Customer Reviews

The Lieutenants (Brotherhood of War, Book 1)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Brotherhood of War series was recommended to me when I attended OCS in 1986. The cadre "Strongly" encouraged us to read the Lieutenants. They didn't have to tell us to keep the reading the series. I read them straight through (The Generals was the last book at the time). Then, my classmates and I waited with anticipatation for The New Breed, and the Aviators. Both great additions to the series. Now, I cannot wait to read the latest book, "Special Operations". Ever since I become an officer, I've given "The Lieutenants" as a gift to every new Second Lieutenant in my unit, and recommended it to dozens more. If we carry ourselves even partially the way Lowell, Felter and the rest, this country would never lose a battle, much less a war.

If you want to understand the "culture" of the military, read this book. Then, if you liked it, read the whole "Brotherhood of War" series, of which it is the first book. I spent four years in the Navy (one in Vietnam), but I never really understood the positive side of the military until I read "The Lieutenants." It's easy to find novels that are critical of military values, and it's easy to find patriotic "action" novels that just accept those values without exploring their origin or purpose. The strength of "The Lieutenants" is that it gets inside the heads of a wide variety of soldiers, not just the five main characters. There are good guys, bad guys, and then there are "the warriors." The focus of this book is to explore the values of the small cadre of professional combat soldiers that exists within the Army, thriving in wartime and and struggling against the bureaucracy in peacetime. Yes, this novel has many flaws. The author has his odd obessions and I'm sure most readers will find at least one thing to dislike. But after re-reading this novel for sixth or seventh time over a 20-year period, I have become more tolerant of these weaknesses. W.E.B. Griffin has a unique grasp military culture and is a strong advocate of its often harsh codes of conduct. His writing caused me to re-consider my own experiences in the military and has had an effect on my political values. There are not many books that I can say that about. So, in my opinion, if you can get past the flaws, there is much of value here for anyone who wants to examine their own attitudes towards war and warriors, and perhaps even their own "warrior nature."

if you don't want to buy all 5 books in this series, don't pick this one up. The first time I picked up The Lieutenants I read for 5 hours straight. You will not want to stop until you have read through the last page of The Generals. Although I know better, you will think W.E.B. Griffin was there for every adventure. The characters are loosely based on real-life American soldiers and the realism is unbelievable.

This really rates a little more than a 3 because it's a rousing story and less than a 4 because the writing is just average.

In this first book of the Brotherhood of War series, Major Robert Bellmon, West Point '39, is blasted out of his Sherman tank and captured by the Germans in Tunisia in 1943. With other prisoners he's shipped to Italy and then on to Poland.

Colonel Graf Peter-Paul von Grieffenberg, German nobleman and pre-war friend of Bellmon's father-in-law, learns of Russian atrocities in Poland. Anxious to alert the American government to Russian war crimes, von Grieffenberg arranges to have Bellmon visit the sites and provide him with photographs and documentation.

Tech sergeant Rudy MacMillan arrives with a truckload of dispirited, demoralized American prisoners. Under Bellmon's leadership, MacMillan shapes up the troops and the two become fast friends.

Meanwhile, back at West Point, Cadet Corporal Sanford T. Felter decides to resign from the Corps and got to war. Because of his fluency in Russian, Polish and German, he is assigned to headquarters, 40th Armored Division, in Europe.

As the war grinds to an end in 1945, the Russians are on the move. Von Grieffenberg's troops march the American officers from Poland into Germany, leaving enlisted men to fend for themselves.

The story goes on to postwar Germany where Gen. Waterford wants his polo team to beat the French and since the French will play only with officers, Waterford promotes his best polo player from Private to Lieutenant. Sandy Felter (the West Pointer) ends up in Greece.

The series is a fascinating look at a history of the army. It's pretty thorough and always entertaining. Griffin's writing is more journalistic than literary but he tells a rousing story. Military enthusiasts should love this series.

W.E.B. Griffin has done a magnificent job in balancing superb dialogue with vivid action scenes. Griffin possesses the unique ability to have whatever he writes down on paper, automaticlly come to life in ones mind, each different, and each unique. The Lieutenants is certainly a great start to his exciting series, Brotherhood of War.

First off, this book is a novel and the genre is drama, not war. It is not about war but about the culture and relationships, history and traditions of men who prepare for and fight wars.

