Odds and Sods MK3, by Derek Robinson

 Odds and Sods MK3, by Derek Robinson

 

Yes, Derek Robinson has raked through the minutiae of war and life in general and dozens of other areas, to write another enticing book that captures you, even if you’re not in the mood to be captured.  You won’t be able to help it.

 

Here are a few tidbits. Who came up with a better way to land gliders?  Yes, it had a profound effect on the D-Day landings. Read all about it!

 

Is there something profoundly interesting in Jane Austin novels and the English Regency period?  And what the heck does that have to do with democracy?

 

There was an American television series in the 60s…at least I think it was the 60s….anyway, it was called The Desert Rats.  Actually, the real desert rats of World War II North Africa fame were English and, well, who came up with the idea of using small groups to do big things?  This story is also a wonderful lesson in how to snarl and stamp your foot in the doorway of unyielding bureaucracy.  Fascinating.

 

What does American football have to do with Rugby? You’ll get a kick out of this one.

 

Page to page, in vignettes, you’re find yourself plunging on and if you find yourself saying “I didn’t know that,” you’re on the right track to developing a very different view of the world, and people, and events.

 

Now, I do have one point to disagree with, not with the truth, but with the fiction, or the notion that human eyes do not flicker or sparkle.

 

Yes, I know. And neither do hearts pound like a drum, and I’ve never seen anyone gasp, except in the movies, or seeing a bill at a high-end restaurant.  And when it comes to love, you never actually fall, although you do sometimes get a headache and ask yourself, what in God’s name did I do?

 

But, eyes sparkling?  See, when a woman whispers, “Darling, your eyes sparkle like diamonds,” I’m not one to deny that happened.  She said the damn things sparkled and I’m going to take her word for it.  Nor am I going to back away from “Your breasts are luscious,” in favor of “Your breasts are kinda round, or maybe oval and one is a slightly different shape from the other one.”  Nope. I’m putting all my money on luscious, and I’m dying to find out where this well traveled road is leading.

 

“Damn right they sparkle and yours are really good at glittering.”

 

But, let’s digress back to the book, ODDS & SODS MK3.  This book is a fast read, or is it really?  Yes, page wise it is, but believe me, you will ponder what cowboys really did and how they lived.  And how about the numbering system for houses on a street?  And, in World War II, did the Germans really have some super weapons you don’t know about?  Ever thought of England as slave trading central?

 

Open you eyes, whether they sparkle or not. This is more than a book, it’s insight, and a spectacular one, of history and literature and even the human body.  You’re going to read these short stack of bits and pieces and find yourself saying….wait a minute…if that’s true…then what about…

 

Derek Robinson is a fantastic writer of World War I and II historical war novels, but just as powerful a writer when he’s searching out odds and sods that populate our world and our experiences that wedged their way into what we take for granted. 

 

And while you’re at it, pick up copies of the original ODDS & SODS and also MK2.  For goodness sakes, you deserve a treat! Also check out Never Mind the Facts.

 

Contact Derek Robinson at delrobster@gmail.com  But, please don’t mention my name.  He’s not going to like my opinion of sparkling eyes.

 

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2021/04/odds-sods-mk-2.html

 

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2020/05/never-mind-facts-new-book-by-derek.html

 

Why 1914? by Derek Robinson

Why 1914? by Derek Robinson

In a previous article, I explained the importance of knowing about World War I, the fracture of Europe, the downfall of empires, the appalling loss of life on all sides, the resultant echoes that still resound today.  But there are also important lessons.  Going to war is complex and I suspect the backstory the author illuminates, in varying forms, applies to most wars.   

In his marvelous book, Why 1914?, subtitled The Causes of the Great War, Robinson goes into the ins and outs of how and why the war occurred. If that sounds dry, then you haven’t read any of his other books.  The man is a genius storyteller and he takes little at face value. This book may be history, but it’s not bogged in the drudgery and clichés of your high school or college history class.  This is story telling at it’s best. And what a story!  This book is not just for history buffs, it’s entertainment for everyone with an inquiring mind!

