Customer Reviews

The Guns of Victory: A Soldier's Eye View, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, 1944-45

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Although hardly a scholar in the field of military history, I certainly have a keen interest in it. One of my favorite sources of information is John Keegan's The Face of Battle in which he explains combat experience from the perspective of those who were directly involved at Agincourt (1415), Waterloo (1815), and the Somme (1916). According to the first-hand accounts on which Keegan relies, films such as Paths of Glory, Pork Chop Hill, and most recently Saving Private Ryan probably offer about as realistic a visual account as is possible. However, as Ken Burns demonstrated when calling upon various sources for the narrative of his television series on the Civil War, first-hand accounts have unsurpassed authenticity and credibility. For that reason, I hold George Blackburn's work in such high regard. In each of his three volumes based on his own experiences with the Canadian 4th Field Regiment during World War Two, he enables his reader to know precisely what he was thinking and feeling as well as what he was encountering during the Normandy Invasion, during the Battle for the Rhineland, and then during the final months of the war.

In this volume as in The Guns of Normandy, Blackburn brilliantly uses two strategies to present his narrative: the present tense (to invest the material with immediacy) and the second person voice (to engage his reader in each situation, albeit vicariously). This volume offers so much technical information but always within a human context. For example, consider this brief passage in which Blackburn explains the symbolic importance of guns (as opposed to rifles) which bears striking resemblance to the importance pilots assign to the carriers on which they and their squadrons are based. In this instance, Blackburn describes what is (in effect) a warrior's reunion with artillery:

"You get the feeling that you are visiting a very strange place -- one of the most welcoming places you will ever visit in your whole life --even though you are conscious that tomorrow, or before today is out, this field will be abandoned, never to be seen again by you or any of these fellows. How strange that something that has no permanence by way of form or location should become fixed in your mind as something of substance, something reliable to be counted on in this shaky, impermanent world, an island of stability and order in a churning ocean of disorder, an ultimate refuge to which you can withdraw if everything else disintegrates: home." Surely this is passage could also describe a weary survivor of the air war in the Pacific as he prepares to return to his carrier, "an island of stability and order in a churning ocean of disorder, an ultimate refuge to which [he] can withdraw if everything else disintegrates: home."

By the time we reach the conclusion of this volume, we fully understand the meaning and significance of the quotation from Kipling with which Blackburn concludes Part Four. Specifically, the last line "The guns, thank God, the guns." Perhaps Blackburn will not object if I presume to thank God also for those "in baggy pants covered with mud, their boots and socks always wet."

In this, the concluding chapter of Canadian war veteran George G. Blackburn's superb three-volume eyewitness history of our northern neighbor's involvement in the war in Europe, we find a truly stunning successor to the previous two volumes. As with "The Guns Of Normandy" volume, we discover a masterful narrative punctuating the combination of dramatic life and death struggles contrasted with moments of drumming ennui or utter despair. For the Canadian soldier on the ground, the several months following the heroic and costly landing on D-Day were seemingly a coda, a time that seemed unreal because while they had the enemy on the run, the remaining elements of the Wehrmacht fought savagely and well in the ensuing period of time. So, although many of the allies felt it was all over but the shouting, especially after the re-taking of Paris and much of France, as Blackburn shows us from the ground grunt's view, it was anything but over and done with.

This volume picks up the narrative thread where the previous volume left it, with the much-vaunted Canadian 4th Field Regiment ordered in to relentlessly pursue the Germans as they retreated through the treacherous topography of the flooded French area known as the `Low Country'. As the pursuit ensued, the soldiers began to reach the limits of their physical and emotional endurance. And the battle as it unfolded before them promised no respite from the hellish demands posed by an enemy with no real thought of surrendering or fleeing. Yet, as they knock the Wehrmacht from its hastily devised defense perimeters within the Scheldt estuary again and again, they gradually succeeded in creating the conditions for re-opening of Antwerp, and thus helped to unleash the productive power and formidable logistics trail previously left hanging for want of such a large and capable deep-water port.

In the midst of all this, the Canadians, along with the rest of the Allied forces, had to suffer through the worst winter in decades in the European theater in the open and on the ground, and many died from such harsh exposure to the elements. Yet the Germans, fighting under these horrific conditions, still were able to mount savage resistance as they fought even more ferociously even as they began to understand how desperate their situation was. And as they beat the foe back yard by yard, mile by mile, back across the Rhine, the Canadians are enlisted in the increased fight once more in the Battle of the Rhineland, the final push toward the German heartland. And, as victory finally comes, Blackburn assures us it was indeed a bittersweet experience, felt equally with measures of pride and relief, knowing the unbelievable ordeal of the last several years was finally over.

