Books: A Quiet Little Boy Goes to War

A Quiet Little Boy Goes to War
By Stan Procter Revised edition published October 2004 Publishers: RiteTime Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0 9530423 0 8
This is the second revised edition of this book which has now been enhanced by many more photos and maps. There are now 273 pages plus 4 pages of colour photos of a Battlefield Tour in July 2004. This book is about the experiences and thoughts of an innocent young soldier who kept a diary from the time he joined the army in 1942 until the end of the campaign from Normandy to Germany in 1945. Reading his diaries fifty years later took him back to the way he was then, the way lift was. That set the scene for the manner in which his very personal story has been written. The author spent a year in London District Signals before posting to 214 Infantry Brigade which then joined the 43rd (Wessex Division). He also spent some time attached to the 1st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment.
The book covers his thoughts and experiences during a long period of intensive training in Kent and Sussex. In Normandy he spent three weeks as wireless operator on Brigadier Essame's (214 Brigade) command vehicle before being transferred to the 1st Battalion Worcestershires Regiment as battalion rear link to brigade headquarters.
From then on with 1st Battalion Worcestershires he experienced the campaign on Hill 112, the dash to the Seine at Vernon for the assault crossing followed by 214 Brigade spear-heading and the dash to Arnhem with the Guards Armour Division. The winter on the German threshold, the Rhineland battles, the Siegfried line, the Reichswald, the Rhine crossing and the final weeks. Many of the photographs in this revised edition were taken by Stan Procter and help to illustrate his story of the people he met. Stan Procter was born and bred in Carshalton, Surrey, living there and in Banstead all his life apart from his war service. This book is now available direct from the publishers for a cost of £16 (which includes U.K. post and packaging): RiteTime Publishing Ltd. 18 Woolmer Way Bordon Hants. GU35 9QF England Tel: +44 (0)1420 487747 fax: +44 (0)1420 474647 Orders accepted by cheque or credit card (Visa or Mastercard).	Stan Procter (1944)