Fighting the People's War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War

Armies of the Second World War

by Jonathan Fennell

Fighting the People's War is an unprecedented, panoramic history of the 'citizen armies' of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa, the core of the British and Commonwealth armies in the Second World War. Drawing on new sources to reveal the true wartime experience of the ordinary rank and file, Jonathan Fennell fundamentally challenges our understanding of the War and of the relationship between conflict and socio-political change. He uncovers how fractures on the home front had profound implications for the performance of the British and Commonwealth armies and he traces how soldiers' political beliefs, many of which emerged as a consequence of their combat experience, proved instrumental to the socio-political changes of the postwar era. Fighting the People's War transforms our understanding of how the great battles were won and lost as well as how the postwar societies were forged.

Genres: World War II, History, Military History, Nonfiction

932 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2019

About the author

Professor Jonathan Fennell is Professor of the History of War and Society at King’s College London. After completing a Doctorate in Modern History at the University of Oxford, Jonathan worked in management consultancy in the City before joining the Defence Studies Department in 2009. Prior to this, he was awarded a joint honours History and Politics Degree at University College Dublin and studied History as an Erasmus Scholar at Université Lumière Lyon II. Jonathan now holds a joint position between the Defence Studies and War Studies Departments at King’s.

Jonathan’s research focuses on the history of Britain and the Commonwealth and the transnational history of the Second World War. He has written two books and is co-editor of a third. He has published articles in research journals and other media as well as contributing chapters to edited collections.

His most recent monograph, Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War (Cambridge University Press, 2019), won the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2020, and also the Society for Army Historical Research Templer Medal for the History of the British Army 2020. It was awarded the silver medal in the Military History Matters Book of the Year 2020 (a prize decided by public vote) and was third place in the British Army Military Book of the Year, 2020.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are plenty of books on British ground forces in World War II, from the venerable official histories to notable current studies by such historians as David French, Jeremy Crang, and Alan Allport, among others. Nor have the armies of the Commonwealth countries been neglected: besides official histories produced by Canada, Australia, and New Zealand there are excellent scholarly works by, for example, Terry Copp, John McLeod, and Tarak Barkawi. But until now, as noted historian John Fennell (King's College London) points out (xxiv), no one has tried to write a single-volume comprehensive history of these armies.

For the rest of my review, click on the link:

http://www.miwsr.com/2021-044.aspx

[Tim Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does for the Commonwealth Armies what the The Red Army and the Second World War did for the Soviets. It takes a very broad look at their initial condition at the outbreak of the war and the social contract that underlies armies raised by democracies. It then goes through mobilization, political influences, doctrine, training, equipping, morale, home front interactions and overall manpower. Subsequently the author walks us through how the various military's performed and how the performance changes of the armies interacted with/were driven by the above throughout the war in the different theaters.

Nationalities focused on are the UK, India, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Within the author goes through the particular challenges each nationality faces. For example the Indian army had to acknowledge that the returning sepoy would have a very different world view than the poorly educated man who enlisted from his village. It also had to face the racism built into the army structure such as the Indian Commissioned Officers having lower pay than British officers in the same army. Additionally the same ICO's did not have the right of punishment over British other ranks for much of the war. For New Zealand it was the Furlough Mutiny where large numbers of the 2nd Divisions soldiers, dissatisfied with the imbalance between their sacrifices and those who remained at home, refused to return to the Middle East when their leave period expired.

Given what it has to cover it is a much larger book than the first in the series coming in at 700 pages plus over 200 of notes, bibliography and index. There are many maps and tables to help place the text in context. You will need to put aside a large amount of time to read this but I found it well worth the investment. 5 stars

[Perato · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd book of the series for me. Waiting for the next two about French and German armies.

Jonathan Fennell took a bit different perspective than Alexander Hill in his The Red Army and the Second World War. Although Hill's book is somewhat shorter it seemed a more holistic yet it took more distance to the actual fighting. Fennell's book is more about the citizen soldiers of different nations and how they fought the war. Unlike Hill's book we also get a good view of the different battles and this book doesn't necessarily need a supplementary book of the war if the reader is somewhat informed about the events of the war. Fennell's problem is in the fact that Army was about third of the fighting effort of the British military branches, so he has somewhat more narrower view of the war in his hand. So if Battle of Britain/Atlantic means nothing to you, maybe this is not a book where to start.

