The face of war

In connection to the many interviews of resistance fighters that I conducted while writing the book "Captured by the Germans", several of them told me that their grandchildren had been dispatched to missions in war zones. The resistance fighters experienced that, due to their own background during World War II, they actually understood these soldiers' problems better than the grand childrens' own generation and their parents' generation did. Thus, I was encouraged to interview the returned soldiers in order to write a book about their experiences and reactions to being dispatched. I contacted the Danish Ministry of Defence, including the Defence Minister, the Military Operational Commands and several chiefs of regiments who all approved of the idea - as did the Defence's personnel organisations and the staff within the Military Defence. They contributed to the idea by running articles about the project in the various personnel magazines and at their different home pages. That I came from "the outside", and thus did not have any association with the military defence, was regarded as an advantage, and all authorities acknowledged that a lot of soldiers had problems returning to a daily life in Denmark.

I have been approached by a huge amount of soldiers - and I still am. I have obtained contact with military personnel within all ranks who have been dispatched to war zones in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan - both previously dispatched soldiers and recently returned soldiers and their relatives, including relatives to soldiers who have been killed in battle. The soldiers' narratives include their experiences at the missions and their reactions to the missions, both immediately and later, and how they experienced their return to the daily life in Denmark. I have spoken to both those who feel that they have gone through the stationing without traumas, and those who did not.

Further, the book embraces the background for the conflicts in the countries in question, interviews with people from the areas in question and Danish key people, military sociologists, military psychologists and politicians.

Publisher: Gyldendal, Autumn 2010.