As with his other books, here Blackburn relates his personal experience with a wonderfully literate and engagingly approachable writing style, and he surely uses his journalist's experience and his obvious facility with words to great advantage here, adding immeasurably to our understanding of what the experience on the ground was in as the first fatal hours and days turned into weeks and months of savage fighting, as the Allies bludgeoned their ways through the brutal resistance of a frenzied Nazi war machine. This is a story we should hear again and again, as we rediscover once more how truly amazing the feat of both the Canadians in particular, but all the Allies in general, stood tall in the very face of tyranny and smashed it into smithereens, saving the world from what has to be considered the face of absolute evil. Mr. Blackburn 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. I recommend not only this book, but the other two volumes as well. Enjoy!

And a stirring tale it is!

In a magnificent trilogy by a former junior officer in the Canadian Royal Artillery, George Blackburn records his experiences as a Forward Observation Officer (FOO), and those of the Canadian 2nd Infantry Division in general, in World War II's western European campaign. The first book, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GUNS?, covers the training in Canada and England of Blackburn's unit, the 4th Field Artillery Regiment, from its formation in 1939 to June 1944. The second book, THE GUNS OF NORMANDY, describes the 4th Field's actions in support of the 2nd Division in northern France from early July 1944 to its arrival at the Seine River in late August. This final installment, THE GUNS OF VICTORY, chronicles the advance from the Seine into the Third Reich via the Benelux countries to VE-Day, May 8, 1945.

Should you read this series, you will, like me, come away with a heightened and supreme regard for the valor of the Canadian Army from D-Day to the end of the war and the value of massed artillery to the combat efficiency and survival of infantry units. Blackburn's personal account is perhaps the best description of men in modern war that I've ever read. The author's narrative is not a detached one. He brings you along into the mud, cold, rain, fatigue, terror, devastation, and apocalyptic arty barrages of the conflict's leading edge.

There are too many excellent passages to enumerate, but I shall give two examples.

At one point, Blackburn's observation post is in a Dutch windmill on the very border of Germany. As the Army brass plans the advance into the Reich, the author's vantage point becomes widely heralded as having the best view of the ground to be fought over, and to it, as if on pilgrimage, come the high and low, including Lt.-Gen. Guy Simonds, Commander of 2nd Canadian Corps, and Lt.-Gen. Brian Horrocks, Commander of British XXX Corps. But the interesting perception by Blackburn is the way the various officer ranks used battlefield maps.

"Corps commanders ... planning the best use of 450,000 men, swept open hands across map boards ... Division commanders and brigade commanders, reviewing the role of their brigades and battalions, stroke their maps with two fingers held together. Then come battalion commanders using a single finger for similar purposes in meetings with company commanders. But when company commanders returned with platoon commanders, maps were marked with razor-sharp pencils."

Much later, at a company command post, the author comes upon a Major Stothers and the Company Sgt.-Major opening parcels from home mailed to men already killed, the contents distributed to the survivors, and enclosed letters put into a pile.

"(Stothers) hands one across the table to you without comment. It is a hand-written note of only a few lines: 'Dear Son, the papers tell us that it is very wet where the Canadians are fighting now. So please, Dear, always be sure to wear your rubbers and keep your feet dry.' When you look up at Stothers, he tells you that her boy is the one lying dead outside the back door, face-up in the rain."

As the war's end approached, Blackburn had the reputation of being the longest surviving FOO in the Canadian Army, and 4th Field gunners, not without affection, had a pool going, the money to be won by the man who correctly predicted when the Baker Troop FOO (Blackburn) "got it". Lucky for us, George survived to pen his memoirs. By the end of the third book, I can even forgive him for writing in the second person, a quirk that, in WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GUNS?, almost put me off. But, in no one of the volumes, in the photo section of each, did the author include a wartime picture of himself. That's the only deficiency in an otherwise superb literary accomplishment.

To George, who recently celebrated his 88th birthday on February 3rd, and his comrades-in-arms, living and dead, highest honor is due.

Note: George Blackburn, through his son Mark, personally sent me all three of his books. Thank you, Sir.

"The dream of going home will now actually come true. The thought is intoxicating. But try as you will, it is impossible to suppress the feeling that this is only a temporary pause before another push, or at least another training scheme - there has always been another." ~ George G. Blackburn ~

Mr. Blackburn, who earned his Military Cross (M.C.) for his effort in helping to save the Twente Canal Bridgehead in Holland, is truly a brilliant writer. "The Guns of Victory" is one of the most absorbing books I've ever read. His use of "You" instead of "I" is his way of transporting the reader into the war zone and gets the feeling that you are actually there experiencing the horrors of war.

