Where the Hell Are the Guns?: A Soldier's View of the Anxious Years, 1939-44

"Where The Hell Are The Guns? A Soldier's Eye View of the Anxious Years, 1939-44" is the very first book written by George G. Blackburn from his award-winning trilogy of war books but was the last one to be published. It was awarded "The Best Non-Fiction Talking Book of the Year" by The Canadian National Institute for the Blind in 1997. "The night is frigid, and the crystal-clear sky, drenched in stars, is criss-crossed with the silent shifting shafts of searchlights. Memories of past Christmas Eves are inextricably mixed up with wondering what is going on in Canada. Was the child stillborn, and they are not telling you until after Christmas - or it is something even worse? ~ George G. Blackburn ~ These were the thoughts and feelings of Mr. Blackburn on Christmas Eve of 1942. When he joined Canada's 4th Field Regiment, his wife was pregnant with their first child, who was born on Christmas Day. It was so disheartening for him not to be able to be with his wife at the time of her delivery of a baby girl. He had morbid thoughts about his wife dying of complications having her first child, but was so relieved when he received a cable three days after Boxing Day that his wife delivered an eight-pound baby girl and she was feeling wonderful. Here Mr. Blackburn chronicles what transpired in the years 1939 thru 1944 after joining Canada's 4th Field Regiment deployed in England during the Second World War. Although in the early stages the troop had very limited warfare and equipment, and worn out and incomplete uniforms, they still came out as the "Best Field Regiment in Britain." He relives the war in a very detailed manner in a way the reader would be guaranteed an undivided attention while reading this book. He has a very special ability of retelling his story vividly and clearly. At one point in time, he couldn't conceal being overly emotional, nostalgic and homesick and composed a song dedicated to his wife, the late Grace Blackburn. It's called "Are You Really There?" His fellow trooper, Wally Driemel, a Baker troop signaler, loved the song, which was often played by the Regimental Orchestra at Saturday night dances. Another fellow trooper, Signaler Ralph Cooper, used to play his song and do impromptu solo performances on pub pianos. So impressed with his own composition, he offered it to Jerry Wilmot, host of the BBC Armed Forces Network weekly musical show, who was also very impressed and promised him to have it orchestrated by none other than a great conductor and arranger, Robert Farnon, one of Frank Sinatra's finest arrangers/conductors. He advised him to listen each week, which he did faithfully until he had given up, but Wally Driemel did not give up and continued listening to the show until it was finally played. And sadly, Mr. Blackburn missed listening to "a great presentation of his song" played on the show. A music video of this song was made and won three major awards: Silver Award at the 1999 Worldfest - New York, Silver Awa

If asked, one is unlikely to name Canada as a warrior nation. Sort of like Belgium. However, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GUNS? testifies that the country's citizens are fully capable of daubing on the warpaint.At the 1939 outbreak of WWII, author George Blackburn was a journalist. Seeking to enlist, he was turned down by the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force because of substandard vision. However, he sneaked into the army reserve on the basis of a sloppy eye exam administered by a reserve medical officer. Recommended for a commission, he went into officers' training in August 1941, and was subsequently assigned to the 4th Field Regiment of artillery already training in the United Kingdom. This book is the story of the 4th Field from it's formation at the war's outbreak to July 1944, when the unit shipped to France, and Blackburn's personal involvement from August '41. Two other books by the same author, THE GUNS OF NORMANDY and THE GUNS OF VICTORY, chronologically narrate his wartime adventures following the 4th Field's insertion into battle post D-Day.Blackburn's style is unusual. When describing the experiences of others, he naturally uses the third person. However, when describing his own, he uses the second person - the only time I've ever come across such in an autobiography. So, the text has a semi-detached tone, as when George describes his reception at the 4th Field as a replacement subaltern of unproven worth:" ... you are an untried greenhorn whose opinion is not sought nor welcome when volunteered. You feel abandoned ... you burn with resentment ... Until you are accepted as a full-fledged member of the mess ..., you retire to your cot each night after dinner to write letters, read and put down diary notes..."Even the photo section containing twenty-three pictures includes not one of the author. Frankly, I found Blackburn's visual absence puzzling and his lack of first-person involvement in the narrative a bit stilted. Sort of like the Queen's use of the royal "we". But don't let this distract you from the underlying excellence of the story.If you're expecting a combat narrative, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE GUNS? isn't it. Except for a relatively brief aside about the August '42 Dieppe debacle, this volume is a revealing and sympathetic look at the life of an army unit training in the rear far from the front trenches. Indeed, George's outfit was resident in Britain preparing for the Big One from September 1940 to July 1944 - almost four years! Life for the 4th Field's troops was an endless round of training and rigorous field exercises cemented together by the morale-busting drudgery and monotony of camp life, and enlivened only by letters and parcels from home, visits to London or nearby pubs, and fraternization with the English citizens, e.g. dances with the local ladies and Christmas parties thrown for the local kids.A student of World War II should find this volume a valuable look at a side of the conflict infrequently giv

