Shorter Notices
Third Class to Dunkirk. By Peter Hadley. (Hollis and Carter. 7s. U.)
MR. HADLEY was a subaltern in what, from internal evidence, seems to have been a Territorial battalion of an English county regiment. and he here gives us what he describes as " a worm's eye view o, the B.E.F., 1940." The book has been compiled from his personal diary and at first glance seems a somewhat .light-hearted piece of work. But his choice of a time for publication, together with the serious reflections in the last chapter, are proof that the author has an important message to deliver. It is salutary in 1944 to be reminded of the statt of our army in 1940. The " imaginary " 3-inch mortar familiar enough in pre-war exercises, made its appearance in an actual operation order. His platoon's 2-inch mortar might just as well have been imaginary, for its lost firing-pin spring had never been replaced. There were deficiencies in the training as well as in the equipment of the battalion ; Mr. Hadley, for example, had neve had an opportunity to throw a live grenade before the day when he went out to deal with some German tanks near Caestre. Ther was no lack of fighting spirit, however, and Mr. Hadlev's pictur of the B.E.F. is of an army that was overwhelmed and forced t retreat but that was never really defeated.
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