AMERICAN WITNESS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 8, 4 October 1941, Page 14

AMERICAN WITNESS

Britons In The Blitz

‘ They’ll Never Quit,” by Harvey Klemmer (Sydney: Angus and Robertson ).

It is only to be expected that every American author or journalist ■ who was fortunate enough to find himself in England last year should hasten to write a book about the air blitz. It is to be expected also that there should be a great similarity in the accounts given by them. ’ And so there is. Yet each author is able to give some new facts and new sidelights which help in building up a fairly complete picture of what actually happened in Britain when the Luftwaffe’s offensive was at its height. Mr. Harvey Klemmer is no exception. Mr. Klemmer, author and diplomat, was attached to the American Embassy in London from before Munich till this year. He saw most of what was to be seen and sums up the total effect of his observations of Britons in the blitz in the phrase he uses as the title of his book. His staccato style tends to pall, but there is enough dramatic interest in what he has to say to suffice for many novels. Some of his descriptions of air-raid victims are by far the grimmest that have yet appeared. Mr. Klemmer has also many good anecdotes to tell and, for the reader who feels lie does not know enough of Britain bombed. ‘'They’ll Never Quit’’ will serve most realistically to fill any of the gaps previously left to Ibe imagination.