Reviews: December 2011

Reviews: December 2011 This month's reviews include the books Afgantsy: The Russians in Afganistan, 1979-89 and A Guide to the Beaches and Battlefields of Normandy and the DVD The Waterloo Collection: Hougoumont and D’Erlon’s Attack. Enjoy!

Afgantsy: The Russians in Afganistan, 1979-89. by Rodric Braithwaite Profile Books www.profilebooks.com Reviewed by Jim Graham Afghantsy by Rodric Braithwaite covers the war the Soviets fought in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. The book has 336 pages of text, 48 of annexes, a bibliography and index.  There are also 16 pages of photos of both the main protagonists and the terrain and cities of Afghanistan; with four maps covering the whole country, the Pandsher Valley, Kabul and the Presidential Palace.  The author Rodric Braithwaite is a former British diplomat who was based in Moscow and has had access to the Soviet archives and writes sympathetically of the Soviets and the difficulties they faced.

The book is strongest on the political aspects of the war and Soviet intervention covering recent Afghan history and the Communists coming to power. Once they were the government it sets out the difficulties they faced, often of their own making.  Braithwaite is writes thematically with sections on The Road to Kabul, covering the political build up; The Disasters of War the war itself; The Long Goodbye setting out the political and military exit strategies with The Reckoning covering the after effects on both the men who served and the Soviet Union itself. In the early chapters the author reminds us that before the Communist government of Afghanistan tried to impose their will in the countryside Afghanistan was a relatively safe and peaceful country. With hindsight Soviet intervention seemed cursed but it was barely a decade after the successful and peaceful invasion of Czechoslovakia, and planned and commanded by the same people in some cases.   Afghantsy then has chapters on various aspects of the Soviet Army covering the recruitment and training of conscripts with anecdotes on civilian life, army life, and the background of the army. The anecdotes are fairly generic and have a familiarity to anyone who has read any memoirs or “voices of” books.  They are presented uncritically and it is not clear if they have been selected by the author or simply all that he has been told.  This brings us to another problem, there are passages given as quotations but with nothing to say who the speaker is or what the quote is from.  This lack of rigour in the use of quotations is slightly annoying.   The book starts promisingly for the wargamer as one of the initial chapters covers assault by Soviet special forces on the presidential palace in some detail but this is misleading as there are few other actions covered at all and those only in cursory fashion.   There is little in the book on tactics or weaponry and although there is an order of battle for the 40th Army it is not a primer for the war.   This is not really a problem if the book is a political history but it falls between two stools, it isn’t a historical narrative but neither is it a military treatise.

The Waterloo Collection: Hougoumont and D’Erlon’s Attack (DVD) Pen and Sword Digital www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Reviewed by Neil Smith The second DVD in Pen & Sword’s Waterloo Collection finds our intrepid historians and battlefield guides on the eve of the great battle. From there, following the three episode format from the first DVD, they lead viewers onto the Belgian battlefield, inside the walls of Hougoumont, and alongside D’Erlon’s ill-fated attack. The result is a more tightly focused inquiry into the campaign but one that is again marred by poor production.

After a ‘bridging’ episode that takes the viewer from Quatres Bras and Ligny to the ridge of Mont St. Jean on which Waterloo was fought, our guides arrive at the eminently defensible chateau of Hougoumont on the right flank of Wellington’s line. Here they provide a detailed account of the often desperate fighting around the chateau, increasingly so as the French in particular fed thousands of troops to try and take the bastion. The British and their allies beat them back every time and our guides do a commendable job illustrating this ‘battle within a battle’ using maps, a model, and on-location video. If Hougoumont frustrated the French, D’Erlon’s attack proved profoundly shocking to them. The third episode sees our guides accompanying the French from their starting position around their grand battery of artillery up onto the ridge where British and Dutch soldiers proved immovable, despite later claims that the Dutch ran away. As the attack stalled, the British heavy cavalry swept forward driving the unfortunate French like cattle back towards their guns. Our guides describe all of that action very effectively from various viewpoints and are clearly hitting their stride, whetting our appetite for the two DVDs to come in the series. Unfortunately, the production issues that marred the first DVD are again in evidence for this second effort. The sound quality is mixed, sometimes within the same segment, and the one interview where the voice is completely missing is unforgiveable in a product supposedly ready for the market. Some of the question and answer sections are clunky too, and it would have been much better to just let the guides talk to the audience and edit afterwards. Nevertheless, the footage of the battlefield with the commentary helped me understand the battle; the footage of reenactors proved useful; and the demonstrations of cavalry sabres and preparing ammunition added some nice complementary touches. Overall, they almost outweigh the production problems but not quite enough for me to recommend breaking out the credit card for anyone except die-hard Waterloo enthusiasts.

A Guide to the Beaches and Battlefields of Normandy by David Evans Amberley Books www.amberley-books.com Reviewed by Stephen Maggs When I first received this book I thought it was to be familiar run of the mill battlefield guide, giving directions of where to go, what to see, how to get there etc, etc.  But not so, as the book provides ‘an accessible background to the momentous events of 6 June 1944.  This is not just a tourist guide to the Normandy beaches but is more aimed at military historians, veterans and relatives, for the book gives a complete guide to each and every town, village, beach and battery involved in the conflict area.

Each location is easily found within the publication (helped by a detailed index) and gives a brief account of what occurred there, who led troops there and which units fought there.    This is an excellent guide, one worth adding to your bookshelf as a very handy quick reference guide as to what occurred where during the prolonged, often bloody, battles of the Normandy landings. This 176 page guide has a good few photographs, map and drawings to compliment the text, including commanders on both sides, action shots, German defences and cemeteries.  The maps (sadly not too many) are clear and of course very useful, especially for wargamers wishing to recreate the Normandy battles, there is a rather useful one of the Omaha Beach showing  various locations of monuments and plaques of the various units that fought there. The books contents include; Background to the European War, France Under Occupation- Resistance, German Plans to Defend ‘Festung Europa’ – Their European Fortress, The Build-Up To D-Day, Operation Overlord – D-Day, 6 June 1944, War Poets of the Normandy Campaign, Victoria Crosses Awarded, Visiting the Cemeteries, D-Day and Normandy Campaign Museums. There is a clear A to Z Gazetteer, index, 6 maps and 77 photographs plus drawings and newspaper cartoon illustrations.  Paperback.