The Winter Fortress

Bascomb, Neal. The Winter Fortress. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2016. Print.

First Sentences:

In a staggered line, the nine saboteurs cut across the mountain slope. 

Instinct, more than the dim light of the moon, guided the young men....Dressed in white camouflage suits over their British Army uniforms, the men looked like phantoms haunting the woods.

Description:

Raise your hands if you have ever heard of "heavy water." Here's a hint: it is vital to the production of atomic bombs and therefore the key ingredient in Neal Bascomb's account of the real-life World War II undercover operation in The Winter Fortress. 

Heavy water is ultra-distilled water that is painstakingly refined down a few drops with unique qualities. In the late 1930s, no one at the Vemork, Norway heavy water plant the really knew what to do with the interesting product they produced except to let scientists take small samples to experiment with and possibly find a use. But in 1940 when Nazi Germany requests from Vemork not a few drops of heavy water but two tons of the stuff, many workers at the facility suspect the Germans have found a military use for this liquid.

Turns out heavy water is a key component in the stabilization and detonation of the experimental atomic bomb being worked on the in United State and now, apparently, in Germany. When Germany overruns Norway and takes over the Vemork plant, and then vastly increases heavy water production, their intentions are confirmed. If the Germans are using it for an atomic weapon, they must be stopped or at least slowed until the American/British team in New Mexico can achieve their own bomb.

The plant must be destroyed by Allies. But a bombing raid would destroy many people in the nearby town. And the distillation tanks are heavily protected deep inside the mountain fortress/plant in an area unlikely to be damaged by bombs.

The plant destruction therefore requires an undercover job to be secretly carried out by the Norwegian local resistance with training by British Special Operations. Discovery of their mission would mean severe repercussions to the local families who help them, so the planning, training, and eventual mission are limited to a handful of Norwegians. Families are not even told of the work these ordinary husbands and fathers are undertaking.

The tension is unbelievable as, step by step, this team of Norwegian locals acquires vital information smuggled out of the plant, undergoes commando training in England, and makes detailed plans to take on this inaccessible fortress ... and hopefully get out alive. Then they wait for good weather, week after week, knowing the success or failure of the team would turn the tide of the War by determining which side would create the bomb first. 

Absolutely riveting reading about a mission I knew nothing about, yet one that changed the balance of power. I also learned about the dedication of each and every person in Norway to do whatever they could to thwart the hated Germans occupying their country. A truly gripping, uplifting, tension-filled account of people taking it upon themselves to do whatever it takes to frustrate and defeat their enemy.  

Happy reading. 


Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

MacLean, Alistair. The Guns of Navarone

Fictional account of a team of saboteurs on a mission to destroy an important German gun installation. Thrilling, nerve-wracking, taut, and unexpected, this novel is one of my favorites by a man who can really write thriller action plots.

Dead Wake

Larson, Erik. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. New York: Crown. 2015. Print.

First Sentences:

The smoke from ships and the exhalations of the river left a haze that blurred the world and made the big liner seem even bigger, less the product of human endeavor than an escarpment rising from a plain. 

The hull was black; seagulls flew past in slashes of white, pretty now, not yet the objects of horror they would become, later, for the man standing on the ship's bridge, seven stories above the wharf.

Description:

While many of us may have vague knowledge of the (spoiler alert) sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania in 1915, how many can say exactly what lead up to this event, what people were involved, and what impact this had on World War I? Who can name any famous person aboard on that fateful trip? Why was the Lusitania such an important vessel to the Americans, British, and Germans alike? And finally what happened to its passengers, crew, captain, and even the German U-Boat commander after the Lusitania went down?

Each of these interesting questions is answered in Erik Larson's newest non-fiction historical work, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. Using diaries, interviews, newspaper accounts, and de-coded radio messages from Germans and British, Larson tells the details of the people (American, British, and German alike) and events leading up to the voyage, the sinking, and the aftereffects of that ship's disaster.

Dead Wake consists of three intertwined stories: the last voyage of the Lusitania with its crew and passengers; the German U-Boat 20 and its commander and crew; and the personal trials of President Woodrow Wilson who had recently experienced the death of his wife and was plagued by uncertainty about the War. Moving smoothly between these three perspectives, Dead Wake continually fascinates as it reveals motivations and actions of each story until they collide one fateful day.

