3 comments about Hazardous Duty.

1. A great story about a model Major General in todays world. If you want a great war story about the story of a Stand and Deliver Man. Then go no further! I actually felt sorry when the Clueless James Earl Carter went up against this bandsaw of a man!



2. I have read about two-thirds of this book and must stop to send copies to my friend and to my daughter. General Singlaub's experiences and insights show the pattern in all the seemingly unrelated events between WWII and Viet Nam (that's as far as I've gotten), events that affected us all. I have been angry, amazed, amused, impressed and proud as I've read this book. I agree with the other reviewer: this should be the text for a history class. General Singlaub's integrity and intelligence illuminate many issues that were hidden in the shadows.



3. I have just read this book and sent General Singlaub the following letter.

   Dear Jack, Under"Acknowledgements", you mention the "ill-fated John Saar background briefs", I believe Churchill would have referred to them as the beginning of your "finest hour". Without that encounter with John Saar, Washington Post reporter, our appreciation of you as the ultimate super military soldier would have never been revealed to the American people. You were magnificent and fearless. No one was able to intimidate you nor could they compel you to change your stance on the issues, not even the most powerful people in the land including, Jimmy Carter, the president of the United States. Your courage met all challenges with integrity and honor and truth even though you understood that your whole brilliant career was in the balance. You did not waver or waffle as other great warriors have done when faced with loss of pensions, future advancement, even death. Many came to their "moment of truth" and stumbled miserbly. Your action of heroic patriotismand dedication to duty can not be surpassed in the recorded annals of U.S.History. Holding firm to your beliefs and convictions, your dedication and patriotism took on heroic proportions and should, at the very least, lead to The Congressional Medal of Honor. "Hazardous Duty" should be required reading in every school and college in the land as well as in the world. Your reference in Part III to "No Parade" perfectly presents to the world why democracy really works and why totalitarian governments fail, i.e. Hilter, Mussolini, Stalin whose systems are motivated by fear with no fair representation.

5 comments about Fire in the Night: Wingate of Burma, Ethiopia, and Zion.

1. I would just like to correct two statements of fact in an editorial review of Fire in the Night.
   
   Publishers Weekly states that Wingate is the "only foreign officer to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery".
   
   Whatever his achievements, Wingate is not unique in this regard. There is at least one other foreign officer buried at Arlington, namely, Field Marshall Sir John Dill. He was the British representative on the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee in Washington during the Second World War who died very much in harness and was buried in Arlington as a mark of the respect his US counterparts had for him.
   
   The same review also contains another error - the plane carrying Wingate crashed in March 1944, not 1943.



2. My mother thought Orde reminded her of Stonewall Jackson of American Civil war fame. There are many similarities between the two, but I think Trevor Royle's book title nails his character right on the head. Both Jackson and Wingate were average military scholars, but brilliant field commanders. They had no equal on the field in terms of battle tactics. Both were deeply religious, both eccentric, though in very different ways. Both were Gideons of the supreme, heavenly order. I am convinced if Stonewall were alive today, he would be an ardent zionist as Orde became when his command led him to palestine in pre-WWII years. Orde's first assignment was in the Sudan where he became fluent in Arabic. His Hebrew which he tried to learn was terrible according to Moshe Dayan. His few days in palestine, however, bore much fruit in that he taught the jews of palestine tactics which would help transform the IDF into the amazing fighting force today and which served them extremely well in the immediate days and years following.
   
   Orde's success in restoring the Ethiopian empire to Haile Selassie was definitely Stonewallian. How he routed the entire Italian fascist force residing in Ethiopia with a small force was little short of miraculous.
   
   I don't think Stonewall was as outspoken as Orde and was a bit surprised at how Orde got by with some of his very strong opinions which he was not afraid to voice. That for me was the biggest contrast between the two.
   
   Most important, I think, about Wingate was what he had accomplished in the jungles of the far east where he died in a tragic aviation accident during WWII.
   
   This book was thoroughly enjoyable, is well written, but I defer to the better judgement of one of my favorite Amazon friends and recommend Royle's book as being most accurate as to Orde's views of the jews and palestine. This book was a good prelude to me, a good introduction into the life and character of this most remarkable of British soldiers, Orde Wingate.



