Description
The High White Forest by Ralph Allen, Doubleday, 1964
Ralph Allen (August 25, 1913—December 2, 1966) was a Canadian journalist and novelist. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The son of a CPR railway agent, he lived in a succession of small towns across the prairies. At sixteen he became a sports writer for the Winnipeg Tribune and later on for the Toronto Globe. In World War Two he enlisted as a gunner for the Royal Canadian Artillery and served until 1943 when he became a war correspondent for the Toronto Globe and Mail. He covered Canadian actions in Sicily, Italy and Normandy. After the war he worked as an editor for Maclean's magazine and later on as managing editor of the Toronto Star. Allen wrote five novels some of which were based on his war experience. His most successful book, Peace River Country, was inspired by his own experience growing up in Western Canada. He also wrote Ordeal by Fire: 1919-1945, a book on early 20th century Canadian history.
Story Centered around the battle of Ardennes (""the Bulge"") and its three-part story weaves in the activities of an American squad, a Canadian squad and some Nazi special troops. The Nazis are especially well-drawn, although the Americans and Canadians singled out have an authenticity far beyond the usual stereotypes of war stories. The Nazis have been specially trained to pose as American soldiers. Their putative mission is to capture General Eisenhower and abduct him. (The Nazis had carried off just such an abduction of Mussolini when he was captured.) Franz Koerner, a Nazi squad leader, As he and his troops prowl behind the Allied lines and mouth Americanese, they find their mission falling apart and their esprit buckling. But then they fined that the Allies are losing in the Ardennes. Their hopes are short-lived, however, and soon they are in a nightmare of vanished battle lines, with the Americans, Canadians and Nazis all chucked together in a colossal lost cause. The climax is an extraordinary display of high irony.
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