Reviews The Human Experience of War

Inferno: , 1939– covers the major high-level aspects of The striking feature of the book is its 1945. Max Hastings. Random House. the war; Andrew Roberts’ The Storm of use of hundreds of vivid personal testi- 729 pages; black-and-white photographs; War: A New History of the Second World monies to brilliantly illustrate its theme. maps; notes; index; $35. War, which focuses on the German The opening pages describe the enthu- side of the war; and other works that siasm of a young Polish fighter pilot in By COL Stanley L. Falk analyze strategy and tactics or key de- the first days of war: “We wanted to U.S. Army retired cision making. Hastings’ long, sweep- fight, it excited us, and we … didn’t be- ing panorama covers most events of lieve that something bad could really orld War II has been over for World War II but concentrates on happen.” A euphoric young German Wnearly 67 years, yet interest in those ordinary individuals whose spe- expressed this “wonderful feeling” to the great conflict is still as strong as cific experiences are often overlooked be marching into Poland, but then, as ever. New books, from small battle in more general studies. German bombs killed women and chil- studies to large overall accounts, con- dren, a nurse saw a “procession of tinue to appear and flourish. One of wounded, … an unending march of the latter, and certainly one of the best, death,” and a senior British observer is Max Hastings’ Inferno: The World at wrote bitterly that “I saw the very face War, 1939–1945, an in-depth examina- of war change—its glory shorn … tion of the human side of the war. women and children being buried.” Max Hastings is a British journalist, Less than a year later, a British sol- editor and war correspondent. The dier, fearing public scorn or worse af- author of more than 20 books, half of ter his evacuation from Dunkirk, was which cover aspects of World War II, surprised to be greeted by “people he synthesizes and caps his earlier cheering and clapping [for] us as if we works in this volume. Inferno is a were heroes.” Then a British teenager, spellbinding and beautifully written trapped in Paris, likened the German summary, analysis and unflinching entry to a “gigantic green snake that description of the horrendous per- wound itself around the heart of the sonal impact of that great struggle. broken city, which waited pathetically This book, as he states, is “chiefly to be swallowed up.” about human experience.” It focuses It was the fierce struggle for eastern on the fears, struggles and trials of Europe, after Germany invaded the those millions of ordinary people— , that exacted the greatest both soldiers and civilians—whose toll on both soldiers and civilians. The everyday lives were rudely inter- The book is by no means a complete two-year alone rupted by the harsh impact of total history of the war. The author has al- saw probably a million deaths. Most war. Men, women and children all ready covered many aspects of it in his of these came under German shelling faced “ordeals that in many cases earlier works, notably Overlord: D-Day and bombing, but tens of thousands lasted for years, and for at least 60 & the Battle for Normandy; Bomber Com- of citizens died of starvation. Bread million were terminated by death.” mand; Armageddon: The Battle for Ger- rations were severely limited; some Hastings graphically describes atroci- many, 1944–1945; and Retribution: The people ate grass cakes. “The greatest ties on both sides, especially during Battle for , 1944–45. So he avoids horror,” wrote one woman, was “where the savage fighting in the final stages repeating material that he has previ- to get something edible. … Life [had] of the war in Eastern Europe. ously related in detail. Thus while In- been reduced to one thing—the hunt Inferno thus differs markedly from ferno describes in general terms the for food.” Corpses lined the streets. In other fine volumes on World War II major military campaigns of the war the sub-zero winter temperature, one such as John Keegan’s The Second and often, in some detail, the harsh man thawed another’s frozen legs to World War, with its emphasis on strat- combat, its focus on individual experi- remove his boots. Altogether the siege egy, operations and military leaders; ences and recollections gives it an “cost its defenders and citizens more Gerhard Weinberg’s A World at Arms: episodic, almost impressionistic ap- lives than Britain and America to- A Global History of World War II, which pearance. gether lost in the entire war.”

