Fear is the Foe

This is an account of life in one of the smallest of army units - the four sections of squaddies that comprise a platoon. Private Stanley Waterhouse was among that carefree breed of pre-war young men who viewed war as a great adventure, but the horrors of the battlefield quickly dispelled this attitude, and fear, overpowering fear, began to stalk his waking hours and haunt his dreams. He was probably one of the youngest British squaddies in the Normandy landing. He enlisted when barely sixteen, and on D-Day was still short of his eighteenth birthday. His harrowing experiences in North-West Europe turned him into a bitter, angry young man who felt that after his army career he and his fellow soldiers received scant recognition.