Wars and Shadows

This exceptional memoir by one of Britain's most distinguished living soldiers describes a life lived against the backdrop of the most significant military events of the last century. David Fraser was raised in a military family deep in the shadow of the First World War. He absconded from school to enlist at the earliest possible moment after the Second was declared. He was intimately involved afterwards in crises in Suez, Cyprus and Malaya, and eventually became Vice Chief of the General Staff.

Wars and Shadows is one of the last notable memoirs of the great conflict in the middle of the last century. It evokes the lives and characters of many of those who fought - and, often, lost their lives - vividly and tenderly. Like the very best memoirs, as well as entertaining us, it also allows us to reflect on how we might have reacted in similar circumstances to those the author faced, and whether eventually we might be able to give an account even half so satisfying as this of our own lives and times.

Autorentext

Born the son of Brigadier The Honourable William Fraser (1890-1964) DSO MC, who had been the military attaché in Paris when the Second World War begun, David Fraser was educated at Eton College and Christ Church College, Oxford. He left school to enlist at earliest opportunity after the Second World War begun, and joined his father's regiment, the Grenadier Guards in 1940, serving for much of the War with the Guards Armoured Division, later in North West Europe, ending the war in the rank of Major.

He was appointed General Officer Commanding 4th Division in 1969, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Policy) in 1971 and Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1973. He went on to be British Military Representative to NATO in 1975, and Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1977 before retiring in 1980.

Inhalt

Introduction

Part One
1 A Melancholy Radiance
2 Northern Lights
3 Figures in the Foreground
4 Foreigners and Others
5 A Long Summer Afternoon

Part Two
6 Waiting in an Ante-Room
7 Uniform at Last
8 Time of Preparation
9 The End of Waiting
10 Norman Summer
11 'To the Last Breath of Man and Beast'
12 Farewell to Armour

Part Three
13 No War, No Peace
14 Times of Turbulence
15 Allies and Reflections