This is the third and last volume of George Blackburn's engrossing trilogy of military books about World War II, which faithfully chronicles the last eight months of the war on the Western Front. This book is divided into four parts: Part One - September 6 thru November 8. It covers the Clearing of the Channel Ports and the Battle for the Scheldt; Part Two - November 9 through February 15, which traces the troops settling in the Nijmegen salient near Groesbeek. Part Three - February 8 through March 10 is all about the Thirty-Day Battle for the Rhineland. And the last part covers March 11 through May 15 about Crossing the Rhine to Sever Holland from Germany. It also contains sixteen pages of twenty-nine black and white glossy photos from National Archives of Canada including a nice photo of Groesbeek Windmill taken by the author himself. Groesbeek Windmill was used by Mr. Blackburn, a Forward Observation Officer of the 4th Field Regiment with the Canadian Army, as an observation tower during winter of 1944 and 1945.

Last year in May, Mr. Blackburn took a 'sentimental journey' and attended the 60th anniversary of the VE-Day and participated in the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in Groesbeek Windmill, and memorial services at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in Holland. He spoke with CTV News recalling his World War II experiences in the Netherlands saying: "We wished to God the Russians at that time would get to Berlin in time to defeat the Germans, so we wouldn't have to go back in it. But we knew that the end was going to be settled right there."

It was such a relief to read the last chapters of this World War II classic. It means the end of a nightmare and the achievement of victory, hence, "the resting of the guns." This is my very favorite from the trilogy for that simple reason alone. The last chapter of this book is entitled "The Resting of the Guns," wherein the Corps Commander, Divisional Commander, commanding officers, brigade commanders and all the infantry battalions participated in a solemn rite and saluted the guns before handing them over to the Dutch Government. The author described it as a "striking day of truth" and he was deeply touched with the simplicity and solemnity of this noble ceremony.

"As the first gun rolls slowly by, chuckling and clinking on its limber hook, there's a glowing awareness of just how deeply these cold, steel machines have endeared themselves to you. It's as though you're saying goodbye to old friends you shall never see again. . . then you hear a voice, as though from a great distance, saying: 'Well now . . . let's go and find something to drink.' And you realize the ceremony is over."

I salute Mr. Blackburn for writing his trilogy of books that are so moving and affecting, and to all his comrades, alive or deceased, for their heroic acts of courage, endurance, perseverance and bravery. They went to war to protect freedom and gain peace. They are truly the world's greatest heroes.

Mr. Blackburn is not just a good writer; he's an exceptionally great writer. He's also an award-winning composer having written a hauntingly beautiful and nostalgic "soldier's song" entitled "Are You Really There?" which he wrote for his wife, Grace Blackburn while he was in England during the war waiting for the invasion of France and overwhelmed by feelings of homesickness. The song conveys the sentiments of servicemen longing to be with their loved ones in the midst of war. The music video won three major awards: Silver Award at the 1999 Worldfest - New York, Silver Award at the 1999 Worldfest - Arizona, and Bronze Award at the 2000 CINDY Competition - California.

This book is a classic, a valuable piece of history and must be read by every generation. It merits my highest recommendation.

The third of Blackburns' stunning wartime trilogy sees out the end of the war in Europe. He continues to refer to himself as 'you' throughout the book, which at first is a little strange, but quickly becomes transparent.

Taking the three books together, the reader is left with a very good comprehension of the techniques of battle of the artillery, and to a lesser degree the infantry they supported, during the campaign in NWE in '44 and '45.

In addition to the technical detail, the human side that Blackburn injects into his books left me grief striken on more than one occasion. The sense of relentless, dogged courage in the face of seeming futility shown by the infantry he was supporting, and the feeling of dread as one by one his friends were killed an wounded, makes for powerful reading.

I can't speak highly enough of this trilogy - if you have an interest in the Canadian or the Commonwealth forces in WWII, or in very candid personal wartime stories I would commend this book to you.

Thank you, Mr. Blackburn. The desire to know what my father went through when he was a young man, just married, hit me like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, I craved any and all information I could find. Your trilogy, The Guns of Normandy, The Guns of Victory, and Where the Hell are the Guns?, satisfied my craving. I see Dad in England training for tank duty without tanks, only broomsticks and rope. I can picture my father sleeping under his Sherman tank, trying to avoid being hit but desperately needing sleep - I feel the bitter cold, the tiring mud, and the fear of thousands of other men struggling to carry out their orders so they can go home. Without these books I could not relate to my father's experience except through the dry, statistical accounts of the historians. I'm very grateful to Mr. Blackburn.

Not sure who all these Yankees are reviewing the quintessential Canadian war memoir, but they have good taste.

