Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob #Review

Today I am delighted to feature another in the recently released Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics Series: Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob. 

Warriors for the Working Day follows one tank crew as they proceed from training in Aldershot to the beaches of Normandy, and on into the heart of a newly liberated Europe. Closely based on Peter Elstob’s own wartime experiences as a tank commander and radio operator, the novel brilliantly evokes the particular horror of tank warfare – the intense heat and the claustrophobia endured by so many, yet often overlooked.

Life within a British tank was very precarious as they were noticeably inferior to German armour, and were nicknamed Ronsons (cigarette lighters) by their crews as they lit ‘first time, every time.’ The novel also examines battle exhaustion in a way that a 21st century reader will recognise, with men and officers able to experience a certain amount, before fear becomes an overriding obsession. 

Warriors for the Working Day is generally recognised as Peter Elstob’s greatest work. Originally published in 1960, it sold nearly a quarter of a million copies and remains one of the finest fictional depictions of life in a tank during the Second World War.   

My Thoughts

This is a novel which took me by surprise. I was soon engrossed in the story of a group of young soldiers who enlisted midway through the Second World War and who fought their way through it. The pace of the story is most arresting as it reflected the unrelenting pace of the war as events followed on and there was no time to stand back and reflect. Amongst the young soldiers, you get to see what happens to each one as the battles take their toll. The ending is a bit of a shock but fits in perfectly with the direction of the novel.

    You are certainly shown the claustrophobic lives of the tank crew as they try to follow orders. Their lives are ones of unrelenting routine as they dream of home and try to support each other. Full of the atmosphere of the battlefield, this is a novel which shows you the effect of war on the ordinary man in the street and at the same time, shows you the heroism of those who seek to do their duty. 

In short: A brilliant retelling of the challenges of war.

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  and a review of Patrol here.

  

About the Author

 Peter Elstob (1915 – 2002) was born in London but educated in New York and New Jersey when his family moved to the USA as a result of his father’s work. He spent a brief period at the University of Michigan and a short stint in the RAF. In 1936 he volunteered as a pilot in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side and published his first novel in 1939, The Spanish Prisoner, based on his experiences in Spain. On the outbreak of the Second World War, he attempted to re-join the RAF but when he was turned down, volunteered for the 3rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, where he served across Europe and in the Middle East. After the war, Elstob pursued a variety of ventures – he co-ran the Arts Theatre Club in London, founded an artistic and writer’s community in Mexico and attempted a trans-Atlantic balloon flight in 1958. However, his main success was the beauty mask, Yeast Pac, which he and his partner developed and marketed successfully for many years. He wrote several novels and a number of well received military histories, including Hitler’s Last Offensive (1971) about the Battle of the Bulge.   

Book link: Warriors for the Working Day by Peter Elstob  is published by IWM and can be pre-ordered here:   www.iwmshop.org.uk at the online IWM shop.’  

Thanks to IWM and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour. 

Check out the rest of the tour!