April 2012 I ARMY 77 Indeed, in the first year of fighting Japan “made strategy with awesome the country into war had the Axis not in Russia alone almost 3 million Russ- incompetence,” but their soldiers dis- forced him to do so. ian and a million German soldiers played “high courage and tactical GEN George C. Marshall “showed were killed, a toll that increased al- skills.” The Japanese military neverthe- greatness as a statesman as well as a most exponentially as the war went less had a deep “cultural incapacity” to warlord.” Then-GEN Dwight D. Eisen- on. The huge number of Russian civil- consider what the enemy might do. hower was not an outstanding strate- ian deaths is almost incalculable. Star- gist or tactician but “achieved great- vation, German artillery and shocking oth Hitler and Stalin cost their ness by his diplomatic management of atrocities took the lives of countless Barmies hundreds of thousands of the Anglo-American alliance in the men, women and children. Children’s lives by forbidding them to yield even field.” GEN Douglas MacArthur was deaths were the most shocking. “We an inch of ground. Yet, Stalin man- “distinguished by the splendor of his understand the horrors of war,” wrote aged to overcome his “limitations as a self-image … rather than by gifts as a a Russian officer. “But children, these military commander” and eventually battlefield commander.” blossoms of life … these innocent holy created “an extraordinary military A number of Russian generals were souls … We’ve failed to protect them machine.” Its victories, however, were commanders “of the highest gifts.” … One’s thoughts freeze with horror won at “a human cost no democracy Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita was Japan’s at the sight of small bloodsoaked bod- would have accepted.” It was also a “ablest ground-force commander.” ies, with gnarled fingers and distorted “barbarous army,” as indeed was the Japanese admirals “displayed aston- little faces.” brutal Japanese soldiery. ishing timidity,” and Adm. Isoroku Ya- Such personal testimonies appear Hastings writes that Winston Church- mamoto, while initially very success- on almost every page of Hastings’ ac- ill saved Britain in 1940 and was wise ful, was largely to blame for the navy’s count. They lend authenticity and im- to support the Soviet Union. The prime later defeats. mediacy to his powerful narrative. minister was also correct in insisting The Potsdam Declaration, concludes The text is further enriched by the fre- on invading North Africa, but he erred Hastings, was not sufficiently specific quent inclusion of statistical informa- in his other strategic ideas, and the per- as an ultimatum, yet Japan itself was tion: troop strengths, casualties, dis- formance of the British army itself responsible for the atomic destruction tances, speeds of advance and retreat, throughout the war was “unsatisfac- of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. shipping losses, public opinion polls, tory.” Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Inferno is an original, thoughtful, and other informative material. Montgomery was a “highly competent perceptive and very readable account. Hastings also doesn’t hesitate to state professional” who deserves “signif- It offers a view of the war both fasci- his strong opinions on important sub- icant credit” for the successful Allied nating and disturbing, and captures jects. Germany, he writes, “made war invasion of France. Yet he “never the essence of that great cataclysmic very badly,” but the German army achieved a masterstroke.” struggle. fought “brilliantly.” Yet it was too will- President Roosevelt rallied the Amer- ing to accept Hitler and the “murder- ican people after Pearl Harbor and COL Stanley L. Falk, USA Ret., Ph.D., ous adventure” into which he commit- was wise to support Britain and Rus- is a military historian and author spe- ted the Wehrmacht. Both Germany and sia, but might not have actually led cializing in World War II. The Complexities of Ending War

