in the First World War, joined the RN during the inter-war years and sub-specialised in submarines. Izzard is pretty clear that Miers was a confident, aggressive and highly competitive character from the start of his naval career, no doubt at odds with any notion of fair play or playing the game for the game’s sake. Miers made up for his lack of academic prowess by dint of effort when on duty, and by channelling his huge energies into sporting victories for his submarine when off duty. From Izzard’s account, Miers viewed team sports not as a pleasant pastime or a means of career networking, but as a substitute for combat and a key element in developing his crew’s unit integrity.

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      'Maverick One' by David Blakeley ' 

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      Subsunk
       Number of Views: 186 
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      3. Non-Fiction
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      Maverick One is the follow-on to ‘Pathfinder,’ which focused on the Pathfinder Platoon’s abortive recce mission during the 2003 Iraq War, which turned into a remarkable fighting withdrawal against superior odds. Both are written by David Blakeley, who served with 1 PARA and as the Pathfinders (PF) 2IC. ‘Pathfinder’ & ‘Maverick One’ both follow the standard pattern in military non-fiction in starting out with a particular mission in the first book and then providing some background and biographical detail in the sequel. Thus ‘Maverick One’ features Blakeley’s personal trail from childhood through Welbeck and RMAS Sandhurst, to 1 PARA and Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Sierra Leone before aiming for the Pathfinders (PF).

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      Porky's War - The Story of a real-life Freddie the Frogman on D-Day by Terry Henson 

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      fails_as_is
       Number of Views: 414 
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      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Naval,
      5. Non-Fiction
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      Porky's War       - written by the subject's son, tells the story of his father's wartime experiences as a lad from Paddington conscripted during the Second World War, who found himself in a rather extraordinary position with a particularly special responsibility on D-Day.

      The Allies knew that the Normandy Beaches were fortified with various nasty obstacles to deter and disrupt a landing force, and in order to counter that, specialist Landing Craft Obstacle Clearance Units (LCOCU) were formed to provide that specialist capability to facilitate the successful landing of the amphibious force.
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      Man of War 

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      Seaweed
       Number of Views: 528 
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      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
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      5. Non-Fiction
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      They have taken the men that were careless lads at Dartmouth in 'Fourteen ..
      … They were not rated too young to teach, nor reckoned unfit to guide
      When they formed their class on Helles' beach at the bows of the “River Clyde” ...
      … They have borne the bridle upon their lips and the yoke upon their neck,
      Since they went down to the sea in ships to save the world from wreck-
      Since the chests were slung down the College stair at Dartmouth in 'Fourteen ..       ...
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      An English Affair 

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      Seaweed
       Number of Views: 390 
      1. Categories:
      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Non-Fiction,
      5. Non-Naval
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      Davenport-Hines was drawn to the Profumo scandal of 1963 as a topic because much of the drama was played out close to where he spent his childhood. For me this is an interesting reprise of something that entertained everyone as a bit of light relief in between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of John F Kennedy. It is also a most valuable corrective. Like most of the public I accepted the ongoing press revelations at the time without engaging any critical faculty. The actual facts can however now be seen, thanks to this author, as greatly at variance with what was fed to us all at the time and which is still trotted out as ‘history’.

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      THE FINAL WHISTLE by Stephen Cooper 

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      Ageing_Gracefully
       Number of Views: 428 
      1. Categories:
      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Naval,
      5. Non-Fiction
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      The Great War in Fifteen Players

      Over the course of the next couple of years, in the run up to the World War 1 centenary commemorations there will be a load of books about the First World War, or Great War as it was called then. Many of these will be analysis of particular battles/generals/armies/operational fronts and hugely interesting and important to the military historian, both professional and amateur. However, amongst these books will be wee gems like The Final Whistle which brings an insight to the soldier rather than the conflict. What Stephen Cooper has brought here is a book covering 15 men who all had a playing connection to Rosslyn Park Rugby Club who did not make it back home. Like many other clubs and institutions, Rosslyn Park had a long Roll of Honour; out of approx 350 members who served during WW1 84 were killed, died of wounds or illness. The nature of rugby football at that time meant these men came from a middle-class to upper-middle class background and the majority, though not all, were commissioned.

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      A TALENT FOR ADVENTURE Lt Col Pat Spooner MBE (Mil) 

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      (granny)
       Number of Views: 384 
      1. Categories:
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      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Non-Fiction
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      Pat Spooner joined Sandhurst in September 1938. Within 12 months, having gained a Kings Indian Cadetship he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, and in October 1939 was on his way to India. His account of his arrival in India and the way the lives of the Indian Army personnel were so different to the training he had received at Sandhurst, makes amusing reading. He applies to join the 7th And the 8th Gurkha Rifles and was successful in his application and was accepted into the 8th Gurkha Rifles on 4th April 1940.

      All I can say is that he lives up to the title of his book. He seems to advance from one adventure to another. His style of writing is rather diaristic and he seems to remember just about every person he ever met or came across in his journeys. That in itself takes some getting used to. If you persevere though and just follow the story you realise that he had, what I would term, an interesting war.

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      SCRAM! by Harry Benson 

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      Seaweed
       Number of Views: 347 
      1. Categories:
      2. History,
      3. Memoire/Battlefield Memoire,
      4. Naval,
      5. Non-Fiction
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      Scram! has already been reviewed on ARRSE, but I have been sent the Arrow paperback edition so must sing for my supper. This is pretty painless as I have already read a library copy and hugely enjoyed this most interesting book, and must record that I have equally enjoyed reading it again. Benson was a ‘Jungly’ (naval Commando helicopter) pilot in the Falklands War, but these are not only his own reminiscences but those of his peers, culled from over forty personal interviews and other material, so a number of different hairy escapades are covered. He has done a very good job of the difficult task of making a coherent narrative covering the whole period - from South Georgia to the surrender - out of a patchwork of reminiscences from so many different people. And he has done us a public service in ensuring that their reminiscences are preserved. The idea of pulling all this together in a book came to him after a 2007 reunion and so this book is unlike, for instance, Chris Parry’s ‘Down South’ which was written up from that author’s contemporary diary.

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