A remarkable war story told with clarity and wit.
A well-researched military history about how getting your enemy to look in the wrong place can be the key to victory.
Sun Tzu once wrote, “All warfare is based on deception.” This concept formed the basis of Operation Fortitude, a strange undertaking that played a pivotal role in the D-Day landings of World War II. Cambridge historian Downing, author of The World at the Brink, Spies in the Sky, and Churchill’s War Lab, among other works of military history, draws on recently released documents and ably draws all the narrative threads together. The aim was to make the Germans think that the invasion would take place in Pas-de-Calais, not Normandy. The Allies built fake tanks, trucks, and airplanes from wood and canvas; troops marched back and forth, pretending to be a large army, and soldiers pushed out radio signals. The most convincing piece, however, was the “commander,” Gen. George S. Patton. He had established himself as a brilliant tactician but had caused serious problems for Dwight Eisenhower when he slapped several American soldiers suffering from battle trauma. Threatened with exile, he threw himself into the new role with gusto, making speeches and swaggering around with his pearl-handled revolvers and polished helmet. Even when the invasion was underway, some German generals still believed that Normandy was a diversion and the real attack was yet to come at Pas-de-Calais. Downing has a good time with his cast of colorful characters, but he sometimes seems surprised that the ruse was so successful: “A small group of men and women in a few top-secret planning departments, supported by a few hundred model-and-dummy-tank, aircraft-and-landing-craft makers, several hundred signallers, a top American general and his staff…managed between them to keep a German army of 140,000 kicking their heels in the Pas de Calais.”
A remarkable war story told with clarity and wit.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781639367542
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist (1900–45) collected his work from WWII in two bestselling volumes, this second published in 1944, a year before Pyle was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. In his fine introduction to this new edition, G. Kurt Piehler (History/Univ. of Tennessee at Knoxville) celebrates Pyle’s “dense, descriptive style” and his unusual feel for the quotidian GI experience—a personal and human side to war left out of reporting on generals and their strategies. Though Piehler’s reminder about wartime censorship seems beside the point, his biographical context—Pyle was escaping a troubled marriage—is valuable. Kirkus, at the time, noted the hoopla over Pyle (Pulitzer, hugely popular syndicated column, BOMC hype) and decided it was all worth it: “the book doesn’t let the reader down.” Pyle, of course, captures “the human qualities” of men in combat, but he also provides “an extraordinary sense of the scope of the European war fronts, the variety of services involved, the men and their officers.” Despite Piehler’s current argument that Pyle ignored much of the war (particularly the seamier stuff), Kirkus in 1944 marveled at how much he was able to cover. Back then, we thought, “here’s a book that needs no selling.” Nowadays, a firm push might be needed to renew interest in this classic of modern journalism.
Pub Date: April 26, 2001
ISBN: 0-8032-8768-2
Page Count: 513
Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.
A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet.
On Aug. 16, 1897, the steam whaler Belgica set off from Belgium with young Adrien de Gerlache as commandant. Thus begins Sancton’s riveting history of exploration, ingenuity, and survival. The commandant’s inexperienced, often unruly crew, half non-Belgian, included scientists, a rookie engineer, and first mate Roald Amundsen, who would later become a celebrated polar explorer. After loading a half ton of explosive tonite, the ship set sail with 23 crew members and two cats. In Rio de Janeiro, they were joined by Dr. Frederick Cook, a young, shameless huckster who had accompanied Robert Peary as a surgeon and ethnologist on an expedition to northern Greenland. In Punta Arenas, four seamen were removed for insubordination, and rats snuck onboard. In Tierra del Fuego, the ship ran aground for a while. Sancton evokes a calm anxiety as he chronicles the ship’s journey south. On Jan. 19, 1898, near the South Shetland Islands, the crew spotted the first icebergs. Rough waves swept someone overboard. Days later, they saw Antarctica in the distance. Glory was “finally within reach.” The author describes the discovery and naming of new lands and the work of the scientists gathering specimens. The ship continued through a perilous, ice-littered sea, as the commandant was anxious to reach a record-setting latitude. On March 6, the Belgica became icebound. The crew did everything they could to prepare for a dark, below-freezing winter, but they were wracked with despair, suffering headaches, insomnia, dizziness, and later, madness—all vividly capture by Sancton. The sun returned on July 22, and by March 1899, they were able to escape the ice. With a cast of intriguing characters and drama galore, this history reads like fiction and will thrill fans of Endurance and In the Kingdom of Ice.
A rousing, suspenseful adventure tale.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-984824-33-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
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