The Defending Officer's Dog: A Royal Engineer Abroad in the Second World War

Cripps, Jack H. H.

ISBN 10: 190217321X / ISBN 13: 9781902173214

Published by Millrace, 2006

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. An apparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact with no nicks or tears. Spine has no signs of creasing. Pages are clean and not marred by notes or folds of any kind. Seller Inventory # wbs5366049367

Synopsis:

A war memoir with a difference: a lively, unaffected account which focuses on aspects of the Second World War seldom in the spotlight.

After several months in charge of a Royal Engineer training section at Clitheroe in Lancashire, Jack Cripps was posted to Kenya in 1942 to train African troops. He was just 20 years old. His vivid account of his years in East Africa, Ceylon and India demonstrate his resourcefulness, compassion and sense of fun. The narrative cuts between the sombre and the hilarious, from disarming a berserk askari to rickshaw-racing, from driving a truckload of volatile wet gelignite to bicycling around a crowded dance floor at Lord Mountbatten's headquarters in Kandy. The backgrounds are vividly drawn: the cedar forests of Mount Kenya, the fleshpots of Mogadishu, the Ogaden desert, coconut plantations in Ceylon and a bridging camp on the Ganges. And, finally, the long journey home in 1946.

From the Back Cover: The Defending Officer's Dog
A Royal Engineer abroad in the Second World War

Posted to Kenya in 1942, twenty-year old Jack Cripps was faced with a task requiring all his practical resourcefulness - to turn untrained African troops into combat engineers.

"Few, if any, would have any English, so we were to learn Kiswahili p.d.q. But first we were to Build Ourselves A Camp. This seemed just up my street. With the help of the Royal Engineers Pocket Book (1936), I got to work making out a formidable list of timber, nails, screws, doors, windows and corrugated iron that we would need for the first phase. On presenting the list at the CRE's office, we were told unequivocally that none of these things was available. There were, however, plenty of trees and grass for thatch..."

From courts martial to a canine haircut, grave-digging by moonlight to three-day old tea, Jack's memoir gives a witty, compassionate glimpse into wartime East Africa, Ceylon and India.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Defending Officer's Dog: A Royal ...
Publisher: Millrace
Publication Date: 2006
Binding: Hardcover
Illustrator: Rose Shawe-Taylor
Condition: Like New