This book and its series is set against a wide variety of military challenges and most of them do not fighting another country. A series of careers overlap through through these challenges and the cast of characters grow to respect, loathe or just get along as they push through competing agendas and common projects. Some characters spend long periods of time in career lulls, others seem to have the right blend of traits to push past the rest only to succeed or fail under circumstances they have little influence in shaping. The fortunes of war effect soldiers in peactime as well.

The most interesting aspect of these novels is that the author lets readers get into the consiousness of almost every sort of solider. The reader meets the various characters as they meet one another and sees and thinks what they do from their various perspectives. They tell their own stories, ambitions and worries so you know whats going on in their minds. At times, the reader gets to walk in the shoes of the young private thrust into new situations, then the reader is in the head of a more experienced soldier who meets private. There are the career elisted men, the younger and older officers, the career trouble makers and cilivians who have put on uniforms, there are men whose sons are fighting beside them or wives who worry about them both. There are men who advance quickly and men who the war exposes as being out of their league.

Generally, the men must form quick impressions of their comrades. Then the impressions change or deepen. Men of oddly different backgrounds form deep friendships or intense animosities. Men find one another personally challenging, useful, an obstacle or whatever. The reason this is all important is because their lives and the future of the country hangs on every decision they make and this is what makes for such interesting and compelling reading.

There are countless tomes about battles and campaigns but very little exploration, of how comrades of the same uniform interact with one another, bond or form relationships. How can the shakey events of a single hour one afternoon effect two mens' careers and create an unalterable bond that no other influence can break. How can a lifelong relationship be broken in the same amount off time.

While this novel is unlikely to fill in your knowledge of any particular battle, it may inform your understanding of every other historical book you read by letting you get into the heads of men at every level of the fighting.

This series is much more broad that The Marines series in its time span and focus. I actually only involves so much actual fighting as to give the basis for forming judgements of mens characters in peace time. The Marines Series focuses more on military operations even if it involves very little fighting.

Awesome stuff.

I've read this series several times over the last 20 years or so, and just started it again after a 5+ year layoff. Reading it again I've forgotten how good of a storyteller Griffin was before writing with his son in his last few books. While this one sets the stage for each of his other series (i.e., Corps, Vigilantes, Philadelphia police series) with a rich guy who always bucks the system to beat up the bad guy, with this one you have good character developmet and dialogue, and get a history of the Army from WWII through Vietnam - Korea, tank development, army aviation, Green Berets, you name it.

I always liked rooting for Lowell, and each of us has a very tight stickler to the rules Bellmon in our lives - Griffin portrays his characters similar to people ni each of our lives.

Reading each book in this series is well worth it - wish I could say the same about his latest books with Butterworth the IV!

The counterinsurgency war in Greece immediately after WWII is one of the least dealt-with periods of the Cold War. There is no logical reason for this, since it was the U.S. military's first experience fighting Communist guerrillas, later repeated in Vietnam and Latin America. Griffin deals with a little known ignored but nevertheless important time and place, and does it well.

There are only three books (I haven't read "The Colonels" yet, so I can't judge that) worth reading in the "Brotherhood of War" series: "The Lieutenants," "The New Breed," and "The Generals" (the best of the series, since it's the only one that can stand on its own apart from the series.)

This book was written back before Griffin developed his general over-reliance on marital infidelity as a theme, and is interesting and dramatic throughout. Very interesting look at the dirty little war in Greece, and excellent development of the characters who form the backbone of the series. The attitudes of military men and their ladies are very satisfyingly portrayed.

I just did a review for Goodbye Darkness, and I started browsing some of my other favorites, and I saw that The Lieutenants had only a few reviews. I was shocked. The Brotherhood of War series is one of the most popular of any military series among people in the service. I have seen it in just about every USO and every library. In Korea, every camp had motheaten copies floating around.

The series, which starts with this one, follows a group of officers as they go from second lieutenants all the up to generals. There is a mustang with a Medal of Honor, a rich kid who gives up the family business to serve, the smart Jewish guy who gets more and more important as he gets more senior, and many other assorted characters.

There isn't really that much fighting. Some, yes, but there is quite a bit of peacetime life, lots of drinking, a good deal of sex (not x rated), and some improbable coincidences, but all of it works together quite well. And lots of the settings are kind of unknown, such as when some of the lieutenants are serving in Greece after the war, and getting involved in the fighting there.

I wish there were more enlisted men featured in the book, but still, this series has helped many soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines pass the time of day.