Men at War: True Stories of Heroism and Honor

by Robert Barr Smith

From the author of To the Last Cartridge comes a collection of true stories of the men who fought in history's greatest battles.From the ruins of medieval towns where King Arthur's army once passed to the dark jungles of Vietnam where a more mechanized but no less deadly war was fought, Smith captures the struggle of fighting men against the backdrop of history. As in his earlier book, To the Last Cartridge, Smith recreates war with power and understanding -- the strategy, tactics and the human experience.

Genres: History, Military History

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Barr Smith, Colonel, USA (ret). senior parachutist; holds Bronze Star, Legion of Merit (x2), other decorations. Service in Vietnam and many years in Germany, where his fiction is laid. German speaker. Otherwise specializes in military and western history, plus several books on trial practice (under his attorney hat). Graduate of Stanford and Stanford Law; member, California Bar. Professor Emeritus, University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he also served as Associate Dean for Academics and Associate Director of the Law Center.

Reviews

[Loyalhistorian · Rating 4 out of 5]

He gives short accounts of heroic accounts, about fifteen to twenty pages each. He follows each of these stories with small vignettes somehow related to the previous story, usually connected by location or by common enemies mentioned, but in a different time period. I like this aspect of the smaller tidbits in-between each of the longer stories. They're very short, but interesting tales of one or two pages, and it's neat to see the link to the older stories.

Subjects of chapters:
1. King Arthur at Badon Hill
2. U.S. Marines at the City of Mexico
3. King Harold at Stamford Bridge
4. VD in armies through history
5. Don John at Lepanto
6. General Allenby at Michmash Pass
7. Irish at Fontenoy, 1745
8. Southern Irish in British 77 Brigade in WWII
9. Prince Charles Edward at Culloden Moor
10. The Horse Marines in early-twentieth century China
11. Rodger's Rangers at St. Francis against the Native-Americans
12. A Short Exchange Between Jubal Early and Stonewall Jackson
13. Royal Americans against Pontiac at Bushy Run
14. Balloon Buster Frank Luke in WWI
15. Lieutenant O'Bannon at Tripoli
16. The 600-Mile Run of Holdfast Gaines
17. The Infantry at Albuera
18. WWI "Dirty Paper Method"
19. US Infantry at Niagara, War of 1812
20. Sir Charles James Napier at Sind
21. The British in India at Lucknow and Cawnpore
22. Saving the Raj
23. First Minnesota at Gettysburg
24. Lincoln's Note to McClellan
25. The Death of the Shangani Patrol in Africa
26. Andreas Hadik's Looting of Berlin
27. Hicks Pasha and the Kordofan Disaster, 1883
28. Black Jack Pershing and George C. Marshall
29. Breaker Morant and the Bushveldt Carbineers
30. Origins of "Tattoo" and "Lili Marlene"
31. Q-Ships of WWI
32. Major Brady, Medevac Dust-Off Pilot, Vietnam
33. WWI "Lost Battalion," First Battalion of the 308th Infantry Regiment
34. Rowan Waddy and the Shrunken Head
35. Calcutta Light Horse's Raid at Marmagoa, WWII
36. Old Abe the Eagle, 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Mascot
37. 617 Squadron, Dam Busting in WWII
38. Orde Wingate Trains His Chindits
39. WWII German General Hermann Balck and his Armored Troops
40. Leadership Stats for the XIXth Panzer Corps
41. Death of Groupe Mobile 100 in Vietnam
42. Legacy of Groupe Mobile 100
43. Genevieve Galard, the Angel of Dien Bien Phu
44. The Luck of Joshua Chamberlain
45. The Fight for Dak To, Vietnam

The only one I didn't care for was the first one about King Arthur. The whole chapter calls for him to make too much speculation and lots of "might-haves." I get that there's not a whole lot of true primary sources to go on for that subject, but I think I would have just left the whole story out so as to make the rest of the book sound more credible. It was a bad first impression for the book, but the other chapters have improved that.

Overall, a good book filled with many heroic men and deeds.