The Machine Gunners

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Awesome, but Impractical: The Fort, which is well-built but strategically in an almost entirely useless position. The Home Guard officers are well-aware of this, but are savvy enough to get the children on-side by complementing the workmanship and officially taking it off their hands for use by the Home Guard. In chapter 5, Cem goes into the forest but unfortunately gets caught by fatty hardy,Boddser gets busted/caught by the police. Then the police go to chas's house, asking him if he had any war souvenirs. The most surprising thing that I have learned in this novel is what they used in World War II specially the Heinkell HE-111, I hope there will be more interesting weapons and things that they used. No Communities Were Harmed: Garmouth is a fairly obvious version of real North Eastern town, Tynemouth, where Westall was born and raised. At least, to anyone familiar with the area.

A group of school aged children in a small coastal Northeast English town join the fight against the Germans in WWII. Their adventure begins when Chas, the main characters, finds a downed German plan with its machine gun intact. With the help of some friends, they remove, transport and hid this still operational weapon. The novel treats this rather cynically, however, by the sheer fact that Chas was outnumbered by a gang of bigger boys who would have beaten Chas to a pulp had Chas not used his weapon, and the self-righteousness of the adults is undercut with an element of hypocrisy in that there are rather a lot of British boys fighting a war with guns (i.e. weapons) at that very moment. The story is good. It moves along at a brisk pace and has plenty of action to keep the reader engaged. This action comes at some expense to the realism but that tacit bargain is understood. Westall is more interested in telling a good yarn than delivering a true-to-live account of the German blitz raids on England. Combat Pragmatist: Confronted by Boddser on the street, surrounded by the bigger boy's gang of followers, Chas opts to clobber his aggressor with his steel gasmask case.The next day it is realised that the children are missing, and some Polish soldiers are drafted in to look for them. The children, on hearing troops speak in a foreign language, open fire on them with the gun, believing they are a German invasion force. The children are soon overpowered, however, and forced to surrender. In the chaos, Clogger shoots and wounds Rudi with his own Luger pistol. chas is my favorite character because he is outgoing and he has a gun collection the second best in his school. the language layout, it was like old English, for example Yee harty ol' feed. insted of what we say now ' mean harty feed bro ' So far in this book it has been rather interesting, and it makes me want to read more. It has been the first novel that has contained World War II. Has it is also set in the town Garmouth which is in England. In chapter 1 it started in the morning after an air-raid had been. Before school starts, Chas McGill, goes off to collect war souvenirs. On one level this is an exciting story of how a group of children overcome all kinds of difficulties to pursue their project. Chas and his chosen friends build a warren of air-raid shelters connected by tunnels, with a machine-gun emplacement, in the derelict garden of a bombed-out house. Apart from dealing with suspicious parents and the class bully, the children also deflect the interest of the police and the Home Guard, who would like to recover the machine-gun, if only they could find it.

I loved Rudi and Chas. I especially loved Rudi's character as it was so refreshing to see a German character not portrayed in a war book as a terrible person. It showed him as a human with feelings which was lovely. The relationship that he had with the children was heartwarming and that even when he could have escaped, he didn't want to as he viewed them as almost equals but definitely friends. I loved Chas and his sense of adventure, he had his head screwed on for someone so young. The Glasses Come Off: Chas gets Boddser to take his off before they start fighting; so he can't be blamed for breaking them. Overall I think that this book is one of the best and most interesting books that I have read, I wonder what happens next in chapter 6. This is a very powerful and atmospheric book, which will leave you with a lot to think about afterwards. Robert Westall has written many books. If you like this story set in the Second World War you might like to look at this one by him:Westall creates a cast of characters you love and care about - apart from the ones you're meant to hate – and occasional unnecessary descriptive aside (the size of the woman pushing the push chair is totally immaterial), a world you almost wish you were living in.