Abundance of Valor

January 11, 2010
Allied special operations units fight and flounder in the ill-fated Market-Garden offensive in this colorful but unfocused WWII picaresque. Former Special Forces fighter Irwin (The Jedburghs
) recounts the exploits of three-man “Jedburgh Teams” sent into German-occupied Holland to organize Dutch resistance fighters in support of General Montgomery’s infamous “bridge too far” debacle. The author focuses on two Americans: Lt. Harvey Allan Todd, who was taken prisoner by the Germans at Arnheim, and Maj. John Olmsted, who organized a secret intelligence network behind enemy lines. There’s not much shape or significance to these largely unrelated plot lines, which concern some of the most ill-conceived and useless operations of the war. Olmsted lost important enemy plans; in Todd’s case, an American rescue force is captured by the Germans and imprisoned in the very POW camp it was supposed to liberate. Still, the author vividly recounts many varieties of WWII experience: blood-and-guts combat set pieces; a tense espionage thriller; and a harrowing captivity narrative. Irwin’s angle on the oft-told Market-Garden fiasco doesn’t make for a grand epic, just a collection of well-told war stories. Photos, 4 maps.

After D-Day of WWII, British General Montgomery devised a radical plan to rush northeast, cross the Rhine, and enter Germany. Special Forces teams, named the Jedburghs, united with the Dutch civilian resistance to support the campaign. If successful, Operation Market Garden would have ended the European war in a few months. However, the Allied commanders' hubristic underestimation of Germany's resourcefulness caused a major defeat. In the beginning, narrator Michael Prichard must recite an overdose of unit numbers, foreign towns, and fighters. Later, with the POW biographies, he becomes the familiar and delightfully detached voice so popular with audio listeners. ABUNDANCE OF VALOR provides valuable insights into combat psychology. J.A.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine