DIARY OF AN ORDINARY SOLDIER

GUNNER is the diary, photos and postcards of an ordinary soldier who served through the Second World War in the UK and from Normandy to Germany in 1944-45.

The book also includes extracts from the regimental war diary and history.

Sgt Leslie Todd served with the 90th (Middlesex) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Territorial Army) which was formed at Alexandra Palace, North London, in 1939.

The 90th mobilised on August 24, 1939, ten days before the declaration of war, and provided home air defence during the Battle of Britain, later training to engage ground and sea targets before landing in Normandy on July 7, 1944, a month after D-Day.

The 90th took part in the Battle of Normandy before supporting the advance through Belgium and Holland, fighting at Nijmegen before crossing the Rhine into Germany.

All proceeds from GUNNER go to a military charity, the Not Forgotten Association www.nfassociation.org / @nfassociation.

GUNNER is published by DLE-History which has also published PIGTAIL PILOT, the tragic true story of Barbara Gubbins, a young woman who might have been the RAF’s first female pilot if she had not been killed in a training crash.

Coming soon is the story of a young estate worker who volunteered to serve as an infantryman in the First World War and survived being torpedoed in the Mediterranean only to die in savage hand-to hand fighting near Jerusalem in 1917.