Fight against terrorism, external operations, World War II… three books recount the experience of war

In the Sahel or on the borders of Ukraine, at low noise or at high intensity, war imposes itself every day in the news. Three authors have sought to go beyond simple commentary, and to expose the terribly human side, the very particular reality, the reasons for a success or a disaster. A novel, two essays, the same theme but three different angles of attack: three dense books.

“Dark Shard”: a bullet in the middle of itœur

It’s a true story, as true as fiction can sometimes be. Near Amiens, on June 7, 1940, the French captain Charles Ntchorere was executed, who, with his troops, had, for five days, repelled the German advance to one against ten. Heroic. Charles Ntchorere’s life ends with a bullet in his heart, but the novel written by Jean-Marie Quemener begins.

A short and dense novel, like the last hours of this officer, a distinguished combatant during the First World War, and a rare African to command Blacks and Whites in the same unit. Opposite, on the right side of the weapon, Hauptmann Karl von Dönhoff, Prussian aristocrat. Charles and Carl. “The Animal, The Monkey, The Negro, The Zoo Beast”, thinks Karl of Charles. Who answers him by quoting Kant. The dialogue between the two men, the humanist Frenchman and the inflexible German, will reverse the balance of power. The German holds the gun, the French the spittoon, and little by little, the enemies discover each other, and weave a strange relationship: war is their bond, honor their common good. Each summons memories, invokes history, evokes death. “Would you guess my blood is just as red as yours, my bones just as white”asserts Charles Ntchorere, “Under the mud, we are all brown, and behind a desk, we are all pale.”

But even if the raw animosity between the black and the white, the French and the German, the Prussian officer and the skirmisher who has risen in rank leaves, sentence after sentence, room for respect, the story is not replayed. Karl von Dönhoff shoots, Charles Ntchorere dies. “Goodbye My friend”loose the officer of the Wehrmacht, in front of the corpse of the one he called “the primate” a few hours before. The writer and journalist Jean-Marie Quemener finds in Dark Shard traces of humanity: war is waged by occasional enemies, men not so far apart, despite the differences.

Dark Shardby Jean-Marie Quemener, Plon editions

“Body and soul”: unvarnished war

“I did not want to tell the story of my campaigns”, warns Nicolas Zeller. Military doctor, after years of operational engagements, notably with the special forces, he put down on paper a set of thoughts on engagement, death, courage. His publisher urges him to tell, all the same, episodes of his military life, so Nicolas Zeller, on reading his first draft, fleshes out his manuscript, reveals himself a little to make us understand a lot.

“Thanks to Nicolas Zeller, here we are immersed in the heart of the operations. Without taboo, without omerta. (…) A series of overwhelming appointments. Body with soul. Dirt with blood and tears. The “heroism with fear. Video games, porn movies, body-building, self-worship with the highest elevation and total dedication.”

Erik Orsenna

in the preface to “Body and Soul”

Participate in driving out Daesh from Mosul in 2015, under shelling, in “dirt, blood and tears”is to wonder about the price of blood, about this “death that jumps out at us, whether we like it or not”. Being part of the group that hunts jihadists responsible for a massacre in Ouagadougou in 2016, wading through pools of blood, is then to understand why a non-commissioned officer, however seasoned, often laughing, throws in the towel: “I signed for the adventure, not for that”.

Body and soul is unvarnished, what Nicolas Zeller claims. “We tend to sell and read things that are a little too sweet with honeyhe continues. I wanted frankness, truth, conviction. To make the youngest hear that war is not a video game. I wouldn’t want to hear any more young soldiers regretting that they weren’t told everything when they enlisted.”

All the interest of the stories and teachings of the military doctor is due to this, to this raw truth to speak courage and cowardice, tears and laughter, fights and boredom. “Thank you for speaking to us in truth”, say to the author of the cadets of Saint-Cyr, where he has just presented his book. Nicolas Zeller smiles as he thinks about it: “It’s the best compliment”.

Body and soul, by Nicolas Zeller, Tallandier editions

“The Time of the Cheetahs”: French operations dissected

There are books that are helped by circumstances. At a time when, after years of silence, of distance, elected officials are wondering about Operation Barkhane, Michel Goya imposes the ultimate “retex” (feedback), the analysis of 60 years of French wars, 32 “opex” (external operations). Here, no battle stories, no testimonies – there are some elsewhere, in other works – but an autopsy of French engagements throughout the world.

With a scalpel (and hindsight), the former naval officer turned historian dissects the interventions sometimes decided in a snap of the fingers by the presidents of the Fifth Republic. Why in a snap? Because they can. But that’s not the subject of the Cheetah Time. The subject, basically, is: where did we win, where did we lose? And why ?

A specific goal, a clear purpose, and it’s a victory for the military. It was Operation Daguet (in coalition, under American command) to liberate Kuwait in 1991. It was Serval, in 2013, to stop the jihadist advance from northern Mali to the south of the country. But a catchall objective like “fight against terrorism”with an equally vague doctrine, “winning hearts and minds”, and weak allies, it is Barkhane, where tactical successes are not enough to bring security to towns and villages. As Michel Goya writes about opex, “it is better not to be present too long (…) in a conflict zone which cannot be stabilized in less than three years. Beyond this period, it will often be difficult to withdraw”. And we will not accuse Colonel Goya of playing the opportunist: this conviction, he hammers it – on the airwaves, on his blog The Way of the Sword – for years.

The Time of the Cheetahsby Michel Goya, Tallandier editions