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    Gunner
    Gunner
    Gunner
    Ebook95 pages31 minutes

    Gunner

    By Bill Todd

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Gunner is the diary, photos and postcards of an ordinary soldier from Normandy to Germany in 1944-45. It also includes extracts from the regimental war diary and history.
    Sgt Leslie Todd served with the 90th (Middlesex) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Territorial Army) which was formed on April 1, 1939, with its headquarters at Alexandra Palace, North London. It began as a cadre from the Finchley-based 61st AA regiment. Recruits were drawn from the Muswell Hill, Palmers Green, Southgate, Crouch End and Hornsey areas of North London.
    The 90th mobilised on August 24, 1939, ten days before the declaration of war. The regiment provided home air defence during the Battle of Britain and afterwards, later training to engage ground and sea targets before landing in Normandy on July 7, 1944, a month after D-Day. The 90th took part in the Battle of Normandy before supporting the advance through Belgium and Holland, fighting at Nijmegen before crossing the Rhine into Germany. Proceeds from this book will go to charity.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBill Todd
    Release dateApr 11, 2018
    ISBN9781370696239
    Gunner
    Author

    Bill Todd

    Journalist - Travel Writer - Novelist. Collector of maps. Lover of good ale and cheese.

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      Book preview

      Gunner - Bill Todd

      cover.jpg

      PUBLISHED IN 2014 BY DLE-HISTORY PUBLICATIONS - www.billtodd.co.uk

      Copyright © Bill Todd 2014

      The moral right of Bill Todd to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication maybe be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      img1.jpg

      This book is published by DLE-History, a division of DLE Publications which also comprises DLE-Travel and DLE-Fiction, publishers of the Danny Lancaster crime thrillers  available as paperbacks and ebooks.

      THE WRECK OF THE MARGHERITA

      DEATH SQUAD

      ROUGH DIAMOND

      ROCK HARD

      Find out more at - www.billtodd.co.uk

      INTRODUCTION

      There are guys of a certain age who will always wish they’d asked their dad all those questions when they had the chance.

      Like many others, my father didn’t talk much about his war, him sat in his armchair, me making Airfix Spitfires on the floor (put some newspaper down! don’t get glue on the carpet!).

      Leslie’s war was nothing special, no storming beaches, no hand-to-hand fighting. He did what thousands of others did, fought, froze, was frightened out of his life at times, made the best friends of his life at other times, soldiered on.

      He recalled one soldier touring farmhouses in France asking in a thick Cockney accent, Avez vous lez tomatz?

      Leslie never forgot the stench from fields of dead cows, bloated and drum-taut from internal gases as they rotted under the summer sun. Others bleated pitifully because their distended udders hadn’t been milked.

      He remembered sleeping in a Dutch brick kiln, the lingering warmth a luxury after bitter nights under the stars.

      One day, recceing possible gun positions, they realised they had crossed a minefield and survived because the ground was frozen.

      Going on leave, he thumbed a lift from a Jeep that hit a landmine. He was the only one who escaped serious injury but suffered ever after from what the family always knew as his Beaujolais Knee.

      When the fighting stopped he remembered having to fire his Sten gun into the ground at the feet of rioters in a displaced persons camp who had been drinking alcohol used as rocket fuel.

      Leslie mentioned several of his fellow soldiers were gay and were left alone when they gathered at one end of the

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