For Five Shillings a Day: Personal Histories of World War II - Hardcover

Campbell-Begg, Dr. Richard; Liddle, Dr. Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007103514 ISBN 13: 9780007103515

Publisher: Collins, 2000

Synopsis

The oral history of the British and Commonwealth forces 1939-45.

Fascinating, moving, frightening, sometimes comic, this selection of eyewitness accounts has been edited into chronological order to form a magnificent oral history of the British and Commonwealth forces at war.

We follow some 60 interviewees from the Army, RAF and Navy from 1939 to the Battle of Britain, the Desert War, the fall of Singapore, the Italian campaign, D-Day, to the occupation of Germany and the war in Burma. We hear from fighter pilots, nurses, gunners, commandos, Chindits and paratroopers. Their experiences on land, sea, in the air...and in some cases as prisoners of the Germans or Japanese are unique testimony from some remarkable men and women.

About this title

From the Author:

Personal experiences of the Second World War
By the skilful weaving together of graphic recall by soldiers, sailors, airmen and a nurse of their most dramatic service experience in the Second World War; former Royal Naval Officer from New Zealand, Richard Campbell-Begg, and myself (a historian) bring the reader close to the sights, sounds, action and smell of the war and the contemporary individual reaction to the experience of war. A well-summarised context is provided for the personal material used. And if you want to know what it was like to endure captivity in Europe or Asia; to sail in a convoy under attack in the Arctic or Mediterranean; to fight as a soldier in North Africa, Burma, Italy or North-west Europe; or to be a fighter pilot or member of a bomber crew, then this is the book to get.

From the Back Cover:

Fascinating, moving, frightening and sometimes comic, this selection of eyewitness accounts forms a magnificent oral history of the British and Commonwealth forces at war. Veterans from the Army, RAF and Navy reveal what it was like 'at the sharp end' from 1939 to the Battle of Britain, the Desert War, that fall of Singapore, the Italian Campaign, D-Day, to the occupation of Germany and war in Burma. They include fighter pilots, nurses, gunners, tank crew, a destroyer captain, bomber crew, commandos, Chindits and paratroopers. Their experiences on land, sea, in the air – and in some cases as prisoners of the Germans or Japanese – forma uniquely personal history of the greatest conflict of the 2oth century.

'For the general reader with an interest in the Second World War, I can think of no better starting point from which to grasp the huge scale of the war and yet its dimension in terms of the individual. For the specialist reader, there are countless personal insights.'
VINCENT ORANGE, BA, PhD D, MRAe.S, 'Reader in History, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.'

About this edition

• Publisher: Collins
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0007103514
• ISBN 13: 9780007103515
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464