3. Like Lawrence of Arabia, Orde Wingate is a perennially fascinating figure of the later British Empire and era of World Wars I and II. Unlike Lawrence, Wingate was not a literary artist who immortalized his own career, so we rely on biographies to understand him. This work is thorough if not definitive, using a wide array of sources to describe his military/political adventures in Palestine, Ethiopia, and finally Burma where his long-range penetration strategy was most publicized and problematic, but at least partly successful. Such a forceful, idiosyncratic figure will always stimulate controversy, and the authors explore the disagreements well enough, though they cannot satisfy all readers. Why marginal? Wingate's and Lawrence's successes, and failures, occurred in peripheral theaters of both wars. Scholars debate whether such operations significantly influenced the outcome of campaigns in Africa, Southwest and Southeast Asia, or primarily served to expand or protect the Empire. But major (and costly) sea, air and especially land campaigns were essential to winning world wars; the character of 20th century total war effectively marginalized the efforts and the theaters where romantic individualists fought, though they remain dashing, compelling figures. "Fire in the Night" is exciting and deserves 4-5 stars taken on its own terms, but excess attention given to special ops ultimately obscures the nature of Allied triumphs. A. Mockler, "Haile Selassie's War" narrates the 1935-41 Ethiopian conflict. In "Defeat Into Victory" William Slim recounts the inspiring reconquest of Burma, with pointed critiques but general praise for his difficult subordinate. (The authors seem overly hard on Slim in this respect.) J. Nunneley, "Tales from the King's African Rifles" captures well the brutal, unglamorous experience of most Burma veterans.



4. Like many sources, this book praises wingate without enough
   careful examination of his flaws. The book focuses mostly
   on three chapters in Wingate's life. It starts with his
   service in palestine in 1936.
   
   Driven by religious fanaticism and his contempt for what
   he saw as uncivilized peoples (arabs or any non-europeans
   really), he attached himself to Zionism and zionist politicians.
   In the process he exceeded or ignored his orders, then after
   politically compromised himself in open alliance with zionist
   groups to a point where he could not possibly serve there.
   His great "vision" for the region was for a "sub-empire"
   with Zionists serving as a sort of spartan military elite
   to subdue and westernize those considered lesser humans. All
   as part of some sort of twisted fanatical vision of christianity.
   
   After having been booted out of Palestine, he eventually ended
   up in Ethiopia where he again ignored his orders. His goal
   this time was to force a royal government on Ethiopia regardless
   of what anyone else thought and in spite of serious reservations
   on the part of politicians and his superiors. His campaign
   was a wonderful "boys adventure" sort of a affair, but in the
   end it was army won the campaign. Wingate's great accomplishment
   was saddling Ethiopia with an unstable and territorially
   aggressive monarchy that eventually collapsed in a bloodbath
   in the 1970s.
   
   After, he went into open revolt against the entire leadership
   of the army in the area. He openly insulted them and held them
   in utter contempt. In his mind, though he had never held
   a position of high responsiblity in the army, he saw himself
   as being some sort of grand illustrious figure. And when
   his campaign of alination, insults and personal attacks failed
   to get him recognition, he attempted suicide. Contrary to the
   book, his megolmania and self-destructive behavior would indicate
   someone with serious problems rather than a great leader.
   
   He was rescued from career oblivion by a friend in India. He
   was sent into Burma in 1942 to see what could be done in the
   way of irregular warfare. For all his bluster, he did nothing.
   And beyond that, while other men were suffering and dying
   on the march back to India, Wingate arranged to be flown out.
   
   Back in India, he was given a brigade to test out his theories
   with. He whined about what he was given in terms of men. He
   only wanted british soldiers. He threw the men into jungle
   camps during the monsoon with the idea that by inflicting the
   maximum amount of suffering and disease, that british men
   who had his opinion been weakened by access to health care
   and doctors in britain would be made strong again. When the
   casualty rate reached over 50%, he moved the men into regular
   housing and they recovered. The book presents the self-serving
   fiction that the casulaty rate declined due to weeding out
   "bad men" when in reality it only improved because the monsoon
   ended and the worst of the camps was abandoned.
   
   Wingate's first mission into Burma served no real purpose. It
   was originally to be part of a broader plan, but when the
   broader plan was cancelled, wingate demanded that the operation
   go ahead anyway as a training exercise. He led the men into
   Burma, put a railway out of operation for a few weeks and
   then led his men deep into Burma where they accomplished nothing.
   Eventually, Wingate executed one of his brilliant strategies
   to solve the situation. He broke up his command and effectively
   gave the order every man for himself. The force or more
   properly what survived of the force returned in small parties
   to India.
   
