Family memory is the bedrock of this war memoir

When I was a young man I'd sit with my Grandpa and on rare occasions he'd talk about his time in a British tank in Burma and North Africa.

Looking back, I wish I'd made notes and I've on occasion bought military histories to try and pan for places where he'd served.

In this book, a family have reconstituted similar memories and produced a memoir that is powerful. Craig Chapman deserves enormous credit for being able to tell his dad Bill's story of the war in Europe. He began the war determined to prove himself in war and by the end has done so repeatedly.

I'd love to have an extra strand in this book that cuts to the pricess of research and discovery. The excitement of finding a Regimental history that tallied or the discussion around how a particular memory was told. But I can see why they took the route they did.

My Grandpa served alongside the first Americans who went into action in North Africa. He didn't rate their discipline, he would recall, and they thought they knew it all brushing aside hard won lessons from the British. In turn, Chapman snr is distainful of Montgomery who addressed them ahead of D-Day and more so of the Colonel Blimp character who tries to stop digging up a golf course. Yet together, the British, Americans and Allies won a great victory in World War Two.

As America grows lukewarm about protecting liberty in Eastern Europe this is a reminder that freedom is often built on working side by side and sacrifice.

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