Written in the second person, this book is unique, but it doesn't end there. Blackburn has a rare ability to recall small details and the entire story rings with authenticity. His stories run the gamut, as all good war memoirs do, from the sad to the hysterically funny.

Second Canadian Division seems to have produced few authors (unlike the First Division, with Mowat taking the lead) but those few that have put pen to paper have been incredibly good. Whitaker and Williams were best when recounting the history of others, and this memoir stands out above any war memoir written by a Canadian in any single war. All three books in the trilogy are a terrific source of information about the Canadian Army in the Second World War.

The Canadians have driven the opposing German forces into the Falaise Pocket, where they were destroyed, and they have secured their sector of France. This we read about in "The Guns of Normandy" by Blackburn (which I reviewed).

Even though in this book we move to new battlefields, I wondered what more George Blackburn could have to say about his war. Plenty, I discovered. He was a young newspaper reporter when he enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1939. He never stopped thinking like a reporter, always somehow managed to take notes, and preserve them. We are fortunate he lived through his battlefield experiences, are more fortunate still that he wrote of them with such brilliant detail. He reveals over and over a truly human mixture of compassion - Gunner Hardtack was a hen that miraculously survived the destruction of a farm to be adopted by B Troop as a mascot -- and detachment - what can you do for the thousands of dead all around you, all the time?

Captain Blackburn, commander of Able Troop, 2nd Battery, 4th Field Battalion, spends much of his combat time as a Forward Observation Officer, or FOO. So they can to accurately call down fire from a 4-gun troop, a 24-gun regiment, the 72 guns of the division, or even the 216 guns of 2nd Canadian Corps, FOOs lived at the front. When the action is the hottest, FOOs must be at the front of the front to order artillery fire precisely where it is needed. A FOO is often observing from a place where he can be spotted, or deduced to be there through common sense by those being shelled. The Canadians lost a lot of FOOs.

An incident in the book: Blackburn is FOOing from a towering windmill in Groesbeek, The Netherlands. It is a commodious structure, high and offering a broad view of the front from the fan window. Footsteps on the stairs, and a Canadian general appears. Blackburn diplomatically keeps shooing him back from the fan window to keep him from being visible to some German peering through binocs. Another general joins them. The two comment on such a fine observation post, an OP without peer in Groesbeek, and wonder why Fritz has left it alone. Blackburn offers the opinion that the Germans must believe that no one in his right mind would dare occupy such an obvious OP. Ahem, yes, and the generals depart.

"The Guns of Victory" takes up where "The Guns of Normandy" left off, and we're in furious combat most of the time. That courageous and enterprising Commander of D-Company, Major Bob Suckling, repeatedly earns our admiration: In one of many of his hair-raising escapades his infantry company is under a furious counter attack, and via field phone he's calling down fire dangerously close to his own position. "Can you bring your shells a bit closer?" he asks the battery commander. Another heavy barrage of 120 rounds of 25-pounders and Suckling reports, "You're right on." Then there is silence from his end, a long and ominous silence. Did we shell Suckling? the fire controller wonders. Further calls fail to draw any response until Suckling's drawl comes over the line to report, "The Heinies seem to have pulled back." The Gunners would learn later that a German had poked his head in the door of Suckling's OP house. After taking time out to pistol the enemy soldier Suckling came back on the air. So many of the soldiers and officers I had come to like got killed along the way. I worried that every next page might report that Suckling "got it" until the end of the book. Thank goodness there was no such report.

This is a splendid narrative, one that would make a fine novelist proud.

The book has some good photos, a fine index. Footnotes appear on the relevant pages, not as endnotes that require endless flipping back and forth.

The Guns of Victory is a fascinating account of what it was like to be an artillery officer for the Canadian army during some of the heaviest fighting of the second World War.

Blackburn is not a full "grunt", he is an officer. But he is on the front lines, and by war's end, he has become the longest-serving artillery officer on the front lines. That is a rather dubious honor as Blackburn learns that an informal betting pool has been established on when he would be either wounded or killed.

This is the third book in Blackburn's trilogy, Where The Hell Are The Guns and The Guns of Normandy being the first two. As in the others, you get a wonderful picture of the emotions of serving in the war, the fears, joys and hardships. There are some things that happen in a war that are simply weird and Blackburn reports them as well.

This would be a 5-star review, but the book fails in providing enough pictures. The two or three maps included are woefully inadequate. Plus the book does a poor job of explaining the various companies, troops etc. Perhaps they were explained in other parts of the trilogy, but a glossary is badly needed.

A companion CD-ROM would have helped greatly in showing more of the faces, sites and campaigns of the war.

The book was delivered on time and in exactly the condition as described. I'm very satisfied with this dealer.