The Battle Is the Payoff

YOUR OWN BELOVED SONS (230 pp.) --Thomas Anderson--Random House ($3.50).

Ever since Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage it has pleased critics to believe that it was not necessary to be a soldier to write a good war novel. It is true that a soldier who is also a bad writer will invariably write a bad war novel, as a dreary succession of them has amply proved. But it is equally true that a good writer who is also a soldier is apt to write a better war novel because he knows what he is talking about. Young (26) Thomas Anderson knows very well what he is talking about, and it makes all the difference in this first novel.

Anderson, born in New Jersey but raised and educated in Denmark, joined the U.S. Army, and reached the Korean front two days before Christmas Day 1950. Only a few weeks later his company (reconnaissance, 7th Infantry Division) was trapped behind the enemy lines. For 24 hours the outfit fought to break through the surrounding Chinese and make a dash for the town of Hoeng-song, which was held by Dutch allies. It is hard to believe that without this experience behind him, Author Anderson could have brought off so knowledgeable a performance as Your Own Beloved Sons. At any rate, it is the skillfully exploited background for the most impressive novel that has come out of the Korean war.

Last Patrol. Anderson's hero is one of those perfectionist noncoms who make the difference between a bunch of men and an outfit. Sergeant Stanley need not have volunteered for what turned out to be his last patrol; he was about to be rotated home, and he had proved himself more than once to be the bravest and most effective noncom in the company. To get through the surrounding Chinese in broad daylight, ford a river, get in touch with the Dutch and then return was a job no man in his right senses would ask for. It was typical of Stanley that he did. It was even more typical of him that he took the men he did: only two reliable oldtimers plus a new kid who had just joined the outfit, a good-looking, unreliable drunk and a dreamy boy whose only experience had been in the company's kitchen. All they had in common was absolute confidence in Stanley. As for Stanley, his sense of responsibility for his men was so close to love as to be a military weakness. He understood them too well, made too many allowances for them, took it on himself to try to shape their characters. This time there was too much stacked against him. Between the overwhelming Chinese, the character flaws of his men and his own protectiveness, the patrol ended in a disaster in which heroism and simple humanity were underscored during a brief stretch of nightmarish combat.

Love for War. Author Anderson writes with a cleanness and economy that are seldom part of a young writer's equipment. He knows and conveys the love that a soldier has for his weapon; he also knows, as many writers do not, that men can get to love an outfit and even war itself for the loyalties they command. Stanley's last act may seem too sensitive and sacrificial for so experienced a combat hand, but the real army does have its Stanleys. Your Own Beloved Sons is a modest book written toward modest goals, but with it Author Anderson has won his writer's battle the first time out.

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