Fighting in Flanders E Alexander Powell Books
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Fighting in Flanders E Alexander Powell Books
There is an underlying tone to this book that, while Powell has covered wars before, he has never seen anything like this. I am sure it was a feeling common in Europe in the early months of the First World War. Towns and villages being wiped off the map by sustained artillery barrages. Cities deliberately bombed from the air simply to cause terror. Machine guns, high-power rifles, and quick-firing artillery causing regiments of thousands of soldiers to disappear in a matter of minutes.Powell's writing immediately engaged me, and he held my attention throughout. I read his book in one sitting. The talent he has for description is sharp and well-honed by his years as a journalist. What struck me most was his ability to describe the sounds he experienced. I could almost feel the concussion of artillery shells in my chest as I read his writing.
Being a citizen of a neutral (at the time) country, the American newspaperman Powell was able to have a certain amount of access to the war zone, and this allows us to follow him across the lines into German territory on a number of occasions. I was surprised to read how many German officers he met who had lived in or visited the United States of America. It seemed as if most of them had been in America.
His writing carries an immediacy, as he wrote his book soon after leaving the war zone, and it is this quality that helps make it gripping. At times, he admits that he is too close to events and that historians will consider things with a bit more sobriety than he is able. His on-the-spot eyewitness record has great value of its own.
The subject matter is dark and horrifying, yet there is a cheeky wit that keeps bubbling to the surface. One instance of this is when he teases us about an American company secretly doing military work for the Belgian government. He tells us all the good things this company has done to help the Belgians. He tells us how popular and well-regarded the company is in the States. He reminds us this work is being done in secret. And then he relents, and names the company!
Powell shows a sense of admiration for the efficiency of the German military system, and this admiration heightens his wonder at how tiny Belgium fended off the Germans for as long as they did. Yet, he realizes the efficient German military for what it was meant to be: an inhuman, unfeeling meat grinder to destroy its opponents.
Powell reveals himself to be the best of what America and humanity ought to be: brave, unselfish, willing to step up and do what is necessary, even if it is not easy or convenient. He is matter-of-fact in his reporting of his own deeds, not carrying an air of "look at me!" narcissism. His companion, the American photographer Thompson, and his Belgian driver, Roos, are both equally courageous and devoted.
I recommend this book for its quality of writing, strength of material, and excellence of format. The volunteer transcribers did a great job on converting it to the digital form. World War One historians and journalists would find it most interesting!
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Fighting in Flanders E Alexander Powell Books Reviews
Long before America entered World War I, E. Alexander Powell was a war correspondent for the New York World and was in Belgium in 1914 when the Germans invaded. Originally, he writes, he had gone to Belgium “with an open mind” but after he witnessed the fall of Antwerp he was as “pro-Belgian as though I had been born under the red-black-and-yellow banner.” The book covers his experiences from the invasion in August 1914 through the siege of Antwerp in November of that year. Since America was still a neutral country relatively he had a lot of freedom to travel between the German and Belgian lines – even though it was a very, very dangerous thing to do.
An odd thing about this book is his description of German atrocities. These are somehow unconvincing and seem to be inserted in the book because of the general sentiment at the time about the “Rape of Belgium.” History has proved that the horror stories about mass rape and killings and mutilations and torture by the German army in Belgium were pretty much propaganda and nothing else. Of course, this does not exonerate individual instances of wartime atrocities, but they certainly weren’t common as believed at the time.
Strangely, he also writes very admiringly of the German army. He’s much impressed with their discipline, weaponry, and martial skill. A number of times he met with German officers and commanders and always described them in very positive terms. When he talks about the Belgian army, he claims to admire them so much but he sounds much less enthusiastic.
His descriptions of a zeppelin attack and aerial bombing and watching dogfights in the sky are fascinating. His eye-witness description of Winston Churchill as a dynamic, but somewhat foolish, British First Sea Lord visiting Antwerp during the siege is interesting especially in the light of the vastly inexperienced and undertrained British Naval Reserve sailors Churchill to assist the Belgians and who were almost all captured and interned.
One of the remarkable characters he describes is Donald Thompson, an American free lance photographer who traveled with him for a while. It seems that nothing could stop Thompson from getting the photos he wanted and Thompson had some great and almost unbelievable adventures in Belgium. The most amazing story finds Thompson standing by the road with his camera and using hand signals to occasionally stop the huge and seemingly endless German army as it marches in to Antwerp - just so he can get some good photographs. A whole book could be written about Donald Thompson and his adventures.
Overall, this book is actually a journal or diary of a war correspondent who witnessed the fall of Belgium in 1914. It’s well written and very, very interesting but very subjective. It gives more depth to understanding what happened in Belgium in 1914 at the beginning of the Great War.
There is an underlying tone to this book that, while Powell has covered wars before, he has never seen anything like this. I am sure it was a feeling common in Europe in the early months of the First World War. Towns and villages being wiped off the map by sustained artillery barrages. Cities deliberately bombed from the air simply to cause terror. Machine guns, high-power rifles, and quick-firing artillery causing regiments of thousands of soldiers to disappear in a matter of minutes.
Powell's writing immediately engaged me, and he held my attention throughout. I read his book in one sitting. The talent he has for description is sharp and well-honed by his years as a journalist. What struck me most was his ability to describe the sounds he experienced. I could almost feel the concussion of artillery shells in my chest as I read his writing.
Being a citizen of a neutral (at the time) country, the American newspaperman Powell was able to have a certain amount of access to the war zone, and this allows us to follow him across the lines into German territory on a number of occasions. I was surprised to read how many German officers he met who had lived in or visited the United States of America. It seemed as if most of them had been in America.
His writing carries an immediacy, as he wrote his book soon after leaving the war zone, and it is this quality that helps make it gripping. At times, he admits that he is too close to events and that historians will consider things with a bit more sobriety than he is able. His on-the-spot eyewitness record has great value of its own.
The subject matter is dark and horrifying, yet there is a cheeky wit that keeps bubbling to the surface. One instance of this is when he teases us about an American company secretly doing military work for the Belgian government. He tells us all the good things this company has done to help the Belgians. He tells us how popular and well-regarded the company is in the States. He reminds us this work is being done in secret. And then he relents, and names the company!
Powell shows a sense of admiration for the efficiency of the German military system, and this admiration heightens his wonder at how tiny Belgium fended off the Germans for as long as they did. Yet, he realizes the efficient German military for what it was meant to be an inhuman, unfeeling meat grinder to destroy its opponents.
Powell reveals himself to be the best of what America and humanity ought to be brave, unselfish, willing to step up and do what is necessary, even if it is not easy or convenient. He is matter-of-fact in his reporting of his own deeds, not carrying an air of "look at me!" narcissism. His companion, the American photographer Thompson, and his Belgian driver, Roos, are both equally courageous and devoted.
I recommend this book for its quality of writing, strength of material, and excellence of format. The volunteer transcribers did a great job on converting it to the digital form. World War One historians and journalists would find it most interesting!
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