A Study of James Sidney Lucas' War on the Eastern Front
James Sidney Lucas is an author who seems to be fond of writing about World War II. However, he does seem to also have trouble thinking about World War II. Were he to "think" about it, he might have written a book that was more politically correct by acknowledging at some point that the Germans were invaders, that instead of being conquering heroes they were seen in many quarters to be murderers and assassins. Of course, Lucas can always use (as he apparently has) the Eichmann defense and say he was just presenting opinions and not drawing conclusions.
We are told that he was in the British military and served in the Tunisian front. We are also told that he is somewhat of an expert on German armament and German military tactics. This book is designed to give a new slant to the war, and to show it from the point of view of the German soldier.
The challenge in such a task is avoiding making the German soldiers seem heroic. Mr. Lucas fails in that challenge, although he does spend a lot of time trying to make us feel and empathize with the problems that the foot soldiers had to face.
One of the reasons that he fails is that such a goal requires a writer who has a good way with language. In fact, the only readable parts of the book are when he is quoting someone else. There is a pomposity to the prose that sinks every paragraph. Consider this at the beginning, when he is setting the stage.
In a revision of his plan Marcks advanced the logical, but as it turned out completely inaccurate premise ". . .the Russians cannot avoid a decision as they did in 1812. Modern armed forces of one hundred divisions cannot abandon their sources of supply. It is anticipated that the Russian Army will stand to do battle in a defensive position protecting Great Russia and the Eastern Ukraine" (Lucas, 1998, 6).
That statement, along with being boring, is also vain. L...