Let me give a quick, if slightly inaccurate analogy of the almost inexplicable complications.  Let’s say you’re desperate for food and head to an Italian restaurant.  But, wait a minute, the menu is in German!  You do your best in ordering, but when the dishes come out, they’re Mexican.  The wine you ordered is some strange brand of cola.  The first waiter spoke English, but now he’s gone and your new waiter speaks only French.

But, you know what?  If you’re starving, truly starving, you don’t care!  You just want to eat!  And Derek Robinson’s premise is, the countries in Europe, for a number of reasons, were starving for war.

“But, wait a minute”, you’re saying, “I know from my history class that an Austrian prince was assassinated by Serbs and when Austria went to war, all the alliances just naturally followed, and nobody could stop it.

Ever ask yourself the questions:  Why could nobody stop it?  Why were they so ready for war?  War is not an instant decision.  It takes preparation.

Here are some things to consider:  All the crowned heads of Europe were cousins.  The King of England’s grandmother, Queen Victoria, was German. A daughter of Queen Victoria was married to the Russian Tsar; Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany was another cousin, and so on.   They all knew each other and liked each other and visited each other.

As for the pre-war alliances, they changed so often it was difficult to keep track, and the strength of the alliances varied like a sine curve.

What makes Why 1914? so effortless to read is it’s an unlikely story of going to war and so fascinatingly told, going behind the headlines of the times to tell the background of an impossibly convoluted tale that eclipses any film by the Marx brothers.  It’s more like a badly made Grade B movie, poorly acted, with a tangled, and unbelievable plot.

Derek Robinson reveals so many details that will make you shake your head and at times laugh out loud.  Laugh at such a serious subject.  No, it’s not the subject, but the incredibly incompetent characters themselves.

NEVER have I read a more complex tale, so well told!  The pages turn like you’re reading a novel.  A Great Novel.

Want a copy?  Here’s how: delrobster@gmail.com, or www.derekrobinson.info.  He is also on FaceBook.

Never Mind the Facts, a new book by Derek Robinson

This is a review of a new book by Derek Robinson, one of my favorite authors.  The book’s title is Never Mind the Facts, and it’s a mind opener that explores common historical personages and events that go unchallenged.  But, before I dig into this enigmatic book that will spin your mind, I need to say a bit about this fabulous writer and his earlier works.

I have read all of Derek Robinson’s novels, the most famous of which are aviation thrillers that span both world wars.  His novels are appealing page-turners and it’s no secret why.  His stories, as he likes to say, are good cracking yarns, with indelible characters and stimulating plots.  Page-turner is not the right description.  In his novels, you don’t even know you’re turning pages.

I misspoke.  I’ve read all of his novel at least twice, and a few I’ve read more than that.  His protagonists float through my brain almost daily.

I was once an aviator in American Air Force fighter squadrons, so I view novels that incorporate the lives of fighter pilots with skepticism.  So often they just don’t ring true.  The dialogue is stilted or the terminology misdirected or the attitudes contrived.

None of that is true about Derek Robinson’s flying novels. Fighter pilots and fighter crews are dedicated participants in one of the world’s most dangerous professions, and their personalities laced with humor that pummels danger and allows them to focus on flying and fighting.  His descriptions are deadly accurate. He puts you in the cockpit, revs up your engine and takes you into the fickle storm of war.

But there’s more to Robinson’s talents and points of view than thrilling tales.  He’s also a careful and creative thinker, with an imagination and eye for detail that Earnest Hemingway called a built in bullshit detector.  His prior forays into history include Why 1914 and Invasion 1940, both of which investigate historical facts versus patently accepted myths.

The subtitle of Never Mind the Facts is Ten major myths and why they survive.  Prepare yourself to reopen your memories of high school history books and be astonished.  Take a fresh look at some very old and fairly recent pages of British history, the Armada and Dunkirk.  “Gosh,” you’re thinking, “I know all that.”  Do you?  Really?  Let Derek show you, as Paul Harvey used to call it, The Rest of the Story.  Or, how about Laurence of Arabia, or further back in the annals of time, the Nativity.

“But,” you say, “I’m no fan of history, and don’t try to tell me anything about religion.  I know what I believe.”

Never Mind the Facts is not an attempt to treat you to yet another conspiracy theory, or hit religion with a wrecking ball; it’s about tossing aside your preconceptions and examining what you think you know.  How about the abolitionist, John Brown?  You probably know about the famous raid on Harper’s Ferry, but do you know John Brown, the man?

