Book Review Supplement Autumn 1996

Canadian Military History Volume 5 Issue 2 Article 18 1996 Book Review Supplement Autumn 1996 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation "Book Review Supplement Autumn 1996." Canadian Military History 5, 2 (1996) This Book Review Supplements is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: Book Review Supplement Autumn 1996 CANADIAN MILITARY HISTORY BOOK REVIEW SUPPLEMENT Autumn 1996 Issue 4 Robert L. Fraser, ed., Black & Sutherland Highlanders of (including 8 colour plates) from the Yesterdays: The Argylls’ War Canada, goes farther still, and work of the unit’s resident artist, (Privately published [available from provides us with a new and Private F.T.V. Savard. Everything is Lieut.-Col. J.A. Ramesbottom, 184 powerful variety of unit history. brought together in a most Brookview Dr., Ancaster, Ont., L9G The story of the Argylls’ war is impressive fashion, making Black 1J6) $50.00, 632 pages, ISBN 0- told entirely in their own words, Yesterdays a wonderful read for 9361380-0-4. through letters, diaries, interviews, anyone interested in the experience the war diary, and personal of men at war. n 1927, a reviewer in the accounts. There are no dissections ICanadian Defence Quarterly of battles by dispassionate * * * * * lamented that “Canadian historians, only the impressions regimental histories are threatened and thoughts of the men who lived Adrian Weale, Renegades: Hitler’s by a formula. They are beginning through those black yesterdays. It Englishmen (London: Weidenfeld to display a regrettable conformity might be suspected that such an & Nicolson, 1994) £18.99, 230 in style and presentation.” The approach would leave the reader pages, ISBN 0-297-81488-5. same might be said of the first wave puzzled by a barrage of reflections of Second World War unit histories. with nothing to put them into t would be difficult to find a more They were solid and meticulous context, but this is not the case. In Iunsavoury collection of pieces of research, but they did tend fact, quite the opposite occurs: one undesirables - imbeciles, anti- to be a little dry and rather lacking gets to know the regiment much Semites, opportunists, fascists, in imagination and creativity. The more intimately than with a petty crooks, anti-communists, and second wave of histories, by Geoff conventional history, and the life madmen, these renegades went Hayes, Terry Copp and others, story of the unit emerges in a way over to the Nazi side to spy on the revealed a marked shift in that is compelling and Allies, infiltrate resistance emphasis. The same solid research comprehensible. movements, make pro-German was there, but these authors went Every aspect of the Argylls’ war radio broadcasts, and serve in beyond the traditional formula to is covered, from its “sojourn in the combat. They range from the very humanize the historical record, sun” on garrison duty in Jamaica well known, like Lord Haw-Haw placing as much emphasis on the to its baptism of fire in July 1944 and John Amery (both hanged for human face of war as the movement to the experiences of loved ones left treason) to the obscure, like the of companies and platoons. Black behind the Canada. There are many motley collection of POWs Yesterdays, a chronicle of the Argyll photos and even a selection (including a few Canadians) who 1 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 1996 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 5 [1996], Iss. 2, Art. 18 joined the British Free Corps to bodies to aid posts. These passages when those in their midst fight against the Soviets, and Tom stand as a tribute as much to the responded positively to the call to Cooper, the only Englishman to drivers as to the author. arms. In all cases, the Great War receive a German combat had a far greater impact on decoration. * * * * * American Mennonites than has The story, which occasionally previously been assumed. Homan’s takes on overtones of high comedy, Gerlof D. Homan, American study is well researched, clearly is well told by Weale. He carefully Mennonites and the Great War, written, and includes a number of traces the misadventures of the 1914-1918 (Waterloo, ON: Herald rare photographs. renegades, whose only impact on Press, 1994) $28.50 paper, 240 the war was to consume effort that pages, ISBN 0-8361-3114-2. * * * * * the Nazis could ill afford to waste, and is careful to avoid the he Great War was a defining Ken Lamb, Milton Remembers demonizing which characterized Tmoment for American World War II, 1939-1945 (Milton, postwar accounts of British Mennonites. As a pacifist religious ON: Milton Historical Society, 1995) traitors. The people who emerge are sect that had lived in the United 140 pages, ISBN 0-9695629-2-6. generally not evil personified, but