Dad’s Army Goes to War: The Cast and their Real Wartime Service

For decades the BBC comedy Dad’s Army has entertained millions of viewers around the world. But the farcical antics of Walmington-on-Sea’s bumbling Home Guard platoon camouflage the true military service of some of the actors themselves.

 The inspiration behind the sitcom came from the early life of one its writers, Jimmy Perry. At the age of 16 he joined the Home Guard in Watford, where he encountered a variety of characters whose eccentricities would be reflected in the TV series.

 Some members of the cast had instructive, engaging and often colourful experiences, but others were scarred by horror and tragedy. John Laurie (Private Frazer) fought in the First World War, as did Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey), who was seriously wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. While Clive Dunn (Corporal Jones) was taken prisoner in 1941 following the German invasion of Greece.

 That each man helped turn Dad’s Army into everlasting success will never be forgotten. And why? Well, in reality they had seen war and knew war, and yet always completely realised and understood how the power of laughter is the ultimate triumph.

From the Battlefield to the Big Screen: Audie Murphy, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Dirk Bogarde in the Second World War

Look closely behind the lives of the stars who appeared in a host of legendary war films and discover how memories of their real-life experiences in the armed forces were haunted with heartbreak and yet filled with extraordinary heroism. Just what did America’s most decorated soldier Audie Murphy go through in battle which led him to star as himself in the classic war film, To Hell and Back?
   When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Murphy joined the US Army aged just 17. He went on to fight at Anzio, the Colmar Pocket, and Nuremberg. And for single-handedly holding off an enemy attack he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But Murphy’s military and celebrity stardom did little to extinguish the pain of his private battle to fit in to a new post-war world he perceived as disappointing, shallow and unfulfilling. Tormented by PTSD Murphy was a man unable to escape from his past. Only the great director and decorated wartime documentary maker John Huston gained Murphy’s true respect.
When war broke out on 3 September 1939, a number of British stars, including Laurence Olivier, his future wife Vivien Leigh, and David Niven, were in the United States under contract to the Hollywood Studios. Keen not to ‘shirk their duties at home’, and against advice from the British Consul, they made their way back to Blighty.
   Olivier joined the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm as a pilot. Then with Churchill’s approval he directed and starred in powerful propaganda films, including Shakespeare’s Henry V. In 1943 the beautiful Vivien Leigh ruined her health by enduring the brutalities of the North African climate to entertain the troops in the desert. Meantime, Dirk Bogarde was a British Army intelligence officer seconded to the pioneering RAF Medmenham where he studied aerial photographs and pinpointed enemy targets for Bomber Command. As Lieutenant van den Bogaerde he was posted to France just after D-Day. He went on to star in many leading war films such as Appointment in London (1953) and King and Country (1964). Years later in 1991 Sir Dirk Bogarde was interviewed by the author of this book. He had witnessed the horrors of Belsen in April 1945 and said it changed his attitude to life forever.
  In this book, the author honours the real-life stories of some big screen idols who showed true grit behind the glamour.



Reviews:  Britain At War

A Spitfire Girl: One of the World’s Greatest female ATA Ferry Pilots tells her story.

This compelling biography recounts the heroic contributions of a female pilot who flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Wellington Bombers during the Second World War.

 A farmer’s daughter from Oxfordshire, Mary Ellis fell in love with flying at the age of eleven, when she rode in a biplane at a flying circus. Already a licensed pilot by the time the Second World War broke out, Mary joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941. As a ferry pilot, she transported aircraft for the Royal Air Force, including more than four hundred Spitfires and seventy-six different kinds of aircraft.
After the war, Mary accepted a secondment to the RAF as one of the first pilots to fly the new Gloster Meteor, Britain’s first fighter jet. By 1950, she became Europe's first female air commandant. In this authorized biography, Mary and biographer Melody Foreman vividly recount her action-packed career spanning almost a century of aviation.
Mary says: I am passionate for anything fast and furious. I always have been since the age of three and I always knew I would fly. The day I stepped into a Spitfire was a complete joy and it was the most natural thing in the world for me.”

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