Fitzroy Maclean (1911–1996)

This is like the best type of old man beach read, or maybe the kind of book you give your stepdad for Christmas.

Very entertaining, mainly because of the circumstances Maclean found himself in; Central Asia and the Soviet Union at a time when it was mostly closed to outsiders, the the doubly treacherous North African desert during wartime, installed with the radical Partisans in Yugoslavia as the fought against German occupation.

As for the man himself, I guess we come from different show more generations is all. I was mostly impressed by his tremendous bravery (in the most neutral sense of the word) and his broad intellect when dealing with far-flung cultures and peoples. When he mentioned near the beginning of the book that he was able to chat up the Russian border guards with the Russian he had learned in Paris nightclubs, I knew I was dealing with a special kind of person. His political opinions, which are liberally sprinkled thru this account, I don’t exactly share, but he was able to judge people for their worth as human beings and not get weighed down in ideology.

I was also struck by the tremendous impassibility with which he recounted the tremendously violent events that take place in the last third of the book. I guess that’s how we know we are dealing we a career soldier here. That mixed with a healthy dose of British stiff chin allows Maclean to dryly describe gawking civilians being blithely shelled into oblivion in Belgrade during the battle to liberate the city without much, if any emotion. This isn’t necessarily a criticism. After all, this was the war for the claim to the future of civilization, but I think the 21st century reader is much more conditioned by a climate of extreme fear of and distrust of resorting to combat. show less

A detailed and enjoyable account of the wartime exploits of one of Churchill's favourite "gentleman buccaneers", I was nonetheless initially disappointed in this book, mainly because (in the 2019 Penguin UK edition), Simon Sebag Montefiore's introduction bigs up the book as a life-changing great work of literature. But Patrick Leigh Fermor it isn't. Rather, Maclean provides an eloquent, at times amusing and at other times stark account of his travels in Soviet Central Asia in the 1930s, and show more then his activities in the Western Desert and Yugoslavia during the Second World War.

As a young man, Maclean was posted to the British Embassy in Paris; but finding the round of diplomatic engagements and parties unfulfilling, he got himself posted to Moscow - then an unpopular posting - because he felt that to be the place where he could indulge his passion for finding things out. This he proceeded to do, going beyond the call of duty by setting out in his free time to explore Soviet Central Asia, inspired by the romance of places like Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. In this, he was at first hindered, and later greatly assisted, by having two secret policemen on his tail. Having once extracted himself from a potentially unpleasant situation with a troop of NKVD cavalry by passing off a ticket for the Red Square May Day Parade as an "access all zones" diplomatic pass signed by someone very senior (made possible by his being the only person in the room who could actually read Russian), he became emboldened and started using the NKVD local offices and his minders as personal tour organisers, arranging rooms in official hostels here, a train compartment into a closed zone there (when such a thing was officially Not Possible), or transport with a lorry or even a car into sensitive areas somewhere else. This section of the book combines humour with some interesting travel writing in an area which is still little known to us even 25 years since the fall of Communism.

On his return to Moscow, Maclean attended the show trial of Bukharin and other Bolshevik leaders. His pen portrait of Bukharin in particular and his perceptive observations on the process, and of Stalin's underlying paranoia, makes for interesting reading.

At the outbreak of war, Maclean determined to join the Army, as was the family tradition. This required some considerable manoeuvring, as diplomats were not supposed to join up. Instead, he resigned from the Diplomatic Service in order to stand for Parliament; once he had won the by-election (in Lancaster) for the Conservatives, and despite making no bones about joining up if elected, he joined the Army as a private. This did not last long; he earned his first stripe, and then was quickly headhunted, probably on the strength of his reports on Soviet Central Asia, into David Stirling's new Special Air Service (SAS) and given a commission.

Maclean's account of his actions with the SAS is interesting, especially as so much has been written about them by others and much has passed into popular mythology. Maclean's account gives a rather downbeat account of SAS operations and their degree of success; but he also explores some of the thinking behind their operations, the extent of Axis intelligence operations directed against them, and some analysis of the SAS' role in the wider conflict, which in the eyes of the higher levels of command was to tie up Axis military assets in guarding their own installations behind the lines.

Diverted to the Middle East to replicate the SAS establishment in Iran and Iraq, in the anticipation of German efforts to penetrate these areas for their oil from the north, Maclean recounted some adventures there, including kidnapping a pro-German Persian general from his own fortified home under the noses of his own men.

Maclean was then tasked directly by Churchill with going into the then Yugoslavia and establishing contact with the Partisans. At the time, British support was concentrated on the Chetniks, remnants of the Royal Yugoslav Army which were supposedly continuing resistance to the Italians and Germans, but which seemed to be at best 'hands-off' and at worst actually collaborating with the invaders. Churchill wanted to find out about the partisans and their leader, the mysterious 'Tito', about whom we knew nothing. Some even speculated that Tito was not a single individual, but a committee.

Maclean was not just tasked with making contact with Tito; he was allocated resources to establish a liaison office with the Partisans. Accordingly, he set about recruiting soldiers to go into Yugoslavia with him and training them up to make parachute jumps and fight in difficult terrain. This involved some detachments to the School of Mountain Warfare, established in the Bekaa Valley in the Lebanon. (This was of interest to me as my father also went to the School of Mountain Warfare, and this is the first time I have seen it referenced in print. It is likely that my father was there at the same time as Maclean; but as Maclean was bridling at continued training and in any case was constantly being called back to Cairo for meetings and consultations, I doubt their paths crossed at all.)

