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The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944

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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!

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.

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.

With all due respect to Stephen Ambrose's D-Day: June 6, 1944, Band of Brothers, and Citizen Soldiers as well as to Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day and Steven Spielberg's preparations for his film Saving Private Ryan, what we have here is not a third-party's analysis of research resources based on information provided by participants in the Normandy Invasion. Rather, and infinitely more valuable, Blackburn offers an eyewitness account. He was there. True, no individual could possibly know everything that was happening on June 6th and thereafter, be everywhere along the beaches and later during the advances inland, etc. Blackburn never makes that claim. His purpose, rather, is to allow his reader to accompany him as he and his associates made their way through an understandably messy, confusing, terrifying, and ultimately humbling ordeal.

As indicated in this volume, he possesses all of the skills of a military historian in combination with the talents of a world-class novelist except that what he has produced is eloquent and compelling non-fiction. His writing skills remind me of Yann Martel's in his brilliant Life of Pi, technically a work of fiction but one in which human experience is elevated to levels of clarity and intensity I am unable to describe.

Blackburn celebrates the human spirit when confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles and impossible barriers. He makes especially effective use of second-person narrative and present tense by which to invest his eyewitness account with both immediacy and authenticity. To the extent possible, he allows his reader to be right there with him as he prepares for and then becomes centrally involved in the largest, most extensive, and most complicated military operation ever undertaken, before or since. Chilling, heart-rending, inspiring, but always credible. Time and again I found myself saying "So THAT is what it was really like." Otherwise, how would I know? I was eight years old when the Normandy Invasion began.

This volume is one of three in a trilogy which Blackburn wrote inorder to share his personal experiences throughout World War II. (I have not as yet read Where the Hell Are the Guns?: A Soldier's view of the Anxious Years, 1939-44 and The Guns of Victory: A Soldier's Eye View, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, 1944-45, but plan to.) One personal note. Several years ago, it was my great privilege to assist with efforts to raise funds for indigent recipients -- NOT "winners" -- of the Congressional Medal of Honor. I worked with and became close friends with several recipients who were determined to assist comrades who had fallen upon hard times. For various reasons, each was reluctant to discuss his wartime experiences and especially his individual heroism. Although sincerely interested, I never pressed the issue. Now having read The Guns of Normandy, I think I understand their reticence.

My late father-inlaw was a artillery battery commander and was severely wounded on 10th July 1944 during the events described brilliantly by George Blackburn. I also served as an officer in the artillery for some 15 years (well after the war) but I can vouch for the athenticity and realistic detail involved with the art of soldiering. Apart from anything else the book is a wonderfully stirring antidote to the rather cynical views that tend to prevail in today's society. A book that should not be missed.

This is the story of barely two months of the eleven months of brutal combat seen by Canada's 4th Field artillery regiment, and of the infantry units 4th Field supported with astonishing firepower. After several years in England, 4th Field's combat role begins with the regiment's landing in Normandy twenty days after D-Day.

Canadian field artillery during WWII was the best in the world. The guns of every artillery unit in a given battlefield sector were laid out on a grid plan that allowed Forward Observation Officers to call in pinpoint fire from every other regiment as well as their own. The Germans, who considered their's the best, were astounded by the Canadians' ability to rain huge barrages down precisely on target. Post-war German accounts of the fighting here repeatedly mention the dreaded Canadian field artillery. When Canadian infantry companies were being overrun, they often took what cover they could find and called in artillery barrages on their own positions, catching the Germans out in the open and astounded that they would do it.

In some of the fiercest action of WWII the Canadian Army advanced only 30-some miles, but they slugged it out against some of Germany's toughest, most fanatical panzer divisions and battle-hardened infantry. Hitler had ordered them not to give up an inch of ground, and they tried desperately to obey. Nevertheless, the Canadian units drove them into the famous Falaise Pocket from which only remnants of crack German divisions escaped.

One reason why writings by men on these front lines is rare is that few lived to tell about it. Some of the Canadian outfits in this action suffered over 100% casualties. Some replacements who arrived at Blackburn's regiment one evening were wiped out the same night. It takes a man who was there to REALLY know what it's like to live in the same sopping-wet clothes, in mud-and-water-filled dugouts for weeks and weeks, rarely getting a warm meal, fighting today for ground they may have to give up tomorrow.

So much detail seeps from one's memory, and for those who try to keep notes, doing so is daunting in conditions where imagination is needed to even keep written target coordinates preserved long enough for them to be used by the gun crews. George Blackburn was a reporter before enlisting in the Canadian Army in 1939. He took notes during combat and somehow preserved them. And, he survived the war to use them. After the war he interviewed some of the men he writes about. He visited the battlefield almost thirty years later gathering more material. His life after the war included writing in several professional regimes. His skill at painting vivid recollections of minute-to-minute life on the battlefield is evident throughout this splendid work.

I like the author's way of arranging the book into short chapters, each of which is an episode in the whole campaign. I like his way of presenting his first-person narrative, using "you" for "I". It works very well: "For a moment your attention is drawn to an opening in the stone wall, where a giant German tank, which you believe is a Panther, points its long-barrelled gun right at you."

This book, and its companion "The Guns of Victory," (even better, if that's possible) are the best accounts of battlefield action I've read. Even that exemplary novelist and war historian Len Deighton, with his outstanding "Fighter" historical novel and "Bomber" true account (or was it the other way around?) doesn't measure up to this. Blackburn stands above Remarque ("All's Quiet on the Western Front") and Siegfried Knappe ("Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier")

Detail -- vivid, essential detail - provides a crucial underpinning of the gripping narrative. 4th Field's training in England allowed us to appreciate its excellence on the battlefield. I was honored to meet some of the men, like that gallant and resourceful Capt. Bill Waddell, for just one. From the descriptions of the bombings of Canadian forces by American and RAF bombers I have gained a new understanding of how devastating saturation bombing really is. Geez! For men who are already at the ragged edge of human endurance to suffer bombing by friendly air forces ...

