Snag Your Copy The Real Dads Army: The War Diaries Of Col. Rodney Foster. Rodney Foster Compiled And Edited By Rodney Foster Accessible From Digital Format

for research purposes but not much else, An interesting chronicle of the Second World War from the home front, An excellent counterpoint to the usual battlefield memoir, giving an insight to the trials and tribulations of those left at home.
Interesting accounts of the Home Guard during WWbut not a book that holds the readers attention.
Written by a diarist in a rather perfunctory way and therefore suffers from a lack of descriptive passages.
The diaries are very real amp it's interesting to see what details of life were important enough to be recorded, and which weren't "I timed my standing in the fish queue: it was exactly half an hour" or " "Went up and saw Mother.
she recognised me at once, Afternoon, took the dogs out" and "I was issued three macintoshes, four blankets, ammunition and field dressings today"

There are many similarities between the fictional Captain Mainwaring amp the real life Rodney Foster both are too old to be conscripted but young enough to want to do their part both have a certain "standing" in life amp friends in influential places Rodney manages to get petrol throughout the war amp not only has a nice house in Hythe but manages to rent a cottage/farm a few miles away where he retreats at night to be away from the bombs

Humorous in parts, and undoubtedly a great piece of history, but unfortunately hard to read in this format.
I would like to see elements of this incorporated into film or tv
I really looked forward to reading this book but was left dreadfully disappointed.


These diaries by Colonel Rodney Foster were kept for the duration of the Second World War.
They saw the light of day a few years ago via a car boot and eBay sale or two.
They are fastidious in their detail but tell us little, if anything, of the effect that these factual details had on the auther "Another flying bomb landed on our town, destroying two houses and killing three people".
And . . what Were you terrified, were you worried, or did you just take it all in your stride Colonel Foster

One expected so much more but ultimately, there was no great insight into one of the world's most terrible conflicts from these tomes.
Dreadfully disappointing. One of

many remarkable facets of these diaries is how like, and yet how unlike, the television sitcom was to reality.
The diarist, a retired Indian army officer living in the heart of Hell Fire Corner throughout the second World War, was an early member of the Home Guard in Kent.
He did not suffer fools and encountered a number, Eventually, exasperated, he resigned and became a driver in the Volunteer Car Pool,

Colonel Foster is an exemplary diarist, His entires are brief, lucid and to the point they have room for the wider view of the war as it unfolded but also for the trivia of everyday life.
A picture emerges of daily exposure to danger, the stress of regular air raid warnings, the bombs and explosions, the death of acquaintances but also of domestic life when the housemaid is suspected of being a spy, when the writer stands next to a rearadmiral in a halfhour queue to buy fish, when a journey can only be completed by borrowing a gallon of petrol, while on another drive to an emergency hospital, "I did themiles in¼ hours.
"

Unwittingly, perhaps, the Colonel provides a telling selfportrait, Clearly he was a man of principle, devoted to his wife and daughter, a willing helper of deserving causes, a prickly team member, and a prejudiced patriot among those who come in for recurrent criticism are Winston Churchill and most of his cabinet, Field Marshall Montgomery, General Eisenhower and most Americans.
British servicemen who consistently damage his fence are not excused,

We can only be grateful that these diaries, having disappeared after the author's death, resurfaced in a car boot sale.
Anyone wishing to understand what life was like for civilians in the front line will find a clear and accurate account.
I should add that much of it made difficult reading for one who was born in Folkestone, experienced some of the later months but mostly escaped as an evacuee in Wales.
So I was not there when my school premises were damaged, Unfortunately, as a photograph of wrecked houses on pageshows, my parents stayed on and paid with their lives.
This is a very matteroffact telling of World Warfrom Colonel Rodney Foster, The diary entries are mainly quick updates jotted down and do not explore how the writer feels.
Great for those who want an insights on what life during WWII was like but I would have enjoyed a more indepth telling of the events.
'Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler' Not Colonel Rodney Foster, a platoon commander of the Kent Home Guard.
Dad's Army, the iconic comedy series is as wellknown today as it was forty years ago, But the reality of life in the Home Guard was often very different, Here, for the first time, is the full inside story of the Home Guard, the ragtag volunteer army that defended the coast of Britain from German invasion during the Second World War.
Colonel Rodney Foster, who retired to Hythe in the south of England after a military career in British India, joined the Home Guard inand kept a diary every day a highly illegal act at the time and in it meticulously chronicled his service in the real Dad's Army.
Living directly beneath the Battle of Britain on the Kent coast, Foster commanded a company of men in the face of constant aerial bombardment and the everpresent threat of death from above the Home Guard were the first barrier to Hitler's crack parachutists.
Writing from the village hall, abandoned barns, churches and makeshift officers' messes, he records with a unique wit and wisdom the everyday details of family life during the war: the domestic routine dogged by air raid warnings, the antics of soldiers stationed nearby taking every chance to improve their lot, the quiet strength of a small community faced with great adversity.
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