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Dwight Garner, New York Times : June 13, 2013 : Updated: June 14, 2013 2:09pm
The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II
By Charles Glass
Stories about cowardice can be as gripping as those about courage. One tells us about who we'd like to be; the other tells us about who we fear we are.
Nearly 50,000 American and 100,000 British soldiers deserted from the armed forces during World War II. (The British were in the war much longer.)
Some fell into the arms of French or Italian women. Some became black-market pirates. Many more simply broke under the strain of battle.
These men's stories have rarely been told. During the war, newspapers largely abstained from writing about desertions. The topic was bad for morale and could be exploited by the enemy. In more recent decades, the subject has been essentially taboo, as if to broach it would dent the halo around the greatest generation.
“The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II,” by historian and former ABC News foreign correspondent Charles Glass, thus performs a service.
It is the first book to examine at length the sensitive topic of desertions during this war, and the facts it presents are frequently revealing and heartbreaking.