MEN AT WAR

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 770, 23 April 1954, Page 13

MEN AT WAR

SIDE-SHOW, by Gerard Bell; Frederick Muller, New Zealand price 13/3. TUMULT IN THE "CLOUDS, by Andrew Cunningham; Peter Davies, New Zealand price 10/6. HIS side-show in Burma, in which a ‘flank guard of 90 men killed almost a thousand Japanese in a night and a day of savage fighting, has the reality of a soldier’s battle dream. It has all the nightmare horrors of close combat with bayonet and grenade, the suspense of waiting in the dark for the enemy to attack, the terrifying, screaming charges; in it also is the fanatical courage of the Japanese soldier and the bravery of the stolid British infantry and machinegunners of Fourteenth Army who held him ‘back. The author handles his troops with tactical skill and his characters no less ably. He knows how soldiers talk and what they talk about; how they re-

act to close combat, noise, fear and death. The publisher says most of it is authentic. Cunningham’s book is based closely ‘on his own experiences as a navigator in night-interception and intruder fighters in England, Malta and Italy during the war. It is reporting rather than creative writing, a collection of brief essays rather than a novel; but he is a sensitive and sincere observer. Perhaps the fussiness of the schoolmaster-navi-gator can be sensed in his descriptions of people and operations, and at times some Air Force slang embarrasses some

excellent writing.

W.A.

G.