Men Writing
Men Fighting: Battle Stories., Edited by John North. (Faber, 18s.)
•
0W is this for a loaded sentence : . . it will he seen that the fighting man addresses himself to the business in hand without indulging in heroics or introspection"? It is from the preface to this collection of personal accounts of battle. But ,,all men who fight are not, in the sense that Mr. 'North uses the term, 'fighting men'; and it's the Weakness of this book that it concerns itself almost exclusively with the experiences and reactions tinder fire of the professional soldier or the con- seriPt who saw his duty clearly. The equally valid viewpoint of doubting Tommies is badly under- represented. 'Fiction and fine writing are out; war emotion delicately or indelicately recollected in i taoquillity and mere descriptions are out,' the editor adds. For that reason, presumably, Robert Craves, Edmund Blunden and Siegfried Sassoon
Who wrote 'finely,' maybe, but honestly about
lei,' war—are also out. But why, then, include 'Itch conscious artists as Sir Philip Gibbs, 'Quex' and 'Gun Buster'? In spite of these rather arbitrary omissions, this collection of stories from s°th great wars, withpostscripts from Korea and ttez, has great fascination. You on trace the i,hange in attitude from the time when the officers were the best shots at aeroplanes because tlleasants had taught them to swing in firing,' and
e men were magnificent, to the recent war when
,r
officers took the fighting less sportingly—and
ne men became individuals. Among specially .worthy pieces are Private Frank Richards's laconic 'tecount of the retreat from Mons, and Michael rackes mild and ironic description of landing at
Previous page
