Reap the Whirlwind: The Untold Story of 6 Group, Canada’s Bomber Force of World War II by Spencer Dunmore, William Carter (review)

•00 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW The armedmerchant cruiser HMGS Pr/r•eRobert is calleda destroyer. The BHtish forces in HongKong, wearetold,wereorganized intotwobattalions of 10,000.All airmen in BomberCommandhad a batman.And on andcm. Neitherauthorknows anything aboutthewaror aboutthemilitary,andthe only sections of thisbookthat ring true are the quotedinterviews w•ah servicemen and nurses. Mohr, oneof thebook's co-authors, hassaidin thepress that theissue i• theshouting match overTheValour a•/the Horror hasbecome whowillbe allowed towritemilitaryhistory: 'a daqueofveterans andmilitaryhistoriam are demanding that historybe kept out of the handsof the untrained' (Toronto Star,2 May1992).In fact,without wanting tobepartof a claque, that is precisely whatI wouldargue.The untrained, thosewho haveno conception ofhistory andnoexpertise, should notbeencouraged towritek. The realquestion iswhytheproducers gavethisbooktotwowriterswithout historical skills andwhyHarperCollins, a hithertoreputable publisher, saw • to print it withoutthe usualchecking andcopyediting.Their unthinking valourhasled to therealhorrorin thiscontinuing furore. J.L.GRANATSTEIN YorkUniversity ReaptheWhirlurind: TheUntold Story of6 Group, Canada's Bomber Force ofWord War II. S•'ENCERDUNMORE and WIL•.M CARTER. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart1991.Pp.437. $29.95 Just asthe title claims, thisis an untoldstory,that of the first Canadian Group (by whichis meanta combination of air squadrons, larger thana Wing but smallerthana Command) to engage in a strategic bombingoffensive .The storyiswelltoldandthe documentation useful.It introduces the readertomostoftheprimaryandsecondary sources neededto enlarge upon the themes suggested bytheauthors. 'Canadianization,' thecreation ofunitsthatwererecognizably Canadian 'm a British airforce framework, or asAir Marshal ArthurHarrisputit, 'people whoaredetermined tohuddle intoacorner bythemselves onpurely poli6cat grounds,'is a themeboundto attractstudents of what military historia• seeking respectability callwarandsociety. The effectiveness andmorality of strategic bombing, whichhavebeenin question since aviators firststarted hurlingexplosives ontheirenemies fromgreat heights before theFirst World War, provide a dramatic counterpoint: What,afterall,wasthe purpose d thisnational organization? The thesis ofthebookisimplicit in thebiblief allusion of the title - an allusion Harris used himself to describe the roleof Bomber Command. 'Theyhavesown thewind,'hesaid,slightly misquotir•g scripture, 'andnowtheyaregoingto reapthewhirlwind.' Did Harrissee hhnselfasan avenging angel? Washeone? REVIEWS 301 Thereader must drawhisor herownconclusions, orfollow up theleads thatare offered.It is both a strengthand a weakness of the book that its readability dependson a matter-of-factnarration of eventsfrom the standpoint of theparticipants themselves. Onelearns a gooddealof how people behave inwar, butless ofwhy they arethere. There aresome wellbalanced and,it mustbe said,conventional assessments of Harris's exaggerated belief in thecapabilities ofstrategic bombing. Theauthors demon- •tratebeyondquestion that õ Group wasunique.They documentthe bravery, loyalty, and prideof personnel in the Group.They arguethat •trategic bombing was'the onlyway the Allieshad to hit the enemy repeatedly and effectively' (364),whichcertainly wasWinstonChurchill's justification of the bomberoffensive. There is not, unfortunately, the penetrating analysis needed toaccept thisargument asmuch morethanan articleof faith. Havingmadethat caveat,the collaboration of thesetwo authorshas resulted in good popular history thatdeserves toberead.It willenlighten a w•de rangeof readers, including professional historians. wxI•.ly3uouas National Defence Headqtuzrters The D-DayDodgers: TheCanadians in Italy, 1943-1945. •)•x•IV.S.G. t).•,NCOCKS. Toronto: McGlelland and Stewart1991.Pp.xii, 508, illus.$34.95 Militaryhistory,like other intellectualendeavours, can be subjectto trendiness - certaintopicsare fashionable whileothersare relegatedto the backwaters ofscholarship. Historians of theSecond WorldWar,for example, have focused their attentionmoreon the infantry-armour-air campaign in northwest Europethanon thebloody,muddy,slugging matches thatcharacterized operations in Italy. DanielG. Dancocks, in TheD-DayDodgers, goes some distance towards restoring balancein the historiography of the Canadian army's campaigns of theSecond WorldWar. Thoughthere are dozensof regimentaland specialized historiesof the Ita]ian campaign, todatetherehasbeenonlyoneworkof notedetailing, in its entirety, theexperience ofthe1stCanadian Division (andsubsequently the IstCanadian Corps), G.W.L.Nicholsoh's TheCanadians inItaly,published in 1957 aspartofNational Defence's official history ofthewar.Dancocks's work differs fromNicholson's in twoimportant regards: first,it isreadily available for purchase; and,second, it contains a plethora ofpersonal accounts which add a humandimension to thenarrative. In factthebookopens withfive pages of suchreminiscences, whichmighthaveservedtheirpurpose better •thinthebodyofthework,where theycould beplaced intocontext. The DDay Dodgers is,however, morethan justthethirty-five-year-old official history w•th anecdotes tacked on;it relies on contemporary research, including the ...