The only test of generalship is success, and I had succeeded in nothing I had attempted. But the true image (for you and me as well as for General Slim) was of a solitary individual-and in fact the only one in all the Allied forces-sitting down alone and thinking.

In a Hollywood movie, the images we’d see would be bombs exploding and soldiers charging with fixed bayonets. The Japanese could-and did-do many things that we could not. Tactically we had been completely outclassed.

To the Japanese, it was a welcome means of concealment and surprise. We, the Allies, had been outmanoeuvred, outfought, outgeneraled … To our men, the jungle was a strange, fearsome place moving and fighting in it was a nightmare. I had now an opportunity to sit down and think about what had happened. You and I in our artistic endeavors have known defeat. I sat down to think out what our object should be. Experience had taught me, however, that before rushing into action it is advisable to get quite clearly fixed in mind what the object of it all is. I knew the feeling of unease that comes first at such times, a sinking of the heart as the gloomy facts crowd in then the glow of exhilaration as the brain grapples with problem after problem lastly the tingling of the nerves and the lightening of the spirit, as the urge to get out and tackle the job takes hold. This was not the first, nor was it to be the last, time that I had taken over a situation that was not going too well. General Slim’s book is that principle put into action. Our Writing Wednesdays post last week was about self-reflection. Almost all were without boots, and most were reduced to their underwear. By the afternoon of the 24 th, all that had reached the west bank out of eight battalions … was under two thousand officers and men, with 550 rifles, 10 Bren guns, and twelve Tommy guns between them. Numbers were drowned some were shot while crossing. He was the British general who defeated the Japanese in Burma and India, after the fall of Manila and Rangoon, the Bataan Death March, and the defeat of virtually every Allied force in Southeast Asia.Ī few managed to cross with their arms on rough rafts or petrol tins. But he was one of the great fighting commanders of WWII. Ever heard of him? Nobody else has either. The book is Defeat Into Victory by Field Marshal Viscount William Slim. But every page has some powerful insight for us writers and artists if we’ve got the patience to stick with it.

Reading it is like hacking a trail through elephant grass. I’m reading a book I love but that I would not recommend to anyone unless they’re as crazy as I am.

Slim defeat into victory