Between War and Peace: How Amer- U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Com- This time, however, the authors focus ica Ends Its Wars. COL Matthew mand (TRADOC), that book was to on the transition from war to peace. Moten, editor. The Free Press. 371 pages; help the “Army’s officer corps … antic- In 2009, GEN Martin E. Dempsey, as maps; index; $17. ipate the nature and evolution of future commander of TRADOC, asked COL conflicts.” A staple of military educa- Moten to lead a collaborative study of By LTC Jon Scott Logel tion and officer development, America’s “war termination in American history.” U.S. Army retired First Battles subscribes to the idea that if COL Moten writes that the endings American leaders study past wars, they to American conflicts “have brought quarter century ago, Charles E. can achieve a better victory in the next. about unforeseen and unwanted conse- AHeller and William A. Stofft pub- Now, as the nation hopes to end a quences; the aftermath has seldom re- lished America’s First Battles, 1776–1965, decade of war, COL Matthew Moten sembled the peaceful future the na- a collection of essays by leading mili- has led the effort to follow America’s tion’s leaders had imagined and hoped tary historians that focused on how the First Battles with Between War and Peace: for when they first decided for war.” U.S. military transitioned from peace to How America Ends Its Wars, a similar The book’s 15 essayists explore a war. Commissioned by GEN Donn collection of essays written by today’s timeless problem that is arguably Starry while he was the commander of most prominent military historians. “more complex than war itself.” From

78 ARMY I April 2012 the Battle of Yorktown through the the other authors thoughtfully con- tary history. By framing their analyses end of Desert Storm in 1991, the au- sider the aims of all sides as the bel- with familiar wars and events, the au- thors systematically analyze the trajec- ligerents reach war’s end. thors help us understand the complexi- tory of America’s wars by examining ties of war termination. For example, the origins, evolving political aims, Ira D. Gruber’s chapter on the end of changing strategic objectives, war ter- the American Revolutionary War re- mination and the implications of the counts the well-known events that peace that followed. Between War and transpired between Yorktown and the Peace is a study of policy and strategy Treaty of Paris, and then considers how that seeks to inform not only the mili- those terms failed to resolve American tary leader but also the civilian leader- security interests on the western fron- ship, who ultimately must decide be- tier and the Atlantic Ocean. tween waging war and making peace. In his chapter on the War of 1812, Wayne E. Lee argues that the Battles of oger J. Spiller’s first essay sets the Plattsburgh were decisive in ending Rbook’s tone by making six general the war for Britain; the United States, propositions about the American per- however, pursued a “fortress America” spective of war termination. Noting postwar strategy based upon the burn- that these propositions may appear ing of Washington, D.C., and the de- “counterintuitive” at first, Spiller in- fense of Baltimore, Md. With both of vites readers to question the idea of a these early wars, the authors make the decisive campaign and to consider case that U.S. postwar policy was mis- more carefully how in “war the aims guided in light of the threats and con- of all sides … gradually converge to- flicts that came next. ward an agreement to stop fighting.” Two chapters focus on the conflict Instead of just focusing on how one Between War and Peace explores the between the U.S. Army and Native side compels the other to do its will, convergence of adversarial war aims Americans. John W. Hall’s essay on the as Clausewitz describes, Spiller and across the continuum of American mili- Seminole Wars highlights how the U.S.

April 2012 I ARMY 79 tends to prepare for the wars it wants readers will find well-known topics ests and the potential of our enemies” to fight, not the ones it is more likely to that illustrate the relationship between applies to 1964 as much as it does now. encounter. Hall compares LT William T. political concerns and strategic alter- Bacevich goes further, arguing that the Sherman’s prediction of the Indian natives. Particularly rich are the pas- Persian Gulf War did not vanquish the wars that would dominate much of the sages on postwar occupations of Mex- ghosts of Vietnam, but rather was “a 19th century with the War Depart- ico City, the American South, Japan grotesque misunderstanding of the ment’s strategic choice to fortify the At- and Germany. Crane’s chapter on air context from which the Persian Gulf lantic seaboard. Peter Maslowski exam- power in the Korean War is a concise War had emerged.” Furthermore, he ines the Indian wars by framing them summary of the allure and shortcom- includes indictments of the leadership in the context of the 300-Years War, tak- ings of the aerial instrument in bring- for failing to see the larger challenges ing a longer view of the conflict that be- ing an enemy to terms. Underscoring presented by an Islamic Middle East. gan with European contact in North the importance