Back to World War II

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 22

Back to World War II

Few of the world’s leading figures in the twentieth century have been as able as Winston Churchill at describing the events they took part in. None played a larger part in shaping the world that we live in today. Much of Churchill’s huge, sixvolume history of World War II was written more than 30 years ago, while events were still fresh and while the author was still active in British politics. The history remains one of the best accounts of the war. It has appeared now in paperback. It is not a scholarly analysis, but an Intense personal account, rich in detail, well provided with maps, and eminently readable and reliable. As a review sample the publishers, Penguin, have provided Volume V which Churchill called “The Hinge of Fate.” It begins early in 1942 when almost everywhere the Allies were in retreat or fighting grim defensive battles — in the South Pacific, in North Africa, in China, outside Moscow, and in the North Atlantic. By the end of this volume, 18 months later, the hinge had indeed turned; if victory still seemed far away, the final outcome of the war could no longer be in serious doubt. Even at $15.95 for each paperback volume the whole of Churchill’s history would be $lOO well spent. Among the flush of other recent paperback editions of major books dealing with World War II have been: The Trail of the Fox: The Life of FieldMarshal Erwin Rommel. By David Irving. McMillan, 1986. 414 pp. Illustrations, bibliography and index. $29.95 (paperback). Rommel has exercised the attention of the Western Allies more than any other of the German senior officers who opposed them in World War 11. Perhaps because of his skill, perhaps because of his gallantry — his military good manners — and perhaps because of his tragic end, in suicide, after his connection with the plot on Hitler’s life in July, 1944. Irving’s biography, written in 1977, remains one of the major studies of the man and his achievements. It is of special interest to those New Zealanders who still remember Rommel as their most effective opponent in the hard-fought campaigns of th? Western Desert. Destruction of Dresden. By David Irving. Macmillan NZ, 1936.238 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, index. $22.95 (paperback). The worst air attack of World War II was not the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, but the destruction of the German city of Dresden by a combination of high explosive and incendiary bombs. Irving’s account of the raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945, is one

of the classic books of the war. The attack itself, in which 135,000 people died, was made all the more horrible by its pointlessness. The Germans: were close to surrender; the city had little military importance. As an act of revenge the raid was barbaric. The only people who gained anything were the Russian armies that were preparing to overrun the city. One can argue convincingly that the nuclear attacks on Japan saved lives and shortened the war in the Pacific by months. The Dresden raid was little more than brutal showing off by victors with more air power than they knew what to do with. Irving’s book, written in 1963, remains a compelling and tragic account. Cassino: The Hollow Victory. By John Ellis. Sphere/Collins, 1985. 478 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. $21.95 (paperback). The battle of Cassino, in central Italy, early in 1944, still arouses strong passions, and not only among the survivors of those who took part in it. The beautiful Medieval monastery barred the Allied advance on Rome. New Zealand troops were among those who bore the brunt of the fighting there. But did the monastery have to be bombed almost to oblivion, perhaps as one theory has it, to restore the morale of the New Zealand division that was expected to capture it? Ellis, an English military historian born three years after the battle, examines the Italian campaign, and the place of the Cassino battle, in considerable and controversial detail. Readers with a special interest might like to compare his version of the events with those described in “Neither Fear Nor Hope,” the memoirs of General von Senger und Etterlin, the defender of Cassino, whose account appeared in an English translation published by Macdonald in 1963. The Pacific War. By John Costello. Pan, 1985. 566 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. $16.95 (paperback). More than 40 years on from the jubilations of “V-J Day,” the great majority of New Zealanders have no recollection of the four grim years of struggle in the Pacific during World War 11, or of what final victory meant to those who achieved it. Costello produced his sweeping history in 1981, an examination of the events that led to the "day of infamy” when the Japanese attacked the Unites States at Pear Harbour in 1941, and of the campaigns that followed in theatres of operations that extended from Alaska to Ceylon. New Zealand still enjoys the fruits of the American efforts between 1941 and 1945. This is no bad time for an ungrateful nation to be reminded of the value and capabilities of its vast former ally. — Literary Editor.