On May 1, 1915, the Lusitania set out from New York for London carrying 1,265 passengers, including 123 Americans. Captained by William Turner, she was the greatest ship of her time according to one passenger:

The Lusitania...is in itself a perfect epitome of all that man knows or has discovered or invented up to this moment of time.

No one aboard, including Turner, felt the voyage would be anything but uneventful. Despite warnings from Kaiser Wilhelm himself to the shipbuilders not to travel into wartime waters, the passengers and crew of the Lusitania were confident that, at 25 knots, the Lusitania could outrun or ram any enemy submarine which dared attack a fully-loaded passenger liner, an action they deemed "beyond rational consideration." Although the crew practiced lifeboat drills and watched for tell-tale submarine periscope wakes, the wealthy passengers were not to be disturbed by mandatory participation in such activities.

Meanwhile, aboard the German submarine U-boat 20, Captain Walther Schwieger had complete freedom to roam the waters around England and sink whatever ship he desired in order to break the British blockage and stop the flow of troops and supplies to England. Even ships flying neutral country flags were targeted since false colors often were used by enemies in hopes of fooling U-boats. Larson follows Schwieger and his crew in their life aboard U-boat 20 as they sink ship after ship with neither the traditional warning to abandon ship nor assistance to survivors. 

The events Larson reveals leading up to the deadly meeting between U-20 and the Lusitania are fascinating, including:

• Part of the cargo for the Lusitania included 157 barrels of candy, oil paintings of Rubens, Monet, Titian, and Rembrandt worth $92 million today, and 1,250 cases of shrapnel-laden artillery shells and powder bound for the British army; 

• The British Admiralty and their ultra-secret Room 40 division of code-breakers actually had a copy of the German code book and were able to read German correspondence from U-boats to German command headquarters. They knew where U-boats were, but were reluctant to act on this information to protect ships and reveal they had broken the German codes;

• The Lusitania shut down one of its four engine throughout the voyage to conserve coal, thus reducing its overall speed and placing it near U-20 on the fated day rather than arriving in London two days earlier before the submarine was in the area;

• Evasive maneuvers by the Lusitania were avoided because "subjecting passengers, many of them prominent souls in first class, to the hard and irregular turns of a zigzag course were beyond contemplation;"

• Although the sinking of the Lusitania supposedly pushed the US from a neutral position to actually entering into World War I, it actually was over two years between those two events. 

The actual sinking is transfixing to read. Using personal accounts of survivors and official reports, Larson presents eye-witness details that recall passengers calmly watching the torpedo approach the Lusitania, the swiftness of the boat going down due to open portholes (filling interiors with "an estimated 260 tons of water per minute"), heroes who helped passengers correctly put on life jackets (many drowned due to wearing mis-adjusted preservers), and the tearful reunification of separated survivors. 

Riveting, exciting, breath-taking, sorrowful, eye-opening ... what other words can I use to describe the feeling when reading this page-turning account? Highly recommended for its clarifying history of events, its writing, and the captivating details of life in the early twentieth century of the wealthy class, the naval forces, and warring governments during this period. Wonderful!

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hochschild, Adam. To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918

In-depth research brings this non-fiction account of the origins, daily workings, social conditions, and conclusions about World War I to vivid life. Great insight into the major and minor people of this war from military to political to social figures. Highly recommended.  (previously reviewed here)

Larson, Erik. Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Powerful, all-encompassing read about the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, intertwined with the development of the new downtown Chicago skyline at that time and the architect who designed it. But also lurking is the true account of the grisly murders that took place at the same time just outside the fair. As always, Larson is the master of detail and personalities, weaving them together with his smooth writing to make a reader feel he/she is actually a part of the fair, the murders, and the investigation of that era.

Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography

Grylls, Bear. Mud, Sweat, and Tears: The Autobiography. New York: William Morrow. 2012. Print

First Sentences:

The air temperature is minus twenty degrees.

I wiggle my fingers, but they are still freezing cold. Old frostnip injuries never let you forget. I blame Everest for that.

Description:

Feeling a bit tired today? Under the weather? Is it inconveniently rainy and cold outside? Did your boss say some hurtful things to you? Maybe those chores around the house just seem too daunting. Is a nap your primary goal for the day?