States for more than a century, they rather misguided, pathetic souls were suddenly compelled to ilton was like a thousand whose psychological failings made respond to the fervent patriotism Mother towns in 1939, so its them ill-equipped to resist Nazi of the larger society with a religious memories of the war are probably blandishments. tradition that forbade military fairly representative. Indeed, Lamb involvement. At first glance, the has been careful to recount as * * * * * issues appear to be clear, especially broad a range of experiences as given the commonly held possible. We read of fighter pilots, Arlen Hansen, Gentlemen assumption that Mennonites have merchant seamen, infantrymen, Volunteers: The Story of always been impervious to societal nurses, prisoners of war, and even American Ambulance Drivers in trends. Yet that was not the case, the RAF’s only female the Great War, August 1914- as Homan demonstrates in this meteorologist. There are also September 1918 (New York: concisely written study. Homan details of life in wartime Milton, and Arcade Publishing, 1996) $24.95 believes that although Mennonite tidbits from local newspapers. A list US paper, 288 pages, ISBN 1- church leaders in 1914 were of Miltoners who served and short 55970-313-X. unanimous in their opposition to biographies of the 32 local men who the war, members were far less were killed on active service round mong the American ambulance unified on how to respond to out the volume. A joint project of Adrivers in the Great War were conscription. An estimated 60 per the Milton Historical Society and some of the most eminent names cent of Mennonites drafted were the Private Joe Waters Branch of the in American literature, including thought to have refused military Canadian Legion, Milton Ernest Hemingway, John Dos service of any kind and were Remembers World War II is an Passos and e.e. cummings. Because sentenced to “conscientious admirable volume that can serve as of their notoriety, the work of the objector” camps. Almost a third an example to other Legion various ambulance detachments accepted some form of non- branches contemplating similar has been distorted. Gentlemen combatant service. This leaves 7- collections. Volunteers corrects these 10 per cent that likely entered the misconceptions admirably. Hansen, armed forces. An exact reckoning * * * * * in a book published posthumously, on this issue is especially difficult has written an engaging and finely to obtain as many who joined the John Ellis, Social History of the crafted account of the work of these war effort simply ceased to exist Machine Gun (London: Pimlico, wealthy and well educated within the Mennonite church. 1993 [1976]) £8.00 paper, 186 Americans who volunteered their Homan concludes that most pages, ISBN 0-7126-5669-3. services out of a love of adventure Mennonites reaffirmed their peace or a desire to help France. He stance as a result of the Great War, his is a most welcome reprint recounts the rivalries between and became even more removed Tof one of the first books of the various units, and the turmoil into from mainstream society. This also “new” military history. Ellis argues which many volunteers were tossed resulted in more cohesiveness that the invention of the modern when the US entry into the war among the various Mennonite machine gun in the United States seemed to demand their church conferences after 1918. at the time of the Civil War, its militarization. Hansen is at his However, he makes it clear that widespread use in imperial finest, though, when describing the other families and church conflicts, and Britain’s failure to day-to-day work of the drivers as communities experienced painful recognize its potential before the they struggled to convey shattered disagreements and separations First World War can all be explained 2 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol5/iss2/18 2 et al.: Book Review Supplement Autumn 1996 by the unique nature of the societies as “colossally stupid”?) and ill- Steve Neary, The Enemy on our involved. In the US, techniques of considered criticism of the Doorstep: The German Attacks at mass production and the Commonwealth War Graves Bell Island, Newfoundland, 1942 experience of modern mass warfare Commission that reveals a lack of (St. John’s: Jesperson Press, 1994) were two of the preconditions to the insight into the principles involved $12.95 paper, 140 pages, ISBN 0- invention of an efficient machine in modern military burials. 921692-58-7. gun. In Britain, the reluctance of the Nevertheless, for those who missed military mind to accept the primacy the original drama as it unfolded, n one level, this book might be of machine over man was balanced this is a most interesting summary.

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