of the political leader- Although Between War and Peace suf- America and continued through the ship in any war termination, George fers slightly from the awkwardness of 1890s. In a later chapter, Brian McAllis- C. Herring’s essay stresses the influ- forcing so many perspectives into a ter Linn highlights the connections be- ence of Ronald Reagan’s and Mikhail common essay structure, it is, on bal- tween the Indian wars and the nation’s Gorbachev’s leadership and judgment ance, an excellent piece of policy and conflict with guerrillas in the Philip- in ending the . strategy literature. In addition, each es- pines. Linn builds on Maslowski’s ob- say stands on its own and can be incor- servations by noting that American erhaps the book’s most provoca- porated into any study of military his- military leaders relearned tactics and Ptive essays come at the end, with tory or American policy-making. This practices first used on the western Gian P. Gentile’s consideration of Viet- volume is a must-read for strategic plains of the United States when it nam and Andrew J. Bacevich’s essay leaders, planners and those who strive came to fighting the Philippine War at on Iraq. While Between War and Peace to produce a better end to America’s the turn of the 20th century. strives “to avoid analyzing the prob- wars. In the chapters on conventional lems of the past through the lens of wars, which include the Mexican War current concerns” in Iraq and Afghan- LTC Jon Scott Logel, USA Ret., Ph.D., (Joseph G. Dawson), the Civil War istan, both of these essays deftly chal- a former assistant professor of history (Joseph T. Glatthaar), World Wars I lenge that goal. Gentile’s demand for at the United States Military Academy and II (Edward M. Coffman, Theodore “clearheaded thinking about policy and veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, is A. Wilson and Gerhard L. Weinberg) and strategy that aligns ways, means, an assistant professor of war gaming at and the Korean War (Conrad C. Crane), and ends relative to our national inter- the United States Naval War College. A Portrait of Leadership All In: The Education of General gency (COIN), GEN Petraeus’ hall- who he thought “got it” concerning . Paula Broadwell with mark. While COIN is seemingly a ma- COIN, and he did what he could to ad- Vernon Loeb. The Penguin Press. 394 jor focus of the narrative, the Petraeus vocate for them and assist their prog- pages; index; appendices; black-and-white the authors present is a man whose ed- ress. photographs; maps; $29.95. ucation and background are absolutely GEN Petraeus manages to exhibit suited to his increasing leadership re- extraordinary emotional intelligence By LTC Edwin L. Kennedy Jr. sponsibilities. His assignments as aide- under situations that would try even U.S. Army retired de-camp to several general officers the most patient of people. His deal- contributed to that education and pro- ings with Afghan leaders who were EN David Petraeus’ last year in vided perspectives so necessary for his not only resistant to change but also Guniform found him commanding future development. sometimes openly hostile to coalition in Afghanistan at the behest of the In addition, Petraeus’ mentors, se- strategies made for a stressful year. White House. Paula Broadwell and nior officers who took him under their He persevered, though, demonstrat- Vernon Loeb have done an excellent wings, offered sage counsel and guid- ing not only extraordinary patience job of following this challenging year ance. As a result, GEN Petraeus did the but also humility and a higher sense of that many hope has set the conditions same for his subordinates, according to duty. not just for a successful withdrawal the Army mentoring system as it was Broadwell and Loeb consistently re- but also for longer-term stability for conceived. Broadwell and Loeb cite Pe- turn to Petraeus’ earlier educational Afghanistan. traeus’ interventions in Afghanistan on experiences and link them to his com- What strikes me most about All In: behalf of talented leaders he thought mand in Afghanistan. While he did not The Education of General David Petraeus were being stymied by the bureaucracy. take the COIN electives, such as Revo- is that it is not just about counterinsur- He took a particular interest in those lutionary Warfare, as a cadet, he started