I’ve only just scratched the cover of this short, but fabulously interesting book.  Never Mind the Facts is about opening your mind and once again, Derek Robinson opens it wide.

This book was self-published by the author and is available on his web site:  http://www.derekrobinson.info

Besides Never Mind the Facts, a new book is on the horizon:  Odds and Sods.

My three faithful readers may have noticed I’ve written about Derek Robinson’s novel many times.  Here are some links to my blog entries.  These books are available on Amazon:

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-good-clean-fight-by-derek-robinson.html

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2012/03/another-gem-from-derek-robinson-piece.html

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2012/01/goshawk-squadron-novel-of-breakneck.html

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-splendid-little-war.html

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-eldorado-series-derek-robinson.html

https://stroudallover.blogspot.com/2017/05/holy-moke-by-derek-robinson.html

D-Day Through German Eyes by Holger Eckhertz

D-Day Through German Eyes by Holger Eckhertz

War is brutal, unforgiving destruction, formed by grand strategies, over which the men and women who fight the war have little control, and their efforts are mostly forgotten.  The personal experiences of those who fight and die is seldom in the history books, and not at all in the high school classroom.

Yes, Wellington beat Napoleon at Waterloo.  MacArthur and Nimitz followed different strategies in the Pacific.  Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander in Europe.  Patton was a great commander,who slapped a soldier.

But, what of the man in the trench, with dust in his eyes, while the man beside him has skin burned away and dies in the horrifying hell of being burned alive by white phosphorous?  How about irrational hate for an enemy whose bullets ripped your friend apart and left a bloody mess of what used to be a man?

We see old newsreels of the storming of the beaches at Normandy. We’re shocked at bodies floating in the waves and slumped in the sand.  But, it’s long ago and not personal.  You never knew your dad’s brother or your aunt’s husband.  They died in the war. The fullness of their lives limited to a bland statement.

I don’t blame the teachers or the writers of history books, who have compressed time and pages to make a good summation.  Even movies like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or books like ‘Band of Brothers’, must of necessity leave out details in favor of painting with a broad brush and keeping the plot moving.

Sometimes an author gets it right, but often the work is fiction, like Norman Mailer’s ‘The Naked and the Dead’.  Another is ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ by Steven Crane, and a third is ‘Killer Angels’ by Michael Shaara.  And while novels pick up the flavor of men in battle, they are the voices of those men portrayed by fictional characters and created by the authors.  I’m not belittling these books and have enjoyed all three immensely.  But, Holger Eckhertz’s book is the real thing, unvarnished, with the smell of cordite and blood and the feel of truth.

To me, real history is personal and for the common soldier, sailor, Marine, or aviator, war is as personal as it gets.  But even more rare than personal history is personal history seen from the other side.  In D-Day: Through German Eyes, Holger Eckhertz shares interviews with German solders, both officers and other ranks, of what they saw and felt, their fears and tragedies.   He puts a human face on an implacable enemy, not to vilify, but to trace commonalities of fighting men, no matter the style and color of their uniforms.

“We crouched down there (in the chamber under the German bunker) and looked up at the roof over us, as the English up there began to set off explosions and smash our equipment…It was extremely hot and smoky in the chamber, and sweat ran down my face as I crouched there, wrapping a bandage around my wounded arm and looking (up) at the trap door….

…the thought of those incendiary grenades coming down into our confined space was horrifying.  Some of my men began praying, while others kept up a stream of muttered obscenities directed at the enemy, vowing a dreadful revenge for this humiliation.”

“…why would they (the English) want to burn us alive when we were protecting Europe?  What was the origin of this hatred?  I had no answer to such questions.”

Eckhertz takes us into the mind of the enemy, near the beaches, in the bunkers further back, into hand-to-hand combat and best of all into the mind of the German soldier, his thoughts, his fears, his sudden realization that this is it.  Not just a feint, not just a commando raid.  He looks though the heavy cement bunker’s machine gun slits and sees the sea alive with more ships and landing craft than he could ever imagine.  Unimaginable power.

