Lambeth to Lamsdorf: Doug Hawkins' War

This is the story of an ordinary young man, unworldly, untried and patriotic, who enlisted at 18 in 1942 and became an infantryman specialising as a machine gunner with the Middlesex Regiment and later with the Cheshire Regiment. His early years were spent in Lambeth and Mitcham, Surrey. As a 17 year old he joined the Home Guard and soon experienced the loss of a friend for the first time to a German landmine.

His training in Saighton, Cheshire and elsewhere was followed by transit to North...