Harry Riley Nottingham England 2011

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First of all I’m addicted to war stories and have gobbled up the personalised stories of great generals and inspiring leaders such as T. E. Lawrence, Bernard Montgomery and Norman Schwartzkopf.

I’m always fascinated to know what makes great soldiers tick and was intrigued to read a war story from an entirely different angle.

‘Reflections on my War’

Maurice Meyers M.D.

Published 2010 by Bluewood Publishing Ltd. New Zealand.

This is the memoir of a young American soldier, thrust into the horrific battlefields of the Second World War.

He has to contend with vicious, anti Jewish hatred all through his military life and to try and rise above it, yet still be accepted as one of the company.

Becoming a radio operator, he never sees himself cast in the heroic mould, more of a quiet academic.

Eventually about to undertake the hazardous crossing of the River Rhine, under a murderous hail of enemy fire and with shells exploding all round him, he faces the ultimate test of courage. Buddies, including his own officer, take the safe option and retreat to safety: he wants to join them, to go back too, knowing he can’t be faulted.

Yet in this split moment in time and in spite of a natural instinct for self-preservation, he unwittingly runs into hell and joins an elite brotherhood of hero’s.

To my mind this is what lifts Maurice Meyers out of the ordinary and puts the realism of his ‘true story’ alongside that great American war novel, Stephen Crane’s: The Red Badge of Courage.

Right from the beginning, I found this book gripping as we journey with him from the States to Scotland, on the Queen Mary and later, to France and Germany for the Big Push to end the war in Europe.

It is written in a very clear style and provides a graphic description of life on the front line.

Reading this amazing book and having been a peacetime, ex-territorial radio operator myself, I began to wonder how I could have coped, month after month, in those horrendous conditions, constantly deprived of warmth and sleep and the basic comforts of normal civilian life, not very well, I think!

Maurice Meyers emerges as an ethical soldier and someone you’d have been privileged to know!