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Yes; awarded the DSO four times.

I believe that the only other man to get three bars on his DSO in WWII was Group Captain Tait (RAF), who also won two DFC's. Over a hundred bombing sorties, including the sinking of the Tirpitz.

Hello

A few years ago there was a display in my local Library including the following books

The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, Last Veteran of the Trenches, 1898-2009;

Kitchener's Last Volunteer: The Life of Henry Allingham, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Great War

The Last of the Last: The Final Survivor of the First World War

I can recommend all three, ordinary guys doing extraordinary things.

Lee

Yes, a very good read.

... as was "Band of Brigands" by Christy Campbell (2007). It gives the complete, and harrowing, story of how the first men in tanks went to war. Well written, too. It's one of those books that I've hung on to, as it deserves to be read again. "From mud, through blood, to the green fields beyond". 10/10.

"Conscripts" (Forgotten Men of the Great War) by Ilana R. Bet-El (1999) offers an unusual take on things. By the end of WW1 almost half of British Army recruits were conscripted (well over two million men); and the upper age limit was raised to 56 in 1918! It is quite a scholarly work; and whilst I don't quite agree with the "forgotten" proposition myself, there is a load of interesting information in there. 6/10.

"Forgotten Voices of the Somme" by Joshua Levine (2008) is worth a read, as it contains eye-witness narratives (a great deal of it understated) from the collections of the Imperial War Museum. In fact, anything from the IWM is always worth a go. 8/10.

And lastly, for me the classic from that era was (is) "The First Day on the Somme" by Martin Middlebrook* (1971). Middlebrook was able to draw upon interviews with some of the survivors. As the title suggests, it deals only with that first terrible day. I can thoroughly recommend that one. I read it 36 years ago when I visited the battlefields myself. It probably deserves a re-read - and a re-visit! 10/10.

Written in a similar style, Middlebrook's "The Kaiser's Battle" (1978) ... about the German Spring Offensive of 1918 - the Kaiserschlacht - is also good.

Understandably, there are a lot of good books about the Great War around at the moment ... and there are a few more that I could mention - but I'll give way now for others to make their suggestions.

* Who was a Lincolnshire farmer, by the way.

From mud, through blood to the green fields beyond! The colours of the Royal Tank Regiment are red, brown and green.

By all accounts Major General Hugh Elles went into a haberdashery on the eve of the battle of Cambrai (20 Nov 1917) and chose these colours. Rumour has it they were the only ones they had left! He had a flag knocked up and in the early hours the next morning he appeared in H Bn RTC's (later 8 RTR) area and climbed aboard a tank called "Hilda".

The crew hoisted the flag on top and off into battle they went.

"Fear Naught"

I've recently finished Frederick Forsyth's "The Outsider (My Life in Intrigue)" (2015).

This one was recommended by a friend, and although not in my usual line, I gave it a go by way of a change.

It's really a compilation of autobiographical vignettes, written in Freddie's usual clipped prose. His has certainly been a "life well lived", and the book is a real page-turner.

I must have read his early novels (many) years ago, but thought that later ones had "gone off the boil" a bit (although it could just be that my own tastes may have "matured"); but this one was as entertaining as any other Frederick Forsyth book. So much so that I have picked up an old copy of "The Dogs of War" (1974) to have another go at!

Recommended. 9/10.

Just finished off a couple of "life stories".

The first, entitled "No Ordinary Life" by Peter Stokes (2013) was based on a journal left behind when his father died. It is a slim tome that looks as though it may have been privately published. Anyway, it recounts the wartime exploits of Horace Stokes, who left home in Birmingham in August 1939 to attend his two-week TA annual camp ... then did not return for six years!

He volunteered for "special duties" and served with 12 Commando, then later on with 2 SAS, and most of his "adventures" took place behind enemy lines in Italy. The story unfolds in an unassuming, modest, style ... but (for me) what shines through is just how tough Horace and his mates were. And I mean really tough - in Mind, Body and Spirit. Very sobering, but I enjoyed it immensely. 8/10.

The second was something completely different:- "Bin Laden : Behind the Mask of the Terrorist" by Dan Robinson (2001). The book finishes with "9/11", and no doubt any future edition will need to take us from there up until events at Abbottabad in May 2011 (and maybe beyond).

I found this book very interesting; the narrative provides a different "take" on things to that of the usual "official line" (propaganda) dished out by the "West". I thought I already knew a fair amount about OBL, but here we are taken through his early (affluent) life in Jeddah and then on to his formative years. I had not realised how much of an accomplished businessman he had been. Also Best Mates with certain Establishment figures, and what-have-you. Later on he seems to have something of the Che about him. Say what you like about OBL ... but the guy certainly had the courage of his convictions! Another 8/10 from me.

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter........

Indeed.

I think we might summarize his position along the lines that he wanted the infidel out of his homeland.

It's a sentiment that I can very much relate to.

I finished off another "life story" last night:- "Shaftesbury : The Poor Man's Earl" by John Pollock (1985).

My knowledge about the Noble Earl had been sketchy, to say the least, but Pollock's slender tome put all that right without too much flowery verbage. I'll give this one 7/10 (as it wasn't especially "light" reading).

I had not realised just how many of our now familar institutions Shaftesbury had either helped to set up, or gave patronage to (eg, Barnado's, NSPCC, RSPCA ... and many others).

One of the utterances attributed to him that I particularly liked was:- "The great and final Garden of Paradise is only to be approached through the Garden of Gethsemane" ... well, we don't hear much of that sort of thing these days, do we?

On putting aside this book I began to ponder who amongst our present day "Noble Lords" could begin to be compared with the likes of Lord Shaftesbury (and yes, there we a few others of similar calibre back in Victorian times) - but, alas, I have so far drawn a blank.

Does anyone else have a candidate in mind?