Scott’s Comments (group member since Jun 05, 2014)

Scott’s comments from the Army of Worn Soles Army group.

On this day, September 9 in 1943, American and British forces landed at Salerno, Italy and ran into fierce defense by German forces. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army was fighting the Battle of the Dnieper, taking the eastern shore of Europe's third-longest river along a front stretching 1400 kilometres. It was a battle that involved nearly 4 million men and 5,000 tanks, and caused up to 2.7 million casualties.

The leader of the first Ukrainian Insurgent Army, also known as the Polissian Sich, in 1941 called himself "Taras Bulba-Borovets," after the character from Nikolai Gogol's novel about seventeenth-century Cossacks.

Thank you for posting this, Samreen!

Army Of Worn Soles is the true story of Maurice Bury, a Canadian citizen caught up in the second world war when he is conscripted into the Ukrainian army. Not only does Bury have to battle his German foe, he has to contend with capture and internment in a prisoner-or-war camp.

As an author of war and military action thrillers, I love to write battle scenes. As I plot them out, I envisage the action unfolding and jot down the words while remaining detached. When I read this book, though, I got a real sense of the desperate fear that must grip every combatant. The fact that it is a true story makes it harder to comprehend how anyone could go through the terror of war, and I was gripped as I read about the battle of Poltava.

The ending leaves open the possibility of more to come, and I for one can’t wait to read more of Bury’s exploits.

Doing research into any period of history also reveals a lot of popular misconceptions that spread and reinforce by repetition by people who don't check.

This time of year particularly reinforces one: D-Day or Operation Overlord was the biggest invasion in military history. It was the biggest amphibious assault, certainly, but it was dwarfed by the German invasion of the USSR in 1941.

D-Day had 1,450,000 men approximately in the attack on the Allied side, against 380,000 German soldiers. In attacking the USSR in 1941, the Axis sent 3.8 MILLION personnel and 4,300 tanks, along with 7,200 artillery pieces and thousands of planes against almost 3 million Soviet soldiers with 15,000 tanks.

In Operation Bagration, the Soviet push to clear the war out of the Belorussia, the Baltic countries and Poland in 1944, the Soviet forces featured 1.6 million men, 5800 tanks, 33,000 artillery pieces and nearly 8,000 planes against some 886,000 Axis personnel and only 800 tanks.

Those statistics also point out how the German forces had been worn down over the years of war. Just look at the numbers of tanks: from 4,300 sent into the Eastern Front in 1941, down to 800 in 1944, despite the factories working flat-out to replace those destroyed, and new models coming almost continuously.

Writing a book based on history, whether it’s fictional or not, requires a lot of research, and brings many surprises. The biggest surprise I had while researching Army of Worn Soles was just how little most of us in North America and western Europe know about the Second World War in the eastern front, between the Axis forces and the Soviet Union.

The research for this book began, of course, with talking with my late father-in-law, the subject and protagonist of the book, Maurice Bury. The first things that he told me about his experiences surprised me and began to show me that we in the West have not bothered to learn much about the eastern front—and ultimately gave me the title for the book.

“We marched until our boots wore out, and then men had to wrap their feet in old newspapers,” he said.

I was astounded that soldiers could walk far enough to wear through their boots, and then Maurice explained that while officers like him had good, leather boots, most of the enlisted men had cloth or felt boots that wore out quickly. And the Soviets were so unprepared for the German invasion in 1941, they could not resupply their forces.

Another surprise was the number of horses both armies used in those days. My general impression of the war, like most people in North America, I suspect, was largely formed by Hollywood movies. And those movies always show the armies moving on tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other machines. Armies were finished with horses, I thought, with the First World War.

But just Google some images from the war, and you’ll see how prevalent horses were for moving guns and equipment and officers—for, well, horsepower.

That’s one of the things that I hoped to accomplish with this book: to inform readers in the West about something they don’t, but should, know about.

I really enjoyed this book and it was written as if it had been experienced by the author. It’s gritty and very true to life although I must confess I’ve never experienced times as harsh and brutal as the ones in this book.

It amazes me the hardships that people had to endure (and still do today) during wartime.
The author painted a vivid and realistic picture of the times and it was only later that I found out that this story was experienced by someone other than the author.
There is a lot of detail in the book that only someone that had been in the war in that part of the world would have known.

Besides a couple of misspelled words I can find nothing to bitch about, and enjoyed the harsh drama vividly painted by the author. I usually read sci-fi and fantasy, but I took a chance on this book and it didn’t disappoint. You’ll get to see the world through the eyes of someone who lived through the war and lived to talk about it.

I would highly recommend it! *****

Alex B. (Afobos)

I had the recent pleasure of reading this novel prior to its release. All I can say is, if you’re into historical fiction based in World War II—or just want a great read, period—get this book. Here’s my review:

“They shuffled ahead to where a German private had ladled soup from a barrel into small metal bowls. Fish heads floating in water, that’s what the Germans called soup for the prisoners on the eastern front.”

With that telling description of life as a Red Army POW, one can sense the despair and futility that fell upon these poor souls trapped beneath the steel heels of German agression during World War II. In Scott Bury’s exceptional novel—based on the real-life accounts of his father-in-law, Maurice Bury, a Canadian-born Ukrainian conscripted by the Soviets—Army of Worn Soles takes you not only into enemy territory, but uncharted territory seen through human eyes: The hell of war.

Though told in novel form, historical facts are not only accurate, but shocking, tightly woven into a fast-moving story that gets to the heart of one man and his struggle to stay alive in a time where death could come at any moment. Well-written and stylish, Army of Worn Soles is as gripping as it is heartwarming—and a perfect read for World War II history buffs who thought they’d read it all.