Tommies Guides – förlag

A comprehensive history of the WWII U.S. Army Engineer Special Brigades and their component units. From formation and training in England to D-Day itself as told by surviving veterans in graphic detail. Elements landed on Omaha and Utah beaches in the first waves, then spent six months bringing supplies, men and vehicles over the open beaches. A story never before told, using archive material, unique personal documents, photographs and statistical data it tells the vital role of engineers supporting combat troops in Europe.

The letters of 2nd Lt. Victor George Ursell 1913 -1917 and War Diary of the 8th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. With a Mathematics scholarship to Oxford in 1912 the hopes and aspirations of Victor’s parents and teachers are riding high, but his exuberance, vitality, sporting ability and his engagement to what the family refer to as his ‘Russian Princess’ Lena, are thrown into jeopardy by the unfolding horror of war. His fiancée has to return to Moscow and Victor enlists, commencing a journey that will take him to France, Salonika, Malta, England and back to France again. If any story illustrates the loss, both personal and national during the First World War it can be found in these letters.

When Jarra Brown hears church bells he cannot fail to be reminded of the hundreds – 345 to be precise – of service personnel who passed through the beautiful rural Wiltshire countryside into Oxfordshire. These men and women were not hiking across its green pastures or sitting on top of the number 55 bus, instead they were lifeless, resting inside a coffin draped with the Union flag. By the end of August 2011 the bells of St Bartholomew’s Church in Wootton Bassett had tolled more times than the residents of this once peaceful town cared to think about, for each chime represented the moment the police convoy accompanying the hearse from RAF Lyneham entered the High Street.A moment frozen in time, a moment when the residents of this town came to show their respects, a moment that couldn’t have been more fitting even it had been choreographed. There was no call to arms by the Town Crier, just a spontaneous, modest and unprompted response to those who had paid the ultimate price in the name of duty. 46 Miles is not a book about the politics of war, the whys and wherefores of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, or indeed the hidden agendas and government strategies. It is about a town which captured the hearts of our nation and whose emotions rippled the entire 46 mile journey of honour, dignity and respect into Oxford. It is dedicated to those 345 people who, having signed up to serve their Queen and country, paid with their lives. Wootton Bassett, who nurtured the grieving on every occasion, wanted to let the nation know that these brave soldiers will never be forgotten.

The only complete history of a Unit that landed in the first waves on Omaha Beach on 6th June 1944. Richard Bass has painstakingly chronicled the history of the 146th Engineer Combat Battalion from formation to disbandment including their landings on Omaha beach. The book explains in detail the role of such a unit and how it was formed, their journey to England and onto the Assault Training Center in Devon. We follow the men on their journey through the hell of the D-Day landings, ahead of the infantry on Omaha beach and onto bridge building and fighting their way across Europe into Berlin. The narrative is backed up with first hand accounts told from veterans recollections, documents and photographs.