80 ARMY I April 2012 thinking about counterinsurgency early doctrine. This doctrine was formalized tenance required to keep the members in his career. By the late 1980s Petraeus in 2006 when the newest counterinsur- marching together and … staying in had completed his doctorate, writing gency manual and, subsequently, the the formation.” It is a tribute to GEN his dissertation on the experience of the stability operations manual, were pub- Petraeus that he was able to maneuver United States in Vietnam. lished. within the culture of corruption and He soon developed a deep and in- other hurdles he constantly worked tellectual interest in U.S. counterinsur- around, some of which were in his gency successes and failures. His pub- own government. lished articles, however, and even his While Broadwell and Loeb have dissertation, are less about COIN than done a remarkable job of showing or- the application of military forces to ganizational and strategic leadership solve conflicts with a post-Vietnam skills, I wish they had also showed the Army. The COIN doctrine that even- very personal leadership character of tually became FM 3-24 was formu- GEN Petraeus. They allude to it at the lated during the 1990s from experi- end of the book when they discuss the ences and observations gained from “mask of command.” Although he has Haiti, the Balkans and Central Amer- never made a big show of it, GEN Pe- ica. It is a synthesis of Petraeus’ entire traeus has personally intervened in educational experience—not just a re- soldiers’ lives to help or encourage action to events in Operation Iraqi them in their struggles. Freedom. All In complements the Army’s lead- There are a number of other lessons ership doctrine by providing examples GEN Petraeus culled from his personal of how interpersonal relationships experiences. He took them with him to working across boundaries can make Afghanistan in 2010, gaining a healthy even seemingly insurmountable tasks respect for the power of the press and doable. GEN Petraeus’ talent at pro- how it had to be reckoned with as a po- hat GEN Petraeus’ year in Afghan- viding direction and inspiration are tentially positive force. His admonition Tistan was tiring is palpable when worthy of being studied and emulated to his subordinates was: “Be the first reading this book. The authors’ de- at all levels of command. Kudos to with the truth.” His service in Haiti and scription of the constant efforts re- Broadwell and Loeb. Bosnia shaped an understanding of in- quired to deal with the sometimes un- teragency utility in what we now call cooperative and difficult Afghans LTC Edwin L. Kennedy Jr., USA Ret., is stability operations. This understanding made me feel the drag it must have Assistant Professor at the U.S. Army translated into the multidimensional had on GEN Petraeus. I believe, how- Command and General Staff College in approach—lines of effort in Iraq and ever, that their description is overly the department of Command and Lead- Afghanistan—and is now embodied in simplistic when they say that the ership. He attended the U.S. Military current COIN and stability operations greatest challenge was “the high main- Academy with GEN Petraeus. The Great Warpath’s Influence on War Today Conquered into Liberty: Two Cen- particularly Lakes George and Cham- and contemporary security policy. The turies of Battles Along the Great plain—witnessed the struggle for su- author of the prize-winning Supreme Warpath that Made the American premacy of the North American conti- Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Lead- Way of War. Eliot A. Cohen. Free Press. nent among Europeans, Americans, ership in Wartime, Cohen is the Robert 432 pages; illustrations; maps; index; Canadians and Native Americans. E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Stud- notes; $30. Along the water and wilderness path, ies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Ad- what became the fledgling American vanced International Studies at Johns By COL Cole C. Kingseed nation learned the intricacies associated Hopkins University and is founding di- U.S. Army retired with raising and equipping armies, de- rector of the Philip Merrill Center for veloping light infantry tactics, and sus- Strategic Studies. A graduate of Har- ative American tribes called the taining operations in a hostile environ- vard College, Cohen has taught at Har- N200-mile corridor between New ment. Here also, the Americans first vard and the U.S. Naval War College. York City and Montreal the Great conceived the strategy of “conquering From 2007 to 2009 he was counselor to Warpath. From Colonial times through into liberty” a hostile country, learning the U.S. Department of State, serving as the War of 1812, this strategic highway lessons that remain relevant today. Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s senior ad- astride the Hudson River—and most Eliot A. Cohen is a scholar of strategy visor on strategic issues.

