The direct experience of the gunners has long been a neglected aspect of World War II history. We have had plenty on life in a tank unit, or a fighter squadron, but there is a sense in which the role of the artillery has been seen as more mundane, perhaps less glamorous. Peter Hart has addressed this imbalance in a book that provides plenty of new insight on the subject and pays full tribute to those who fought in this Cinderella arm.
His approach, as with his highly regarded books on World War I, has been to tell the story through the words of those who took part. Hart has long worked as the Oral Historian at the Imperial War Museum in London, where much of the content of the sound archive consists of interviews with veterans he has undertaken himself. Among them are some 50 interviewees from the South Nottinghamshire Hussars (SNH), who spoke to Hart during the 1980s. These interviews form the backbone of the book.
Hussars? Well, this was originally a yeomanry cavalry unit and, with some pride, it retained its identity until disbandment in 1946. Indeed, the question of regimental identity, such an important component of British Army culture, is a fascinating subplot to the Hussars’ World War II story. And that story is an extensive one, with the SNH having fought throughout the Western Desert campaign, then in Sicily, and then across France, into Holland, and finally Germany.
Academic mass production