Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific First Person History Of Invasion Into France, 1944, July 31, 2003
This review is from: The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944 (Paperback)
What a wonderful bit of eye-witness history Canadian author George Blackburn has rendered in his recent book, "The Guns Of Normandy: A Soldier's View, France 1944". This is an absorbing, entertaining, and fascinating account of a Canadian participant in the Allied invasion onto the beaches of Normandy in June of 1944, a wonderful second volume in his three-volume trilogy. His eye-witness testimony concerning his own anecdotal experience during the historic campaign marshals a marvelously captivating and insightful perspective on the nature of combat as he experienced it while on the line as the action transpired all along the front. Indeed, it is Blackburn's unique ability to speak in the first person that makes his contribution so compelling and valuable. The author's stated purpose is to take the reader on an accompanied tour of the battle as it progresses and evolves, helping us to better empathize with and understand the horrific and riveting circumstances under which the situation progresses, as they struggle from the killing ground of the beaches up the escarpment to the fields and deadly hedges, and on into the lush green of the waiting countryside of France. What we are privileged to experience, as a result, is a full metal jacket approach to the chaos of war, amid the acrid smells, blinding flashes of light, and ear-pounding crashes of both incoming and outgoing shells exploding day and night. In doing so, Blackburn clears somewhat a path through the all too commonplace `fog of battle'. Blackburn does so with a wonderfully literate and engagingly approachable writing style, and he sues his obvious facility with words to great advantage here, adding immeasurably to our understanding of what the experience on the ground was in those first fatal hours and days as the Allies bludgeoned their ways through the brutal resistance of a frenzied Nazi war machine. He writes with surprising intensity and emotion, and his sense of recall of particular events and existential circumstances for himself and his fellows is both impressive and quite moving at points in his narrative. This is first person history at its best, one that employs both a more objective coda to the book, which also serves to lend a more authoritative aura to the proceedings than would otherwise have been possible.
Blackburn's other volumes are interesting as well, and are similarly eyewitness accounts of this remarkable Canadian war hero turned historian and author's personal experience as a participant in the Mediterranean and European campaigns of the Second World War. Here he has shared with us his amazing, profound recollections of the men who fought so valiantly in France in 1944 in service to their countries. This is a story that should be told again and again, so we never forget what it took to take back the beaches, the surrounding countryside, all in preparation for moving on into the interior of France to push the Germans all the way back to Berlin. This was not only the longest day, but also one of the greatest days in history, when hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Brits, Australians, Frenchmen, and Americans strove out of their landing boats to set foot back on Europe, to take back by force of arms the liberty and freedom that had been wrested away from the mainland so cruelly nearly five years before. This, then, is the story of how that crusade to liberate Europe began, of its first shaky steps off the LSTs and boats onto the rocky bloodied shores of France. Enjoy!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"C'est la guerre!" Compelling (but no adventure story), June 2, 2003
This review is from: The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944 (Paperback)
The familiar French expletive is uttered by the narrator after an exploding shell has spilled ink on the song he's just written for his wife, negating his night's labors but not his determination to rewrite it. It's this sort of touch that separates Blackburn's uncommon account about the common soldier's experience from other books about the Normandy campaign or any other war. "The Guns of Normandy" describes the two-month mission of the author's regiment in the ferocious and decisive battle for Verrieres Ridge, but it is clear from the outset that the author is on another mission. Like Toni Morrison's narrator in "Beloved," who insists that hers is "not a story to be retold," Blackburn insists that his account, however gripping it may be, is "never, never an adventure story." It is time to salvage this critical moment in history from the dispassionate reconstructions of the academics, from the fanciful fabrications of the "war games" crowd, and even from the fading memories of the participants themselves. The resulting account is at once a powerful tribute to the Canadian 2nd Division's contribution (the victory at Falaise seals the doom of Hitler's forces in the west) and a stirring memorial to