SALUTE TO THE INFANTRY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 3

SALUTE TO THE INFANTRY

Brave Company. By Guthrie Wilson. Robert Hale. 287 pp.

Tatoouna. New Zealand Official War History. 32 pp.

With Rommel In the Desert. By H W. Schmidt. Harrap. 240 pp.

Guthrie Wilson, now a schoolteacher in Palmerston North, fulfilled an ambition which many other New Zealand infantry officers and men vainly nourished during their bitter days of service in Italy. He wrote a novel about infantrymen and their life, and its publication in the United States has been remarkably successful. Now Brave Company” is on the New Zealand market. As everyone who was ever in the Army knows, any man who saw action with an infantry battalion belongs to an exclusive club. His experiences cannot be shared, be understood, or perhaps even faintly appreciated by outsiders—by his wife, his friends, his children, or even by Army colleagues w no served in other arms. What Wilson has done is more than recapture the atmosphere of life in me infantry in the horrible cold and grim last winter in Italy when the “ . y communiques about the war, written from the comparative seclusion of headquarters a little way back, talked about “patrol actions.” He has set down on paper, with rare sympathy anc * insight the thoughts, the words, the characters, of a group of typical New Zealanders in a typical infantry platoon, in a typical infantry company. To a platoon, even company headquarters represents safety, battalion is far back, and brigade headquarters too far back even to think about. The rare contacts with the other thousands in the Army—in base, in the sheltered jobs, are made usually only by those who have been wounded and sent back to hospital. The comments on them in “Brave Company” will probably never find a place in the Official War Histories, but they are grimly authentic. "Brave Company” may not be a great novel, but as some American critics have said it is a true picture. Its biggest circulation will probably be among former infantrymen (its sales would be bigger in this respect if so many identical customers had not been killed in just the sort of action “Brave Company” describes.) But it ought to be required reading for those New Zealanders one can now occasionally hear saying “Of course many of those chaps really enjoyed the war.” Guthrie Wilson can write and he should repeat the success of “Brave Company.” Whether he does or not, he has set down, as it ought to have been set down, a segment of the life for some years of thousands of New Zealanders whose service to their country is too often recognised only on Anzac Day. North African Hill Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg, V.C., who had some experience in these matters, described the battle of Takrouna, carried out by the sth New Zealand Brigade, as the “hardest operation in the North African campaign.” Those who read the factual account of how the Takrouna feature was taken by New Zealand units in the latest War History publication will readily accept his judgment. and that of the Artillery Commander of the New Zealand Division, Brigadier C. E. Weir, who called the action “a wonderful story of infantry doggedness, skill and bravery.” The victory which followed a brief period of near-disaster, was achieved at heavy cost in blood, a fair proportion of which came from Canterbury, and much from the Maori Battalion. Of fewer than 60 officers in the attack, 34 were casualties—dead, wounded, or missing. Of just over 1000 other ranks, 425 were casualties. The enemy regarded the battle as an epic feat of arms.. The official history, written by I. McL. Wards, makes the laconic comment that “in the Division as a whole the men who had survived the struggle were regarded with something akin to awe.” It is true that the story of Takrouna almost passed into an Army legend, but this new, completely factual and restrainedly-written account of a brilliant campaign, that in the end was won not by brilliance but by the sheer bravery and endurance of the men concerned shows that the legend was more than justified by the facts. It shows, too. just how good was the New Zealand infantryman, especially in an attack in which the odds were against him. “Takrouna” is well-illus-trated with maps, drawings and photographs. Reading it now, the accomplishment of the men of the sth Brigade looks even more impressive in retrospect than it did at the time. That Man Rommel Again An addition to the considerable number of recent publications and articles about Field-Marshal Rommel which will be widely read is “With Rommel in the Desert,” by H. W. Schmidt, an aide-de-camp of the Field-Marshal who was with him in part of the North African campaign. It is a soldier's book, entirely without sentiment and factual and unbiassed. To New Zealanders. who harbour no rancour towards the memory of an able opposing general, it will be interesting as giving the other side of the picture—how the Germans felt about the desert war. In many ways, according to Schmidt, they felt much the same as did their opponents. To New Zealanders with the Eighth Army, the book sounds like their own experiences in reverse. In some way it is superfi-cially-written, but it never lacks in interest.