   Once back, Wingate ignored his men in favor of launching a
   press and publicity campaign on his achivements. He wrote
   a self-serving account of operations and when his commanders
   raised objects to it, he arranged for a copy to be given
   directly to Churchill and the cabinet. Wingate decided to
   bypass the entire army and come under the patronage of
   politicians. The politicans heard about the brilliant victory,
   but they did not hear about the officer running naked in the
   jungle or of the man who believed bringing back flogging was
   necessary for real dicipline.
   
   When he returned to India in the fall of 1943, he fell ill
   because he had recklessly drank contaminated water in north
   africa on the way back. He had been given a blank cheque
   for any resources he wanted for operations in Burma.
   
   However, due to a combination of him being out of the country
   and ill, his operational role in developing the second chindit
   force wasn't very large. Eventually, an plan was thrown
   together for operations in 1944. Rather than being an evolution
   of his supposed theories, it mostly involved a new idea of
   fighting a special operations war with a division-sized formation
   operating from large bases in enemy controlled territory.
   
   Wingate died early on during the operation so its impossible to
   know what would have been the result if he had lived. However,
   the only other time his 1944 strategy was used was by the
   French in Vietnam where it led to total disaster.
   
   Wingate has a number of followers. Obviously, Israelis are
   greatful for the help he provided in forming what eventually
   became their army. There are also those who, like wingate,
   who see the british army as a failed institution and somehow
   see innovation in the form of a man who cut his own throat,
   ran around naked in camp, wanted to bring back flogging and
   credited broader access to good health care in civilian life
   as being responsible for weakening the british soldier.
   
   A good work on Wingate has to deal with the positive aspects
   and the negative ones. Too many draw a one-sided portrait
   (including this one) while sweeping the not so nice parts of
   the story under the rug.



5. Having been brought up on stories from my early years about the brave and often forgotten exploits of the Chindits I was very enthused to tuck into this book. Orde Wingate has been the hero of many, not so much because he was a military successful warrior, but because he was wildly unconventional at a time when staid ethics and methods of war were leading to defeats of the western allies on all fronts.

   A fierce Old Testament fear and learning of the bible bread in what would now be called a fundementalist christian family, he blended this with [...] eccentricities like, indifference to appearing nude before his collegues and newspapermen, a complete indifference to British Monarchy and the hierarchical class-bound society and way of thinking. An appreciator of new ideas and probably quite to the left of many of his superiors, he had no hestation in punishing and physically striking his recruits (no matter their colour), and could kill the enemy mercilessly, or order large groups knowingly to their death without a blink.

   Wingate pioneered unconventional warfare with his notion that large unit groups can function in the rear of the enemy for long periods of time if they were self-sufficient and well trained. He eschewed the entire idea of "special forces" as they are often called nowadays. In the end I do not think that he squared the circle large unit action and special forces --- he wanted both and got really neither. His tactics worked rather well against the Italians (but that was no surprise he realised), but they were problematic against the Japanese. The first operation, "Long Cloth" was an unmitigated disaster, with enough adventures from its many participants to fill an entire library (they still make some of the most heart thumping reads available). The entire operation broke down and became in some cases, every man for himself. Wingate himself giving the order.

   His second operation was more problematic. No doubt these operations had significant effect on the enemy and no doubt were very helpful in the taking of Myikyena and Mogang, but I really think that 14th Army would have rolled up the Japanese flank nicely anyway, as they did and win the Battle of Burma with overwhelming firepower and troops as well unmitigated air superiority.

   In the end the Japanese in Burma were beaten by traditional large unit engagements.

   That is not a defeat of the ideas of Orde Wingate, nor do they negate the incredible bravery of the men who served with him. What it does DO however is to put to rest the idea that Orde Wingate was a purveyor of "Truth" -- his ideas were worthy, but they were not the be-all end-all of jungle combat. His developments were prodigeous and his personal bravery never in doubt. But I think that, like Moses, he got involved too much in fanatical devotion to one idea and was willing to sacrifice a lot for an idea. In the case of Moses, his people --- in the case of Wingate, it was often his own troops.

   This books admirably chronicles the multifacted nature of Wingate. It is factual and comes across as neutral as possible, often citing critical sources and those men (also of incredible courage) that did not fall under his spell.

   The narrative is tight and WELL EDITED. Unlike your regular 1000 page biography Smith and Beirman are able to deal with the subject adequately in 400 pages with nothing substantive missing. Also there is just enough detail of almost all of his life. The final 150 pages deals with the Burma campaign the authors are very skillful in their use of detail. They include all of the crucial elements necessary of his many campaigns.

