Roy Close's wartime experiences make breathtaking reading. Mobilized in 1939 he became part of the BEF and was fortunate to avoid death or captivity during the German blitzkrieg and escape through Dunkirk. Sent to North Africa, he joined the Paras and, from there, to the SAS. In 1944 he operated behind enemy lines with the Maquis in France, who were in open insurrection against the German occupiers. The scene then shifts to Holland and the advance through Germany. He witnessed Paris and Berlin in very early post-war years and was part of the Quadripartite Government of the former German capital.