War, Wine and Valour

War, Wine and Valour: War, Wine and Valour is the true account of a bunch of kids, almost all of them straight out of high school, caught up in the wave of patriotism that ran counter to the rantings and strategies of Adolf Hitler. Not as cruel and hopeless as Erich Remarque's "All Quiet On The Western Front", which took place in the area of a few trenches, this book reflects with the same intensity the spread of the 20th Century horror named World War Two. The narrative is as factual as the ongoing war diaries of the author's personal experiences which thread the story through its six long years. The boys grew into men almost always in the face of diabolical threats and acts of infamy which were called Nazism. The author was wounded on three separate occasions, twice dangerously, firstly in infantry in the battles of Gazala and El Alamein and thereafter in tanks in Italy leading to the capture of Florence. On one occasion he absconded from hospital in bandages and returned to his regiment to fight with his comrades again. The book is a study in the psychology of men at bay confronted repeatedly with bombardment, direct attack by Stukas and other Nazi terror, and replying with bayonet charges, fighting patrols at night, counter-attacks under creeping barrages and close combat in tank battles. Numerous living characters from the ranks carry the story with freshness and pace, humour and vivid imagery. The author's war diaries have provided settings with accurate richness of detail from the wilds of central Abyssinia to the mid-winter of 1944/5 in the Italian Apennines. Gripping events, graphic pictures, surprising maps and extraordinary detail! 522 pages with 33 maps and 52 pictures THE AUTHOR: Douglas M. Baker was born in North Finchley and as a child he emigrated with his English parents to Natal, South Africa. Volunteering in 1939 at age sixteen the author fought with the Natal Mounted Rifles in World War II. His regiment faced Axis forces progressively on five fronts; in Kenya, Central Abysinnia, the Western Desert in Egypt and Cyrenaica and again in mountainous Italy. After almost six years of active service and convalescence he came to understand the psychology of men at bay through first-hand experience and the dynamics of acute and sustained terror. The experience of war evoked in him both curiosity and discovery about the human anatomy and psyche in extreme conditions leading him to study Medicine and Surgery at Sheffield University, England, in order to equip himself to investigate the hidden effects of shrapnel and other missiles such as those which had penetrated his own body in many places.