Tank:
The Iconography of the Tank by Patrick Wright. Published in paperback 2001 by
Faber and Faber, London, 499 pages, UK�12.99, ISBN: 0 571 20745 6.
PATRICK
Wright�s history of the tank with its imagery in modern society and the media
is both thought-provoking and novel in its approach. Apart from a few passing
references to Cambrai, Kursk and other such hallmarks of military history, this
is not a book for military historians. Indeed its angle on this war machine is
only incidentally one of a soldier, who will remain disappointed by the lack of
arrows, tactics and the like. This is a history of the iconography of the tank
as it lumbered from metal slug or behemoth on the fields of Flanders to the
�gameboy� and virtual warfare of the �army after next�.
The
book starts with the very familiar image of the Chinese Student, Wang Weilin
confronting a line of People�s Republic of China�s tanks on Tiananmen Square
in October 1989. In itself, this was the West�s ideal tank cover-page, the
Communist juggernauts confronted and stopped by Mr �Ordinary� (shopping bags
and all). In respect, however, it seems more the triumph of Vanity Fair and Kate
Adie (BBC�s chief reporter in a flak jacket) rather than Mr Ordinary.
Indeed
the thread running through this book is the rise of a symbol of war which has
lasted throughout the 20th Century and has been in most cases
considerably more powerful than the actual threat of the machine itself. The
First World War saw the elevation of the biblical �Behemoth� or
�Leviathan� from the rather vivid minds of war journalists numbed by
mindless slaughter and censor restrictions into the very symbol of an all
conquering �Hun Slayer�. The fact that in reality it was more despised by
the troops who had to fight in or near them was quietly buried in the mud of
Paschendale. Indeed the tank�s ability to transcend normal war propaganda was,
according to Wright, amply shown in its true success of the �14-18� war.
That is, its transformation by the jingoistic (and bankrupt) war promoters into
actual �banks� for citizens at home which were to raise enough war bonds and
loans to cover the rather embarrassing hole in Britain�s finances. The working
class was to identify the tank with �the war effort� in a way that no other
single investment thought up by Bonar Law was able to do. Thus the icon of the
tank had been born.
The
author gives full honours to J.F.C. Fuller, the ideologist of the tank and who
was to create the image of 20th war more than any other single
person. Wright possibly gives too much heed to Fuller, as strategist of the
mechanised era, as basher of the traditional military establishment, as mystic,
as British Fascist and harbinger of Blitzkrieg and Total War. However as a point
of reference for the 20th Century ideologies, he was certainly
important. The importance that his military thinking may have had on the pre-war
democracies, Hitler�s Germany, Stalin�s Russia, the new Israel and
America�s new found Desert Storm order, is argued in degree but not in
substance. This is not an argument of tank tactics but rather the acceptance of
the crushing use of power, of weight and �technology' against other more
subtle and human frailties. This argument seems to come to its high water mark
between the clash of totalitarian powers on the steppes of Russia.
One
of the universal images to come out of the second world war was the picture of
�heroic bravery against steam-rolling barbarism, or traditional stupidity
against the unstoppable surge of modernity (according to your point of view) is
that of the Polish lancers charging German panzers. Interestingly this was not
the triumph of the tank but rather the triumph of journalism or propaganda over
reality (again according to your point of view) as indeed it seems doubtful
whether any such incident actual happened. Interestingly this triumph was one of
the few achievements of Mussolini�s Italy. Not, I should hasten to add that
Mussolini had much affinity for tanks but the Fascist regime had much more flair
for journalism. Indeed, according to Wright, it was Indro Montanelli, paladin of
Italian journalism, who first identified, �horses against armoured cars� as
the leitmotif of the war. However it was another journalist Curzio
Malaparte, first darling then ogre of the Fascist regime who was to iconise the
tank as the image of war. First with the Germans in Russia and subsequently with
the Americans in Italy his image of the tank and war went beyond that deemed
proper by the power in force although not necessarily by the public.
Just
like any good Shakespearean tragedy, this book has its lighter moments. The
Polish 1960�s successful sitcom is a credit to the Polish sense of humour. A
Polish couple after �winning� an ideal home on a game-show discover that all
they have is an empty plot of land and a mound of earth. Upon digging � Well
best wait for the next instalment, Mediaset take note!
The
influence tank�s symbolism seems to have grown since the end of the last war,
again more as national identity rather than as an instrument of war. Israel�s
adoption of the tank as a symbol of its national security, an armed and armoured
nation constantly surrounded by enemies lead her to develop the Merkava
(chariot) tank which would have left the majority of middle range European
powers bankrupt in terms of development costs. Furthermore there is the
interesting parallel with the 19th century Yiddish tale of a rabbi
who invents an invincible protector of his people, �Golem�. The dark side of
this tale is that Golem then ran amok, turning on its maker, a rather stark
image as our daily television shows us the Merkava turning on unarmed civilians.
The final chapter of the book runs through the familiar media stories of the end of the 20th century: �Who painted the pink tank in Prague?�, the computer imaged, joystick driven tanks of America�s virtual reality Desert Storm armies. One of the final images in Wright�s book is the �poliscar� � a vehicle for the homeless of New York. This at once both underlines the interesting line which this book takes and also the sometimes stretched �poetic licence' of the tank�s iconography which is the author�s main concern. An interesting story but just how much of the imagery can be believed?
Robert Coates holds two honours degrees from the University of Edinburgh, where he specialised in mediaeval history with a thesis on the Normans in Sicily. An Adelaide Australian who was brought up in Fife, Scotland, he has been teaching English at the University of Brescia in Italy since 1987.
Note: This review was first published on November 27 2002 by JUST Book Reviews.
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