It Won't Be Long Now - The Diary of a Hong Kong Prisoner of War

Japan marched into Hong Kong at the outbreak of the Pacific War on December 8, 1941. On the same day, Graham Heywood was captured by the invading Japanese near the border while carrying out duties for the Royal Observatory. He was held at various places in the New Territories before being transported to the military Prisoner-of-War camp in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon. The Japanese refused to allow Heywood and his colleague Leonard Starbuck to join the civilians at the Stanley internment camp.

Heywood’s illustrated diary records his three-and-a-half years of internment, telling a story of hardship, adversity, and survival of malnutrition and disease; as well as repeated hopes of liberation and disappointment. As he awaits the end of the war, his reflections upon freedom and imprisonment bring realisations about life and how to live it.

“Accounts of life in the internment camp differed widely. One friend, an enthusiastic biologist, was full of his doings; he had grown champion vegetables, had seen all sort of rare birds (including vultures, after the corpses) and had run a successful yeast brewery. Altogether, he said, it had been a great experience … a bit too long, perhaps, but not bad fun at all. Another ended up her account by saying ‘Oh, Mr. Heywood, it was hell on earth’. It all depended on their point of view.”

Available from:

Blacksmith Books (free sample chapter available at the Publishers website)

Lake Ilmen 1942 - The Wehrmacht Front to the Red Army

In January 1942, south of Lake Ilmen, the 16th German Army clashed with the Morozov's 11th Soviet Army for possession of the strategic Russian city of Stelaia. In this battle, which has gone almost unnoticed in studies of the Eastern Front, the Blue Division (Spanish volunteers) intervened with the 250th Skier Company. The Spaniards, along with their German and Latvian comrades, endured hard fighting in extreme winter conditions. In addition to providing a strategic framework of the battle itself, including the Soviet perspective, this book also looks at the human aspect of the battle, by analysing a selection of the volunteers who fought in it.

This is an interesting book, although the subject area is not that clear from the title chosen, but the authors have created an insightful and comprehensive narrative about one specific action that the Spanish Blue Division participated in. One key point of the book are the biographies of men who were involved in this battle, and these sit well with extracts from personal accounts. The biographies include officers, and also ordinary soldiers. While the singular focus of the book is very precise, there are few English language accounts of the Blue Division's participation on the Eastern Front, so this book is worth obtaining if you want to read more about this aspect of World War Two.

Available from:
Pen & Sword

Rations and Rubble - Remembering Woolworths, The New Cross V2 Disaster Saturday 25th November 1944

For many people it seemed as though the war was all but over. Christmas was coming and there were saucepans for sale in Woolworths again. The New Cross lads had been swimming and were having their usual hot drink in the tea-bar. An ordinary Saturday lunch time turned in a split second into a living hell. A V2 rocket, forged in the German mountains with slave labour and fired under orders of vengeance, slashed through the sky faster than the speed of sound. A direct hit at the back of Woolworths killed 168 people, injuring hundreds more and spreading the rumour of death throughout South East London.

This booklet carries the stories of survivors, relatives of the victims and the defence workers who toiled for three days and nights to pull the community back from its disaster, saving lives where they could, preserving the little details which would aid identification and clearing the blood-soaked rubble.

Published in 1994 by the Deptford Local History group, this excellent book is made up of almost entirely first person accounts. Sadly, with the passing of time, many of the interviewees will have now passed on, but thankfully their recollections of the horrific loss of life on that November day in 1944 have been recorded for posterity in this book.

Available from:
I purchased my copy from a stall at Greenwich Vintage Market in London. It is out of print, but you may be able to obtain a copy from Amazon.