In June 1940, my father joined the 9th Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment; he was 17.
Trooper 7952180 hit the Normandy beaches on June 9th 1944 - my mission: to live his war again.
The plan was simple. On my return from a road trip to France, I would write a book about his exploits, not for grand publication but for anyone in my family who cared.
To retrace his journey through North West Europe, I put myself into his Tankie boots and hoped to combine historical facts with photographs, war diaries and stories from his war years.
Trapped inside his body, I find myself driving a tank in Normandy and then across the battlefields of NW Europe from Sword Beach to Hamburg. And there is another problem. I must survive like he did to return to my safe, modern-day life, and I can only do this by reliving his war again.
Dates and places are accurate, and some names have been changed, but my imagination was needed to fill in the gaps.
About the writer
I am a retired, beer-drinking, Prog rock-loving Munro-bagger who lives on the marshes in North Norfolk. In my sensible business life as an ex-UK and Ireland country leader, I worked 35 years for a global company making detergent. For too long, I harboured the desire to tell a story about a remarkable man who lived unremarkably. COVID allowed this to happen.
'Me, My Father And I' is my attempt to write a WW2 book about his adventures in the 44th RTR and a memoir about parts of our life together. With no previous writing experience except business reporting, probably more fiction than fact, this project took me on a journey of discovery I should have completed many years ago!
