Capture at Arnhem - A Diary of Disaster & Survival
Captain Harry Roberts of the REME (Royal Engineering and Mechanical Corps) was landed by glider at the fateful Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, Moments after he had jumped out of the glider he was shot at by German fire and received a disabling bullet at the base of his spine and other injuries.
This extraordinary memoir is his distillation of his wartime diaries and incorporates information on his training, his capture at Arnhem and his subsequent experience as a Prisoner of War incarcerated deep in the German countryside. As a soldier he was brave and resourceful and blessed with a robust sense of humour.
Capture at Arnhem shows all the chaos of war, the bitterness of defeat and the sheer will to live. As an officer and POW, Captain Roberts was reasonably well treated, but this did not spare him from the vicissitudes of war - ranging from the agony of his wounds and fear of paralysis to witnessing the death of his comrades. He also saw the ugly reality of Nazi rule when, for instance, he stumbled across a party of starved and broken women slave labourers. His humane account vividly conveys the kaleidoscope of emotions that all soldiers and prisoners experience.
This is an unvarnished soldier's tale that will transport the reader back to the hardship of World War II and to one of the Allies' hardest setbacks.