Fennell goes to great lengths trying to tie the fighting man into his own country. He uses interesting sources that gave me a new kind of view what was on the mind of a citizen soldier when he wasn't thinking about his survival. British, Canadian, South-African, New Zealander, Australian and Indian soldiers all get a fair treatment and one gets a good all around explanations how and why they fought the war. Fennells argues that home front had a big impact on the battles fought by citizen soldiers and on the other hand they had an impact what happened on the home front.

He's quite forgiving especially to army generals, he rarely criticises generals for the losses but usually he takes the more lenient approach by arguing that most losses were caused by multiple different reasons, mostly training and morale. Morale, doctrine, strategy and tactics get a lot of space in the book. Equipment, supply etc. get a lot less unless they affect the previously mentioned.

Although the book is about 700 pages long and filled with facts and statistics like amount of prisoners compared to casualties and how soldiers voted, the book was very easy and enjoyable to read.

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Fighting the People's War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War" eBook was published in 2019 and was written by Jonathan Fennell. This is Mr. Fennell's second published book. 

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘G’. The book covers the British and Commonwealth Armies in both theaters during the course of World War II. 

Considerable time is spent with the British, Canadian, South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Indian forces. While the book is full of numbers and facts, it is very readable, though long. I was surprised to see repeated references to the sick numbers and censor reports. The censors made monthly reports of the general feelings and attitudes of the soldiers in their letters to friends and loved ones back home. These reports were able to provide the higher echelons of the army with feedback on the morale of their troops. 

I had not known about the manpower resource problems, that is a reluctance to volunteer for overseas duty, that plagued the Commonwealth military. Nor had I been aware of the growing shortage of replacements for the British in Europe following the D-Day invasion. I can see why the story of WWII told D-Day forward is mostly an American story. 

I found the 25.5 hours I spent reading this 966-page history very interesting. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/. 

[Al Cibiades · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding and fascinating investigation of British and Commonwealth troops in the second world war. Although Fennell provides a thorough overview of their various contributions to the Allied war effort, his main concern is fascinating: to show how the ordinary soldier responded to the war. He shows how the rank and files of the various armies responded to the various strategies and domestic policies of their leaders back home, and how they became increasingly discontented with their treatment - to the point of major mutinies. He also shows their increasing interest in the political situations back home and how they were determined to influence postwar domestic policies, famously in Britain but also in New Zealand, Canada etc. Australia's political leaders were much more receptive to public and soldier opinion than for example New Zealand's Peter Fraser government: that Prime Minister's reputation takes a major hit, as does Churchill's
Although this is a very large book -932 pages - and is exhaustively researched and documented, the author smoothly navigates the reader through the complexities and details of the issues.
Essential reading for those interested in WW2.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drawing on recently de-classified "Top Secret" morale reports, this huge detailed 500 page+ book examines the morale of the British and Commonwealth Soidier in WW II. Fennell makes a convincing case that the British troops often suffered from Low morale, an unwillingness to close with the enemy, and weak junior officer leadership. Massive firepower was usually needed to make any headway against the Gemans and Japanese.

The UK troops seemed to have had little idea why the war was being fought, and regarded it as a dirty job that had to be done. There was a cynical attitude toward Churchill and the other Civilian leaders, who were regarded as Out-of-touch and uncaring. The idea of WW II as a "noble crusade" against "Fascism" was NOT shared by most of the soldiers. It seems that only about 15 percent of UK soldiers were volunteers, the rest were draftees.

The only flaw in the book is the constant discussion of South African, Indian, and New Zealand troops. Not only were these soldiers volunteers and fighting for different reasons than UK Troops, the amount of fighting done by them was realtively small. It was distracting to have to author spend pages and pages on them. The book should have focused on the UK troops.

A side note: The author doesn't compare the USA and UK army. But the US Army was more successful in attacking and gaining ground in the ETO/MTO. This seems to have been less due to higher morale, and more due to the willingness of American Division, Regimental, and Battalion commanders to "drive" their men and take losses. And unlike British army, the USA army had enough replacements.