The moving, and often humorous, memoirs of one soldier serving in the Middle East during the Second World War have been published as a lasting reminder of the experiences of a generation of young men.
The book, ‘Memoirs of a Not Too Serious Hussar’, written by Dennis Middleton decades after he served in WW2, details not only the horrors of war, but also the jokes, japes and comradeship they shared. It also contains many photographs from the time, which illustrate the social history of the time.
Dennis joined the South Notts Hussars, a Territorial Army artillery unit, before war was declared as he never believed Chamberlain’s claims of ‘peace in our times.’ Proved right, Dennis went to war a few months later, telling his mother he would be back in a couple of years. In fact it was five years later he returned home.
In that time Dennis was one of the few to serve under both Field Marshall Wavell and Field Marshall ‘Monty’ Montgomery. He saw action in at least six major battles during the desert campaign and was at the Siege of Tobruk for the entire 240 days of the campaign.
Dennis’s recollections include the tragic death of his best friend, his own capture, and release, but also memorable encounters with extraordinary individuals.
He writes ‘I shall never forget sitting at trestle tables in an olive grove under the stars. Exceptionally, because she was English although not an officer, they invited a Miss Travers, who sat next to me; an English woman in the Foreign Legion!”
Dennis also describes one of his most emotional moments which took place in Naples: ‘As he reached me I stopped and stared. He stopped. And I gasped ‘Peter?’ It was indeed my brother Peter, whom I had last seen as a boy of 16, and now miraculously stood before me as a young man of 21.’
Dennis prepared the handwritten memoir in the mid-1990s, as a record for himself and his family. It is now being published by his son Jeremy, a Newcastle based businessman, who runs a successful investment firm, as a tribute to his father who was born and brought up in Nottingham.
He also left a hand-written note listing seven times he had a narrow escape:
-Machine guns from German bomber in Tobruk
-Rifle fire on the wire aimed at him
-Shelling of OP – 20 minutes accurately on his trench
-Knightsbridge near miss
-Captured and later released
-Bomb 6fr away on gun position
-Machine gun at night mending wire in the salient, forward of front line trench
Jeremy said: “When I read it I can hear my father’s voice. He didn’t talk about the war much and, although we had heard the odd story, I had no idea what it was really like until I read his memoirs. I decided to publish it as it brings history alive by recounting at first hand the real experiences of that generation, experiences my generation has been spared, and that I hope and pray my children will be spared too.’’
The book is published by Sunderland-based Remember Media for £19.95 and available on Amazon.