   I found the book to be a very admirable read. I think that it only deepened the questions I have about Wingate --- was he a daring experimenter or a madman? --- I think that one can add, bitterly-troubled person to the heap of other appelations surrounding this man.

   I still ask myself, if this man were my commander would I succumb and become a convert? Would I stand aloof and protest that something is terribly wrong? I do not know, and cannot judge because I was not born at the time these events transpired. I was not a part of this great crusade, the glory they gained or the horrors they endured.

3 comments about A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp With the 33rd U.S. Colored Troops, Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers.

1. "A Black Woman's Civil War Memoirs," by Susie King Taylor, was first published in 1902. A new edition, edited by Patricia Romero and featuring an introduction by Willie Lee Rose, appeared in 1988. In that new intro Rose declared, "There is nothing even vaguely resembling Susie King Taylor's small volume of random recollections in the entire literature of the Civil War, or in that of any other American conflict insofar as I am aware." Indeed, this book is a rare and valuable historical document.

   Taylor was born a slave in 1848 on an island off the coast of Georgia. She gained her freedom and worked as a laundress for an African-American Union regiment during the war.

   Taylor recalls how she learned to read and write and then herself became a teacher. She offers fascinating details about her life with the troops. She had many different duties beyond laundry service. I loved the episode where she recalls concocting "a very delicious custard" from turtle eggs and canned condensed milk, and serving it to the troops.

   Taylor condemns the lack of appreciation shown for both black and white Civil War veterans. She also condemns early 20th century racism. Reading her book I was reminded of W.E.B. Du Bois' classic "The Souls of Black Folk," which was first published around the same time; I think the two books complement each other well.

   Taylor ends on a note of hope and pride, noting "my people are striving" for better lives. This book is, in my opinion, an important milestone in African-American literature.




2. It's a short book (especially when you consider the added historical footnotes and pictures), but very valuable. It's so rare to hear the perspective of someone who was a slave, and who then lived free in the post-war period. Her heartfelt tales of the bigotry of the _post_-war period to me were even more memorable than her focus on the war itself.



3. Amazon says this is out of print. NOT SO! It can be gotten thru the National Parks Service National Women's Museum in Seneca Falls, NY. The woman who wrote this lived an extraordinary life, as a slave child, and as a freed woman. Yet by many standards she is just an ordinary person living her life, doing what she CAN do. It's a nice read. She's not trying to be anybody's heroine, more simply I think she was writing to tell herself who she was, that she could survive, that she could be of service. Neither boring or exciting (so far), simply real.

5 comments about God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqi Army.

1. After hearing Capt. Navarro discuss his book at length, I feel the previous reviewers have missed the author's main thrust. Navarro is emphatic that on his first tour in Iraq the situation was dismal to beyond hope, partly because of the Iraqi soldiers' fatalistic attitude (i.e., "if God wills it") and their seeming refusal to take any responsibility for their own well being. However, he says that by the time he returned for a second tour, things had turned around more than he ever would have expected and that this improvement was largely a result of a change in U.S. policy. Where the U.S previously had been installing their own hand-picked leaders in Iraqi villages, they instead began working with the village chieftans, who already occupied positions of authority. This strategy produced much better results, and Navarro ended the book appearing optimistic about the future of the U.S. in Iraq. However, he was adamant that the U.S. must not leave Iraq, because to do so would create a power vacuum in the area that Iran would quickly exploit.



