Overview

The remarkable story of this group of engineers who had joined the Territorial Army before 1939 and worked in 'The Plant' at Doncaster where they made famous steam engines such as the Flying Scotsman. They were sent to prepare the way for the BEF and found themselves stranded after the fall of France in June 1940 but managed to find their way back to England. They were sent out to Africa as the 8th Army clung on and began work on the El Alamein defences but left that to go and train with a special unit which became the SAS. They were detached to go to defend Tobruk when General Erwin Rommel had the Allies in full retreat and were captured. The final section deals with some individual tales of captivity.

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9781904623083

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Reviews

Institute of the Royal Engineers Journal: It is a very readable account of what happened to the Doncaster railwaymen as they went to France with the BEF, returned home, went to North Africa and trained as commandos in the embryo SAS. ...and Charles Jones has done an amazing job of linking the stories together with background information, maps and photographs. The chapters on life in the prison camps are particularly interesting and illuminating. ...there are plenty of vignettes of life in the camps so the reader gets a real feel for what the men were going through. This is a fine tribute to a remarkable body of men, and if you are thinking 'just another unit history' - you should think again. JEB

Author Information

Charles Jones is the author of a number of history books including 'The Forgotten Battle of 1066'.

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