
Letters from Normandy
John Mercer(Author)
Amberley Publishing
Will be published approx. on 15. October 2010
Book
Hardback
128 pages
978-1-4456-0176-2 (ISBN)
Description
'We recognised the place from the newsreels. There was a large desk covered with dust. An ornamental chandelier hung low from the ceiling. From here Hitler had plotted. Here had been Goering, Himmler, Hess, Goebbels, Ribbentrop - Outside were the remains of a bonfire. The wall was smoke-blackened by the burning. We had reached the heart of Hitler's Germany.' John Mercer was called up in June 1944, and after nine months of square-bashing, vehicle training, Morse code and line laying, he became a gunner. He landed in Normandy on 13 June. The next year saw Mercer skirmishing in Belgium and suffering in waterlogged Holland. He would spend hundreds of hours glued to the radio, waiting for a signal to fire. During the assault on Le Havre, he was taken prisoner by Germans. After transferring to the 7th Division, he was one of the first British troops to enter Berlin, and the Reich Chancellery. Mercer's letters to his widowed mother, together with extracts from the official War Diaries, tell his gripping story. Letters from Normandy is about life in wartime: the trauma, the uncertainty, and perhaps above all, the will to return home.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chalford
United Kingdom
Illustrations
30 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
435 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4456-0176-2 (9781445601762)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

John Mercer
Letters from Normandy
E-Book
10/2010
1st Edition
Amberley Publishing
€9.19
Available for download
Person
John Mercer served in the Royal Artillery as a signaler from 1942 until 1947. Later, he pursued a career in education, becoming a schoolteacher and then a college lecturer. Brought up in Bexleyheath, John Mercer has lived in Sidcup since 1957 and has written several books on local history and two on military memoirs. Before retiring he taught locally and in a former London Polytechnic.