This book is alive with emotion, dread, realizations, and all the personal horrors of war.  If you want a glimpse of D-Day as you’ve never seen it, D-Day: Through German Eyes is a book you can’t and won’t stop reading. This is the story of the German soldier, not another caricature of the hated Nazi, but a personal glimpse of men at war.

Munich by Robert Harris

Munich by Robert Harris

I admit I’m a longtime fan of Robert Harris’ novels.  Why is that?  He carves his characters out of stone, whether he’s writing of ancient Rome or Germany in the Second World War.  He constructs plots that keep you turning pages and along the way he weaves a vibrant tapestry of mystery and intrigue.

In Munich, Robert Harris takes us back to 1938. Neville Chamberlain’s flying to Munich, along with the leaders of France and Italy, to meet with der Führer of Germany and seal the fate of Czechoslovakia.

We know what happened, don’t we?  So how can this be a thriller, a fast read, a book that keeps you on the edge?  Harris grabs you with sub-plots, the personalities of the leaders, and throws you into the middle of a fray.  Suddenly, your faith in what you thought you knew is shaken.  You’re no longer certain of what happened or even what’s about to happen.

Let me set the stage for you:

In 1938, the slaughter called the War to End All Wars was barely twenty years ago.  The allies lost almost five million men. Britain alone lost three quarters of a million.  France lost well over a million.  The Central Powers lost over three million, with Germany’s losses almost two million.  The smell of blood was still fresh, families still had photos of their lost loved ones on their mantels.  The people of Britain, France and others wanted nothing to do with another roar of cannon and chilling letters of bereavement. The horror of tears and loss still hung like a black curtain.

Although its loss was also great, Germany’s outlook was far different. Germany had been brought to its knees, humbled, kicked and punished.  But, it wasn’t war debts and indemnities that pushed the Germans to the status of beggar nation. Unemployment raged.  Social spending increased again and again.  Politicians lost control of the budget.  Inflation lent its torch to the economic bond fire. You had to take your money in a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of bread.  Still, reparation payments called for in the peace treaty that ended the war could have been paid, but for protective tariffs levied by the great powers on German goods.

In 1933 a man arose out of Germany’s defeat who could turn the country around.  The time was ripe and Adolph Hitler was ready. His unlikely rise is a fascinating story in itself and also one of the most tragic in the history of the world.

By 1938, Hitler’s star had climbed to the German heavens. He was Chancellor.  With little to no bloodshed he had taken back the Rhineland from France in 1936 and annexed Austria in March 1938.  Added to that, both Britain and France had agreed to Germany’s rearmament in 1935.

France had a larger Army, but did nothing.  Britain also did nothing.  The peoples of both countries would do anything to avoid another war.  In Britain, Chamberlain was a hero.  Yes, he gave concessions to Germany, but he kept Britain at peace.

To the German public, Hitler was reuniting Germany and making it powerful again.  But, now his sights were on the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, which included a large German-speaking population.  Hitler wanted that piece of real estate, too.  Britain and France agreed to that, with the details to be worked out and signed in Munich.  After all, Hitler had promised that the Sudetenland was the last piece of the puzzle.  There would be no war.

L to R, Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, Ciano

So, while the former allies wanted peace at any price, Germany wanted to resume it’s rightful place as a nation of prominence.  The Czechs were an impedance to all parties involved and their part in the peaceful breaking up of their country was nothing but an afterthought.

Robert Harris’s novel, Munich, goes into the back corridors to bring the scenes to life, examining not only the major players, but their subordinates whose friendships on both sides went all the way back to university days at Oxford.  Harris’ plot takes us back not only to what did happen, but what didn’t and steers us into the heart of a web that lasted well into the Second World War.  Plots.  Intrigues. Love affairs. Indelible characters.  All of them with the special Robert Harris touch that keeps you on edge, flipping pages, knowing the macro, but feeling every bit of the micro.  Historic fiction is Harris’ milieu and one of the best writers to ever bring history to life and all the while bringing the reader the good and bad, as we know it…and even the parts we never knew.

Want history as it should be written, as well as a thrilling plot with indelible characters and a driving purpose?  Munich is the book.

The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson

Just when you thought everything possible had been written about Winston Leonard Spenser-Churchill, Britain’s wartime leader, along comes another rewrite. 

