Tank Commander

Carey Family #12

by Ronald Welch, Victor G Ambrus (Illustrator)

Tank Commander begins in the summer of 1914 as the Germans enter Belgium and Britain mobilizes for war. Second Lieutenant John Carey, with his regiment the West Glamorgans, exchanges his comfortable quarters at Tidworth for the mud and bloodshed of the trenches. As battle follows battle – Mons, Le Cateau, the Aisne, Ypres – and the roll-call of the dead mounts, John, like other young officers, is called on to take responsibility far beyond his rank and experience, and acquits himself bravely in what often seems a hopeless situation. But with the introduction of the tank – a revolutionary new weapon to which John becomes deeply committed, though some of the top brass are less enthusiastic – the tide begins to turn.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Young Adult

267 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Ronald Welch is the pen name of Ronald Felton, author of twelve historical novels for children. After reading history at Cambridge, he taught at Bedford Modern School and then became headmaster of Okehampton Grammar School in Devon. He was awarded the Carnegie Medal forKnight Crusader in 1954 which is to be serialized in Story Time on BBC on 4th July, 1972. His interest in military history stems from his family background and his service in The Welch Regiment during the 1939–45 war.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second Lieutenant John Carey experiences the horror of war for the first time on the battlefield of Mons in this gripping, vividly-realized work of historical fiction for young readers. As the narrative moves from one WWI battle to the next, John serves under commanders good and bad, and sees almost all of his fellows mowed down in the carnage around him. Eventually, he is recruited for a brand new, top secret unit, one that will introduce tank warfare into the conflict...

The twelfth entry in Ronald Welch's Carey Family Chronicles, which follows the fortunes of members of the same landed Welsh family through centuries of British history, Tank Commander was originally publisher in 1972, and is the last of the books, chronologically speaking. (The thirteenth entry in the series, The Road to Waterloo , was published posthumously from the author's notes in 2018, and is set far earlier in time, in the period leading up to that famous battle). Tank Commander offers a fascinating look at the mechanization of warfare during the First World War—a subject about which I hitherto knew nothing, but which proved quite engrossing. As always, Welch knows his history, and provides a wealth of technical detail, all worked into a story of a young man involved in the development of a new way of waging war. This is a different kind of WWI book, and I found, as I read it, that I was comparing it in my mind to another excellent work of children's fiction set during the period, namely, Michael Morpurgo's War Horse . While that book examined warfare from the perspective of an equine participant, harking back to older means of fighting, the Welch is focused on the development of technology, and its use in newer forms of fighting. Given that WWI is sometimes called "the first modern war," I think reading these two books together would offer some interesting insight, and spark good discussion amongst young people studying the subject.

In any case, I found this to be another excellent entry in Welch's series, and look forward (with a little bit of bittersweetness) to reading the final book featuring the Careys.

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty, detailed, and immersive military history novel of WWI.

(Review originally posted at Vintage Novels)

Each of the Carey series follows the adventures of a young man from a noble Welsh family in some historical period or other. Tank Commander focuses on World War I. Young John Carey is a career soldier like his father and grandfather (and most of the rest of his family, all the way back to Philip D'Aubigny of Montgisard during the Third Crusade), but he's never experienced war until he finds himself as a second lieutenant under shellfire at Mons, in the first major battle of World War I. The death of the heir to the Austrian throne in Sarajevo has sparked off a continent-wide conflict, and nothing John has learned so far, about fencing with the sword, cavalry charges, or maneuvering over the open ground of a battlefield, has prepared him for a whole new kind of war. As the war bogs down into the ghastly, flooded trenches of the Western Front, John gains experience, rank, and cynicism as nearly everyone he knows is wiped out. When a new invention promises to end the stalemate and save thousands of lives, John jumps at the chance to help...

I've been interested in World War I ever since my teen years, when I discovered and fell in love with John Buchan's Richard Hannay novels. Though very little of those novels actually took place in the trenches, the books were peppered with references to the different battles - Ypres, Arras, the Somme, Cambrai - which meant nothing to me but would have been well-known from the headlines to the original readers. In addition, Buchan had no call to be providing a detailed picture of trench life, since the vast majority of his readers would have experienced it for themselves.

Tank Commander, being written in the '70s for a generation who had never known war, fills in this picture with vivid, gritty, immersive detail. I feel it's the single most informative thing I've ever read about how WWI was fought--Welch, as a renowned military historian who had seen active service himself in the Tank Corps during WWII, is on his home turf in this book. And while the book doesn't give a comprehensive picture of the war - it ends right after the battle of Cambrai in 1917, when the war still had a year to go - its compelling and often stomach-churning descriptions of important battles including Mons, Le Cateau, First and Second Ypres, Arras, and Cambrai definitely give the reader a good idea of how the war developed over the first three years on the Western Front.

Each time I read a new Ronald Welch book, I gain a better appreciation for him both as a historian and as a writer. Welch is no Shakespeare, not even a John Buchan, but his books are always meticulously researched, exciting, and manly. Tank Commander, like all his novels, expects a certain level of maturity of both its characters and its readers. In this novel, anyone can (and does) die. John must break the news to a young soldier that he has been sentenced to death for cowardice. He must take orders from incompetent, outdated officers while trying to use his own experience to protect his men. Tank Commander is a challenging book for any young person to read.

The book was not without its faults. The first chapter, which catches us up on the month leading up to the war, is (I thought) rather badly edited together, with some characters introduced twice, as if for the first time. The characters, especially supporting characters, never quite come into three-dimensional life. And the plot is pretty tenuous. The book makes up for all these shortcomings by being so incredibly immersive, and so historically detailed. It straddles the line between history and fiction, its purpose less to tell a story than to follow a fictional character through a very real historical setting.

Parents might like to be warned that Tank Commander contains pretty consistent use of mild British-type swearing along with regular, graphic descriptions of wounds and death. It may be too gory and intense for young readers of previous books in the Carey series, but I'd definitely recommend it for young adults.

After being unaccountably out of print for years, Ronald Welch's Carey Family Series is now being released by Slightly Foxed in illustrated, clothbound limited editions. Slightly Foxed were kind enough to send me a free review copy of Tank Commander, but I was under no obligation to write a positive review, or to tell you to rush off and MAKE THESE BOOKS YOUR OWN BEFORE THEY SELL OUT.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt longer than it was. Probably much like the Great War. The chapters are pretty long, and no progress gets made - because in a historical fiction book, you still have the history to reckon with.

We get to see John Carey in a few different situations, which are distinct mostly because of his leader at the time. Carey himself is always bright and resourceful, but when he's serving under a poor leader, things don't go well. Fortunately for Carey, he has that wonderful luck of the fictional protagonist - he's always next to the guy who gets killed (whether that guy is a thorn in his side or a close friend).

After so many chapters of Carey serving in the infantry I had forgotten the book's title, and it was a pleasant surprise when the tanks were introduced. I knew that these were important technological developments that were crucial in breaking the never-ending stalemate of trench warfare, but Welch provided plenty of interesting details that helped me understand more about how exactly things worked.

I guess the earlier chapters were kind of necessary to have everything make sense (in a senseless war), but for much of the first half of the book I felt like I was bogged down in the muck and mire of the trenches with not even plum and apple jam on my weevil-infested biscuit.

[Rob Markley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most modern of the Carey novels and also possibly for the most mature audience. The language might be harder for the target older boy audience?

[Alex Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly boys own-ish (as expected) but very well written and historically accurate. Will definitely try others in this series.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book almost 40 years ago. It’s interesting looking back now and seeing the leadership lessons contained in it.

[Margareth8537 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welch's usual good writing