My Wartime Wanderings: From the Western Desert to Berlin with the 1st Battalion, the Rifle Brigade

Ken Phillips enlisted at the start of World War 2 and joined the Rifle Brigade. He was sent to North Africa where he was part of an anti-tank division engaged in a rolling battle across Egypt and Libya against one of Germany's top generals and his superior panzers. Ken endured eighteen months of sandstorms and flies, supply issues and poor rations, travelling over two thousand miles of wreck-strewn desert in increasingly cannibalised battalions and vehicles. Later, Ken would be redeployed in the shelled-out countryside of Italy before taking part in the Western push through Europe following the D-Day landings, beating back a wounded but still-fighting German line. A powerful and intimate memoir, My Wartime Wanderings is not a sweeping, broad-swathe account of the Second World War; it is a personal account of one man's journey through the deadliest conflict in human history, the loss of life, the upheaval of nations, but also the monotony of the day-to-day and the reality and practicalities of life in the British Army. Told through Ken's own memoirs, with snippets of his letters home, My Wartime Wanderings is a must read for those interested in the reality behind the silver-screen images of the Second World War: a story of seven years, seven months and twenty-four days in uniform.

Table of Contents:
Introduction & Acknowledgements vii. The Pre-War Years. Early Days and Family Background. With the London Rifle Brigade. With 1st Battalion, the Rifle Brigade in England. En Route to North Africa. The Desert - From Arrival to Gazala. The Desert - The Gazala Line Battle and Retreat. The Desert - At Alamein. The Desert - Pursuit to Tunis. Italy. Back in England. Normandy. Across Northern France. Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany. Army of Occupation. The Post-War Years. Hawker Siddeley Group and Family Life. GLOSSARY.

About the Author :
Ken Phillips was born in Thornton Heath in South London in 1921. At the age of 17 he joined the Territorial Army and at the outbreak of war in August 1939 he joined the London Rifle Brigade. He subsequently moved to the 1st Battalion, the Rifle Brigade, with whom he spent the rest of his military service until 1947. After the war, having trained in accountancy, Ken joined Hawker Siddeley Group, where he was based at their head office in London. He spent the whole of his working career at Hawker Siddeley, retiring as Head of Group Planning in 1983. He married in 1957 and he and his wife Kathie had two children. Kathie died in 1979 but Ken was still able to enjoy spending time with his daughters and grandchildren. In his retirement he typed up his wartime memoirs, based largely on his diaries and letters home. He died at the age of 91 in 2013