WARTIME DORSET
THE COMPLETE HISTORY

RODNEY LEGG

DORSET PUBLISHING COMPANY
2000

First edition.
A classic day by day chronicle of the Second World War.

Incident full throughout. Evacuees, the phoney war, and evacuation from Dunkirk. Then only the English Channel separated Dorset from the enemy on the Cherbourg peninsula, just 70 miles away.
This book tells the story daily. From the threat of German invasion during the hot summer of the Battle of Britain, through radar research and the secret war, to the arrival of the United States Army -and the cross-Channel sea and air armada on D-Day.

Plus the ongoing conflict at sea and the continuing grief of Luftwaffe raids, causing considerable death and destruction over Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole, Swanage, Weymouth and Portland.
Meanwhile flying-boats from Poole Harbour maintained the transatlantic air link for VIPs and restored international services to the Empire and the Far East.

Battalions of the Dorsetshire Regiment were the spearhead of the British infantry, recovering from retreat at Dunkirk to carry out assault landings, in Sicily, Italy, and Normandy. They were the first to cross the Seine and enter the Reich.

On the other side of the globe their comrades fought the Japanese in the Burmese jungle and went on to provide the guard for the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Christchurch engineers developed prefabricated steel Bailey Bridges to speed the Allied advance. Scientists from the town test-fired captured V2 rockets and began Britain's guided weapons programme.

It is a compelling story, told readably and fully illustrated throughout, with a remarkable archive of 500 dramatic photographs. This is the one book that presents the war as living history - a series of news events unfolding daily.

30 x 21 cm. 320 pp.

Very good condition, dust jacket faded along the spine and lightly creased along the top edge, book itself clean and tidy.