Rating: 
Summary: A terrific story.
Review: Not a formal history, but a wonderful memoir. I passed this book up several times as I'm not too interested in the Burma Campaign. However, I'd read some of Fraser's short stories and enjoyed them, so I finally bit. This has become one of my favorite books: great writing throughout, by turns funny and sad and always evocative.
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Summary: Vivid description of WWII combat
Review: Outstanding piece of writing. Vividly conveys sense of personal combat in Burma during WWII. One of the best (if not the best!) accounts I have read of what the actual fighting was like for the individual soldier. Keen insights into human behaviour as well.
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Summary: One of the finest portraits of men at war.
Review: QSOH is the voice of the real soldier. The episode concerning a Sgt.'s untutored reaction to Henry V; the portrait of the Gurkhas; and the description of Field-Marshal Slim's leadership are all particularly memorable. I also appreciated his contempt for modern psychobabble mores.
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Summary: Dry humour and battlefield courage in a British platoon
Review: The author describes his experiences of life with the dour, no-nonsense, Cumbrian ( an area of North-west England, known for its down-to-earth approach to life ) regiment, fighting close combat against the Japanese in Burma - the forgotten army in the forgotten war. This is definitely a man's book, the disparaging humour between the men being characteristic of the British army, and better than hours of contemporary "comedy". The descriptions of the child-like yet deadly (to the Japanese) ghurkas and charismatic Field Marshal Slim are inspirational. On one occasion a small ghurka band holds a position against wave after wave of suicidal Japanese assaults; then it's discovered they don't have a single round of ammunition between them, relying rather on their weapon of choice - the "kukri" - curved machete-like knife - leaving piles of Japanese dead all around them. There is a hilarious portrayal of a type unique to the British army - the eccentric upper-class officer, who has no fear of danger, takes the war as something of fun, and is absolutely deadly in his effectiveness towrads the enemy. In my opinion this is a unique, precious book - to be treasured - showing war in the raw, as it really was, with real people, right up against the battlezone. These guys just got on with the job. Buy this book. You will read it with relish, and return to it when you need an uplift. Sheer pleasure.
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Summary: A breath of fresh air
Review: The enthusiastic reviews already posted accurately describe this wonderful memoir of the author's service as a nineteen year old British soldier in the last land campaign of WWII, Burma, June, 1945. The real pay-off of the book, though, is in the author's discussion of the rights and wrongs of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan, which concludes with an entirely original thought. As unlikely as it sounds that after sixty years of debate on this subject, anyone could have anything new to say, Fraser in fact does, and what he has to say will probably surprise you. This is a beautiful and valuable book.
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Summary: A great read.
Review: The view from the butt-end of the Enfield. By turns tragic and uproariously funny. The portrait of the doggedness and humor of the English soldier--especially Fraser's beloved Borderers--is a delight and an homage. Superb!
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Summary: A Foxhole View of War -- One of the Best!
Review: There are a few personal accounts of war and its impact on a man that stand out in the sea of such literature -- works such as "Goodbye to All That," "Homage to Catalonia," and "The Men I Killed." "Quartered Safe Out Here" has now joined that short list. MacDonald Fraser is the acclaimed author of the Flashman series of historical fiction, but here he reveals his own experience as an infantryman in merciless combat against the Japanese in Burma. Here is an all-too-vivid recollection of the fear, pain, discomfort and -- yes -- the pleasure of comradeship among the common soldiers who win or lose ALL wars. MacDonald Fraser reminds us that wars are not just "politics by other means," wars are about young men -- their lives, their deaths, and their friendships. As one reviewer said, MacDonald Fraser "has raised a memorial" with this book. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: A Foxhole View of War -- One of the Best!
Review: There are a few personal accounts of war and its impact on a man that stand out in the sea of such literature -- works such as "Goodbye to All That," "Homage to Catalonia," and "The Men I Killed." "Quartered Safe Out Here" has now joined that short list. MacDonald Fraser is the acclaimed author of the Flashman series of historical fiction, but here he reveals his own experience as an infantryman in merciless combat against the Japanese in Burma. Here is an all-too-vivid recollection of the fear, pain, discomfort and -- yes -- the pleasure of comradeship among the common soldiers who win or lose ALL wars. MacDonald Fraser reminds us that wars are not just "politics by other means," wars are about young men -- their lives, their deaths, and their friendships. As one reviewer said, MacDonald Fraser "has raised a memorial" with this book. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: From here to Burma...
Review: There is perhaps no better remembrance of a youth spent at war than when a literary-minded chap puts his memories aside and lets them percolate for a few decades. Fraser, perhaps best known for his Flashman series of picaresque historical novels, looks back on a time when his post-war life <should he be lucky enough to have one> was not yet charted and he is posted to a British ten-man section in the Eastern theater of war. The speech and customs of his section's northern English <Cumbrian> members are wonderfully profane and, on the surface, uncomplicated. Theirs was no glorious war but dirty war, wet war, seemingly endless war against a barbarous enemy they refused to comprehend, but whose relentlessness and fierceness on the battlefield they respected. Most useful to the reader will be Fraser's refusal to sentimentalize or glamourize the events that took place as his division marched south through Burma. Historians have recorded these actions on a macro-scale, but Fraser bristles at such generalities, at the assumptions, taking each instance of *collateral damage* he witnessed and issuing it the respectful attention it deserves. Today's reader may shy from Fraser's excoriation of current attitudes toward warriors and public demands of voiced self-doubt and fear from our service personnel prior to engaging the enemy, but will doubtless come to appreciate the style of former times when pre-battle preparation was not taken up with morale deflation and the spooking of one's brothers in arms. Many comic episodes, too rich to have been concocted by a novelist, enliven the book. The reader is likely to remember these with fondness, and to think also on the times when humans reach beyond their everyday capabilities to show courage and selflessness in helping their fellow man in desperate times of need
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING
Review: THIS IN SINGULARLY THE FINEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ ABOUT THE CBI, SMALL UNIT TACTICS AND THE REALITY OF WAR AND SURVIVAL. I DON'T NEED TO SAY MORE, BUY IT, READ IT, KEEP IT!
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