Gun Buster – undramatic military writer(s)

Books of short stories by an author called Gun Buster is not the likeliest place for a child to find unglamorous honest stories of WWII. Unlike ‘Battler Britain’ in my Lion comic, Gun Buster’s short stories revolved around shortages of ammunition, food and fue.l No heroics but cheerful muddle. They made a lasting impression on me.

Recently I reread Gun Buster’s books and was pleased that they remained as I remembered them. Under-stated, descriptions of military life. No overt military heroics, just matter of fact military life.

Real life

They came directly from the author’s experience.

Or in fact the authors’ experience. Because ‘Gun Buster’ was the pseudonym of a father and son writing team: John Charles Austin (1882-1956) and Richard Campion Austin (1912-2001) . Both of whom had served in the Royal Artillery.

And ‘Gun Buster’ is no heroic, comic book name, but the Royal Artillery nickname for a gunnery instructor in the 1930s

In 1940, John Austin was writing for the Odham Press. He was a friend of Percy Hodder-Williams, one half of the Hodder and Stoughton Publishers. Hodder & Stoughton would publish the Gun Buster stories. Richard Austin was serving in France as Assistant Adjutant with the 92nd Field Regiment.

I was aware of two books, but there were five1 published from 1940 till 1946:

Return via Dunkirk (1940)

Battle Dress (1941)

Zero Hours (1942)

Grand Barrage (1944)

Victory Salvo (1946)

Thanks to the friendly help of a former Gunner, who sent me an article by Bombardier Michael Gilman in ‘The Gunner’ magazine of 1990, much of the background to the stories became clear. They are not entirely fictional. Unit names, individuals and precise locations mentioned are fictional, so as to avoid security issues, but the events described are not.

Gilman identified the men behind Gun Busters’ pseudonyms. Sadly 80 years on the identities mean little to the average reader, but they do reinforce the legitimacy of the books as historic records.

Richard’s diary provided the facts for the early collections: later MoD gave them access to men with stories to tell.

Calm but gripping

So why are they so good?

‘Not according to rules’, from ‘Battle Dress’, is about an artillery battery arriving three-quarters of a mile behind a ridge somewhere north of Arras in 1940. Their task is to stop a German push north. They should have infantry in front of them: there are none. As the Forward Observation Post Commander reaches the ridge to locate a position for his OP, he finds:

“Far away on the left he could hear some desultory shellfire but in front of him the silence remained unbroken. He drew no encouragement from this. For all he knew he might be walking straight into the arms of the enemy.

He crept cautiously up the last few feet of the ridge and peered over the top. To his great surprise, and relief, he found he had company. On the forward slope a Machine Gun subaltern, in command of a platoon of four Vickers, machine guns, was just digging in. He was a sturdy youth of about twenty-four, with blue eyes and an engagingly frank countenance.

“Hello,” he greeted the new arrival with a grin. “Seen any infantry about?”

“Seen any enemy?” the Gunner replied.

“Not yet.”

“Let’s hope they’ve lost their way.”

And so the scene is set. The battery provides a scratch force of 30 gunners to act as infantry. Night falls. The Germans arrive. The battery of 25 pounders put down harassing fire.

Eventually in the early hours of the morning, with the Machine Gun Officer acting as Forward Observer in place of the wounded gunner and with little ammunition left for his machine guns, the infantry arrive.

The ridge has been held. There are very few descriptions of fighting. Suspense and reflections on their lot yes, but blood and thunder no.

Heroics?

The story ends with the Machine Gun officer worrying about the letter he had hurriedly written to be sent back to the battery for England. Would his girlfriend think he’d written it to just to impress her?

So where can you buy books first published in wartime editions in the early 1940s?

My search started on a wonderful search engine that looks through several second-hand book sites, called <usedbooksearch.co.uk>.

And cost? With postage anything from £5 to £10.

The Editor