the author's comrades. But above all it is an honest portrayal of men engaged in a protracted "real" war, not an in-and-out invasion where the primary focus is on high-tech weaponry and smart bombs. Blackburn's use of the second-person narrator, in effect, de-emphasizes his own persona and directly engages the reader in the experience-from the undeniable fascination of war to the horrifying spectacle to the depressingly prosaic daily business. The narrator's question before landing in France quickly became my own: Would I be able to stand up in a similar situation? Doubts entered my mind even when, shortly after landing, the narrator describes a herd of distended, dead cows, each with two legs pointing toward the sky. That unsettling scene much later becomes a powerful, unshakable metaphor representing the horror, the absurdity, the futility of war. A Canadian gun officer, preoccupied with guiding his weapon, jumps down from his quad-and finds himself buried in the rotten intestines of one of those swollen carcasses, the bowels of hell literally engulfing him in an instant. Other images become indelible with little help, and certainly no hype, from the narrator. We register disappointment at the overmatched Allied tanks vs. their heavily-armored German counterparts; we're attracted to the German Nebelwerfers that unexpectedly discharge terrifying "Moaning Minnies" at the Canadians' expense; we share the narrator's helplessness and dismay while his comrades fall victim to the misdirected bombs of the RAF; we can't shake off the image of a barely recognizable human form after it has been run over the previous night by a column of tanks. Throughout, we share the narrator's amazement at the tenacity and sheer will of men who continue to fight in the face of relentless dysentery, massive lice infestation, and overwhelming fatigue. But our final impression--standing out from the grizzly details, the courageous actions of the men, the ultimate victory even-is one of comradeship, of a mutual trust so strong that the infantry soldiers view the gunners as protectors while the gunners, in turn, take extra care not to disturb the precious few hours of sleep granted the frontline soldiers. And the narrator takes this theme one additional, unforgettable step when he finds himself struggling to administer medical care to a critically wounded German soldier whose face reminds him of his own brother. At that climactic moment, the depersonalized narrator materializes fully for us, validating not just the authenticity but also the value of his mission-both as soldier and historian. "The Guns of Normandy" certainly is no mere "adventure story." It's an unflinching record, a powerful elegy, a story of faith, hope and, not least of all, charity.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Vivid account, a WW II "All Quiet on the Western Front", July 16, 2000
This review is from: The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944 (Paperback)
I found the book very enjoyable even though I am neither Canadian nor a veteran of any war (just lucky). My father served in the Second World War building airstrips in the Northern Pacific. At his funeral, I noted in the eulogy that he was one of the few people to ever like army food. Mr. Blackburn wrote a wonderful book. Being an artillery officer is not a glamorous job and his task was further complicated by the decision to have the Canadians do a lot of the dirty work in the Normandy invasion. It was the Canadians who kept the Germans occupied while Patton ran wild. The point is clearly made that the invasion was a TEAM effort. The writing is superb when it focuses on the daily minutiae of what it felt to be a soldier in the war. The emotions are beautifully explained. Blackburn also does a fantastic job in describing how dysentery and fatigue are just as feared as the enemy. He does not get gross about it, but he makes his point nevertheless. The shortcomings of the book can be attributed to the publishers. For me, reading a book like this requires copious maps and charts. If the author explains a battle with troop movements and bombing targets, it is much more understandable when there are maps and diagrams. There are few in the book. Now that is covered up by the author's remarkable focus on the life of a soldier. But some more maps would have helped greatly. The author quotes other eyewitness accounts at great length, some going on for several pages. But they are in the same typeface and style as the regular narrative and it becomes confusing after a while as to who is talking. Surely, these other accounts should have been put into another typeface, or at the very least, italics. Those concerns aside, the book also has other elements rarely seen in war books. Humor for one, there are several funny incidents in the book. And Mr. Blackburn pulls no punches from the introduction to the last page. A lot of World War II veterans chose to say little of the horrors they saw during the war, that is understandable. A big round of thanks to Mr. Blackburn for his casual heroism and for telling his story.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
