When Men and Mountains Meet

This book seems to fill a few gaps in Tilman's other books and is made up of two parts.

Peacetime covers a few expeditions in Assam and Sikkum (and across into Tibet), which are not in chronological order, and occur either side of his Everest expedition (1938). They include what even Tilman describes as a very unsuccessful expedition, in which he establishes a base camp to attempt Pandim but fails to make even an attempt at a climb because he and his Sherpa's all go down with Malaria (and later diagnosed with black fever). Then followed two expeditions to attempt to traverse Zemu Gap (near Kanchenjunga) - one failure and one success. Tilman's respect for the Sherpa and Porters was evident, especially when one of the Sherpa died of malaria, and Tilman felt plenty of guilt for having tried to wait out their recovery rather than retreating immediately (he was as ill as the man who dies though).

Wartime War then breaks out, and with a mere mention of his time in the deserts of Iraq and Syria, Tilman tells of his three opportunities for climbing during wartime. First an unnamed mountain near Amadia (Amedya?) in Iraq (considered almost of ‘alpine standard'), followed by Mount Bisitun, in Iran, climbed while the Major he was with spent some time trout fishing near the foot; then after being shifted north to Tunisia, Mount Zaghouan, which was a night ascent, using flares for visibility at times.
None of these were particularly impressive climbs, but a man takes what opportunities he can when at war I suppose!

It was after this that Tilman became bored with the desert and when volunteers for ‘special service' were called for, Tilman was selected to go to Albania. Italy had largely been defeated and were expected to surrender formally, so Tilman thought this was a role to stop the Albanians slaughtering the Italians as they were transported back to Italy. This wasn't really the case, as the Italians were still resisting (for a time) and the Germans were to rolling in to fill the void once Italy did surrender. The Germans were better equipped and made more inroads against the Partisans. As we hear in various reports from Yugoslavia and other parts, the infighting was as bad as the Axis fighting - and the British approach to support all parties at a political level was problematic for the British Liaison Officers like Tilman on the ground.
The Albanian resistance movement was made up of three parties - the LNC (Levizja Nacional Clirimtare, or National Liberation Movement), which embraced all classes, all political opinions, all religions, and represented about three quarters of the people of southern Albania. It identified with the Allies against Fascism and Nazism, and its primary goal was to rid Albania of Italians and Germans. It was with these Partisans that Tilman worked for the 10 months he was there.
The principal rival party was the Balli Kombetar (or National Front) which regarded the Greeks and Yugoslavs as the real enemy. While supported by the British, they worked with the Germans and fought against the LNC, which to all seemed a real own-goal by Britain. The third group, were of little importance at the time Tilman was present, and they were the supporters of the absent King Zog, and they became more prominent later.
Tilman talks bout the successes of the partisans, of the harsh conditions and the ill-founded support for the Balli, who aided and informed the Germans also assisting with the attacks on villages supporting the Partisans. Tilman doesn't make anything of his personal contributions, but then this is probably his style.

After his ten months in Albania he is rotated out, and is deployed to Northern Italy, again to aid the partisans - this time Italian partisans, fighting the occupying Germans. Tilman spends time with the Gramski Brigade, the Nino Nannetti Division, and the Belluno Division. All the time he is coordinating drops of stores, clothing, weapons and ammunitions, as well as organising guerilla actions, such as blowing up bridges, but mostly they are just on the run being overpowered by the German forces.

Eventually the balance of the scales shifts, the Germans eventually capitulating, although most were not pleased to be surrendering weapons to the partisan forces. Tilman fits in some brief mountaineering in the lesser Dolomites, but more because he can than due to them being good climbs.

Throughout Tilman doesn't talk up his role much, sharing the successes and taking responsibility for poorly taken decisions. This was an interesting book, but I felt it didn't match up to the other mountaineering books that I have read from this author.

Still a worthy 4 stars.