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Forrest Webb

Auteur de Chieftains

6 oeuvres 55 utilisateurs 3 critiques

A propos de l'auteur

Comprend les noms: Bob Forrest-Webb

Notice de désambiguation :

(eng) Forrest Webb is a pseudonym of Bob Forrest-Webb. He may also write under the pseudonyms of Roberta Forrest and Robert Trevelyan. David Forrest is a joint pseudonym for Bob Forrest-Webb and David Eliades.

Crédit image: Forrest Webb (Robert Forrest-Webb)

Œuvres de Forrest Webb

Chieftains (1982) 42 exemplaires
Brannington's Leopard (1973) 4 exemplaires
Circle of Ra (1982) 4 exemplaires
Caviar cruise (1977) 3 exemplaires
The Snowboys (1973) 1 exemplaire
Snowboys, The (1974) 1 exemplaire

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Partage des connaissances

Notice de désambigüisation
Forrest Webb is a pseudonym of Bob Forrest-Webb. He may also write under the pseudonyms of Roberta Forrest and Robert Trevelyan. David Forrest is a joint pseudonym for Bob Forrest-Webb and David Eliades.

Membres

Critiques

Decent book about a limited war of NATO v WP in Europe, told mainly from the perspective of a U.K. tank commander. Lots of factual inaccuracies (written in the early 80s, set in 85, using speculation about them current weapons programs which turned out differently than originally designed). Overall decent but not as good as Team Yankee.
 
Signalé
octal | 2 autres critiques | Jan 1, 2021 |
If you like Tom Clancy's [b:Red Storm Rising|318525|Red Storm Rising|Tom Clancy|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1173729031s/318525.jpg|5054712] then you will probably like this. Both center around a mid-80s third world war between the Soviet Union and NATO, but while Red Storm Rising is massive and tries to cover all aspects of the high level military part of the war, this book centers around a few tank crews.

It's not a great book and the end is not the best, but it's a possible time waster on a train or similar.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
bratell | 2 autres critiques | Dec 25, 2020 |
Chieftans is a speculative fiction piece on the Cold War going hot in 1985. It was written in the early 1980s and hasn't dated well. Like Game of Thrones everyone dies, but in less interesting and more predictable ways.

There are good points to Chieftans. For the most part the characters are believable and likeable. Bob Forrest-Webb clearly has done his research, and understands British Army soldiers and officers. That aspect of the book was excellent. One of things that didn't quite work for me though was that the book was clearly researched/written about four or five years before it was set (it was first published in 1982). This means that some of the kit wasn't deployed, or had its name/designation changed on deployment. There was also an aspect that kit works better in the brochure than it does in the field. I was a teenager in 1985 and was trained by the British Army a few years later in some of the kit being written about. So I found it a little hard to suspend disbelief in places.

That said, it works well as a very personal account of life at the sharp end. Research from WW2 experiences are extrapolated onto the mid 1980s. Some of this results in a couple of anachronistic bits of dialogue, something most folk won't notice. There are references to getting a wound stripe (not since WW2), and a threat to put someone on a fizzer (valid 1940s/1950s). There's also the promotion of the troop sergeant to WO1 to command the troop, there was a WW2 practice early on of using warrant officers in place of junior officers, however it was discontinued early on. Other than that the dialogue fits my own experience with British soldiers.

The battles are seen mostly from the perspectives of a single Chieftan crew, although their CO features a bit, as does a stay-behind unit and an American Abrams crew. There's cock-up as well as smooth operation, most of the viewpoint deaths happen through mistakes and/or bad luck. Although I found the Warsaw Pact artillery taking out tanks with indirect fire to be rather too effective. Short barrages seem to knock out entire squadrons, admittedly direct hits should have that effect, but a divisional artillery stonk shouldn't be that effective on armour.

Given the publication date, and the focus on the soldiers at the very front, the book is a clear product of the times. The Soviets are clearly the bad guys. They start the war (not explained how, but it doesn't need to). They use chemical weapons to unlodge defensive positions. Then, when the main characters unit repulses the Soviet advance on day 3, they use tactical nukes. The Chieftan crew aren't explicitly killed, but the way it is left they're only seconds away from it. Even though the Chieftan survives the blast, it catches fire.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
jmkemp | 2 autres critiques | Jul 5, 2016 |

Statistiques

Œuvres
6
Membres
55
Popularité
#295,340
Évaluation
½ 3.4
Critiques
3
ISBN
10

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