Not run-of-the-military

Not run-of-themilitary Robert Rhodes James

WHEN THE GRASS STOPS GROWING

by Carol Mather

Leo Cooper, 21.95, pp. 248

I must frankly confess that when I was a parliamentary colleague of Carol Mather for 11 years I had not appreciated that I was in the presence of an author and memoirist of rare quality. I knew that he had had 'a good war' - although had not realised just how good it was - but his agreeable company and modesty effectively concealed talents that were first demonstrated in Aftermath of War, published in 1992. The enthusiastic response to this account of the grim dilemmas facing the British over the German army cossack prisoners of war and Yugoslavs fleeing Tito's terror has encouraged him to recount his previous experiences.

These were quite extraordinary. Having nearly been sent to Finland, he was despatched to North Africa instead, and teamed up with David Stirling and the fledgling SAS. Things were not going well for the British at the end of 1941, but the SAS and the Long Range Desert Patrols could, and did, cause havoc operating behind the German and Italian lines. One epic expedition from Cairo to Benghazi, most vividly described, did not succeed, but it brought Mather to the attention of the newly arrived Montgomery, who appointed him his Liaison Officer.

Montgomery was not yet the legendary figure he was to become, but he was already making his mark on an Army that, if not actually demoralised, had little to be cheerful about. Mather describes the impact he made, and his plans for El Alamein, and gives a remarkable account of the battle from his unique vantage-point.

Montgomery's use of his young daredevil Liaison Officers to maintain personal contact with his senior commanders and give him front-line reports was a major feature of his system of command, and he chose carefully and well. Mather was to serve in the same role in Normandy and, crucially, at the time of the German breakthrough in December 1945, in the 'impassable' Ardennes, the American near-rout, and Montgomery's decisive intervention on the spot, Eisenhower being in his Paris hotel, hopelessly out of touch. On one of these perilous forays, in appalling weather, Mather's little Auster aircraft was shot down and, badly wounded, he was lucky to survive.

But, in the interlude, he had set off in North Africa on another desert operation, this time to Tripoli. Much went wrong, and he was taken prisoner, finishing up in an Italian prisoner-of-war camp in northern Italy. He discovered, the hard way, that the Italians treated their prisoners abominably. He resolved to escape as soon as an opportunity occurred, duly did so, and with a companion walked hundreds of miles through mainly hostile territory to rejoin the British Army.

This, in itself, was an epic of escapology. If the escape itself had been relatively easy, the rest was not. Thus, he returned to England and to Montgomery, whom he served bravely and devotedly until his adventures were nearly ended in his Auster.

Mather kept diaries, and also clearly has exceptional powers of recall. He is perhaps excessively modest, and his writing is rather too prone to unnecessary exclamation marks, but his dry humour and shrewd perceptions put this book in the front rank of wartime memoirs. He is by no means uncritical of Montgomery - and particularly his sometimes tactless attitude towards the Americans - but he could see his outstanding qualities.

This is, above all, an adventure story. Mather captures the fascinating beauty, majesty, and perversity of the desert quite perfectly, as he does the Italian countryside and mountains through which he had to trek to freedom, the difficulty of the Normandy bocage, and the freezing miseries of the Ardennes in mid-winter.

The word 'classic' tends to be seriously over-used, but this outstanding book merits it. And a Military Cross seems rather inadequate recognition of his record. But he does not complain; indeed, he does not mention it. But few knighthoods for public service have been better deserved.

Copyright Spectator Jan 10, 1998
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