'We Die Alone' was written by David Howarth in the mid-1950s, drawing on his Second World War experience of running espionage operations sent into German occupied Europe. The book recounts the experience of Norwegian Jan Baalsrud, the sole survivor from an abortive attempt to land a commando team on the coast of northern Norway. Baalsrud made his way across Norway in the depths of winter, eventually to find safety in neutral Sweden. The heart of the book is about Baalsrud's amazing capacity to endure extreme hardship, frostbite, and long weeks of isolation in Norway's unbelievably harsh northern plateau region. Ultimately his survival rested on the willingness of the Norwegian people to feed and find him shelter even through the penalty for harbouring a spy was certain death should the German occupiers find out.

After the war David Howarth built a successful career for himself as a popular historian. For this book his admirably clear writing style has been paired down to match the absolute simplicity of Norway's stark winter environment. The writing is unadorned and spare. It perfectly suits the context, describing in a matter-of-fact way Baalsrud's incredible survival story. Here is a man who amputated nine of his own toes to prevent the spread of gangrene as he lay alone for three weeks in a shallow snow cave waiting for his rescuers to organise an escape to Sweden.

Reading about such events naturally leads to a sense of puzzlement about how Baalsrud survived hardships that would have killed most people put into a similar situation. David Howarth makes no direct attempt to explain this puzzle, but does explore his subject's psychology. It was as if Baalsrud simply could not conceive of giving up. Even well beyond the point when his Norwegian helpers imagined that he must have died from exposure, Baalsrud doggedly focussed on staying alive hour by hour until, close to death, nomadic Laplanders took him by reindeer-drawn sledge to safety.

'We die alone' has been through many printings. The absence of a map spoils my 2000 edition from the UK publishers, Cannongate. But readers can follow Baalsrud's journey with any large scale map of Northern Scandinavia.

the book "WE DIE ALONE" was the best I had read during the late 50's. it was for a book report during my high school career. during that period in my life social events were mor fun than reading. but I had a difficut time putting this book down, so i could get some sleep. the book that I read was the first published edition, copyrighted 1955 by Ace books. my book has a map of the area, something the newer ones don't have. one of the reviewers down graded this story because his book did not supply him with a map. the story, four men survive the demolition of a boat they were on when it was destroyed by the Germans. one of them getting help from local citizens, travels up and over the mountains, gets caught in a sever snow storm. he places himself next to a huge rock and is buried alive but keeps pushing the snow away. then during the next many days he survives an incredible amount of pain and suffering. a true story.

In a plain and straightforward manner, David Horwath recounts the incredible true story of a Norwegian commando sent back to his defeated homeland to sabotage a Nazi airfield. The mission is discovered and compromised before it really gets started--but the story has just begun.

The commando, Jan Baalsrud, embarks on an incredible journey as he attempts to escape back to friendly lines. He is aided here and there by his countrymen, who risk their own lives and the lives of their families and villages to save him, long after, by all odds, he should be dead.

As I read the book I was reminded of Ken Follett's "Eye Of The Needle", but with two distinct differences: Jan Baalsrud is a hero, not a villan. And this is a true story, not fiction.

I gave this book a medium rating not because I felt it was a bad or boring read. It wasn't. Actually it was a very enjoyable read. My main difficulty with this book was that Mr. Howarth, in his effort to counter ancient Norman testimony about the events leading upto the Battle of Hastings has essentially created an account that is equally biased, but from an English perspective. This attitude is apparent throughout the book in various statements. But ultimately Mr. Howarth drives the point home with his final two sentences in the book. I quote, "Yet those children, or their children, won a victory in the end. They never became Norman; they remained most stubbornly English, absorbed the invaders and made of the mixture a new kind of Englishness." As if in Englishness there is some kind of saintlike purity that is better than the rest. That's utter rubbish. And at the risk of taking this analysis too far....It is precisely this type of attitude that has lead to far worse than the writing of biased popular history. Look no further than Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.

David Howarth does a masterful job of bringing the Norman Conquest to life. The collected evidence is fascinating and the way he puts it together makes the story truly compelling--I had trouble putting it down. This book is a wonderful medium for those who like history but have trouble connecting with many of the books available. It is very down-to-earth and easy to read. It sparked my interest in the subject and inspired me to further study of the dramatic events of 1066. Happy reading!

