Image of War by Mark Henniker

Has anyone read this book? It appears to be a memoir bt an engineer in N/W Europe. It was published in 1987.

I've also come two others, by a Mark Chados Auberon Henniker, 'Memoirs of a Junior Officer' and 'Red Shadow over Malaya' both published in the 50s. He also was an engineer, with service in India, the desert and with the airborne. Is he the same guy? Maybe the later book is a compellation of the earlier two?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Well I've answered my own question by buying this and reading it! Basically, 'Image of War' is his account of his WW2 experiences. ‘Memoirs of a Junior Officer’, is of his service (and youth and training perhaps?) featuring his six years in India (he won an MC). ‘Red Shadow over Malaya’ is about the time he commanded 63rd Gurkha Bde from 1952-54 in the Malaysian emergency. Based om Image I suggest those two would be very worthwhile reading.


An Image of War by Mark Henniker

Leo Cooper, London, 1987. Hardcover, 266 pages.

Henniker was a regular army officer who had served in India prior to the war and would go on to brigade command in Malaya after it. His WW2 service started in France as Adjunct of the 2nd Division engineers. Following the start of the German offensive he is transferred to command 253rd Field Company in Montgomery’s 3rd Division. After Dunkirk he is assigned to put together and command the engineer component of the newly forming 1st Parachute division. His war concludes with command of the 43rd Division’s engineers from Holland to Germany. By the end he has a lot of campaigns under his belt!

The German assault on France finds Henniker in England on leave. It is fascinating to read of the efforts to get men back to the front. Unfortunately the situation is unredeemable and Henniker spends most of his time organising the destruction of bridges to hold the Germans up. He is under artillery fire and at quite some risk but he surmounts the biggest challenge, which is crossing the channel back to England.

Unusually he is then posted to the otherwise all volunteer Parachute force. It is absorbing to read of his thoughts on preparing the structure of the airborne engineers. There is specialised equipment to arrange and specific to plan. He is also intimately involved in planning the successful raid on Bruneval and the disastrous attack on Germany’s Heavy Water plant in Norway. His insights on the process; the risks and legalities are fascinating. He then precedes the parachute troops sent to Africa, where again he has a lot of organising to do. He participates in the glider assault on Sicily, where he engages briefly in infantry action against the Italians. Italy follows before he returns To England. The 1st Airborne is not called on for Normandy and doesn’t go back into action till Arnhem. Henniker participates here but ironically with the 43rd Division following his re-assignment. This last posting sees some of his most arduous service in commanding the division’s engineer assets in the advance to and through Germany.

This is the first memoir I have read by an engineer officer and it is, not surprisingly, quite different to those by infantry and tank men. Being a company and then essentially a regimental commander also brings in a very different perspective. Blowing bridges, crossing rivers, dealing with obstacles - always heavily mined, and planning efficiently for it all is very complex. Henniker does an excellent job explaining it all and makes it interesting! He also gives his thoughts on promoting subordinates, weighing decisions and evaluating successes and failures, including his own. There is also his candid appraisal of his divisional commanders, which is absorbing given these included Montgomery, Browning, Hopkinson and Thomas.

While this account has a lot less combat than most war memoirs, it is still an extremely interesting read. The author is a very literate man, he and his father even communicate in Latin at times. Surely you will come across no other war book where knowledge of the Battle of Cannae and the doings of Hereward the Wake provide help on the battlefields of the 1940s. This points also to the remarkable nature of the times. Well born men like Henniker competed in rowing and participated in fox-hunts. They served with and socialised with like-minded fellows in various army postings and all these connections often assisted communication and co-operation during the war. There is nothing pretentious though, it is simply how British society worked at the time, much to its benefit in this context at least. Simply put, this is a very informative memoir of a specialised role in WW2 by an intelligent man from a by-gone time. 5 stars

 

I liked this book and I source it frequently. I have a lot of respect for this man and what he did during and after the war. Operation Berlin was his plan and it worked despite of General Thomas' "leadership".

 

Oh, to answer your question, yes, it is the same guy.

 

He writes very well, with lots of detail. He doesn't castigate any of his commanders but it's pretty clear when he had reservations. He found Thomas demanding and prickly but due to his competance, it seems Thomas treated him better than he did others.