Books: Artilleryman

SERVICE RECORD BY AN ARTILLERYMAN —L. V. Jacks—Scribners ($2). From a position as impersonal as an historian's account of the battle of Crécy, Author Jacks describes his War experiences. "Major Thompson dismounted and walked back and forth among the cannon. ... He replied that the shot was not made that would kill him. ..." Scenes of hideousness are frequent, gallantry omnipresent. A cool sense of the pictorial dominates a style metaphorically fine (if you think airplanes "steam by"). Non-belligerents will enjoy an atmosphere of accuracy (if you think English soldiers wear "mufti"). The suggestion of continual pageantry runs pleasantly throughout the book—a relief from recent War stories, whether patriotic or sordid. Author Jacks might have been to the Crusades.