Tank Commander

Second Lieutenant John Carey experiences the horror of war for the first time on the battlefield of Mons in this gripping, vividly-realized work of historical fiction for young readers. As the narrative moves from one WWI battle to the next, John serves under commanders good and bad, and sees almost all of his fellows mowed down in the carnage around him. Eventually, he is recruited for a brand new, top secret unit, one that will introduce tank warfare into the conflict...

The twelfth entry in Ronald Welch's Carey Family Chronicles, which follows the fortunes of members of the same landed Welsh family through centuries of British history, Tank Commander was originally publisher in 1972, and is the last of the books, chronologically show more speaking. (The thirteenth entry in the series, The Road to Waterloo, was published posthumously from the author's notes in 2018, and is set far earlier in time, in the period leading up to that famous battle). Tank Commander offers a fascinating look at the mechanization of warfare during the First World War—a subject about which I hitherto knew nothing, but which proved quite engrossing. As always, Welch knows his history, and provides a wealth of technical detail, all worked into a story of a young man involved in the development of a new way of waging war. This is a different kind of WWI book, and I found, as I read it, that I was comparing it in my mind to another excellent work of children's fiction set during the period, namely, Michael Morpurgo's War Horse. While that book examined warfare from the perspective of an equine participant, harking back to older means of fighting, the Welch is focused on the development of technology, and its use in newer forms of fighting. Given that WWI is sometimes called "the first modern war," I think reading these two books together would offer some interesting insight, and spark good discussion amongst young people studying the subject.

In any case, I found this to be another excellent entry in Welch's series, and look forward (with a little bit of bittersweetness) to reading the final book featuring the Careys. show less