82 ARMY I April 2012 road in scope and gripping in its 20th century? Here, Cohen makes his border operations that characterized Bnarrative, Conquered into Liberty is most significant contribution to the the Great Warpath. as informative as it is captivating. Co- concept of the evolution of an Ameri- As for the continuing legacy of the hen’s thesis is straightforward: The mil- can way of war. According to Cohen, Great Warpath to present-day Amer- itary contest along the Great Warpath Anglo-American statesmen of the ica, Cohen reviews the campaigns powerfully influenced American mili- 18th century would have soberly en- along the Hudson River Valley during tary institutions, strategic thought and dorsed President Franklin Roosevelt’s two-and-a-half centuries of conflict military culture. To support his thesis, and concludes that the power of the Cohen offers a “historical exploration United States is most effectively em- through a careful examination of se- ployed by leaders at mid-level roles— lected battles real and, in some cases, “leaders … who rose to challenges potential.” that they did not expect; who learned Why focus on the Great Warpath? trades, including the trade of war, that Cohen posits that from the Colonial they had not chosen; and who exhib- period through American indepen- ited perseverance and resilience that dence, and for half a century after- they may not have known they had in ward, the military struggle for what is them.” Such observations are more now Canada was America’s central general in nature than tied to a spe- strategic focus. Such an approach pos- cific American way of war. sessed more relevance during Colo- Perhaps the more enduring legacy nial times and during the early stages of the multiple attempts to “conquer of the United States’ existence than it Canada into liberty” is extracted from does in the period from the 19th cen- the chapter on the abortive American tury to the modern era. attempt to secure Canada as a 14th Cohen’s assessment of the dangers colony during the early stages of the posed by the possibility of Great American Revolution. In years to Britain tendering official recognition come, opines Cohen, “Americans in to the Confederacy is particularly in- many places—from Mexico to the triguing. He outlines in detail Abra- demand for unconditional surrender , Vietnam to Iraq—would ham Lincoln’s frustration as he en- of the , for they too “had behave similarly, waging wars for lib- dured political humiliation at the hardened on the destruction of an en- erty and interest, conquering others hands of Great Britain during the emy polity.” So, also, have today’s into freedom … with mixed motives Trent Affair, when an American war- special operating forces found their and uncertain outcomes.” ship stopped a British steamer and ap- origins in Robert Rogers’ Rangers prehended two Confederate agents. during the French and Indian War. In COL Cole C. Kingseed, USA Ret., Ph.D., Once the tide of war turned in favor addition, Cohen sees the operation in a former professor of history at the U.S. of the North, Lincoln became comfort- which Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Military Academy, is a writer and con- able that “England [would] live to re- Laden as nothing more than the cross- sultant. gret her inimical attitude toward us.” If anything, Cohen overplays the po- tential of war between the United States and Great Britain over the Cana- dian question during the period 1815 to 1871. By the time the Treaty of Wash- ington was signed in May 1871 to set- tle the CSS Alabama claims and other commercial issues, British, American and Canadian diplomats had long re- solved to settle all international dis- putes by diplomacy. The treaty, cou- pled with the subsequent evacuation of the British garrisons in Canada, ended a phase of American military history that had lasted two-and-a-half centuries. How then did the Great Warpath influence American warfighting in the

April 2012 I ARMY 83 Following high school graduation In spite of the miserable condi- Va r i e d Fa r e (with honors) in 1942, Farris was drafted tions—cold and rainy weather, muddy into the Army in 1943 and, after train- foxholes, lack of sleep, the death of his ing, assigned to the Infantry at Fort comrades—Farris’ letters home were A Soldier’s Sketchbook: From the Bragg, N.C. mostly upbeat, as he didn’t want his Front Lines of World War II. Joseph On October 6, 1944, men of the 100th family to worry about him. In a letter Farris. National Geographic Books. 304 Infantry Division—Farris among them written the day after the death of his pages; photographs; maps; illustrations; —boarded the USS General W.H. Gor- squad leader he wrote, “Today was a $30. don and disembarked 14 days later at super day as days over here go. I re- Artist Joseph Farris, best known for Marseilles, on the southern coast of ceived three of your swell packages, his cartoons in The New Yorker maga- France. Assigned to the 398th Infantry and boy they hit the spot.” He also zine (his work has also appeared in Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company M, had to contend with Army censorship, many other publications, including a heavy machine-gun squad, Farris which prohibited him from revealing ARMY Magazine), has written a book traveled north to the front lines to re- sensitive information such as troop