Today I am delighted to feature another in the recently released Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics Series: Patrol by Fred Majdulamy.
In April 2020 the Imperial War Museum (IWM) will publish two more novels in their
Wartime Classics Series which was launched in September 2019 to great acclaim.
The novels were all written either during or just after the Second World War
and are currently out of print.
Following the IWM’s commitment to tell the
stories of those who experienced conflict first hand, each novel is written
directly from the author’s own experience and takes the reader right into the
heart of the battle.
Set in 1943, Patrol is a short, intimate novel following a
small group of men on a night-time patrol in the North African desert. Major
Tim Sheldon, close to battle exhaustion, is unexpectedly asked to carry out the
mission and this atmospheric, tense novel puts this so-called minor action
centre stage, as over the course of the day and during the patrol itself,
Sheldon reminisces about his time as a soldier, his own future, and what it
means to confront fear.
Patrol was a
bestseller when it was first published in 1953. Clearly autobiographical, it is
based on Fred Madjalany’s own experiences in Tunisia as part of the North
African campaign, in particular his command of a night patrol and his time in
hospital when wounded. The fictional battalion in the novel is based on 2nd
Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers into which Madjalany was commissioned in 1940.
Infantry battalions such as this were constantly in action with little respite,
and the officers were very young by peace time standards. The stress of battle
aged them considerably. Madjalany’s wife Sheila Howarth wrote, ‘I believe in
Patrol he was writing his epitaph’. He suffered a stroke in 1957 and died ten
years later when the specialist commented ‘the war killed him.’
My Thoughts
This novel transports you back to the mid twentieth century and shows you the futility of much of the fighting when you get down to the level of the individual. Bureaucracy and trying to keep up the appearance of civilised living at times blocks out the day to day needs of the soldiers. This totally captures the spirit of the time where people thought that doing their duty had to be more important than anything else.
I enjoyed the pacing of the story as you journeyed through the patrol and could see, as the combatants could, that it had been instigated by people whose motives were self-serving. This takes you into the heart of the conflict and at the same time, shows you how the individual suffered yet tried to fulfil his duty to his country.
In short: Wartime captured through the eyes of the combatant.
About the Author
Frederick Majdalany (1913 – 1967) was the son of a
Manchesterbased Lebanese family. His original first name was Fareed, which he
changed to Frederick or Fred. He was also known as ‘Maj’. He worked as a
journalist, drama critic and theatre publicist pre-war. He volunteered in 1939
and was commissioned in 1940, serving in North Africa and Italy. He was wounded
at the Battle of Medjez-el-Bab, returning to the battalion five weeks later
with the rank of captain, later promoted to major, and commanded a company. His
unit landed at Taranto in September 1943, where he was awarded the Military
Cross during the Italian campaign. In October 1944 he returned home to become
an instructor at an officer cadet training unit, which he later commanded,
until demobilization in November 1945. After the war Majdalany resumed his
career as a journalist and also worked for the BBC on historical scripts for
radio and TV. He published novels and military histories, all of which were
very well received. He was also involved with International PEN. He died in
1967.
About the Imperial War Museums Wartime Classics series
In September 2019, to coincide with the 80th Anniversary of the
outbreak of the Second World War, the IWM published the first four
titles in a fiction series -
the Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics. Patrol is the next in the series.
Alan Jeffreys, (Senior Curator, Second World War, Imperial
War Museums) has written an introduction to each book that sets them in context
and gives the wider historical background.
He says, ‘researching the Wartime Classics has been one of the most
enjoyable projects I’ve worked on in my years at IWM. It’s been
very exciting rediscovering these fantastic novels and
helping to bring them to the wider readership they so deserve’.
IWM IWM (Imperial War
Museums) tells the story of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts
involving Britain and the Commonwealth since the First World War.
Our unique collections, made up of the everyday and the
exceptional, reveal stories of people, places, ideas and events. Using these,
we tell vivid personal stories and create powerful physical experiences across
our five museums that reflect the realities of war as both a destructive and
creative force. We challenge people to look at conflict from different
perspectives, enriching their understanding of the causes, course and
consequences of war and its impact on people’s lives.
IWM’s five branches which attract over 2.5 million visitors
each year are IWM London, IWM’s flagship branch that recently transformed with
new, permanent and free First World War Galleries alongside new displays across
the iconic Atrium to mark the Centenary of the First World War; IWM North,
housed in an iconic award-winning building designed by Daniel Libeskind; IWM
Duxford, a world renowned aviation museum and Britain's best preserved wartime
airfield; Churchill War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below
Whitehall; and the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast.
You can read an extract of From the City, From the Plough here , read an extract from Trial by Battle here , read a review on Plenty Under the Counter here and a guest post on Eight Hours from England here.
Book link:
Patrol by
Fred Majdalany is published by
IWM and can be ordered here: www.iwmshop.org.uk at the online IWM
shop.’
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