The other day, I went looking for an old survival book.
The search engine provided me with hundreds of titles just within the bushcraft/wilderness field alone.
Back in the 1980s, the choice seemed much more limited. Of course, with my memory I may be forgetting quite a few titles from then!
The main work in the field was what was then FM21-76 and related publications.
There were a few books from other official sources, such as the Air Ministry pamphlets: “Arctic Survival”, “Desert Survival”, “Jungle Survival” and “Sea Survival”. Those are still well worth a read, incidentally.
“Combat Survival and Evasion” was apparently compiled from the course notes of some gentlemen in Hereford. It is an interesting, if a little eccentric, read which I may discuss in a later blog.
I owned copies of “Can You Survive” by Robert DePugh, “Jack Knife Cookery” by James Austin Wilder and “The Art of Survival” by Cord Christian Troebst. Not strictly survival manuals, but all interesting and all containing some useful information.
“The SAS Survival Handbook” by John “Lofty” Wiseman was the new kid on the block, and had already established itself as one of the go-to books on the subject.
The “Survival Handbook”/“The Book of Survival” by Anthony Greenback was a little older, but did not seem to get as much attention as some other works. A shame, since it remains an excellent book.
Admittedly, my memory often fails me these days, but the only other manual I can recall from that time is “No Need to Die” by Eddie McGee. This was actually the book I had been searching for, although naturally I could not recall the author nor title until I found it.
Back in those days, this had been one of the few survival books my local library had.
Personally, I tend to think of this book as more of a discourse than a guide. Some topics are covered in great detail, while other fields, less so.
For example, there is some discussion of direction finding using plants and other means, but very little instruction in navigation as a broader topic.
On the other hand, there are large sections on tracking, trapping and fishing. These are very good, and it will be a very rare reader that does not learn something new.
There is a certain, very British eccentricity to the book. It is written in an informal, chatty style. There are numerous cartoons and sketches by the author, some of which detail ideas only touched on in the main text.
Reading it once again after several decades, one of the sections I now find interesting me is that on the use of fishing skiffs and fishing with gourds/balloons/condoms/plastic bags.
Pine bark as insect repellent is worth knowing too. (Some other tree barks, such as birch and cedar may also be suitable, as might other parts of the pine tree)
I would not suggest “No Need to Die” as a sole or first book someone should read on survival. See Survival Library Chapter One for my recommendations in this regard.
“No Need to Die” is certainly a book worth reading once you have a grounding in the basics. You are bound to learn a few things.
McGee was later to write “Eddie McGee's Complete Book Of Survival”. I hope to find time to read and review this in the near future.
One story from “No Need to Die” sticks with me (p.178):
“I remember once on a long desert walk in the Oman, while serving with the Sultan’s forces, making my way across to a known water well. I knew that the arabs guarded their water hole tenaciously but when I arrived at the well I did not expect to find that each arab, in fact, carried his own water collection skin, so having found the water well and removed the stone covering I was dumbfounded to find the water over twenty feet down and the hole about two feet in diameter. I had no bucket, only my water bottle and no means of lowering it down by rope and it was certainly too dangerous for me to climb down, so I sat a little and thought. I removed my survival bag from my belt, took off my vest, fastened my fishing line to it and lowered this to the water. In a couple of minutes I had not only filled my container, I’d also stepped back and had a good strip wash and removed some of the grime and salt from my body. Later I made a cup of tea, went to sleep, had a good rest and moved off the next morning feeling on top of the world and re-supplied with water.”
As luck would have it, the same day I read the above passage, I came across a forum where some members were glibly challenging if anyone’s life had ever been saved by a survival fishing kit?
Right here was an example of how a component of a fishing kit (and a vest!) had potentially saved someone’s life, even though they were in a desert and probably miles from the nearest stream.
With my current situation, lifestyle and location, the chances of myself needing to fish or trap to feed myself are remote. Thus, I had been tardy getting around adding any fishing or trapping components to my skin-level EDC.
Reading the above story, I vowed to add some fishing line to my EDC pouch. A couple of packets of hooks on nylon couldn’t hurt either. Better to have them and never use them…