about his experiences as a soldier dur- lieve the 45th Division in the Vosges movements. Farris fills in the gaps for ing World War II. The greater part of A Mountains. He soon had his first en- the reader with his own commentary Soldier’s Sketchbook: From the Front Lines and excerpts from his company’s offi- of World War II is made up of letters cial morning reports (which he se- Farris wrote to his family while he was cretly copied in their entirety at the in the Army, interspersed with the au- war’s end). thor’s reminiscences of the era. The In March 1945, the 3rd Battalion book is amply illustrated with repro- captured the town of Bitche, on the ductions of Farris’ sketches, watercol- , and was awarded the ors and photographs as well as archival Presidential Unit Citation for its ac- photos, maps and posters that place his tion. Shortly thereafter, the division story in a broader historical context. crossed the River into Germany. Farris was born in 1924 in Newark, While heavy fighting ensued along N.J. He spent his school age years in the Neckar River, Farris was on fur- Danbury, Conn., where his parents lough in the town of Nancy, France. owned the Danbury Confectionery, a After the surrender of Germany in small store operated by the entire fam- May 1945, Farris worried that he and ily. Farris, who dreamed of becoming his fellow soldiers would be sent to an artist, displayed his drawings of fight in the Pacific Theater. “We had popular comic strip characters in a survived the war in the European The- small room in the back of the shop. At counter with enemy fire, in which his ater of operations and the odds were the age of 12 or 13, he responded to an squad leader was killed in action. strongly against our surviving the in- ad in a local newspaper for free art “Our morale couldn’t have dropped vasion of Japan too,” he writes. Again lessons given by some New Yorker car- any lower on that fateful day,” he he was spared further combat, and in toonists, most notably Richard Taylor. writes. Soon after, Farris received his August he enrolled in an eight-week “Th[at] decision probably determined Combat Infantryman’s Badge: “Of all program at the Biarritz Army Univer- the direction my life would take,” my decorations,” he writes, “I’m most sity, where he had his first formal train- writes Farris. proud of this one.” ing in art. Once the Japanese officially surrendered in September, Farris’ main preoccupation was returning home. Fi- nally, on January 31, 1946, he set sail for the United States from Bremer- haven, Germany. He was honorably discharged from the Army at Fort Dix, Barracks, N.J., on February 22, having attained Fort Bragg, the rank of staff sergeant. N.C., 1944 Farris writes that “World War II was an extraordinary experience and a defining moment” in his life. Through both words and pictures in A Soldier’s Sketchbook, Farris brings his wartime experience to life in vivid detail.

Joseph Farris —Joe Broderick

84 ARMY I April 2012 Defeat and Triumph: The Story of a published interviews, letters and di- ation: 60,150 initial landing forces; 10 Controversial Allied Invasion and aries of American, British, French and combat divisions; 250,000 troops; 2,250 French Rebirth. Stephen Sussna. Xlib- German participants offer most of the ships and landing craft; and 4,056 air- ris Corp. 719 pages; notes; appendices; details needed to understand what craft. bibliography; maps; black-and-white Sussna succeeds in presenting a com- photographs. $24.64. prehensive sense of the operation and Operation Anvil (later called Opera- its consequences. He notes that GEN tion Dragoon), the Allied invasion of George C. Marshall credited the land- southern France on August 15, 1944, ings of the U.S. Seventh Army under was always controversial. Churchill LTG Alexander M. Patch as greatly opposed it; Roosevelt and Eisenhower contributing to the deterioration of the were for it. The operation succeeded in German army in France. Sussna also its goal of liberating most of France in observes that naval historian Samuel about a month. Although it was a E. Morison considered Operation Dra- highly ambitious, large-scale opera- goon “the nearly faultless large-scale tion, it has always been overshadowed amphibious operation of World War II.” by the even more ambitious Operation Although some recognition of the Overlord, the Normandy landings, Allied troops of which occurred two months earlier. and of LTG Jacob L. Devers, who was Stephen Sussna, a sailor on LST deputy supreme allied commander, (landing ship, tank) 1012 during Oper- Mediterranean and later U.S. 6th Army ation Dragoon, tries to provide an en- Group commander, occurred in Au- cyclopedia on the subject. The book is gust 2010 at the World War II Memor- an exhaustive examination of every as- went on. Firsthand accounts are excit- ial in Washington, D.C., the operation pect of the landings—individual narra- ing; however, for a fast-moving narra- is still known as the Forgotten D-Day. tive, operational and tactical details, tive, readers may look elsewhere. Those who wish to learn more about and the strategic context. The maps, The author cites historian Alan Wilts’ it can dip into this thorough reference charts and information culled from un- numbers regarding the size of the oper- book.

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April 2012 I ARMY 85