This is not your typical history book. After all, the author makes it his quest to find out what remains of some of history’s bloodiest conflicts.
He visits Verdun and is allowed to see sections of France that are uninhabitable more than 100 years since the conflict started. He visits places where people are prohibited to walk because of munitions and the unearthed remains of the fallen.
He visits the Ossuary of Verdun and humbly witnesses the devastation brought upon the degradation of human spirit in the war. I am particularly grateful for the information he provides in this section of the book. It truly shows the hellacious nature of the conflict and the results of man’s inhumanity to man.
The author then travels to Stalingrad with a guide who can tell you where units of both Russian and German armies camped at the height of the battle. In an astonishing moment the guide stops and informs the author that he found the artifacts and remains of Italian and Romanian units in this area assigned to the German 6th army.
These units were annihilated, some historians even use the word vanished, to describe what happened to them in the soul crushing Soviet counter attack. And in many places the land cannot be used again as the munitions found there are still dangerous. Those who do continue to farm stack bones high as the Earth slowly reveals its history
The book continues to Vietnam to the place where one of my great mentors served: Khe Sanh. His descriptions of land that was once part of a French plantation are vivid. We are gone. But Khe Sanh is still there. They live it every day.
At this point, I’ll let you find out where the author goes next. You might be quite surprised by some of the locations.
The author makes a hell of a point about how we treat each other and ultimately the land where these events takes place. Excavations of battlefields from the past seldom reveal the carnage of the 20th century. Ultimately, I think this was the purpose of this book.
Normally, I end these reviews with a suggestion for another book. I’m going to do something different and suggest listening to Dan Carlin’s excellent pod cast on the history of World War One, Blueprint for Armageddon. I will also suggest reading Guy Sajer’s book, The Forgotten Soldier. If you’re interested in World War one Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel is an excellent read. For Vietnam I recommend The Hill Fights: The first battle of Khe Sanh.
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Top reviews from other countries
JStockton
Incredibly interesting and timely book.
Reviewed in Canada on June 23, 2017Jon
Good book, reads more like a long article than an academic history/military history though
Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2019