To put it simply, Howarth's book "1066, The Year of the Conquest" is a biased, factually-based, historical account of the year 1066 in England, encompassing both the plights of the royals AND the common people of the island, along with the English's neighbors to the south and east. If you are looking for the play-by-play of the Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror's reign in England, you've come to the wrong book, my friend.
Howarth examines just that profound year in English history, and does not go in full detail about what happened before or after 1066.

Like other reviewers, I did notice Howarth's unabashed bias to the English in this work, but his non-objective feelings don't overwhelm the text. A jovial example is that not once, is the Norman king referred to as "William the Conqueror;" in fact, he is introduced to the reader as "William the Bastard."
That aside, I had a splendid time reading this short work (only 200 pages). Howarth's writing style keeps the reader engrossed and he has a gift of turning the historical facts into a readable and impassioned story. One thing I really liked was the absence of footnotes. In the text, Howarth will cite the text he is using, what biases it may have, and how accurate it might be with regards to first-person accounts, years after 1066 it was written, etc. This citation style works extremely well in the text and I wish more authors would use it.

The best part of the book might be the first chapter where Howarth chooses a random village and takes a Howard Zinn approach at it by explaining what the common folk did at that time, what they ate, where they lived, etc. It really gives a reader a better understanding of the Middle Ages, after all, not everyone got to live in a castle. Another nice feature of the book is the friendly maps. Although there are only six maps, they are easy to read, they include all the places Howarth is writing about, and show the routes of the invasions.

I would recommend this to any casual history reader or to anyone who has viewed the Bayeux Tapestry. Instead of trying to decipher the pictures of the tapestry, by reading this book you will get the full story and it will make it easier in seeing what the tapestry is trying to depict.

I've rarely been on a small boat on the ocean, I've never been to the Shetland Isles, and I wasn't on this planet during WW II. So, I found this book to be an interesting perspective that describes several years of a special operations group that supported Norway during the war. The book presents, rather drily at times, the stories of the men and ships who built the Shetland Bus operation -- from the time that they requisitioned and provisioned the ships and fishermen/sailors to the time when the wooden fishing ships were replaced with faster, more reliable submarine chasers.

The glue that holds this book together is the adventures of the Norwegian sailors, as retold by Howarth after the debriefs of the crews. (Howarth was prevented from sailing by the British Navy so his only first-person perspectives are from the operations and shipyard management side of the picture.) In short, what makes this book real is the stories about the storms that they sailed through, the difficulties in getting their small vessels across the North Sea, and the narrow scrapes they had with the Germans when they entered the protected waters of the Norwegian fjords

In summary, this is a marvelous account of a small but important operation. It could be improved by slightly more adventurous writing style but is definitely worth a read if you're interested in seafaring adventures or personal stories from the World War II era.

The Shetland Bus" is the story of the British/Norwegian operation to run supplies, ammunition, weapons and secret agents from the Shetland Islands to Norway during WW2. Rescued refugees took the return trip. These efforts were key to the Norwegian resistance to the German occupation, which tied down 10 divisions and 280,000 enemy troops.
Author Howarth was well placed to write SB. He was the number 2 British Naval man in the Shetlands and had a key hand in each mission. He was obviously as close to his men as a good commander can be and writes touchingly, respectfully and personally about his charges. We learn of close escapes from the treacherous weather, quislings and the persistent, if over stretched, German authorities. If his men were in trouble, they could -and did- die in minutes in the icy North Sea, far from shore or any hope of rescue. The author lends the reader an appreciation for the sheer logistical strains behind the Shetland Bus. Balancing people, personalities, supplies, and technical details was a demanding job- one, which the author plainly relished. He was a talented writer, producing 18 historical works, several of which are available on amazon.com.
The weak side to SB is that Howarth was shoreside throughout the war. The action here is all second hand and the telling suffers. Howarth simply wasn't there. He was hundreds of miles from the action. Since this book first appeared in 1951, one gets the distinct impression that, so close to the War's end, some censorship of classified information may have been imposed. Something or someone may have held Howarth back. SB is hard to rate. Out of respect for the author, his obvious writing talent and his men: 4 stars. Amazon.com fans may wish to scroll through Howarth's (apparently) better-received WW2 efforts; "Sledge Patrol" or especially "We Die Alone". I'll end on a positive note: Here is one military book with decent maps! Hooray!

