Stronger Than Fear

Richard Tregaskis considered Stronger Than Fear to be the most important book he ever wrote about World War II because it strikes closer to the heart of war. It stands well after the years because it hits into the basic human values involved in war, aside from politics or patriotism. This is RT’s greatest war novel told in less than 30,000 words. The only immortality, the lasting things about this life, were honor, decency, courage, the intangibles of the spirit. Moments of such are the only permanent things in the transient world of war and the man who rose to them were the only ones who really lived.

World War II street fighting in Germany reminded Richard Tregaskis of the jungle campaigning he had seen on Guadalcanal and other South Pacific islands. The enemy fought hard in his home ground. Everything was close in, the rows of houses were like trees and street-corners were like thickets, and every house was a potential sniper’s nest. As RT accompanied the platoon of ten men to which he was attached, he reflected on one central question: to a veteran, what does it mean when fighting becomes a way of life and peace is only a dream?