Me, My Father and I

Description:

In June 1940, my father joined the 9th Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment; he was 17. Trooper 7952180 hit the Normandy beaches on June 9th 1944 - my mission: to live his war again. The plan was simple. On my return from a road trip to France, I would write a book about his exploits, not for grand publication but for anyone in my family who cared. To retrace his journey through North West Europe, I put myself into his Tankie boots and hoped to combine historical facts with photographs, war diaries and stories from his war years. Trapped inside his body, I find myself driving a tank in Normandy and then across the battlefields of NW Europe from Sword Beach to Hamburg. And there is another problem. I must survive like he did to return to my safe, modern-day life, and I can only do this by reliving his war again. Dates and places are accurate, and some names have been changed, but my imagination was needed to fill in the gaps.

subjects: World War II,  D-day,  memoirs,  United States Military Veterans History

Places: Normandy,  Hamburg (Germany)