The Falls

The Falls by Graeme CM Smith recounts a British soldier’s wartime experience from the Battle for France through to liberation in 1945. Presented as a personal account, it follows events across 1940–45, including capture and years as a prisoner of war.

Key details

• Author: Graeme CM Smith
• ISBN: 9781804241226

Synopsis

Set against the aftermath of Dunkirk and Churchill’s “We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches” speech, the narrative shifts attention from evacuation to the rear-guard actions and the British troops who continued fighting in France. It describes operations including a counterattack at Abbeville and a hard defence between the Somme front and the Seine, before capture by Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division, known as the ‘Ghost Division’.

The account then follows five years of captivity, from forced labour and solitary confinement to the collapse of life in East Prussia as the Soviet invasion advanced. It culminates in the Long March, when British POWs were driven west across Poland in severe winter conditions alongside East German refugees, before rescue by Americans near Halberstadt in April 1945. Suitable for readers interested in first-hand Second World War testimony and POW history.

Rackhams Reference : 4UD4G95QQQ