⇒ Read Quartered Safe Out Here A Harrowing Tale of World War II George MacDonald Fraser 9781602391901 Books

Quartered Safe Out Here A Harrowing Tale of World War II George MacDonald Fraser 9781602391901 Books

Download As PDF : Quartered Safe Out Here A Harrowing Tale of World War II George MacDonald Fraser 9781602391901 Books

Quartered Safe Out Here A Harrowing Tale of World War II George MacDonald Fraser 9781602391901 Books

I've long enjoyed Fraser's Flashman novels and his stories of life as a subaltern in the Second Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders immediately after the end of the Second World War. This wonderful book takes us into the war, and into the China-Burma-India Theatre, about which many Americans, including myself, know comparatively little.

It's a complex book, certainly not glorifying war, but demonstrating how, as a crucible, the experience of war can shape a man. The writing has all of Fraser's well-known gifts: wit, fascinating characterizations, and wonderfully descriptive narratives of actual events. He ably explains the workings of a Section (Squad, in our army.) of British troops during the war. The reader meets his fellow soldiers, and suffers when, just as they are becoming known, they begin to be killed, either in action, or in one case through a horrible misadventure.

Also valuable is Fraser's opinion that today's U.K. is not necessarily the U.K. that he and his mates fought for. He clearly disapproves of the direction in which the U.K. has been taken. He also has a thorough dislike of the modern penchant of the media for going to great lengths to discover the feelings of soldiers who return from action in modern theatres of war. He opines that he and his mates were fortunate at the end of WW II because at that time there were no counselors. He believes, and I don't necessarily disagree, that a person's feelings are private and that people are entitled to keep them to themselves. He posits that they are indeed better off if they do.

I can't do this book justice in a review that is actually short enough to bother reading. All I know is that I'm a bit different for having read it. I also believe I now have a better understanding of my father, who fought as an infantryman at Leyte, Luzon, and Okinawa. For me, this was a very valuable read. For anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of the enlisted man's experience of combat, I highly recommend it.


Tags : Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II [George MacDonald Fraser] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div>George MacDonald Fraser—beloved for his series of Flashman</i> historical novels—offers an action-packed memoir of his experiences in Burma during World War II.  Fraser was only 19 when he arrived there in the war’s final year,George MacDonald Fraser,Quartered Safe Out Here: A Harrowing Tale of World War II,Skyhorse Publishing,1602391904,GOOD-EARTH-12220,Soldiers;Great Britain;Biography.,World War, 1939-1945;Campaigns;Burma.,World War, 1939-1945;Personal narratives, British.,BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY,Biography,Biography Autobiography,Burma,Campaigns,GENERAL,General Adult,Great Britain,HISTORY Asia Japan,HISTORY United States 20th Century,History,History Military World War II,MILITARY PERSONAL NARRATIVES,Military,Military - Veterans,Military - World War II,Non-Fiction,Personal narratives, British,Soldiers,South & Southeast Asia,WORLD WAR II,World War, 1939-1945

Quartered Safe Out Here A Harrowing Tale of World War II George MacDonald Fraser 9781602391901 Books Reviews

To learn about the inhabitants of antebellum Missouri, read HUCKLEBERRY FINN, where Twain’s use of idioms and the vernacular brings his rural American characters to life. To learn about the men from Cumberland (the Northwest corner of England) who fought in Burma during World War II, read the brilliant QUARTERED SAFE OUT HERE, where G.M. Fraser’s uses idioms and the vernacular to preserve the character and values of the Cumberland British infantrymen. Here’s a taste

“Ey, Grandarse — ‘oo d’ye spell Iredell?”
“Oo the hell dae Ah knaw? W’ee’s Iredell?”
“Liberal candidate in Carel. Ah’s writin’ yam tae see w’at ‘e’s on aboot.”
"Weel, Ah doan’t belang bloody Carel. Ah belang Peerith, an’ Ah doan’t ken w’at constituency it’s in, an’ Ah doan’t care ‘cos Ah’s nut votin’, neether.”
“Ye ought to vote, man.”
“W’at for? The Labour man doesn’t stand a fookin’ chance, an’ Ah’m boogered if Ah’ll vote Tory. Them boogers ‘es bin in ower lang.”
“Weel, vote Liberal, then.”
“Git hired! Ah doan’t knaw booger-all aboot politics, but Ah knaw the Liberal’s ca’d Roberts, an’ ‘is family’s temperance, so knackers till them. They ‘ed a cellar oot a Naworth, boorstin’ wid the best drink in the coonty, and the teetotal boogers poured the lot on’t doon drain! Think Ah’d vote for them?...”