We think of war as being conducted by infantry and tanks and planes - and of course generals in their comfy commands back there. There are many more. I was pleased to learn about the vast support network behind the troops in the thick of it. The Canadians fired more rounds per gun per day in this campaign than has ever been fired before - more rounds overall than during the Normandy beachhead. How does the ammo - MOUNTAINS of ammo -- the fuel, the food, the medical help get to the front? How do they even know where the front is from one day to the next? (Some didn't, like that intrepid motorcycle messenger.) And, of course, who carries the casualties from the front, and the replacements for them? (The dead usually had to be left where they fell: the overpowering stench of thousands of dead Canadians and Germans is always there.)

Footnotes, not so many as to inundate us, appear on the page, not as endnotes which keep readers flipping back and forth. The book has a fine index.

I actually came to read "The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944" after having seen and read "Band of Brothers." Watching and reading those two versions of Stephen E. Ambrose's work both left me wanting more details to get a fully picture of what it was like for these soldiers to fight World War II. That sort of detail is precisely what I found in this memoir by George G. Blackburn, the second of his trilogy of books on his experiences during World War II. Blackburn's extensive background as everything from a journalist and radio producer to a playwright and lyricist serves him in good stead in the writing of this volume, which is quite readable and broken down into very discrete narrative segments, including quotations from interviews, and detailed footnotes of interest that avoid getting in the way of the narrative.

The narrative starts in July of 1944 with his unit, the 4th Field Regiment of 25-poundrs attached to the 2nd Canadian Division, finally headed off to war after years of training. By the end of "The Guns of Normandy" it is early September of that same year and the unit's participation in a victory march into Dieppe. On the one hand this is the recollection of a soldier about the war, but it is also an argument by Blackburn regarding the crucial role of these guns as the Canadian army fought its way from Caen to Falaise, a distance of roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers). Of course, my knowledge of non-American troops movements after D-Day is both limited and suspect, so the questions as to how and why the RCA was "confined" are news to me (I seem to recall a small reference to the situation in "Patton"). Consequently, Blackburn is not only recalling events he is making an argument as to "what really happened."

I have only read a few soldier biographies from the American Civil War and there are two significant differences between those works and "The Guns of Normandy." First, Blackburn is much more forthcoming with regards to the details of war's horrors, providing a sense of the bloody campaign of the Canadian army in Normandy. Second, the story of an artillery unit is rather uncommon certainly in my experience and I would think for most readers of military memoirs as well. I was surprised by how much I learned about how many rounds were fired by these 25-pounders in a single day and the performance differences between Churchill VII and Tiger MK I tanks. Certainly you will have a much greater appreciation of the significance of field artillery than ever before.

Ultimately "The Guns of Normandy" is half the personal story of Blackburn's war experiences and half a detailed account of this particular military campaign. Again, I really do not know enough about the invasion of Europe to offer a definitive judgment, but my feeling by the end of this volume was that the campaign against the Germans around Falaise was the most significant and most hard-fought campaign in 1944 between the actual D-Day invasion and the Battle of the Bulge. Consequently, I find it hard to believe that the other two volumes in Blackburn's trilogy can be as significant as "The Guns of Normandy." I find myself thinking what a great idea it would be for Canadian television to do a mini-series based on this book seeing as how it tells the story of what is arguably the greatest campaign in the military history of Canada (again, another subject of which I know admittedly next to nothing). One outcome of such a project is that this book would get the sort of notice in Canada I would think it deserves.

George Blackburn tells a riveting, fast-paced and convincing story about life with the Cdn. 2nd Division after the invasion of Normandy. He contributes his own experiences as an artillery forward observation officer, and adds to it the stories of dozens of the soldiers who fought around him (most of whom he interviewed himself). It's gripping, scary, funny and sad. I've not read many first person accounts like this, but I doubt that many can be much more evocative then this. Unfortunately you realize after the first couple of pages that Blackburn is planning to tell the whole story in the second person, present tense. You realise why he's doing this, but still you're annoyed by it. But after a chapter or two you stop noticing this stylistic quirk and just go on to enjoy a great story.

The Guns of Normandy and its companion books, The Guns of Victory and Where the Hell are the Guns, are the Canadian equivalent of Guy Sajer's WW II epic about the German army, The Forgotten Soldier. The Guns of Normandy is the best autobiographical account written by a Canadian soldier following WW II. The Guns of Normandy is striking in the nonchalant way it describes the deaths of friends Blackburn had made during four years in England as his regiment prepared for the invasion of France. The details are superb, right down to the food the soldiers ate. All three books are proud additions to the history of the Canadian army, but The Guns of Normandy is the best of the bunch. A must read.

George Blackburn survived the epic battle for Normandy. You read his book and wonder how. Blackburn, a Canadian artillery forward observer, puts readers into the lines where Canadian infantry and tanks slug it out with fanatical SS infantry and panzers. The author's frequent use of a present tense writing style brings this battle uniquely alive. The Canadian Army shed oceans of blood in Normandy, sustaining a casualty rate far in excess of the Americans and British. Blackburn's admiration for the grunts, who suffered and endured, is heart-felt. "I wonder then and I wonder still how men found the will to move out from cover and risk death and crippling wounds day after day until they were wounded or killed. I saw them do it when they were so stunned by fatigue they scarcely flinched when an 88-mm whacked an airburst above them," he writes. For those of us who weren't there Blackburn's book is as close as we'll ever get to the misery and fear of those desperate days when history hung in the balance.