Dad's war

the long version

Aged nineteen, Basil Avery Tarrant said goodbye to his family and his hometown of Reading and set off for the frontlines of World War II. Fighting side-by-side with other young men, he witnessed the blood and brutality of hand-to-hand combat. After the war he came home, started a family and he remembered, but he never talked. For nearly sixty years, Basil's war remained a mystery to his son. Chris knew nothing of the things Basil saw or the friends he lost. He left it all there, at the harbour of Dunkirk, on the beaches of Normandy and the battlefield of Arnhem.