Remembrance Day is
coming up soon (or Veterans Day for my American readers). As such
let's turn our gaze to the past once again, shall we? Ever since I
was a kid I read a lot of history books. (I lead an exciting life.
What can I say?) One subgenre of history that I read a lot of is
combat memoirs. Also known as war memoirs or soldier memoirs, combat
memoirs are books about war written by the guys who fought it. I find
that the first-hand experiences of individuals – ordinary, everyday
people – provides the most engrossing viewpoint of historical
events. In short, they're enthralling and hard to put down. So for
this article I thought it might be fun to look at some combat memoirs
that I've read over the years, sorted alphabetically by author.
Shoot to Kill:
From 2 Para to the SAS by Michael Asher. Cassel Military
Paperbacks, 1990.
Shoot to Kill
details the young adulthood of Michael Asher throughout the 1970's.
As a high school graduate he enlisted in the Parachute Regiment.
After making it through the gruelling training process he was posted
to Northern Ireland during the height of The Troubles. Once his time
with 2 Para was up he qualified for the SAS and completed his
training there. But soon after he quit the SAS due to some personal
difficulties and joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary in a Special
Patrol Group. After one year Asher quit the RUC as well, realizing
that a life surrounded by violence was wearing on his soul and that
the conflict in Ulster simply wasn't his war to fight. I found Shoot
to Kill a fascinating read. I like learning about the experiences
of people involved in The Troubles – how daily life in a developed
Western country existed alongside domestic terrorism and lawlessness
– and it's told from the viewpoint of a young man struggling with
his self-confidence and sense of identity. And yet you can tell how
his training and development amongst the elite of Britain's armed
forces gave Asher such a sense of empowerment and pride. Anyone who
likes books about boot camp and training should check out Shoot to
Kill. The only downside is that
there's not much SAS action in it. Otherwise, Asher's memoirs is a
fine read.
One Soldier's War
in Chechnya by Arkady
Babchenko. Portobello Books, 2007.
This freakin' book, man. This might just be the most depressing book
I've ever read (and I've read The Jungle for crying out loud!)
I knew that things in post-Soviet Russia and Chechnya were bad but
still this book was a real eye-opener. Taking place in both Chechen
Wars (mid-1990's and early 2000's), One Soldier's War depicts
the army of what was once the world's second most powerful nation as
little more than an undisciplined horde of barbarians, thieves, and
drunkards. No wonder the Russians lost the first war: they were
beating eachother up as much as they were the Chechen rebels! The
infamously brutal Russian practice of dedovshchina is on full
display and life for the average soldier didn't get much easier after
boot camp. Being constantly surrounded by danger, corruption, and
abuse made it easy for grunts to feel depressed, worthless, and
hopeless. Regrettably, the book's veracity does often come into
question amongst those who have read it. In the preface Babchenko
states that while “everything in [the book] is true” some events
told within have been “shifted in time”, he personally didn't
witness every event, and that in a few cases he “combined two or
three persons into one character”. Real or fake, One Soldier's
War is still a powerful read that's hard to put down. But I warn
you, it's not for the faint of heart.
Nam: The Vietnam
War in the Words of the Men and Women who Fought There by
Mark Baker. Berkley Books, 1981.
I know, technically Nam isn't a combat memoir but I figured
oral history is close enough. An oral history book such as this one
is a collection of interviews from people who took part in or
witnessed historical events. Nam's sources range from troopers
to pilots, nurses to doctors, pacifists to patriots, killers to POWs:
all of them Americans who were involved in the Vietnam War. These
accounts – ranging in length from a couple paragraphs to a dozen
pages – encompass a wide range of tones, viewpoints, and
experiences. Pretty much everything from enlistment (or in some cases
conscription) to homecoming is covered. However, as was the case with
One Soldier's War in Chechnya, I couldn't help but question
how truthful it all was since these are the memories of scores of
unidentified people. Nevertheless, if you want a general overview of
what the Vietnam War was like for the boots-on-the-ground average
American participant, Nam is a fine place to start.
Storming
the Falklands: My War and After by Tony Banks. Abacus, 2012.
As was the case with Nam, it might be a little misleading to
call Storming the Falklands a combat memoir. A more accurate
classification would be “an autobiography starring the Falklands
War”. Tony Banks was an average working class youth in the
rough-and-tumble Scottish town of Dundee who joined the army and
served with 2 Para during the war in the South Atlantic. His
experience there was nasty, brutish, and short. A significant portion
of the book deals with his life after the war, about how he lived
with this sense of anger, frustration, and a single-minded drive for
success that still didn't satisfy him even after becoming a
millionaire. About 18 years after the war Banks broke down and
realized that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The book ends with him coming to terms with his experiences,
travelling to some familiar places. In spite of – or possibly
because of – it being so different from other combat books I've
read I found Storming the Falklands to be a riveting read.
Most other combat memoirs come to an end once the war is over or once
the author comes home, but Tony Banks reminds us that even after the
fighting our veterans need our support.
Poilu:
The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker,
1914-18 by Louis Barthas. Yale University Press, 2014 (English
translation).
Originally published in French in 1978, Poilu is the
collection of notebooks kept by Louis Barthas who more-or-less spent
the entire First World War on and around the front lines. By the time
the war began Barthas, a reservist, was not only a zealous socialist
who hated militarism but also was in his late-30's which is pretty
old by soldiering standards. As a result pretty much every page of
Poilu is filled to the margins with criticism, sarcasm, and
complaining about everything from incompetent officers and wasteful
tactics to the lousy weather and pitiful sleeping quarters. Sometimes
it's humorous while other times it's serious and tragic. With
everything Barthas went through it's a miracle he was never wounded,
although as the war went on he certainly became exhausted and worn
out. War from the viewpoint of a mature artisan in early 20th
century France frequently takes on a religious perspective and
attention is always drawn when the author comes across another
soldier from his hometown of Peyriac-Minervois. However with so many
place names and with so many people to keep track of the book can be
a bit dense at times. Also the author's political beliefs often
manifest in an overbearing self-righteousness: does he think that
only socialists value human life? Do only socialists dislike war?
Regardless, Poilu is still an interesting look into the French
trooper's day-to-day life more than one hundred years ago.
LRRP
Team Leader by John Burford. Ivy Books, 1994.
One subgenre of combat memoirs I find fascinating is that of the
elite soldier or special forces soldier. In the Vietnam War the US
Army made use of Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRPs, pronounced
as “lurps”) that would be deployed in small teams deep into enemy
territory. Their missions included things such as observing enemy
outposts/movements, rescuing downed pilots, staging ambushes, and
calling in airstrikes. Burford's book LRRP Team Leader is a
short book that sheds light on how LRRPs operated with such a high
level of professionalism and calmness in the face of danger. In spite
of the high level of tactics involved the book never gets too
technical on the reader. In fact it gets pretty personal by the end,
as Burford's uncomfortable homecoming ends up with him becoming
estranged from his family. In short, if you like books about
professional soldiers or counterinsurgency then LRRP Team Leader
is a book you'll want to check out.
That's all for this time, but come back soon for Part 2. Thanks for reading.
