Publisher's Synopsis
Originally published in 1980, The Sharp End has been through several editions on both sides of the Atlantic and has established itself a classic work of military history, Aurum is delighted to be publishing this new edition with the addition of a specially commissioned Foreword by one of today’s most distinguished historians, Sir Max Hastings.
In any army, it is only a minority of men who end up as combat soldiers, at the ‘sharp end’ where they have to shoot and be shot at, but it is, of course, their experiences which are the most intense and which tell us most directly what war is actually like. In this book John Ellis has drawn together the testimony of men who fought with the British, Commonwealth and American armies in all theatres of the Second World War, from Western Europe to Burma and from North Africa to the Pacific. He uses these eyewitness accounts to explain how they were trained, the different landscapes and climates in which they fought, their attitudes and aspirations, how they relaxed when they were out of the line and, above all, how they reacted to the experience of battle. Reviewers of the original edition were unanimous in their praise:
‘It is the most comprehensive, best balanced, most sensitive and best informed study of the condition of the fighting man in our time.’ General Sir John Hackett
‘I believe John Ellis to be an exceptionally gifted writer and historian. I have returned to The Sharp End many times.’ Len Deighton
‘It would not be easy to find a better book about war… Mr Ellis has got it exactly right.’ Major-General John Strawson
John Ellis’ other books include Cassino: The Hollow Victory, The World War I Databook, The World War II Databook (all published by Aurum), The Social History of the Machine Gun and Brute Force: Allied Tactics and Strategy in the Second World War.
