I've lost count of the number of times in my lifetime I've heard the refrain "New Zealand has no real military history worth writing about". This is often reprised with 'just those bloody maaari wars which are not worth worrying about". Yes, the right wing racist tone is intentional.
Admittedly we never had a Napoleon or a Caesar or a Manstein (or did we?). But we had Pene Taka Tuaia and Hone Heke, and Russell and Freyberg. And to suggest that New Zealanders never wrote any pages in the military history books is to do a gross disservice to the thousands of New Zealanders who fought, and the thousands who died, in two world wars and numerous other conflicts.
Jeff Plowman has found plenty of New Zealand military history to write about. Various Google searches tell me that he has credits for between 14 and 19 titles (the total chnages each time I search). I have four of them, including his latest "German breakthrough in Greece: the 1941 Battle of the Pineios Gorge".
In this narrative Jeff traces the deployment of the New Zealand Division to Greece, initial plans to deploy it along the Metaxis Line supporting the Greek army's proposed defence, the shift to the Aliakmon Line, and the subsequent withdrawals to and battles around Mount Olympus. He chronicles the defence around the Platamon Ridge, and the subsequent withdrawal through the Pineios Gorge, the main focus for this book.
"Macky's primary mistake has been put down to his failure to adequately prepare for and deal with an attack by tanks from the gorge. This is curious because it would appear that Anzac Corps Headquarters was not prepared for such an eventuality either."
Perhaps the underlying narrative here though is that the campaign demonstrates that the German war machine of 1941 is not deserving of the invincible superhero status that it might have been given in other narratives. The logistical failures alone, the inability of the 'system' to keep the front line troops supplied with petrol, food, and ammunition, and the subsequent grounding of the German advance at critical junctures, speak of a system inherently human in nature.
Then there are the accounts of those small scale actions that halt the attack. New Zealand field artillery causing substantial losses on advancing German tanks, German reconnaissance units being cut down almost to the man by accurate disciplined New Zealand infantry fire. These are stories that often counter the myth of German invincibility in these early stages of the war.
This extensive quote from the review on Bookshop.org gives the flavour:
Ten days have passed since the German invasion of Greece and the Anzacs are in trouble, even if they don't yet know it. The small German motorcycle battalion that has just reached the 21st NZ Battalion positions at Platamon is a harbinger of the panzer battle group yet to come. To the south is the strategic town of Larissa. North of it almost the entire Anzac Corps is spread out along the line of the Olympus mountains, with its western end anchored on Kalabaka, where a small brigade group waits for the appearance of the 1st Armoured Brigade further north. Larissa is their only escape route and the German thrust is aimed straight at it. Worse still, as the fighting intensified at Platamon, the Anzac Corps high command seemed slow to react and almost turned a blind eye to it as they continued to reinforce the west against what was only a perceived threat. That this lone battalion, with four 25-pounders in support, managed to hold off the attackers for as long as they did until Anzac Corps Headquarters finally reacted was certainly not due to the latter's commander, Lieutenant General Thomas Blamey. There is a view in some quarter that this successful delaying action only became possible for the intervention of Blamey's Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Sydney Rowell. However, the complete evacuation of all Anzac troops north of Larissa may owe much more to the propensity of the New Zealand soldier for misappropriation of other people's assets, in this case British anti-tank mines.
Jeff has adopted what I am reliably informed is the trend in scientific writing to develop text and explanation using diagrams, graphs and other illustrations. The book is copiously illustrated. Not only has Jeff sourced many photos that I have certainly personally never seen before (not that that in itself is any sort of meaningful benchmark), but each illustration comes with extensive captioning. The captions add significantly to the narrative.
Pages 150 & 151
As you might expect in a book from a series titled 'After the battle', the text is interspersed with plenty of modern day photos, many of which Jeff took himself during his own battlefield tours. There is a fascination in seeing a modern day photo taken of the same geographical location, from the same angle, as an historical photo.
His analysis is succinct. He makes extensive use of primary source documents, as good history does. Jeff's repeated references to top secret German High Command signals intercepted by Ultra, decoded, and forward to the top level command during the campaign in Greece, were a revelation. I had no idea that the senior commanders were so well informed on German high command intentions.
His career as a biochemist is apparent in the meticulous way in which he writes, yet his style is eminently readable. Jeff is a good communicator. I can't help thinking that he is too often overlooked as a writer of New Zealand's military history. The book is highly recomnmended.
In the meantime, reading this latest book has sparked enough interest that I've gone back to my bookshelves and picked out his 2019 book 'Greece 1941'.
It's time I revisited this narrative too. You can buy Jeff's latest from Pen and Sword, here.
Excellent review. Does the job perfectly, tells me enough to have a good sense of the content but makes one wanna read it! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteIn good scientific writing the text and figures/tables should stand alone but also support one another. You can get a sense of 'the story' by reading the text or looking at the figs and tables, but the two together provide a fuller account and don't simply repeat one another. It works for any good writing, I find/reckon. As you note for this one by Plowman, some of the better history books do it well.
Best wishes, James
Thanks James. I am currently studying for a Masters in Writing.. a piece of retirement indulgence, and review writing has been one of the genres covered in my current paper. It's good to practise the skill for real.
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