Blood Beneath His Boots
Two years of hard duty in Egypt, Italy and a Greece racked by civil war clearly had a huge impact on Private Bert Keeling of both the King`s Shropshire Light Infantry and the Somersets. The miracle is that he survived. After sixty years of peace, he lost his wife, Peggy. Then, while visiting his neighbour, the author, it was agreed that Bert`s recollections of World War II should be put down on paper. Was it therapy, or a thesis for our troubled times? Either way, this is a superb bunch of stories. They`re delivered in a terse, no-nonsense style by a British infantryman, a stoical Brummie who constantly saw war at the sharp end. Here are the crowded hours of battle, the curious lulls and anxious days of waiting on the Gothic Line. Here...
