Dad was a Sapper with the Royal Engineers, blowing up bridges to slow the German advance. Later he was part of the defence of Mont des Cats when orders were received to make their way to Dunkirk. Captured on the way, he spent the next 5 years as a PoW, in Stalag VIIIB (344) and work camps such as the E209 coal mine.
Like many others, Dad spent a lot of his spare time putting his experiences onto paper, which I am sure was a kind of therapy. This book is an effort to preserve his manuscript, by putting it into print and on the internet. The manuscript and the handkerchief are now with the Imperial War Museum.
Dad died on the eve of Remembrance Day, November 10th 2001