The Following review was contributed by: John Walsh

June 6th this year marked the 60th anniversary of D-Day, one of the defining moments of World War II. Since an 18 year old soldier participating in the invasion would be approaching his 80th birthday now, it is likely that not many more of these large scale remembrances will include significant numbers of the combatants. It is an appropriate moment, then, to reassess and recognize the contributions made by those who were part of the ultimate defeat of tyranny. This book by Colonel Van R. Mayhall, Cranking Up A Fine War, is within the tradition of the war memoir and is a welcome addition to our understanding.

As a young man in Louisiana, in the southern part of the USA, Van Mayhall was keen to join up with the military forces and joined in with any number of school and university exercises and simulations. When he finally joins the army, he spends several years enjoying exercises and games across America, while war had broken out several years before. Even after the Japanese ill-advisedly bombed Pearl Harbour, forcing the US eventually to enter the war, Van Mayhall does not get anywhere near the front line until well after D-Day occurs. Nevertheless, once he does cross to France, he does have the opportunity to fight that he feels he has trained so hard to achieve.

While this is an interesting and quite well-written account, it does occasionally seem a little sanitized and could have been better, although perhaps being too revealing would have been upsetting for the family members who were instrumental in causing the book to be written.

For example, there are some suggestions towards the end of incipient psychosis and alcoholism that spilled over into his subsequent civilian career that might have made for a more penetrating analysis. Other omissions also occur which are understandable for a young man under the duress of the war but seem peculiar fifty or sixty years later. For example, it is understandable that young Van did not know what was going on in the wider war but surely incidents in which he was involved could have been placed in a wider context subsequently. Comments casting aspersions about the French and completely ignoring the vital work of the astonishingly brave French Resistance in making D-Day a success should also have been removed. There are numerous well-chosen photographs illustrating the book, although the absence of black faces passes without comment.

This memoir will appear to anyone interested in the American experience of the war; I would have been interested in learning more of the author’s later life and career.