2. The idea was that we would send over some of our best and brightest military personnel to serve as advisors to train the New Iraqui Army. Now the politicians and generals in Washington who cooked up this operation would have us believe that in the not too distant future the New Iraqui Army would assume increasing responsibility for the security of their homeland. Capt. Eric Navarro, USMCR knows better. After spending eight long months in Iraq as one of those advisors he felt compelled to write a book about his experiences there. "God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqui Army" chronicles Navarro's sometimes harrowing and almost always frustrating time there. "God Willing" calls into question the wisdom of our mission in Iraq and documents the challenges our military personnel face each and every day to try to make it all work. As Capt. Navarro points out time and time again it is almost always a case of "two steps forward and one step back".
   In order to highlight the kinds of obstacles that Capt. Navarro and his compadres in the Advisor Support Team (a/k/a The Drifters) were forced to deal with during their tour of duty in Iraq I will quote liberally from a paragraph on page 212 of "God Willing" which seemed to neatly sum it all up: "Too many pieces were being thrown into the puzzle and none of them fit neatly together, no matter how much the President or the generals wanted them to. American contractors, Iraqui civilians, Iraqui solders--all were mixed together with marines, soldiers and sailors from a multitude of different units. No one person was in charge of it all. We were living with a complete breakdown of command and control in a combat environment." Get the picture? And when you discover that soldiers in the New Iraqui Army are allowed to take one weeks vacation each month to spend time with their families you will begin to empathize with the intense frustration of Capt. Navarro and the others who have had to put their own lives on hold and travel half way around the world in order to try to stabilize the situation in Iraq. In addition, Navarro points to a number of other serious logistical problems that impede real progress in Iraq.
   As someone who has never served in the military and therefore is not familiar with military nomenclature I found that some of the terminology in "God Willing" was foreign to me. For some readers this may prove to be a bit of an obstacle to fully comprehending the issues being discussed here. Those with military experience will probably glean more from "God Willing" than the rest of us. Having said that, it is extremely important that the rest of us get up to speed on these matters. The citizenry at large cannot question policies that they really do not understand. In "God Willing: My Wild Ride with the New Iraqui Army" Capt. Eric Navarro succeeds in arming his readers with badly needed information. "God Willing" has certainly changed the way I view events in Iraq. This is a timely and well-written book that deserves your attention. Highly recommended!



3. I just finished reading Capt. Navarro's novel about his first tour in Iraq. I couldn't put the book down. Eric's writing is clear, detailed and eloquent. The shame of it is that our military and political leaders never learned any lessons from my father's generations Iraq, "Vietnam" and our failures there. You can't grow a democracy and train a new army if the countries populace has no idea what freedom of choice is about. You need to read this book to have any understanding of what our soldiers are dealing with over there. We need more from Eric. We need our political leaders to listen to young people like Eric.



4. The "New" Iraqi Army - quite a concept as told from the fiercely intelligent and jaw dropping perspective of Marine Captain Eric Navarro. As you read Navarro's superbly drawn account of his mission - attempting to transform a rag-tag battalion of hapless and hopeless Iraqis into a cohesive fighting force - you can't help but wonder whether the NIA are really the "New" Marxists (as in Groucho, not Karl.)
   
   Far from the Pentagon and superdelegates, Navarro lays down a brutally honest assessment of how questionable logistics and barriers of culture and language intrude on our neat and convenient notions of democratization and nation-building - where even the basic civics of defecation becomes a test of wills. It would be brilliant satire if not for the deadly serious circumstances. Told by a true patriot, God Willing is an important testament to the real work of Iraq.
   
   Semper Fidelis and Insha Allah.



5. I've had an opportunity to read an excerpt (Chapter 15) and I am looking forward to reading the whole book. I've already pre-ordered two and thinking of ordering more to give as gifts. Captain Navarro is a newcomer to the writing world with a maturity beyond his years. His writing "voice" is a unique one - a mixture of a dry sense of humor and colorful, first-hand accounts of his experiences. While in the Islamic world, the phrase 'God willing' invokes a particular meaning, clearly, in the Christian mindset, God has a purpose and a plan for Captain Navarro. God, of course, was able to bring him back safely and turn the Captain's horrific experiences into something good. May God continue to bless him and enlarge his territory in his new endeavors.

No comments about (I am) A Real American: Memoirs of a 3rd Generation Japanese-American USAF Fighter Pilot.

1 comments about Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World.

