Evening star., 1948-09-12

and Germany. Without ever ste
particular characters, it manag
OF the European theater.
The war was too vast to be con
tanned in any novel. There wer
too many fronts on land, at sea an,
in the air; beyond them and withil
them whole nations struggled TO
survival. Nor can THE Crusaders
give more than the blurred effect
of one phase of the worldwide up
heaval. But this is more than othe
novelists have been able to dc
Where a stark piece of realism lik
Norman Mailer's The Naked ant
the Dead" described island f1ghtini
in ths Pacific and traced the live
of certain men, where John Horn
Burns The Gallery" and John Her
sey's "A Bell for Adano" dealt with
eGdies in the backWash of war, Mr.
Heym has given an impression o
what the decisive phase OF the wa
in Europe was like. You emerge
from these pages feeling that yol
have at least hint of what the biz
invasion meant to soldiers engaged
In it, to the enemy and to the people
who were being fought over.
Few Masterpieces.
The First World War, simpler to
chronicle, brought few masterpieces
To name three approaching that
pinnacle, Barbusse in Under Fire
described what the title implies
action. Dos Passos in Three
Soldiers" gave the impact of the
Army on certain widely differing in
dividuals. Hemingway in "A Fare
we'll to Arms" gave the atmosphere
of a great retreat and feeling OF
the stupidity and futility of war
Mr.. Heym imparts something OF al
those facets of the recent war.
He does it entirely through the
novelist's art. There are no long
passages in which the author gives
an overall picture of strategies
plans and troop movements. Yor
see everything through the eyes Of
his characters - vision sometime:
myopic, sometimes crystalline, otter
confused, but probably adding ur
to what the war was like to di'
vergent group.
Somehow suggestion can achieve
what blueprints can't. Could you
for instance, get better idea 0,
the tragic wintry fighting in thu
Bulge than Mr.. Heym gives vol
through the night advance of sin
gle platoon? The episode of 1t
Fulbright's platoon, suddenly Gu
off by line of German tanks
helpless, destroyed, the captured
men slaughtered, sums up the who'll
chaotic struggle that ragged unit
the Germans were pinched off ant
stopped. Volumes have been writ
ten about the concentration camps
but nothing more poignant thar
the brief description of how Capt
Troy's task force liberated one.
OF Individual Soldiers.
Mr.. Heym brings out, too, how
despite the immense numbers in
volved, the grandiose plans and th'
scientific precision OF weapons, i
often devolved on individual sol
diers-perhaps lieutenant. a ser
geant or private-to do something
that could affect a whole advance
He never forgets he has story tt
tell. The loves and hates of sol
diers-the chickering's, hkings ant
jealousies within units-often over
shadow their attitude toward th'
war. And their attitude toward TIT
war ranges from hope and bewilder
ment to bitter disillusion. Wha
was 1t. Yates of psychological war
fare. Young college professor o
good will. to think when he dis
covered that his superior, Maj. Viii
loughbv, was morc interested in 1
certcl between the American com
p2nv the ma ior's law firm repre-
sented and Nazi-dominated Euro
.pean corporation than in ending th'
menace of fascism? How did th'
American sergeant, Bing, feel whel
they captured his home town il
Germany and he found his old nurs'
concealing a plot to retake th'
town? What of the fine. compass
sionate combat officer, Capt Troy
punished by an egocentric brass ha
for tragedy that was not his fault
And what effect will their expert
ences have on such men when they
60 back homer
The author was born in Germany
35 years ago. While a student Al
the University of Berlin, he fcunt
himself too liberal for the Hitler
regime and he fled to Prague. Later
he won graduate scholarship a
the University of Chicago. He served
IN the American Army as an en-
listed man and as an officer. HI
finally was assigned to psycholog
ical varefare overseas-the branch
he describes In particular. Mr.
Heym writes with rare perception
Despite the length of THE Cru
saders," 1t is absorbing throughout
THE OLD BEAUTY AND