Ironically, though Hugh Nibley was one the least "military types" one might imagine, he nevertheless enlisted in the army on Sept. 28, 1942 to serve in the "greatest" war of all times.

By then, he had acquired a doctorate in ancient history from the University of California, Berkeley; and it is not surprising that on taking an intelligence test as part of induction he was told that he had "got the highest score they'd ever had."

Nibley describes military life candidly -- with all its warts, comic relief, and even occasional delights (for example, the inevitable ethnic mixes he found among recruits).

Europe, and Germany in particular, was not new territory to Nibley. He had served a German mission at age 17, and quite possibly had even encountered Hitler in a restroom in Southern Germany. (The Germans called a restroom Wozelbest der Kaiser muss -- "the place even the Kaiser must go.")

Alex Nibley, Hugh's son and author of this volume, draws contrasts between these two very different souls: Hitler, hell-bent on conquest, and the peaceable Nibley, deeply distressed even by the idea of conflict.

When set apart for his mission by LDS General Authority Melvin J. Ballard, Elder Nibley was told to warn the Germans that they would be "destroyed by fire" if they didn't repent. The book describes the literal fulfillment of that warning as Sergeant Nibley visited postwar some of the towns where he had worked as an elder.

Add to the mix the fact that one of Nibley's great-grandfathers was Jewish.

Nibley's value to military intelligence stemmed in part from the fact that he was fluent in German, French and Russian.

Though it's not reported in the book, he once related to students that as he was translating for English, French and German officers at a critical juncture in the war, the officers suddenly disregarded his translating services yet fully understood one another, while continuing to speak in their own languages.

Nibley's assignment was "Order of Battle," in which he studied the organization of the German Army and assessed enemy strength on the battlefield. As part of the 101st Airborne, he drove a water-proofed jeep onto the beaches of Normandy, and from then until the end of the war, he was "in the thick of it." Being in intelligence, he served directly under several generals and other high-ranking officers. Yet death seemed to elude him -- a common comment by his fellow soldiers was that "everything happens to Nibley but nothing happens to Nibley."

The book is much more than a soldier's biography; it's a history of World War in northern Europe. It draws from a variety of primary sources: interviews with Nibley, excerpts from his extensive correspondence, quotes from other historians and observers (including some of Nibley's closest friends), and a numerous photographs, not only of Nibley himself but of events and sites of the war in Europe.

Threaded through the biography are Nibley's comments on the nature and course of a war of the magnitude of World War II. Especially interesting are his insights into its participants -- privates and generals; friends as well as family; even German civilians.

Typical of Nibley's writings (many readers are acquainted with some of the 16 volumes of his Collected Works), this book is one to read and reread.

Next week, some stories from the book.

This story appeared in North County on page A3.