Addison & Calder (editors) for Pimlico Not a snuff movie but a quote from Ecclesiastes ("..and a time for every purpose under heaven" gets out his Byrds glasses). This is a very good book indeed. Concentrating on the soldier's experience in the Second World War it selects some very interesting byways. John Keegan and John Ellis open matters by reflecting on what motivates men and the comparison of First to Second War. Under the rubric "The British" we have five essays on the Scottish soldier, the influence of the First World War on soldiers' perceptions of the Second, the BEF in 1940 (all territorial formations collapsed on meeting the enemy), the Home Guard and the British Army's morale as it waited. "The Commonwealth Contingents" has articles on Irish soldiers (much of the Irish Army deserted to serve in the British and that's why they get to vote in our elections matey), African soldiers in Europe (very good this), Indian Army morale in its campaigns (also excellent), the New Zealanders in Crete (or Oh What a Lovely Waugh), and the Canadians in 1944 (but really this goes to the whole problem of the rifleman in the ETO). "Seven Armies in Europe" can provide us with no more than a taster of French combat performance in 1940, the Italians in action, fighting in Italy, the Romanian Army, Red Army performance (a splendid piece by John Erickson), Soviet women soldiers (which could be called "March or Deny" as the macho historians demonstrates too much testicle and not enough balls), Motivation in the Wehrmacht (hanging's too good for them), the Germans in Occupied Russia (not one for those easily annoyed with our square-headed cousins), the assignment of American troops (or "Corporal Dilbert") and the American military tradition in Europe. There are a couple of memoirs and a chase-up. All very interesting and, as Len Deighton says, enough to make you wish each article had been extended to a book. More Book Corner: Hot Blood & Cold Steel The Rules of the Game Philip II Importing the European Army War and Society in early Modern Europe 1495-1715 First Punic War Warfare in the Latin East 1192-1291 Spanish Naval Power 1589 to 1665 The Anatomy of Glory The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading The Kaiser Time to Kill First World War The Military Revolution Debate Pallas Armata titles Back to Perfidious Albion #95 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com