Hi all, Having read a few books about peoples first hand accounts during WW2 I can't help but tell you about the following. I was given a signed copy of this book by the author himself Fred Hirst when I visited him and the 8th Army Association to which he belongs. This books is very well written in a diary like format and once you start you just can't wait to get to the next part. As Fred states this is not a book about the heroics of WW2 but more of individual endurance, both mentally and phsically. You can obtain a copy of this book from Fred direct by emailing him at: cf.hirst@ntlworld.com I promise you you'll not be disappointed. Regards Kieron ================================================== A Green Hill Far Away by Fred Hirst Author Fred Hirst takes you with him as a teenage soldier called up for service during the Second World War. He describes the harsh early days of his training in the infantry at Lincoln Barracks before being posted to the 2/5th Battalion, The Sherwood Foresters Regiment. On Christmas Day, 1942, Fred sailed with his battalion on HM Troopship Derbyshire, landing at Algiers on 3rd January 1943. Then by cattle wagon train to Tunisia to join the vastly outnumbered and hard-pressed British 1st Army in the front line, facing the famous German occupied feature, ‘Green Hill’. (The subject of the book title). Eight continuous weeks in various front line positions is described as the battalion is heavily shelled and mortar bombed. Several actions in which he was engaged with his unit feature in the book, until the German Afrika Korps took him prisoner. A 10-day voyage in the battened down hold of an Italian cargo boat with about 40 other PoWs followed, with the absolute minimum of food, and in the most distressing hygienic conditions. Being subjected to an attack by Allied forces during the voyage across the Mediterranean before docking at Livorno (Leghorn) in northern Italy. A comprehensive account follows of life experienced in the Italian PoW Camp PG 82 at Laterina near Arrezo. The present inhabitants were mainly men from the British 8th Army, captured during the German advance towards El Alamein in the summer of 1942. They included Australian, South African, Indian and New Zealander troops. The majority were British. ..