Although the last of Blackburn's three volumes about World War Two to be published (the others being The Guns of Normandy and The Guns of Victory), this one focuses on the "anxious years" beginning in 1939 when the Allies scrambled to respond to the rapid and extensive initiatives of the German army (e.g. the invasion of Poland) which nearly achieved victory both in continental Europe and then in Great Britain. What if there had been no Lend-Lease program? What if all of the British troops had been trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk? In that event, what if an invasion of England had then succeeded? What if Hitler had not invaded Russia? Blackburn never directly addresses questions such as these but they are nonetheless relevant to his core thesis that the Allies were ill-prepared in 1939 to fight what became World War Two. The question "Where the hell are the guns?" could well be re-phrased "Where the hell is everything and everyone we need to defeat the German army?" As in the other two volumes, Blackburn's focus is on his own experience with the Canadian 4th Field Regiment. The circumstances in which he and his comrades found themselves in 1939 are representative of virtually all other Allied forces at that time: Not having anywhere near enough of the materiel they needed...and most of what they did have was obsolete. Nonetheless, by the time of the Normandy Invasion in June of 1944, the Canadian 4th Field Regiment had become among the most highly effective of all Allied fighting units as, by then, an Allied victory was assured. This volume carefully traces that difficult process of preparation and subsequent achievement from May of 1939 through July of 1944.In The Divine Comedy, Dante reserves the last and worst ring in hell for those who, in a moral crisis, preserved their neutrality. I was reminded of that as I read and then re-read the three volumes. Although each was written from Blackburn's perspective with the material anchored in his personal experience with the Canadian 4th Field Regiment, he fully understands and appreciates difficulties concerning logistics throughout the Allied military forces. My previous use of the word "scrambled" correctly describes Allied efforts (1939-1942) to assemble the men and (yes) women needed to train, equip them, and then deploy to greatest military advantage. Errors of judgment were obviously inevitable. However, Blackburn never hesitates to criticize certain military leaders who, in a moral crisis, preserved their neutrality. Throughout World War Two, so many courageous Allied troops were needlessly killed or wounded because of their leaders' timidity and indecision or concern for their own image. (Churchill once referred to then prime minister Neville Chamberlain as being "a sheep in sheep's clothing.") At best, war is messy and often brutal. Casualties are inevitable. Nonetheless, Blackburn correctly asserts that much of the anxiety during 1939-1944 could have been alleviated by more efficient and

Canada has prove to be one of the inexplicable backwaters in terms of any self-generated genesis of texts covering the wartime experience for Canadians as the dark storm clouds of war drifted over the British commonwealth and as one of the dominion states Canada became more and more drawn into the conflict in defense of Britain. In this sense the certainty of war loomed larger over our northern neighbors long before it appeared as either likely or inevitable to the average American. In this book, "Where The Hell Are The Guns? A Soldier's Eye View of the Anxious Years 1939-1944", former Canadian soldier George Blackburn retells the fascinating tale of how Canada began to prepare in earnest for the deadly and fateful conflicts to come. Although this represents the first volume of a trilogy of works that spans the duration of the Second World War and Canada's participation therein, it I the last of the three volume work to be published, largely made possible by the critical and commercial success of "The Guns Of Normandy; A Soldier's Eye View, France 1944" and "Guns Of Victory: A Soldier's Eye View, Belgium, Holland and Germany 1944-45" before it. Here the reader is treated to a quite personal and detailed description of how Canada turned its quiet, placid and peace-loving population into the veritable contributors to the Allied war effort it became in the fateful years leading up to the conflict and beyond. By using the device of concentrating on one particular unit, his own 4th Field Regiment, he traces with great fidelity and poignant accuracy the evolution of this rag-tag collection of untrained and undisciplined young recruits into a formidable fighting force, the so-called fighting sharp edge of the Canadian Artillery forces, a group about to prove themselves to the Allies and the world at large as one of the most adept and battle capable in the world. What is so memorable about Blackburn's account is the fact that it is so representative of so many young men and women who came of age in the clear cool autumn of 1939 following the blitzkrieg attack by Germany's Wehrmacht against Poland. Like all the Allied forces, Canada was dreadfully poorly equipped for the coming fight, and was forced by the dint of circumstance to remake it military force from nothing into an incredible something, and that story of that transformation is interestingly documented here. In the midst of an unrequited economic Depression shared with its brothers below the national boundaries in the United States, the volunteers quickly streamed in under the twin flags of patriotic fervor and the growl of empty bellies looking for regular meals.From such inauspicious and humble beginnings the training starts in earnest, and without the stuff of war, without guns, or trucks, or artillery, they began the long and arduous training process that would later hold them in such good stead on the beaches of Normandy and beyond. Surviving in makeshift barracks that were hastily convert