This book by David Howarth is one of two that portrays the great Lord Nelson. Nelson is portayed as a leader with uncommon touch for bold military strategy and even more uncommon touch for leading men with affection and raport. This was very unusual in 1800. This book also portrays the battle of Trafalgar in the terrible ways of naval battle with 800 men ships demolishing eachother at point blank range. The French loss was inevitable and Lond Nelson was the man who build the winning ways of the British Navy over a 30 year period. The background and mood of the times are compelling.

For anyone with an interest in modern Greek history, The Greek Adventure" is a fast paced narrative of the war for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s. In this book Howarth does a good job of describing the movement from the perspectives of the three main interests involved. The main interests are the indigenous Greeks, the European Philhelenes (lovers of Greece) and the Turks.

The indigenous Greek forces consisted of various bands of bandits and local warlords who availed themselves of the opportunities to improve their own positions provided by the rebellion against the Turks. Although viewed by the Philhelenes as the noble descendants of Ancient Greece, Greeks of the day were no more closely related to the ancient Greeks than the moderns of any other European nations are related to their ancient antecedents. The architectural relics of Ancient Greece, so admired by the Philhelenes were, to the natives, only embarrassing reminders of a pagan past. The Greeks, in the final measure, did not live up to the high ideals which the Philhelenes had imputed to them.

The role of the Philhelenes was crucial to the success of the war. It was they who provided the funds supporting the revolt, much of it from loan subscriptions in Britain. Most prominent among the Philhelenes was the English poet, Lord Byron, who gave his reputation, his fortune and, ultimately, his life in service of Greek independence. Despite his high profile, the author concludes that there is little contribution which can be said to be traceable to his involvement. It can also be said that the Philhelenes provided the intellectual concept of a noble Greek tradition which cried for a national expression. While much of the money donated to the cause was squandered, this national ideal was the indispensable contribution of the Philhelenes, without which Greek independence may not have been achieved. Although high in their ideals, the Philhelenes were more noted for their inefficient failures than for their successes.

The Turks, against whom the revolt was directed, were represented primarily by the vassals to whom the Sultan made promises in return for service. Too inept to swiftly conquer the ragtag bands of bandits and foreign idealists, the Turks were able to keep the war going until the European powers were able to agree on a formula for ending the conflict.

In the end, it was a treaty between the United Kingdom, France and Russia which led to the resolution of the war. Pursuant to the Treaty of London a joint three power naval fleet destroyed the Turkish fleet in the battle of Navarino, ending the war and guaranteeing Greek independence.

This relatively short book is an interesting introduction to the Greek struggle for independence. My rating is more indicative of my mild interest in Greek history rather than any dissatisfaction with the book. The author does a good job of narrating a story with which many readers are unfamiliar. Although its place and many of its personal names involved are difficult to follow, the author tells the story in a manner which holds the attention of the reader. The multiple forces involved leaves the reader with the suspicion that this war may have been more of a Nineteenth Century Crusade in the centuries of warfare between Christendom and Islam than it was an inspired struggle for Greek freedom. In this we may find its greatest interest.

"Waterloo: Day of Battle" is an eyewitness account of the decisive Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, written without the use of direct quotes. In this book the reader gets a taste of the uncertainty of outcome and the gore of the battle.

There were several things which I learned from this book. One was that Napoleon was opposed by a makeshift coalition of British, Prussian, Belgian and Hanoverian forces which happened to be available in the area when Napoleon reassembled his Grande Armee. Through the shifting course of battle a French victory, which seemed imminent at times, was turned into a rout when the famed Imperial Guard disintegrated in its assault. The story is told in a way to infuse suspense into a story, the outcome of which the reader already knows.

An underlying current of this book is that the French defeat was the result of a failure of French leadership, stemming largely from the illness of Napoleon, which prevented him from providing the leadership which had led to prior victories.

Overall this short book presents an enjoyable narrative which gives the reader a general understanding of this major world battle.