In this wonderful memoir, Fraser works outward from his section—10 men and the smallest unit in the British army—to examine the perils and rewards of the infantryman’s life in war. Here, the perils of the Burma campaign are obvious—leeches, swarms of mosquitos, huge and bizarre insects, friendly fire, and deadly skirmishes with fanatical Japanese soldiers. But the infantry has its rewards as well, including the satisfactions of teamwork, mutual respect, shows of bravery within the section, and the banter of funny sensible men who use raillery to preserve their sanity.

When Fraser mustered in Burma, he was nineteen and not studying in a pre-med program, as his family wished, because he didn’t do well enough on his tests. Immediately, this young Fraser has hair-raising experiences protecting the perimeter of his section’s camp, encounters the fog of war as Japanese soldiers break through the camp’s barbed wire, participates in a divisional attack at Temple Wood, where he sees men from his section killed, and is amazed as his kleptomaniacal section flouts the strictures of a suspicious warrant officer. Then he experiences one final skirmish, in which Fraser, the only person that knows how to fire a bazooka, reports to an officer—sort of a mix between Kurtz and an eccentric uncle—who plans and executes a brilliant riparian ambush. It’s all superb.

In his epilogue, Fraser addresses the American use of atomic bombs to end World War II. Here, his perspective is that of the British infantryman in Burma, who expected next to attack the dug-in Japanese in Malaysia and, one day, to invade Japan. He makes a compelling case that, from this ranker’s perspective, the bombs saved the lives of Allied soldiers.

An excellent memoir and highly recommended.
I thought this book was a very unusual and awesome look at what it is like to be a grunt in Burma. Loved that part. For me I would not have bought the book had I know there was so much 'dialect' writing of which I could hardly understand. Perhaps if you were Scottish, Irish or English it would be easier but for me (an American) it was very difficult to get though and understand what they were staying. In general I thought the author had a great sense of humor & I liked his plain spokeness. No apologies and good insights. I would have given it more stars but it was just too hard for me to make out the dialects. Bless these men, they really were great!
This is a wonderful memoir of a young soldier fighting in the Burma campaign at the tail end of WW II. Of course, as someone who fell in love with the Flashman series of historical novels many decades ago, anything with Mr. Fraser's name on it will get my attention.

My own father, now gone, was just about his age during the last year of the war in Europe. He arrived in Normandy early on D-Day, via a glider that landed in a flooded field. With the exception of himself and two others, everyone in the glider drowned. His war continued with from that point, to the day when he was wounded (for the 2nd time) towards the end of the Battle of the Bulge. Unlike Mr. Fraser, my father was never comfortable describing in any ordered way his experiences during that year. But I get the strong feeling that if he had been so inclined, and had the skill and insight that Mr. Fraser demonstrates in this book, he would have told a story much like the one presented here. I'm an old timer today, but I certainly feel privileged to have shared this story with Mr. Fraser
I've long enjoyed Fraser's Flashman novels and his stories of life as a subaltern in the Second Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders immediately after the end of the Second World War. This wonderful book takes us into the war, and into the China-Burma-India Theatre, about which many Americans, including myself, know comparatively little.

It's a complex book, certainly not glorifying war, but demonstrating how, as a crucible, the experience of war can shape a man. The writing has all of Fraser's well-known gifts wit, fascinating characterizations, and wonderfully descriptive narratives of actual events. He ably explains the workings of a Section (Squad, in our army.) of British troops during the war. The reader meets his fellow soldiers, and suffers when, just as they are becoming known, they begin to be killed, either in action, or in one case through a horrible misadventure.

Also valuable is Fraser's opinion that today's U.K. is not necessarily the U.K. that he and his mates fought for. He clearly disapproves of the direction in which the U.K. has been taken. He also has a thorough dislike of the modern penchant of the media for going to great lengths to discover the feelings of soldiers who return from action in modern theatres of war. He opines that he and his mates were fortunate at the end of WW II because at that time there were no counselors. He believes, and I don't necessarily disagree, that a person's feelings are private and that people are entitled to keep them to themselves. He posits that they are indeed better off if they do.

I can't do this book justice in a review that is actually short enough to bother reading. All I know is that I'm a bit different for having read it. I also believe I now have a better understanding of my father, who fought as an infantryman at Leyte, Luzon, and Okinawa. For me, this was a very valuable read. For anyone who wishes to have a better understanding of the enlisted man's experience of combat, I highly recommend it.