Whicker’s War and Journey of a Lifetime

Whicker’s War and Journey of a Lifetime
Alan Whicker

Whicker’s War and Journey of a Lifetime in one ebook for the first time.Alan Whicker joined the Army Film and Photo Unit as an 18-year-old army officer, following the Allied advance through Italy, from Sicily to Venice. He filmed the troops on the front line, met Montgomery, and other military luminaries, filmed the battered body of Mussolini after his execution and accepted the surrender of the SS in Milan. This is remarkable account of the Italian campaign of 1943 and 1944 as he retraces of his steps over sixty years later. Beautifully written, poignant with humour and pathos, Whicker’s War is a masterful book by one of the 20th centuries greatest TV journalists.Journey of a Lifetime is the end product of a very personal journey. Whicker retraces his steps, catching up with some past interviewees and reflecting on how the world has changed - for good and bad - over the passing of time. Journey of a Lifetime is lyrical, uplifting and peppered with our favourite globetrotter's brand of subtle satire.

ALAN WHICKER

WHICKER’S WAR and JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

CONTENTS

Cover (#u160aa121-5167-50bd-aa0f-32928194aaa4)

Title Page (#u993d937c-e610-5caf-bc18-4d8139b50271)

Whicker’s War (#u993d937c-e610-5caf-bc18-4d8139b50271)

Journey of a Lifetime (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

ALAN WHICKER

WHICKER’S WAR

DEDICATION (#ulink_886b1f72-96dd-5f84-9cbb-eef1823082e8)

Dedicated to the men of

the Army Film and Photo Unit

who marched with me through Italy …

CONTENTS

Title Page (#u993d937c-e610-5caf-bc18-4d8139b50271)

Dedication (#ulink_60958200-b804-502f-b8dc-1afc0cac2f70)

That early summer dawn in Sicily … (#ulink_ddba3867-6f2d-522c-a24f-45ca56533f2f)

Being shot was for another day … (#ulink_ee45a30c-e8a8-520b-9423-fb8452f7ce94)

A long life was not in the script … (#ulink_6c0dc03d-eaaf-5a82-9fd7-4b88a0cfddfe)

His Majesty got a wrong number … (#ulink_4bf92e0e-ad19-596b-b871-751fe2612243)

They asked for it – and they will now get it … (#ulink_fc6a55b2-7d9f-558d-b673-e6f55c06a731)

They enlisted the Godfather … (#ulink_9f66d13b-1033-5ba1-a8f4-d3aed09548cb)

I still feel rather guilty about that … (#ulink_7d226572-0133-5e1c-bcd8-9fb9636ad978)

Very bad jokes indeed … (#ulink_53d6f2b8-99eb-5daf-89d0-4ba96f46aa4e)

A passing glance at Paradise … (#ulink_f93fa4cb-36bd-5a98-b3fe-62a73632a7e1)

Struggling to get tickets for the first Casualty List … (#ulink_a7eb83b6-14fa-5c3b-8274-27f7e7a2a80f)

They died without anyone even knowing their names … (#ulink_43a5e624-30b5-5ba3-bb1b-1fb599a16794)

I’m afraid we’re not quite ready for you yet … (#litres_trial_promo)

You should have heard him screaming … (#litres_trial_promo)

Hitler would have had him shot … (#litres_trial_promo)

A beautiful woman with her teeth knocked out … (#litres_trial_promo)

Out-gunned on one side, out-screamed on the other … (#litres_trial_promo)

I have come to rescue you … (#litres_trial_promo)

The call-back seemed worse than the call-up … (#litres_trial_promo)

Whatever happened to Time Marching On …? (#litres_trial_promo)

The Saga of The D-Day Dodgers … (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Picture Credits (#litres_trial_promo)

THAT EARLY SUMMER DAWN IN SICILY… (#ulink_1a0540b1-d847-5b8d-8bcd-aa17c44424e1)

One man’s war … a return to the invasion beaches and battlefields of Italy. A sentimental pilgrimage, I suppose, to places where I expected to die. Also a salute to those I marched alongside 60 years ago while growing up watching the world explode before the viewfinders of Army Film Unit battle-cameramen. In two years of savage warfare they gave a lot; some of them, everything.

As a teenage subaltern I’d volunteered for a new role in a new Army, and found myself out of the infantry but in to far more assault landings and battles than I’d expected. My belief that war could be anything except boring went unchallenged because our cameramen closely followed the action, indeed sometimes led Italian – though that was usually just poor map-reading …

I was part of the first great seaborne invasion. The Eighth Army was learning how to do it – and so, unfortunately, were the Germans.

The Italian campaign – one of the most desperate and bloody of World War II – was 660 days of fear and exhilaration. Churchill called it the Third Front. Life was strangely intense and sharp-focussed, yet every dramatic experience vanished like an exploding shell as we moved cheerfully along the cutting edge of war towards the next violent day.