Perhaps the major part of the book is devoted to Maclean and the war in Yugoslavia. He gives a short version of Yugoslav history which is probably the best and clearest account of that knotty subject. His account of his comings and goings with the Partisans has a lot of detail; he illustrates Napoleon's dictum that "an army marches on its stomach", especially in the account of the repasts conjured up out of nowhere by the Partisans and the villagers they meet with. Perhaps the other significant part of this book is Maclean's portrait of Tito. They appear to have become great friends; Maclean respects Tito and expresses hopes that he would not turn into an identikit puppet Soviet leader, such as those he had seen in the Soviet Union. In his description of Tito, he sees indications that this may not be so; having fought so hard for their freedom, Tito says, would Maclean expect the Yugoslavs to give it up so readily to anyone else, Communist doctrine notwithstanding?

The book ends with the liberation of Belgrade and Maclean being pulled out of the country, close to the war's end.

So: not the literary masterpiece I had been led to expect, but certainly a significant book because of Maclean's insights and love of travel. There are some other concerns; there is small-'r' racism throughout, as Maclean uses the language of racial stereotyping extensively. There is one tangential use of the 'n' word. But Maclean does not appear to be at all prejudiced in his personal dealings with people of all races and cultures, so I feel we should mark this down to the fashions of the time.

And there is one factual query; late in the account of his time in Yugoslavia, Maclean makes reference to a "Fiat mortar"; something I have never heard of. His description is somewhat ambiguous, which makes me wonder if the intention was to refer to a British weapon called a PIAT - in Army parlance, a 'Projectile, Infantry, Anti-Tank" - a single-use shoulder-mounted weapon which propelled a mortar-like round by means of a powerful spring. If that is so, then this is a typo which has been in place since the first edition of this book in 1949, and which no-one has ever challenged, possibly through a lack of military experience within the publishing industry! Sadly, we can't check this any longer, Maclean having died in 1996.

So: not a literary masterpiece, although well-written and with a fine ear for language and an eye for detail. But certainly a book of great value for understanding a lot of eastern European history of the 20th Century, written by someone who was there. show less

Eastern Approaches is not only close to the perfect travel book; it is a lively memoir of the quixotic adventures of a diplomat turned war hero who writes with style and wit. In the mid-thirties Fitzroy Maclean was a junior diplomat at the British embassy in Paris. Bored with the pleasant but undemanding routine, he requested a posting to Moscow. Eastern Approaches opens with Maclean on a train, pulling out of Paris and much of the first section of the book covers his repeated attempts to show more explore Soviet central Asia. He reached Baku, Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and many other places, and though there are few pictures, you do not need them for it is a riveting story -- fighting Soviet bureaucracy; being trailed by the NKVD; negotiating with locals for food and a place to sleep. At one point he manages with difficulty to persuade the Soviets to let him cross into Afghanistan: communicating primarily in sign language he manages to obtain an escort to Mazar-i-Sharif, through a lawless area with a cholera outbreak.
Maclean was in Moscow until late 1939, and so was present during the great Stalinist purges. One long chapter is devoted to one of the largest of these, in which Bukharin, Yagoda and other stalwarts of the Stalinist regime were accused (and of course convicted) of heinous crimes. The details of the trial, and the responses of the accused, are utterly fascinating; Maclean's analysis equally so.
When war broke out, Maclean was prevented from enlisting at first because of his position as a diplomat. He eventually managed to sign up by a subterfuge, and in North Africa Maclean distinguished himself in the early actions of the newly formed SAS. He rose from private to officer rank, and Churchill personally chose him to lead a liaison mission to central Yugoslavia, where Tito and his partisans were emerging as a major irritant to the German control of the Balkans. The last third of the book recounts how over eighteen months Maclean built Allied/Partisan cooperation from nothing to a key element in the last phases of the war. By the end, Maclean was a Major-General, and a friend of Tito's.
Maclean is a fine writer, with the British gift for understatement and wry humour. The book is filled with adventures that are spectacularly entertaining: if you have any taste for history, adventure, travel writing or war-time memoirs, you would enjoy reading this book. show less

What an exciting read! Based, of course, on an equally exciting life. Sir Fitzroy was a founding member of Davis Stirling's SAS regiment who's motto is "Who Dares Wins". Maclean was a diplomat who dared. Based in glorious, cultured and comfortable Paris, he applied for transfer to Moscow. The Foreign Office of course jumped at the chance to deploy and experienced and already valued diplomat to a posting that nobody else wanted.

Once there - monitored and constrained - Maclean went wandering, show more to places - Samarkand, Bokura - where he was not allowed. Watched and followed by the NKVD, the forerunner to president Putin's old mob, the KGB, the rules designed to intimidate - no rooms without a special KGB pass - Maclean turned on their head. He developed an early "face' that led him to seek out the local offices of the dreaded secret police force to DEMAND their assistance in obtaining hotel rooms, local guides and transport in places he was not allowed to be! He even bullied them into booking his onward train journeys - first class of course. Having one of those magic black passports as a diplomat helped of course, but mainly it was his own personality.

In later careers and adventures as a soldier, commando,elected member of Parliament, 'Desert Rat' and SAS behind-enemy-lines raider this face served him well, allowing him, while dressed in full British Army uniform to order Nazi guards to give him access to to the port and docks of Benghazi.

Breathless and admiring, the reader applauds until his eventual, no doubt grudging and reluctant death at 85!

Wonderful. show less