Well, I've got the antidote to feeling sorry for yourself: Bear Grylls' autobiography, Mud, Sweat, and Tears,  Grylls, the world-wide celebrity renowned for his ultra-survival television series Man vs. Wild, recounts everyday occurrences he experiences in his life that put our petty complaints to shame. He faces more inclimate weather, strength-sapping hikes, and sleep deprivation in one week than all of us together experience in our lifetimes. But he loves it and rises to every challenge. Here is a man who chooses the hard road, forces himself to conquer tasks, and, upon completing the job, looks around for something else to do that is even harder. For that he is a person thrilling to read about, even if we do it from our comfy couch in front of a warming fire. 

A former member of the elite British Special Air Services (SAS) force, Grylls is also one of the youngest men to have scaled Mt. Everest, a black belt karate expert, and a survivor of a horrific parachute accident - all before he was 25 years old. Mud, Sweat, and Tears carefully puts readers in Grylls' mind as he experiences each step.

The big three of any quality read are, of course, characters, story, and writing style. Having two of these can overcome a weakness in the third. Grylls offers all the plot and character you could want in any book. If at first his writing seems a bit bland and not on the same level as the other two criteria, wait just a minute. By relying on plain facts, observations, and emotions rather than fanciful descriptions, Grylls lets readers focus on the actions and characters without being caught up in overly embellished phrasings and descriptions. I found the beauty of this book to be its straightforward, clear of narration of its many spectacular escapades. What I initially thought would be a weakness to Mud, Sweat, and Tears actually is one of its strengths.

Witness the opening sentences, simply written but tightly focused to reveal compelling details. You can't help but be yanked into the next pages of the book to answer questions. Where is he that is so cold? Is he injured? And what's this about a previous Everest experience? With each sentence Grylls lures you on further and further as any great storyteller does. You simply must read on, heart in your throat, marveling at his tenacity, strength and will.

His words are simple and honest as he talks about his childhood freely roaming the wilds of Northern Ireland and Isle of Wight, as well as his rude awakening to bullying in a private boarding school. Eton University introduces him to lifelong friends in mischief as well as mountaineering, karate (to protect himself from bullies), and the possibility of joining the British special forces. The training for this elite group is unbelievably daunting. No one is failed if he can achieve the goals (run up hills in full packs, cross-country rendezvous without maps, hike in freezing cold through swampy lands, etc.). Most trainees just give up and are escorted to waiting trucks to remove them from this crushing life.

I had a hunger to push myself, and I found out that I could dig very deep when I needed to. I don't really know where or how this hunger came about, but I had it. I call it "the fire."

After injuries force him out of the elite SAS, he reevaluates his life and choices. 

I had come within an inch of losing all my movement and...still lived to tell the tale. I had learned so much but above all, I had gained an understanding of the cards I had been playing with. The problem was that I had no job and no income.

So he reinvents himself from an elite soldier into a mountain-climber of the highest order. As he trains for the Everest trip, he again lets readers see what he sees, understand each thought he has, feel each step in the biting cold as he trudges upward en route to the summit. 

It was like climbing a mountain of waist-deep molasses while giving someone a fireman's carry, who, for good measure, was also trying to force a pair of frozen socks into your mouth.

Throughout his later success of giving travel and motivational presentations to corporations worldwide and starring in his Man vs. Wild television series (global audience of 1.2 billion people in 180 countries), Grylls stresses his love of "the focus, the camaraderie, and above all the acquiring of an art that requires the use of guile over power, technique over force." His favorite quotation is from John F. Kennedy:

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

These guiding tenets strengthen him as he faces each new, more difficult challenge. While you may secretly dream you could survive these tests as he does, deep down (or maybe not so deep) you know you would have given up long ago.

This is a great tale of personal triumph, of a man who continually seeks out and then rises to conquer challenges. Throughout he maintains a love of nature, of perseverance, and of self-confidence in the ability to dig deep down for that final bit of energy. It's satisfying to know that, while I cannot do any of these things, there is a man out there who epitomizes the strength of will to never give up, to find a way to take just one more step without complaint in order to accomplish his goal. Admirable and fascinating on every level.

I am ordinary, but I am determined.

Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

____________________

If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shakleton's Incredible Voyage

Historic account of Ernest Shakleton's ill-fated voyage in 1914 to the Antarctic in a quest to reach the South Pole, only to find his ship and crew locked in by ice, with the only possibility of survival to hike across the froze wasteland pulling boats and then sailing to find help. Astonishing.

