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Beresford Branson #3
Enemies
It is November 11, 1968, fifty years to the day since the armistice of the Great War.. The seventy year old German diplomat Jurgen Stern is in Ottawa, Canada on a special assignment. He rescues a portfolio mistakenly left behind in his hotel lobby by a man near his own age. Inside are drawings that are obviously from a soldier’s perspective of WW1. One of the sketches is so intriguing he is compelled to find this man and learn the truth about it.
The story reverts back to 1916 when Brian MacLennan, a farm boy from northern Ontario joins the Canadian Expeditionary Force. At the same time, young Jurgen Stern has been conscripted by the Imperial German Army. Their experiences in that brutal war are followed until they become entangled in a way that will take fifty years to unravel. The two men face the consequences of those events a half century in the past and must put them right.
The story reverts back to 1916 when Brian MacLennan, a farm boy from northern Ontario joins the Canadian Expeditionary Force. At the same time, young Jurgen Stern has been conscripted by the Imperial German Army. Their experiences in that brutal war are followed until they become entangled in a way that will take fifty years to unravel. The two men face the consequences of those events a half century in the past and must put them right.
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 10, 2014
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About the author
Richard Whitten Barnes
16 books24 followersRichard Whitten Barnes was born in Minnesota but grew up on the north side of Chicago. A music scholarship took him to Michigan State University, where he majored in chemistry. He is now retired from a long career in international chemical sales and marketing, which has taken him worldwide. Barnes is a U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division veteran and an avid sailor. He lives in Charlotte MC., but spends summers with his wife Marg and cat Maggie at their cottage on St. Joseph Island, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 12, 2020
The two year, almost day to day stories of two boys, one Canadian one German, who went to war in WW1. Lots of battle descriptions and also personal stories that comes together in the late 60s.
February 5, 2016
The release of Enemies was well-timed, coinciding with the centennial of the War To End All Wars. What we are presented with is a story within a story -- something I can't say very much about or I would divulge spoilers ... but I will say the secondary story reflects events roughly fifty years after the war so in that respect those events are fifty years ago. With this, the author created an ingenious vehicle to combine the past with that present.
Ah, but the war, it's mostly about the war. It follows two young men, one a young Canadian fighting for God, King, and Country, and a young German, fighting for the glory of the Kaiser and the Fatherland. Despite the obvious differences, i.e. fighting for the opposing forces, they follow very similar tracks in their respective journeys to the front.
Most "war stories" tend to dwell upon the big picture and the generals but Barnes effectively brings us an intimate portrayal of what I like to call the real war. Main characters Brian and Jurgens both suffer through the training and the boredom outside of combat. They both dwell upon questions of "what if" regarding hasty pre-war almost-romances. They both have close friendships and rough relationships while in the service and they both endure loss from the ranks of those associations. And of course, they are both thrust into situations no young person should ever have to endure, never knowing what the big picture of what they are doing is supposed to be, never knowing if the screaming death of constant shelling will find them, never knowing if a they will be called away by an unseen sniper's bullet, never knowing if the next trench, the next whistle blow, or the next muddy water filled crater will be the last thing they see or hear on this earth.
I have a degree in History and am a student of this war and I have to give Barnes credit, he puts the reader right there in the trenches ON BOTH SIDES. His research was spot on and his military background gave him insight into a front line soldier's mind. That he can convey that into a work of fiction is remarkable.
I think any reader will enjoy this work ... it is not just a war story, it is a story of the human condition, the fears and frailties, the hopes and dreams, and ultimately it is a story of remembrance and resolution.
Ah, but the war, it's mostly about the war. It follows two young men, one a young Canadian fighting for God, King, and Country, and a young German, fighting for the glory of the Kaiser and the Fatherland. Despite the obvious differences, i.e. fighting for the opposing forces, they follow very similar tracks in their respective journeys to the front.
Most "war stories" tend to dwell upon the big picture and the generals but Barnes effectively brings us an intimate portrayal of what I like to call the real war. Main characters Brian and Jurgens both suffer through the training and the boredom outside of combat. They both dwell upon questions of "what if" regarding hasty pre-war almost-romances. They both have close friendships and rough relationships while in the service and they both endure loss from the ranks of those associations. And of course, they are both thrust into situations no young person should ever have to endure, never knowing what the big picture of what they are doing is supposed to be, never knowing if the screaming death of constant shelling will find them, never knowing if a they will be called away by an unseen sniper's bullet, never knowing if the next trench, the next whistle blow, or the next muddy water filled crater will be the last thing they see or hear on this earth.
I have a degree in History and am a student of this war and I have to give Barnes credit, he puts the reader right there in the trenches ON BOTH SIDES. His research was spot on and his military background gave him insight into a front line soldier's mind. That he can convey that into a work of fiction is remarkable.