1. If you're looking for a detailed, clear narrative of Tamerlane's life and achievements, Justin Marozzi's book is not it. Failing to develop Tamerlane as an individual from his youth onward, and failing to explain exactly how he came to be so successful, Marozzi diverts perhaps half the book to recounting his own travels in Tamerlane's homeland. As descriptive and rare the author's experiences may be, a journalistic description of former metropolises in modern-day Central Asia does not provide a better understanding of the Lord of the Fortunate Conjunction. Throughout the book, Marozzi views Tamerlane more through the distant lens of someone in awe of his achievements, rather than the skeptical and down-to-earth approach necessary for biographers to truly evaluate who their particular subject really was.
   This is the flow of the book: a few very narrowed down pieces of Tamerlane's life, each separated by an equally large amount of journalism. The reader can neither fully assess the achievements of Tamerlane's career, nor gain a certain familiarity with his personality.
   The purpose of biography is to find out what kind of person the subject of the book was, and evaluate his/her achievements. In the case of Tamerlane, the reader is never really given an explanation for how someone conquered territory so successfully and rapidly, or how a man could rise from the status of desperado to all-powerful emperor. The main argument presented is that Tamerlane, while committing atrocities, also had many cultural achievements, most notably the building of several Islamic monuments now mostly in ruins or completely nonexistent. There is no assessment of Tamerlane's psyche, what led him to believe in his destiny, just how he outwitted his opponents, and what his legacy was. Why are western scholars, even military theorists, so unfamiliar with someone whose military career was as successful and immaculate as Alexander's? How did Tamerlane as a politician manage to rise so far and fast? What psychological condition could Tamerlane have had that may have motivated his ambition, and more significantly, the genocides he so ruthlessly committed? What aspect of his personality made him an electrifying leader, and gave him the energy to vigorously campaign even up to his death as an old man? These are essential questions about Tamerlane that should be answered, or at least examined, so that readers can analyze Tamerlane with the same level of understanding as western heroes such as Alexander and Napoleon.
   Instead, Justin Marozzi gives a hollow carcass of a biography, decorated with fanciful quotations and literary comparisons, but completely lacking in the real substance essential to a book that seeks to give the public an understanding of one of the greatest conquerors in history. In studying Tamerlane, we shouldn't look for the decrepit and virtually forgotten ruins and former cities of Central Asia. That does not highlight our understanding of him as a man. We need to know what he did, how he did it, why he did it, and what affect it had. We need to know these things as much as possible so that we may truly form an accurate perception of him as a statesman, soldier, and human being.

5 comments about The Meinertzhagen Mystery: The Life and Legend of a Colossal Fraud.

1. In Kenya Diary, Meinertzhagen lists game counts throughout the book to the nearest animal, an impossible achievement when animals and observer are in motion. I've tried. Some years ago I asked the University of Nairobi's Mathematics Department to confirm that the game count totals are random. They are not. Meinertzhagen had "favourite" numbers that recur in a non random fashion. Perhaps this is a small matter, but it is yet another small matter.



2. This is not so much a biography of Richard Meinertzhagen as it is an attempt to destroy his reputation. Meinertzhagen was a warrior, a famous collector of rare bird specimens, supporter of Zionism, African hunter and war hero from the First World War. Most of all he was an adventurer. He had a keen sense for history and felt sympathy for the Jews and deep hatred for Hitler.
   
   But all this has been stolen from him because of a number of allegations of impropriety. There are the stuffed birds that he is alleged to have stolen and re-labeled. There is the fact that no one recalls him being in Haifa in 1948 (although who would have?). Most of all there is the controversy over his diary and his meetings with T.E Lawrence. Meinertzhagen was sure that people would 'find out' about Lawrence and his having made things up and it seems that Meinertzhagen may have fabricated a number of diary entries including meetings with Lawrence.
   
   This book attacks Meinertzhagen even for the exploits that are widely known to have been his most brave and audacious. He once dropped fake plans behind Turkish lines in order to deceive them in the battles for Beersheba and Gaza in 1917. He is attacked here for having not come up with the original idea. But the proof for this is that other people claimed to have had the same idea. But why believe their claims and not Meinertzhagen's?
   
   Most of the rumors and stories about Meinertzhagen cannot be proved and neither can most of the allegations. For those such as T.E Lawrence the legend has remained, why there is so much interest in dismantling the reputation of a minor player such as Meinertzhagen is not clear, if anything he deserves more mention in history books on the Middle East, not less. The best place to start is to read his diary, Middle East Diary, 1917-1956 and then Warrior: The Legend Of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



3. Richard Meinertzhagen was a military hero, explorer, spy, friend of Israel, diarist, world renown Ornithologist and prevaricator. Unlike most people, he reveled in the lies that he told and the reactions of those he told them to. He left an 82 volume library of his 'life', much of which was wishful thinking or down right false, but like Dr.Goebbels he believed that if you tell "The Big Lie" forceful enough and long enough, people will begin to believe.
   
   Why would a man who was respected as a world class ornithologist, get himself barred from the British Museum for stealing? Was it for the notoriety? Having re-written his diaries (in some cases many times) and destroying all the previous versions, did he want to be caught after his death? Like publicity, being remembered, whether for good or bad, is still being remembered.
   
