From Dunkirk to Dinjan: The WWII Adventures of a Royal Engineer - Hardcover

by Pauline Hayton (Author)

It's 1939. Norman Wickman, twenty years old and married with a young child, enlists early for his six-months' National Service to improve the family finances. A good plan foiled by Britain's declaration of war against Nazi Germany.

With his propensity for mischief and rule-breaking, Norman is no hero except to his army pals. Sent to France in 1940 to clear airfields of equipment the RAF left behind, he gets caught up in the German blitzkrieg and must grow up in a hurry.

Considered expendable by their own generals, Norman and several hundred Royal Engineers are ordered to a hill called Mont des Cats. They are told to hold back the German forces for two days and nights allowing tens of thousands of British and French soldiers to escape to Dunkirk's beaches. Eventually told: "It's every man for himself. Make for Dunkirk."

Two years later, Norman and his company sail to India on a five-year posting. It's a country he grows to love. Among his many adventures, he risks his life to save thirteen Indian soldiers swept away in a torrential river. Later, he saves another two from being murdered by angry villagers. Sent to North Burma's steamy jungles, he battles monsoon mud and rain during mopping up operations against the Japanese.

The dropping of the atomic bomb ends the war in The Far East and Norman returns home older and wiser. Although Norman would never describe himself as such, by war's end we can safely say he's a hero.