Anon

Battle Dress Anon

BATTLE DRESS CHECKED RETURN VIA DUNKIRK BY GUN BUSTER "Gun Busters story is deeply moving in its stark realism. The spirit is there the book is full of spirit the spirit of the B. E. F.with its good humour, its bravery, its amazing power of endurance and recovery." -The Sunday Times. "The most vivid, moving, horrible, yet glorious book I have so far read of the fighting in France which led eventually to the epic of Dunkirk." -The Toiler. "Gun Buster gives us drama, but never melodrama. There is no need to varnish his story. Its stark realism and simple truth leave an undying impression. -The Aberdeen Press. First printed . . . July 1941 CONTENTS: I. FRONT LINE II. A MEETING WITH DESTINY III. NOT ACCORDING TO RULES IV. SIX IN A TRENCH V. A JOB OF WORK VL ONE OF THOSE MYSTERIES VII. A BRUSH WITH REFUGEES VIIL THE DUMP AT BETHUNE IX. AT THE MENIN GATE X. RACE WON BY DEFAULT XL A DUNKIRK DIARY XIL BATTLES LONG AGO XIII. ACTIVE SERVICE FRONT LINE "FOUR officers sat chatting on the patch of lawn outside the Officers Mess at a military dept in the North of England. Dinner was over and the long June evening would soon fade into night. But low on the horizon a crimson, flaming sunset still lit up the silhouette of the distant manufacturing town with its fiery red glory. The senior officer present, an Infantry Major, seemed fascinated by the spectacle. He could not take his eyes off it. Theres something terribly familiar to me about that, he observed, nodding his head in the direction of the glowing rooftops. What does it remind you of ? Something Ive been trying to forget ever since we came out here, said the Infantry subaltern sitting next to him. Dunkirk has killed my pleasure in shepherds delightJ sunsets for good. Ill never see one again without thinking of Dunkirk promenade ablaze, and myself marching into the furnace. He gave a slight shudder, and readjusted his chair so that he sat with his back to the flaming horizon. The four men had only arrived at the dept thirty six hours before. They had been among the last few thousands to be evacuated from Dunkirk,......"