Carole McEntee-Taylor Books

Surviving the Nazi Onslaught. From the Defence of Calais to the Death March to Freedom.

‘The Weekend Trippers’ has been withdrawn as Pen & Sword are publishing the revised, enlarged, updated version in 2014 under the above title.  I have some copies of The Weekend Trippers left. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing one. There were not too many printed so these could become valuable first editions:-)

Foreword by Field Marshal Lord Bramall.

Ted Taylor, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, was sent to France in May 1940 as part of Calais Force. Initially sent to open up supply lines to the rapidly retreating BEF, they soon found themselves defending Calais against the might of the 10th Panzer Division. Outnumbered by at least three to one they held out for 4 days until they ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender.

For the next five years Ted found himself part of the huge slave labour force in Poland under the administration of Stalag XXA and Stalag XXB. Life in the POW camps bore little resemblance to the cheerful films of the 1950s with casual brutality never far from the surface. As 1945 began and the war entered its final bloody phase, the POWs dared to believe that at last they might be going home. But  fate had one more cruel trick to play.

As the Russians approached rapidly from the east, the terrified Germans evacuated the camps and, in temperatures below -25c, began marching  the malnourished, poorly-clothed POWs back across Europe. The infamous ‘death marches’ to freedom across the frozen, chaotic, war ravaged landscape of Eastern Europe had begun.

Available to order here

If you would like to know more about the Defence of Calais please visit  British Military History. For a review of Surviving the Nazi Onslaught please click here

Reviews:

As mentioned in
Epworth Bells and Crowle Advertiser

This is a story that demanded to be told and deserves to be read.
Firetrench

This new hardback book from Pen & Sword makes for some interesting and thought-provoking reading. … A heartfelt story of a soldier who had to withstand five years of captivity and then face the re-adjustment to normal life on his return home.
Military Modelling

[Surviving the Nazi Onslaught] is researched well, and written in an easy to read style. … I have a particular interest in the Defence of Calais in May 1940, so was likely to find this book informative and useful, but I believe it has wider appeal.
British Military History

As seen in the Essex Chronicle.
Essex Chronicle