   Garfield, who admits the man was one of his heroes as a child, spends a lot of time trying to find back-up information to prove RMs tales. But the more his digs, the more his finds that it like digging a hole in the dessert, it buries you. When RM writes that he did so-and-so, Garfield is able to find that not only wasn't he involved, but that RM might not have even been anywhere in the area (much less on the same continent) when the event occurred.
   
   Ian Fleming had written that RM was the archetype for "James Bond". He could not have known how right he was in basing his fictional spy on a real-life falsified spy. The sad part is, had RM just written about his real accomplishments, his story would still be one of an outstanding personality; it just wasn't outstanding enough for him.



4. Col. Richard Meinertzhagen's exploits are those of either the greatest and most daring man ever to wear a British Military Uniform, or that of the most whopping fraud to walk the earth. Excellent research and a great read.



5. Brian Garfield is a supurb writer. It doesn't matter if he is writing fiction (Death Wish, the book behind the Charles Bronson movie), military history (The Thousand-Mile War about the part of World War II in the Aleutians), or a non-fiction book like The Meinertzhagen Mystery. His writing style is captivating and even otherwise dull subjects come alive. Any book is highly recommended.
   
   Col. Richard Meinertzhagen left a history of heroic deeds so dramatic that he was used as the model for Ian Fleming's 'James Bond.' Or at least it is so rumored. His diaries are full of stories so outrageous that you'd think they have to be made up.
   
   It turns out that most of them now appear to have been made up indeed. The difficulty is to split out what is true from what is false. And then we need look at what historians have reported as fact based on what is now seen to be false. It's enough to make you wonder about all of history.

5 comments about Master Chief.

1. Having read my way through a good portion of books on the SEAL mission in Vietnam, I would have to say this one ranks pretty low. The author seems to be unfocused and the story floundering for a bit. Actually, to be honest, i never finished the book, a rare thing for me, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Don't worry about this one for your SEAL list.



2. This book was OK. I think though there should have been a glossary or something in the back of the book for all the Vietnamese words he used! I couldn't keep them straight. As well as he himself kept jumping inbetween calling his commanding officer Mr. name and Dai Uy. It got confusing as to whether he was talking about the same guy. Enjoyed reading about all of the missions!



3. This is the worst Seal Book ever written.



4. I am far from bieng an expert on Seals, but this book in my opinion left a lots to be desired. I found it to be wandering a lots which made it very boring to me in comparison to the other books I have read by Nam Vets. By the way I was one of these Vets. We work alots in the Delta with Navy personel,and I found those people to be very good at their job.. Roadrunner6 out



5. Gary Smith tells about his five tours of duty as a Navy Seal in Vietnam through three different books: Death in the Jungle, Death in the Delta and Master Chief. All of these well written books are exceptional in that they not only tell the story of terror filled seconds during battle, but Smith also talks about the sheer boredom and mundane tasked that must be done. His stories about killing VC - VC ants that is, while waiting on ambushes are funny in otherwise near death incounters. Smith is able to talk about the inhumane acts that occur in war just as he is able to talk about the fun times. I was brought to tears while reading about the mother and baby killed during an ambush of a Junk and equally shed tears of laughter when he cooked "Venison" that barked!

   Smith does an exceptional job interspersing Vietnamese words and phrases in all three books which gives the read a sense that Smith was a professional that took the time to increase his advantage by learning their language. The one criticism I can point out is that he listed too many of the overnight ambushes. It became hard to distinguish one from another after awhile. I also get the feeling that there is much more to tell about his tour with the PRU but that it might bring up too many unpleasant memories.

   Finally, Smith makes a one sentence statement that Captain Gormly was one of the best COs he ever served under which speaks volumes about both warriors. A Very good set of books and I recommend these to anyone interested in getting a birds eye view of war from a Seal's perspective.

5 comments about Jeb Stuart: The Last Cavalier.

1. Burke Davis gives readers often-overlooked insights into the early life and career of the famous cavalier, including his courtship of his wife (whose father was a Union general) and his motivation to fight for Virginia. The Stuart-Cooke family is an excellent example of the bitter division of loved ones during the War, with Stuart and his brother-in-law choosing to fight for the Confederacy while his father-in-law continued to serve the Union. A fascinating account of the war as well as a great bio and a must-read for serious historians



2. One of the most tedious and enervating reading is a book in which practically every second page is loaded with citations from letters written to, by or about the person who is the subject of the book. Frankly speaking, if I can return the book and get some refund, I would do it gladly. This is not a reaserch but a correspondant's report. In short- minus one star!