Not so fast, friends and neighbors, liberals and conservatives.  Johnson approaches the Churchill mystique from a different direction, interweaving Churchill the man, the politician, the writer, and world player par excellence.  Johnson has got the background for it, himself a Member of Parliament, noted journalist, and Lord Mayor of London.

When I took Modern European History in high school, in what I now realize was the tyranny of the clock on the wall, teachers simply did not have the luxury of painting broad sweeps of history with more than a thin coat of watercolor. “You see,” they would say (with the textbook backing up every sharply pronounced syllable) “Napoleon did this and then he did that and that’s why Italy came to be united and the French hate the English and the Hapsburg Empire crumbled.”  I scribbled feverishly, knowing that for reasons unknown, scraps of that pronouncement would appear on the final and I would have to use a trusty No. 2 pencil to prosaically regurgitate.

Although the keepers of the holy historical script did their best, to the seventeen year old mind, the prolonged soliloquies did nothing more than describe the historical road in terms of long, unblemished freeways.

What Johnson does with The Churchill Factor is to give you a tour of the potholes, the resurfacing, the twists and turns and knotty reasons why the historical road is a curving, winding journey, and seldom smooth.  Historical twenty-twenty hindsight aims a bit high and too straight, catching only the occasional glint of the sun.  Johnson gets you down where the asphalt smokes and the steamroller driver screams at the dump truck driver, and the engineers step in to keep things going and the whole things costs ten times what was promised.

First elected in 1900, Sir Winston’s political career, with more highs and lows than a Disneyworld rollercoaster, lasted until 1964, the year before he died.  Two World Wars that set Europe in flames, along with brushfire wars here and there, along with the decline and fall of the British Empire were only a few of the roadblocks that marked Churchill’s journey.  Yes, he was First Lord of the Admiralty a couple of times, and Prime Minister twice, but he also was a conservative (Tory), turned liberal (for twenty years!), turned conservative.  He was a hero, a goat, a hero once again, and unthankfully voted out of office after what would come to be known as his greatest triumph, only to be voted back in six years later.

Did you realize the British Empire at its zenith was six times larger than the Roman Empire?  Did you know Winston Churchill, as a conservative, built the foundations of the modern British welfare state?

You can’t be in politics for well over sixty years and not make enemies, who were once friends, and once again returned to being so.  How in the world can your supporters suddenly despise you and your enemies admire you?

Was the wartime cabinet all Tories?  Not in the least.  As the war clouds formed over Europe and threatened very existence, did all of Churchill’s compatriots fall in line behind him and his stand against the blackness that was Nazi Germany?  Nope.  Then how in the world did he manage to become Prime Minister in 1940, when his enemies were many and his friends few?  It’s a crooked, rock-strewn story and Boris Johnson tells it well.

The Churchill Factor is not a dusted off rendition of what you read in high school.  It’s a polished page-turner that reads like a thriller.  And that’s exactly what Winston Churchill’s life was, a thriller.  He stumbled badly.  As modern speech would have it, he was many times ‘thrown under the bus,’ but he prevailed.  His will and insight and humor and indefatigable energy never failed him, even when those around him dismissed any thought of his rising again.

Churchill humor.  Well there were a lot of things he said and a lot of things he didn’t say that he got credit for saying.  Lady Asquith:  If I were your wife I would poison your tea.  Winston: Madame, if I were your husband, I would drink it.

Or how about Winston in the men’s room?  Someone knocks on the door and announces:  Mr. Churchill, The Lord Privy Seal is here to see you.  Winston:  Tell him I’m sealed in the privy and can only handle one shit at a time.

No, those are not direct quotes.  Read the book for goodness sake!  Don’t expect me to do all your work for you, especially not after Boris Johnson has already done it and done it well.

One proviso:  Best to read this book on a Kindle or Pad because Boris Johnson is an Englishman and the English vocabulary is upwards three times larger than the standard American vocabulary.  Much easier to push on the word and have a definition pop up than to have to perpetually thumb through a dictionary.

But however you read The Churchill Factor, you’re going to enjoy reading a great book about one of the great figures of the 20^th or any other century.  What a story!