Grylls, Beat. A Survival Guide for Life: How to Achieve Your Goals, Thrive in Adversity, and Grow in Character

Wisdom and skills learned from Grylls' adventures that can be applied to everyday occurances in one's life, helping to find the strength to push on when faced with advesity.  

Regeneration

Barker, Pat. Regeneration. New York: Dutton. 1992. Print

First Sentences:

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

Description:

Sigfried Sassoon wrote the above words to his British commanding officer during World War II in 1917 while on convalescent leave. His entire letter, "Finished with the War: A Soldier's Declaration," was widely distributed, appearing in London newspapers and was read before Parliament. 

The problem was that Sassoon was a war hero, decorated for bravery with the British Military Cross, the Star, the British War medal, and the Victory medals. To have such an anti-war statement issued from one of its leading soldiers was a delicate situation.

Rather than be given a court-martial for his "Declaration" and refusal to return to the Front, Sassoon was deemed to have suffered from neurasthenia (i.e., a mental breakdown or "shell shock"). He was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, a convalescent facility for military personal damaged by the war, to be treated by the psychologist W.H.R. Rivers. The challenge Sassoon and others faced at Craiglockhart as well as their discussions about the reality of war, it effects on soldiers, doctors, and women, and their personal struggles to respond to these challenges is vividly, poignantly brought to life by Pat Barker in her book, Regeneration.

Focusing on Craiglockhart Hospital and Dr. Rivers, Barker uses the psychiatrist's thoughts, conversations, and treatment of Sassoon as well as other military patients to deftly reveal the fragile state of existence these men now experience as their recollections and actions from the Front haunt their lives.

It is Rivers who controls the fates of these men, since he must make recommendations about their mental fitness to return to the Front. Rivers gently questions and explores their memories, their family life, and their dreams through individual sessions, seeking the underlying causes for each mental breakdowns. These are men who, despite all their efforts, have been rendered mute, who refuse to believe they can walk, who suffer nightmares and screaming fits. Slowly, cautiously, they begin to reveal themselves to Rivers through calm, yet riveting doctor/patient conversations. And hopefully, they begin to heal.  

Barker shows these men not as cowards seeking shelter from the fighting, but who, despite their physical and mental injuries, want desperately to return to the Front and continue the fight. Even Sassoon, once his treatment is completed, grapples with the question of whether to fulfill his promise to serve, or to refuse to return to the Front, abandon his honor and men, and receive a dishonorable court martial for his beliefs. 

These beautifully, powerfully written personal moral dilemmas, these portraits of proud, broken men and their gentle treatment guided by Rivers, make Barker's historical fiction so compelling, so encompassing. What will happen to each man facing a new day, and what does the future hold for them? We readers live and breathe with Rivers and Sassoon particularly/ They are the representatives of duty and belief, of health and shock, of hope and despair. Their conversations parry and thrust at the reality of a world at war and the duty of men to fight or stay true to his convictions.

It is historical fiction at its best, skillfully recounting factual people, documents, and decisions with fictional conversations and relationships. Barker includes the factual interactions Sassoon and Rivers have with famous people of that era. Wilfred Owen, the war poet, met and worked on his poetry with Sassoon in Craiglockhart, poetry that became internationally famous after the War. Bertrand Russell gave encouragement to Sassoon for his pacifistic views. Rivers himself was a childhood friend of Lewis Carroll.

Barker is a master of the quietly disturbing atmosphere of Craiglockhart and its population, both doctors and patients. These are real people undergoing traumatic upheaval in their lives and trying to overcome their current weaknesses. 

And Rivers himself is part of this damaged group, facing his own stuttering and insecurities, questioning his own beliefs and sense of responsibility when working with these young men he must judge fit enough to return to the Front to a War his conscience now questions. Even Rivers admits, after viewing yet another appalling, devastating situation caused by the hopelessness of the war, that "Nothing can justify this, Nothing nothing nothing."

Absolutely engrossing in its setting, dialogue, and historical account of this troubled era, Regeneration is the first book in a long time that I could not wait to read each day. Highly, highly recommended.

Note: I just learned that Regeneration is the first part of a three-book series by Barker. The other two books, The Eye in the Door and The Ghost Road (which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996) follow the lives of these same characters after the close of Regeneration. Guess my reading list has two new additions. Can't wait to hear more about these men.


Happy reading. 

