In the Heat of Battle

Donough O’Brien

2009

Osprey Publishing

Capricorn Link (Australian Distributor)

“A history of those who rose to the occasion and those who didn’t”

O’Brien points out that in the last three and a half thousand years the world has only been at peace for two hundred and thirty. Little wonder, then, that there was plenty of opportunity for heroic men and women to make a difference.

He gives us the standard collection of heroes (some might say “idiots”) who led heroic charges into the face of the enemy or who single-handedly saved the day, but he also gives us those whose more minor roles made such a difference without the spectacle and waste of battle. I liked his non-partisan approach. Not all heroes were British or male. He covers people like Joan of Arc who tried to unite her people to resist the English and lost her life as a result. There is Shaka, the great Zulu chief, who DID unite his people and whose military tactics were the dread of the British in South Africa.

One of the most unrecognised heroes of World War I was a young Turkish commander named Mustafa Kemal. Sidelined by his superiors because of personality clashes he was put in charge of a section of Turkish coastline that should have been a military backwater. Such a post would have done nothing for his career if it wasn’t for a disastrous blunder by Winston Churchill, who decided to invade Turkey. The section of coastline called the Gallipoli peninsula went down in the history of Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. Kemal’s defence pinned down thousands of invading soldiers. The Turkish soldiers under Kemal’s leadership gained a reputation as fierce fighters and earned the respect of the invaders. His reputation was made and he went on the become known as Kemal Ataturk, the “father” of modern Turkey. Gallipoli was the first time Australians had fought a significant battle as one country instead of a collection of British colonies, so it did much to bring Australians together as a nation as well. It also created closer ties between Australians and the neighbouring New Zealanders. Kemal was the right man in the right spot at the right time, but his history is little known in the Western world.

Let us not forget those who fought in the background, also. Constance Babington Smith was an examiner of aerial photographs during World War II in England. Her keen eyes and brilliant military assessment capability led to the identification of the experimental V1 rockets at Peenemunde. They were bombed and this saved Britain from many months of V1 attacks. She also identified the amazing little Messerschmitt 163 rocket-powered interceptor and the twin-jet Messerschmitt 262 fighter from aerial reconnaissance.

O”Brien goes well back in history to find those who made a difference – like Horatius Cocles (Horatio in its anglicised version). Horatio’s defence of a vital bridge kept an Etruscan army out of Rome while defences were organised. Valour was not just an old-time virtue, and O”Brien also gives us modern examples from the Vietnam War and the Falkland Islands.

The second section of the book is just as interesting. It discusses those who simply didn’t have what it takes and how their indecision or blundering led to the deaths of so many. From Kennedy’s abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba to Saddam Hussein’s delusions about his own power, history is full of modern examples of stupidity. As O”Brien works back through time we have examples like General Macarthur’s virtual conquering of North Korea, then the orders from his political masters to pull back in case the Chinese became upset. Half a century later the border is still militarised and North Korea is under the control of a half-mad dictator.

British colonial history is absolutely full of arrogant, foolish men who administered its vast empire with no thought for the local people. It is not surprising that British colonial history, therefore, is really a history of revolts, battles, civil uprisings and mass slaughter. From the American War for Independence to the Indian Mutiny to the passive resistance of Ghandi, the British managed to upset the populations of their Empire with disastrous results. Australia is one of the few countries ever to gain independence from Britain without having to fight for it. Whenever things were otherwise quiet for England and before it had its growing Empire the British would involve themselves in European wars.

They were not alone in these blunders, however. Whenever a self-promoting power hungry idiot like Herman Goering, Winston Churchill or George Custer was on the scene it was the common soldier who was going to suffer the most.

Josef Stalin is unmatched. When Germany invaded Russia during World War II, Stalin was well-prepared. He had purged his military of its best commanders. He had done nothing to improve the quality of their dreadful road and rail system so troops could be moved quickly to where they were needed. He did have a good intelligence service who told him when and where the Germans would invade, but he ignored them. As a result millions of Russians died in the war.

O’Brien’s book is an entertaining read but you can’t complete it without a serious rise in your cynicism. Although many of the articles are brief he always gives enough information that you can see the bigger picture and see past the spin put on these people by history. You can only ask how some of them got away with their blunders, and why so many truly brave men and women had to die to put them right.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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