Military Review English Edition September-October 2014 | Page 125

BOOK REVIEWS

are the deserters, and desertion is an element of all
American wars. World War II was no exception, as The
Deserters so ably shows.
Fifty thousand American soldiers deserted in World
War II. As Glass notes, the percentage of the total force
is quite small. However, Glass contends, only 10 percent or less of the military actually went into combat.
There was no one-year tour, no 50-mission crush. The
same men fought again and again; their only hope of relief was the ‘million-dollar wound’ Eventually, some of
.
those who survived the constant threat of death broke
down under the strain.
This work is not a historical, sociological, or political exploration of the phenomenon with data sets and
heavy discussion of military and governmental policies.
Rather, it approaches the broad and previously neglected topic of desertion through examination of the lives,
particularly in the war, of three men who at one time
or more deserted. Two are Americans and the third is
British, and their backgrounds and military experiences differ widely. All served in combat, and all reached
their limits. One was a decorated hero. Another deserted several times, returning and leaving three times as
the pressures became too intense. One of the three even
became active in the resistance during one period of
absence from his unit.
Glass writes as a journalist rather than as an academic historian. His highly readable work provides
much description of the horrors and difficulties of
the combat environment, the unfairness of a military
system that forced only a small percent to bear the
burden of combat while the bulk of the forces remain
behind the lines in relative comfort, the hardships of
the military prison system, and so on. Although this is
not a broad survey, it provides a depth of detail more
common to a biography than to a monograph. When
appropriate, the author steps back and tosses in context
and numbers, but keeps the focus on the three men and
their reasons for deserting.
Desertion has long been understood as a shameful betrayal of the mission and one’s comrades. Only
recently has a more nuanced reading made allowances
for the human frailty of the warrior. The Deserters is a
sympathetic but realistic exploration of the pressures
of warfare and the toll it takes on even the unwounded.
Reading it is time well spent.
John H. Barnhill, Ph.D., Houston, Texas
MILITARY REVIEW  September-October 2014

FIGHTING FOX COMPANY:
The Battling Flank of the Band of Brothers
Terry Poyser and Bill Brown, Casemate, Havertown,
PA, 2013, 344 pages, $32.95

T

he book and miniseries Band of Brothers practically made Easy Company, 506th Parachute
Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division,
a household term. But while Easy Company fought its
way through the Normandy countryside, the dikes of
Holland, the forests of Bastogne, and into the heart of
Germany during World War II, Fox Company fought
equally hard on Easy’s flank.
Through careful research and interviews with veterans, Terry Poyser and Bill Brown have created a unit
history for Fox Company, with all its training, fighting, and comradeship. While Fighting Fox Company
parallels the experience of Band of Brothers, it follows
a different narrative. Historian Stephen Ambrose
created leaders, heroes, and villains in Band of Brothers,
particularly in the officer corps. Fighting Fox Company
is mostly the story of the enlisted men, often using
entire letters written to loved ones or whole pages of
first-person accounts to tell its story. The only officer
truly fleshed out is Lt. Andrew Tuck, who commanded
a platoon, then the company at the end of the war.
Fox Company trained at Toccoa and Fort Benning,
Ga., before shipping off to England to prepare for the
invasion of Normandy. Parachuting behind Utah Beach
on June 6, the men were scattered and fought separate
battles until they were able to find their units. Two
members of Fox Company helped capture a German
battery and Brecourt Manor, and one was the last
Americans to leave the battlefield. In the battle for
Carantan, which united the Utah and Omaha beachheads, a German armor unit struck Fox Company.
The unit bent, but did not break, under the force of
German tanks and infantry, and the paratroopers of
Fox Company knocked out two German tanks before
American armor arrived to turn the tide. The action
continued through Holland, the siege of Bastogne, and
the drive into Germany.
Capt. Dick Winters, who eventually becomes the
battalion executive officer, makes a few appearances
in the text. When a squad returned from a patrol in
123