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Hochschild, Adam. To End All Wars  

Incredibly detailed, yet highly readable account of the events leading up to, during, and after World War I (previously reviewed here)

Rubin, Richard. The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten War  

Rubin finds, in 2003, there are still living veterans of World War I and interviews them. Their 105+ year-old memories are rock solid for details and their narratives are both chilling and revealing of what war in 1917 was like. Fantastic!

To End All Wars

Hochschild, Adam. To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2011. Print

First Sentences: 

The city had never seen such a a parade. 

 Nearly 50,000 brilliantly uniformed troops converged on St. Paul's Cathedral in two great columns. One was led by the country's most beloved military hero, the mild-mannered Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, a mere five feet two inches in height, astride a while Arabian horse like those he had ridden during more than 40 years of routing assorted Afghans, Indians, and Burmese who had the temerity to rebel against British rule. Mounted at the head of the other column, at six feet eight inches, was the tallest man in the army. Captain Oswald Ames of the Life Guards, wearing his regiment's traditional breastplate, which, with the sunlight glinting off it, seemed as if it might deflect an enemy's lance by its dazzling gleam alone.

Description:

A friend whose opinions about books I respect, recommended this World War I historical account as the best book she had read in 2012, so I jumped on it. Turns out she was spot on. To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild is a sprawling account of the Great War, recounted primarily from people and resources from Great Britain.  

Using diaries, newspaper accounts, military reports, love letters, speeches, and other primary sources, To End All Wars focuses on the deeply-rooted causes that led up to the global war and which then continued to stoke the war engine with money and millions of lives. Hochschild focuses on the individuals and their culture as the true culprits - the greed, colonialism, nationalism, pride, and over-confidence of men (and women) seeking to obtain or hold onto power.
 
Readers are first introduced to the fully colonized world of the early 1900's. Imperialistic nations like Great Britain, Germany, and France had to seek new means to demonstrate their might and expand their empires. To this end, for example, British armies battled the South African Boers simply to take the diamond-rich land for themselves. Hochschild shares a report from Morning Post correspondent Winston Churchill who watched British troops armed with the new Maxim machine gun mow down tens of thousands of Sudanese troops in one battle. In a few years this weapon would be used against English and French troops to deadly effect.

Hochschild carries readers step by step through key events throughout the world which lead to the major international conflict. At that time, Great Britain, Russia, and Germany were facing serious internal conflicts at home as their citizens demanded better pay and working conditions, and even votes for women. Once war was declared, however, almost immediately these individual issues were dropped and the people and rulers united behind their country's war effort.

The book details Britain dreams of revisiting its greatest conquests of the past, using military strategies and weapons that had proved successful in previous wars. But Hochschild points out these British leaders failed to grasp that the days of glorious cavalry charges were over. Repeatedly, the book documents battles where German troops, firmly settled in catacombs of underground trenches behind miles of barbed wire, repulsed the thousands of French and British troops charging on foot or horseback and brandishing lances. Records show that British military leaders considered the German use of trench warfare, barbed wire, machine guns, and mustard gas unsportsmanlike, eliminating the bravery of hand-to-hand combat.

Major people and international historical events are woven throughout the book, including the rise of Socialism, the suffrage movement, and the overthrow of the Russian monarchy. Influential men such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, and Winston Churchill, all play roles in the war, as do the royal houses of England, France, Germany, and Russia, many who at that time were related by marriage. The book also offers romantic escapades between military leaders, nobility, and commoners to counter-balance the fighting and death from battle scenes.

Hochschild is a master researcher and storyteller, someone able to present a clear picture of major characters and national forces to depict one of the bloodiest and often most idiotically-conducted wars of human history. This book is so well-written, so thorough in its research, so involving in its portrayal of the people that this historical account simply soars. 

This is a challenging and heart-breaking book in its depiction of bloodshed and needless loss of life driven forward by proud military and national leaders. But it is also a riveting piece of thorough research which documents the story of mankind in this era and the forces that lead the world into conflict.

Happy reading.

Fred

www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com

Comments 

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If this book interests you, also be sure to check out:
 

Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken 

Absolutely first rate biography of an Olympic runner who is shot down during World War II, survives an arduous voyage in a life raft, only to be picked up by the Japanese and thrown into a POW camp with all its horrors. Extremely well-written and gripping for its details of this hero and what he endured, it is a story of triumph on many levels.