I think any reader will enjoy this work ... it is not just a war story, it is a story of the human condition, the fears and frailties, the hopes and dreams, and ultimately it is a story of remembrance and resolution.
December 16, 2015
Enemies is a novel about World War I. It starts with the discovery of some sketches and the search for their owner, but the book really comes into its own when it flashes back to World War I. I’m not enough of a historian to know how many of the events in the book are based on actual battles, but I was completely sold that they were real. The book did an excellent job of putting me right down in the mud and trenches with soldiers of that period on both sides of the war. The author brings a realism to the book. The soldiers aren’t just one-dimensional props. They feel sad, guilty and are even sickened about having to kill their first enemy soldier. The book has great pacing, going smoothly from the action of combat to the relationships of the characters between the battles. The ending surprised me with an unexpected redemption. The book is a quick, easy read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like war novels, and I do, you couldn’t do much better than Enemies.
May 14, 2016
Absentmindedly, Brian MacLennan left a bundle of sketches, that he drew during the Great War, in a hotel lobby. Jürgen Stern, in Canada on business, discovers those sketches and get quite a shock. Fifty years earlier he had taken one of them from the body of a Canadian soldier who he had killed in France. Apparently their lives had crossed paths more than once. The memories return of the mud, the vermin, the mindless killing, the deprivation and the mangled bodies, but the drawing he holds in hands makes him determined to meet his former enemy.
Richard Barnes has written more than a war story. Enemies is a story of redemption. It vividly recounts the horrors and futility of the First World War from the viewpoints of a young Canadian and German soldier. Then it takes an anecdote that the reader may think is merely filler, and turns it into a remarkable turn of events that restores honor to man wronged after fifty years.
Richard Barnes has written more than a war story. Enemies is a story of redemption. It vividly recounts the horrors and futility of the First World War from the viewpoints of a young Canadian and German soldier. Then it takes an anecdote that the reader may think is merely filler, and turns it into a remarkable turn of events that restores honor to man wronged after fifty years.
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March 25, 2018MWSA Review
Enemies share similar perspectives of war, but with an interesting twist.
Vivid memories of the World War I trenches flooded Jurgen Stern as he glanced at drawings found in an Ottawa hotel in 1968. Some of the scenes were from the battlefields where he fought long ago. Stern traced the owner of the drawings to a former Canadian soldier, Brian MacLennan, now like Stern, an old grandfather.
They fought against each other in the same battles, yet had not met. But one of the drawings compelled Stern to track down MacLennan and solve a 50-year-old mystery that had caused the German to hold on to a postcard size portrait sketched on the back of a map that he took from Canadian soldier. The rendering was identical to one in MacLennan's portfolio.
Enemies follows both men as teenagers who matured quickly in their first minutes of combat. Through them, author Richard Whitten Barnes brings alive the fear, sounds, smells, and horrors of trench warfare. The reader experiences the emotional and physical strains on the young soldiers as they watch friends die and become maimed in horrific ways. They both pine for a special girl back home as they try to sleep in water clogged craters. Through these up close and personal experiences, which are written in a well-balanced narrative, the reader has a realistic view of the “War to end all Wars” from the perspective of privates and junior NCOs.
Through all this is an intricately woven plot that comes to light as the two old veterans meet for the first time and discuss the drawings. They quickly form a friendship that takes the story to a surprising and heartwarming climax.
I recommend this fast-paced book.
MWSA Reviewer: Joe Epley
Enemies share similar perspectives of war, but with an interesting twist.
Vivid memories of the World War I trenches flooded Jurgen Stern as he glanced at drawings found in an Ottawa hotel in 1968. Some of the scenes were from the battlefields where he fought long ago. Stern traced the owner of the drawings to a former Canadian soldier, Brian MacLennan, now like Stern, an old grandfather.
They fought against each other in the same battles, yet had not met. But one of the drawings compelled Stern to track down MacLennan and solve a 50-year-old mystery that had caused the German to hold on to a postcard size portrait sketched on the back of a map that he took from Canadian soldier. The rendering was identical to one in MacLennan's portfolio.
Enemies follows both men as teenagers who matured quickly in their first minutes of combat. Through them, author Richard Whitten Barnes brings alive the fear, sounds, smells, and horrors of trench warfare. The reader experiences the emotional and physical strains on the young soldiers as they watch friends die and become maimed in horrific ways. They both pine for a special girl back home as they try to sleep in water clogged craters. Through these up close and personal experiences, which are written in a well-balanced narrative, the reader has a realistic view of the “War to end all Wars” from the perspective of privates and junior NCOs.
Through all this is an intricately woven plot that comes to light as the two old veterans meet for the first time and discuss the drawings. They quickly form a friendship that takes the story to a surprising and heartwarming climax.
I recommend this fast-paced book.
MWSA Reviewer: Joe Epley
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews