BOOK REVIEWS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 287, 2 September 1942, Page 3

BOOK REVIEWS

Present War Record Of The Anzacs

(“Anzacs Into Battle,” by Tabu Hole (London: Hodder and Stoughton). Mr. Hole broadcasts frequently from the 8.8. C. to New Zealand in news commentaries aud may fairly be considered an authority on the Dominions and the war. This makes "Anzacs into Battle” a valuable historical record of the part played by Australia and New Zealand in the present struggle. Its only fault is that it does not go far enough. It is to; be hoped that Mr. Hole will take his subject as far as "Anzacs out of Battle" fitter thi*war. So much has happened, in 11)12, and is fresh in our minds, that it is almost difficult to think Lack to 1041 and the events of which Mr.' Hole writes. He. includes all the campaign's that the Anzacs fought in, beginning with Crete and going back to review the campaigns in Greece, Syria, Iraq, but , perforce the Malayan campaign is missing. Mr. Hole makes good use of statistics, but he also tells very good stories in graphic language with ail the appropriate slang thrown in. He summarizes the lives u f army aud political leaders, tells the stories of Anzae V.C.'s, writes descriptively of Australia and New Zealand and appraises our respective war efforts. All this is no small achievement. There are nearly <5OO pages in Mr. Hole's book, and each paragraph is condensed to the lucid brevity of a war summary, illustrating the wide field he has covered in his subject matter. "Auzans into Battle” is generously illustrated with interesting war photographs. Mr. Hole makes no claims that his work is a complete record of our first two years of war, but it will be a very useful book to have for later reter“Southward Journey,” by Halliday Sutherland (London : Bles. Melbourne: George Jaboor). Dr. Sutherland, author of that most successful autobiography "Arches of the Years,” records iu his latest book a visit which he made to Australia in the first months of the war. Needless to say, it is an entertaining volume, lull of well-contrasted topics and bright comment.- Dr. Sutherland began his Australian journey at Fremantle and after some time in \Vestern_ Australia travelled from Berth to Adelaide by air. The next city visited was Melbourne during the Cup carnival —and he wrote his impressions of the great race for the "Argus.” By contrast he saw a presentation of the Catholic pageant "Credo” and writes vividly about it. In Sydney he toured the streets one night in a police car. He went further north also and, with visits to the interior, saw as much of Australia as one man could reasonably be expected to in the time. A certain amount of the material in the book has obviously come from guide books and the like, but it is neatly woven into the narrative and the book as a whole makes lively enough reading. Following his tour ot Australia, Dr. Sutherland visited Now Zealand. As he makes no mention ot it in this volume, it is possible that he intends to devote another book to the subject and certainly a commentary by him on the Dominion would be welcomed. “The Way of a Pilot," by Barry Sutton (London: Macmillan). This personal record of a tighter pilot has been written by a young Englishman who fought in the Battle of Britain, was shot down in August, 1940, and spent a year in hospital recovering from burns. It was while he was" in hospital' that, he wrote this book. Since then he has seen service as a squadron leader in the Far. East. His story is typical of the experiences ot the bo>s who accepted short service commissions in the Royal Air Force before the war bt«an and so were ready for combat when the challenge came. He tells ot the; ear ,v training period, ot his posting to a famous fighter squadron, the outbreak of war and his first engagements with the enemy, o the fighting in France, where he was injured, aud his evacuation to .Britan , and finally more fighting over Britain till he made what was to be a year-ionk. ex t from the air war. Uns is not a b°°2' uf any lasting literary worth, but a oil book all the same, engagingly wiitteu ana rpvealinsr a one is giau know. Sfore about the author than he is prepared to say himself is told in an iu troduction and a postscript by his uncle, Mr Lovat Dickson. , “The Destiny of Sett Power, by John Philips Cranwell (London: Allen and Unwin). The full title of this book is “The Destiny of Sea Power and its Influence on Land and Air Power. Its aim is to point out parallels in sea, an and mobile land power “so-fundamental that they create a new trinity of wavwith sea power! setting the pattern. .1 be author, an American,', discusses the roles which air, land and sea power at present play, and endeavours to indicate the shape warfare will take when aviation reaches the point in development which shipping reached many years ago. Unfortunately the book was written before America came into the . war and needs some revision iu the light of the sea and air battles which have since occurred in the Pacific. Its main premises, however, are little affected and deserve careful study.