The Real 'Dad's Army': The War Diaries of Col. Rodney Foster

Here, for the first time, is the inside story of the Home Guard, the ragtag army of older and not-so-able-bodied younger men who defended Britain in the Second World War. Keeping a secret diary chronicling his service in south-east England, Colonel Rodney Foster wrote from barns, churches and makeshift officers' messes, recording the everyday, comic and chaotic details of wartime life: soldiers scared to train after dark or just skipping onerous duties; constant aerial bombardment; manoeuvres sabotaged by incompetence, makeshift equipment or lack of interest. It is a wonderful story of one family's life on the front line as well as of the men who had so little yet were ready to give their all to beat the enemy.