3. The book starts out very well, establishing basic background and geographical history in a very easy to read anecdotal style. The remainder of the book essentially details General Stuart's exploits on and off the battlefield.

   You certainly get the impression that he was a dashing figure, but unfortunatley the author does not delve deeper into the man as much as I would have preferred. You get a sense for him as a Confederate soldier who cared very much about his duty, but not why he cared so much.

   I gave it four stars because it is a good read, and for the perspectives provided of many of the eastern battles and the cavalry's part in them.




4. Book rather good written, but as all books of the USA shipped, the printed paper and is of rather poor quality. In Europe we are used to recieve best quality. So also after many years you still can enjoy reading.



5. This is the third civil war book by Burke Davis that I have read, and it is just as good as the others. Davis gives a complete and well researched account of the life of Jeb Stuart, but his main gift is that he can really tell a story. You will be interested from the beginning to the end, and in the process, you will realize that you have learned a thing or two.

5 comments about No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Excape, A Perilous Climb.

1. Felice Benuzzi wound up in a Second World War POW camp close to the foot of Mount Kenya, a mountain that is higher than the highest alp in Europe. Prison camps are boring; soon Benuzzi, who went on to become an ambassador in post-war Italy's diplomatic service, was dreaming of scaling the mountain he saw beyond the barbed wire of his confines.
   
   Eventually he did break out, and with the help of two fellow prisoners and rudimentary mountain climbing equipment they had made in the prison camp, he and a fellow prisoner ascended one of Mount Kenya's peaks, where they planted an Italian flag. A great story of adventure and humanity that loses a little of its lyricism in its translation into English. Great reading for all ages.



2. I enjoy escape stories & the first half of this book was a typical WW2 escape story. The story has humour throughout & their task - to climb Mount Kenya - was quite an undertaking. What I liked best was the author's personality / humour & seeing things from an Italian and African perspective. His descriptions of the types of people in the prison camp are awesome. Day to day camp life is well described also.
   
   I think it took great guts to attempt what they did but to me the scariest parts were sleeping in the jungle with little or no shelter & no weapons. Who know's what type of beasts they may come across? I felt the second half of the book which describes more of the climb itself was more boring. When I got into this part I was mostly looking forward to finishing the book & getting onto something else. It is unique & I don't think in all the escape books I have read anyone has ever had their main intention be to escape back into their camp. That took a little bit of the interest away for me.
   
   It is a good story & I think the author would be a very interesting person to meet but the book was just middle of the road as far as true adventure stories I have read.



3. I really enjoyed this book. It sounds almost whimsical that POWs would go to all this trouble and face considerable personal danger to escape, climb a mountain, and then go right back to the prison camp, but the way Benuzzi describes it, it makes a certain sense. The painstaking process of preparing for the trip - which included all the risks and difficulties of a "typical" prison break plus the demands of an Alpine climb - is told in a matter-of-fact, rather dry fashion. (On nominating the third man for the party: "He had never climbed a mountain in his life. The only reason why we decided to try him was because he was universally thought to be mad as a hatter, and mad people were what we needed.") Benuzzi's descriptions of the scenes on the way up the mountain are glorious, and of the return to camp are funny and quite touching. A very enjoyable pocket-adventure story that deserves to be better known.



4. This book is a welcome change from all the peak bagging, egoistical, mountain-conquering books out there. The author talks so poetically about the beauty of the mountain , that its hard to remain unaffected. Their mission is extremely pure and simple - to climb Mt. Kenya, although some people might say that it was an irresponsible thing to do in the middle of war .... The truth is that its a fantastic description of their whole adventure, with graphic descriptions of the jungle and how they made it with POW rations and home-made climbing gear. A true mountaineering classic !



5. I'm a big fan of WWII prisoner of war tales, both real (The Long Walk, Ghost Soldiers, et al) and fictional (King Rat, Bridge on the River Kwai, et al), so I was intrigued by this account by an Italian of how he and two companions escaped their POW camp, climbed Mt. Kenya, and then snuck back into camp several weeks later. Unfortunately, while their adventure was undoubtedly remarkable, it never really comes alive in Benuzzi's book. I suspect much of the problem for me is that I know nothing about mountaineering and don't particularly find it interesting. The other difficulty I had was with the flatness of the prose, whether this is due to a weak translation or to Benuzzi's writing in a foreign language I don't know, but in any event, I found it rather tepid. So while I think the whole idea of his adventure is wonderful and in rather brilliant dark humor, I didn't find the telling equally so.