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Book Cover
E-book
Author Makepeace, Clare, author

Title Captives of war : British prisoners of war in Europe in the Second World War / Claire Mkepeace
Published New York : Cambridge University Press, [2017]

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Description 1 online resource
Series Studies in the social and cultural history of modern warfare.
Contents Capture -- Imprisoned servicemen -- Bonds between men -- Ties with home -- Going "round the bend" -- Liberation -- Resettling -- Conclusion
Summary "Signalman Andrew Makepeace, my grandfather, was taken prisoner, along with more than 10,000 other men in the 51st Highland Division, at St Valery-en-Caux on 12 June 1940. It was often said in our household that a veteran's silence on the war was a direct reflection of how much he had suffered. My parents regularly invoked this maxim to explain why my grandfather rarely talked about his experiences. From a very early age, I struggled to reconcile this: how could my kind, gentle, patient grandfather have gone through things so dreadful they had rendered him mute when it came to discussing these five years of his early adult life? Very occasionally, and unexpectedly, something would break his silence. I remember wearing a pair of clogs one day: I was about twelve years-old. He looked at them and then looked at me. 'Dreadful things' he said in a distant voice. I watched his eyes fill with anguish over, what seemed to me, up until that point, to be the most harmless of items."--Provided by publisher
Notes Print version record
Subject World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons, German.
Prisoners of war -- Great Britain
Prisoners of war -- Europe
Prisoners of war -- Diaries
World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives, British.
Prisoners of war
Europe
Great Britain
Genre/Form Personal narratives
Diaries
Personal narratives
Personal narratives.
Récits personnels.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781316536247
1316536246
Other Titles Captives of war, British POWs in Europe in the Second World War
British prisoners of war in Europe in the Second World War