Heroism in the Forest: The Jewish Partisans of Belarus by Zeev Barmatz

One of the veins of new material that has come out about the second world war in recent years is out of eastern Europe. First with the opening up of Soviet archives and now with the development of histories focused in on the individual republics. There is also been an increased interest in partisan activities especially with the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today's book is Heroism in the Forest: The Jewish Partisans of Belarus that pretty much says what the title suggests.

 It's a short book I would guesstimate perhaps 40,000 words consisting almost completely of primary accounts from participants. I also think that they are all Jewish. There was nothing from the Soviet partisan units or for that matter the Germans who had to fight them. i would've preferred a little more context in that way. Stories themselves are interesting telling as they do about this trust between Jewish and other units. Usually around the Jewish units wanting to protect women and children and the Soviets being more interested in projecting military force. As well as anti-Semitism on the Soviet's part. The book gives the impression that at times they were fighting more with the other partisans and they were with the Germans.  Much is made of the Bielski partisans especially the camps set up to take care of the noncombatants. The book concludes with the Russians taking over after the war.

I don't think I'm the audience for this book. The back copy makes a big deal about how this will change peoples perspective on Jews meekly going to their fate. Considering one of the first scholarly books I read on the second world war by Martin Gilbert made sure to point out Jewish resistance to the Nazis I never had that impression to begin with. The lack of analysis is frustrating. From a strictly military perspective how many German units did they tiedown? How many Germans did they kill? How did this affect German logistics for their campaigns? Or if we don't want to discuss the military situation how many Jews were saved?

I do think it deserves a place on an Eastern front bookshelf. Simply for the novelty and to hopefully encourage more material like this from the publisher. After all how many Israeli publishers are publishing in English these days?

This was a review copy.

The Slaves’ Choice: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 by Gene Allen Smith

In my experience books on the War of 1812 follow the same narrative of American naval success and British/Canadian success on land, the level of emphasis placed upon these two things is usually based on the author’s nationality. So it is unusual to come across a book that deals with the topic in a new and different way. A book like this is: The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812 which looks at the relationship of the US with its slave and free black population. The book starts out with the American revolution discussing how manpower concerns soon led to the acknowledgement that some African Americans would be needed to fight either as free men or as slaves who were rented out to the army with their salary going to their owners.

The core of the book is taken up with the War of 1812 discussing at length the British reaction to this and attempts on the part of the British forces to encourage slaves to desert, hopefully undermining American manpower. Along the way anecdotes of those who decided to stay and fight for the Americans as well as those who signed up with the British are discussed. The campaign in Florida against the Spanish is also touched upon. With books like this it is often difficult to do it without either dealing with disjointed anecdotes or simply to provide a narrative history of the events and occasionally reference the topic. Fortunately, this book manages a happy mix of the two. I wouldn’t recommend this as a first book on the war, but there is enough here to understand what is going on.

The book concludes by arguing that seeing the success of black troops, the antebellum South became more fearful of the possibility of slave revolts. So, ironically, those free men who fought for the Americans made things worse, at least until the American Civil War. I think he may be underestimating the effect that the slave revolt on Haiti had.

Recommended for those who want a different look at the War of 1812 and the issue of African Americans in combat prior to the American Civil War.

Book was provided for review.

The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers by Gordon Weiss

The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka and the Last Days of the Tamil Tigers
 by Gordon Weiss

 This book describes the final days of the campaign of the Sri Lankan government to defeat the Tamil Tigers. This was highly controversial and it has, in fact, been described as the first foreign policy failing of the Obama administration. The use of heavy weapons, including artillery against civilians, as the author notes, turned what were operations against a terrorist group that the world community approved of to one that for a time, at least, made the Sri Lankan authorities isolated within the international community.

The book starts out with a history of the Tamil Tigers and their attacks against the government. This takes up the first few chapters of the book. He does bounce around inside the timeline. It is not a strictly linear telling, which can make things somewhat confusing.

The heart of the book is a description of the final assault. The author, who worked for the UN is exceedingly careful in describing the events. For instance, after describing the use of artillery against a school which killed several female students, he points out under international law how this could be a legitimate military target, then lays out the Sri Lankan government’s argument that it was.  Next using various reports to show that this was not accurate. It is much more convincing than if he had simply complained against the use of military hardware against civilians. He criticizes both sides, both the government for its heavy handed tactics as well as the Tigers for using the people as human shields.

This is not a book for someone who thinks that the government was within its rights to do anything to stop terrorists or, for that matter, that the Tamils were freedom fighters who could do anything against a corrupt government.

The book is also excellent at describing the international community’s reaction, first, after 9/11 becoming serious about the Tigers as a terrorist group, doing what they could to disrupt the highly sophisticated fund raising operations in the western democracies—Canada, Australia and the US—and how this gave the Sri Lankan government carte blanche in the beginning to step up operations against them. While the operations were taking place, the politics of the ualigned countries and third world came into play when the western nations wanted investigations against the Sri Lankan government’s actions. Countries such as India and China viewing these as a violation of sovereignty did what they could to block them, which is something that, of course, is going on today in Syria.

The book concludes on a rather depressing note discussing that these sorts of conflicts is something that will be needed to be confronted in the 21st century.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in the conflict and who doesn’t have an ideological dog in the fight. 

This book was provided by the publisher for review.

Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars by Jonathan F. Vance

Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars
by Jonathan F. Vance

For the first review here on the new site perhaps something a bit out of the ordinary where military history is concerned. This book attempts to look at the influence that the military has had on the relationship between Canada and Great Britain. It is done primarily by looking at the views of participants on both sides as portrayed in newspaper editorials, letters, diaries, et cetera. The book opens with New France being conquered by the British. Canada in the 19th century is shown to be influenced by the British regulars stationed there. I will have to admit I found this section not as convincing as the later ones, for the simple reason that when saying, for instance, that the soldiers were the first to play certain sports in Canada he doesn't seem to take into account that there were large groups of British settlers in the country who some even to this day do their best to hold on to their Britishness.

 That aside, the heart of this book is a discussion of the two world wars. There are plenty of anecdotes about the Canadians from the British perspective and the Canadians talking about the British. For the most part the British seem to be dismissive of the Canadians in the beginning until they learn how well they fight.  Then they are supportive.  While the Canadians are much more guarded in their views of the British, often considering them to be stiff necked and inflexible.

 If you have read a lot of Canadian  military history there isn't necessarily anything shocking here, but it is nice to have it all in one place and he has found sources that aren’t usually used. Clearly he spent a lot of time in the archives.  Unfortunately there are times when the background narratives of the military campaigns do overwhelm the text, specifically in the latter part of the section on World War II. The book concludes by pointing out that even though Canada is a multi cultural society today we still often look to the British for instance the royals and British media. 

I would recommend this book for someone who is interested in the relationship between the two nations. This does make me curious about the relationship between Australia and the UK which I understand has been much more rocky. If anyone can suggest a good book on that, please do so in the comments.