Barbed-Wire Blues
eBook - ePub

Barbed-Wire Blues

A Blinded Musician's Memoir of Wartime Captivity 1940–1943

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Barbed-Wire Blues

A Blinded Musician's Memoir of Wartime Captivity 1940–1943

About this book

"Quite uplifting . . . This book looks less at the usual escape attempts but concentrates on lifting people of the camp through entertainment." — UK Historian
As the author, a young Army bandsman lies wounded at the Battle of Corinth, he is shot between the eyes at point blank range. Miraculously he survives but is blinded. In a makeshift hospital a young Greek volunteer saves his life with slices of boiled egg. Captured Allied medics later restore the sight in one eye.
In this moving and entertaining memoir Bernard describes daily life in POW camps in Greece and Germany. He established a theatrical group and an orchestra that performed for fellow POWs and their German guards. A superb raconteur, as well as a gifted musician, the author's anecdotes are memorably amusing. Bernard was repatriated via Sweden in late 1943.
While blinded in one eye and seriously wounded, the author was told by his New Zealand doctor, fellow POW and musician John Borrie, "When nothing else will do, music will always lift one up."  Barbed-Wire Blues' inspirational, ever optimistic tone will surely have the same effect on its readers.
"While not a story of blood, guts and bullets it does do a very good job of telling the story of a man's recovery from a wound that should have killed him until his repatriation and the return of the use of his arm, and then the return of the sight to one eye. This book is worth taking the time to read, as it can be considered to be the story of one man's battle against adversity." — Armorama

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Yes, you can access Barbed-Wire Blues by Bernard Harris in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Chapter 1 The End of the Beginning
  6. Chapter 2 Tidying the Desert
  7. Chapter 3 A Rotten Shot
  8. Chapter 4 A Grecian Girl
  9. Chapter 5 Red-Letter Days
  10. Chapter 6 Blind Spot
  11. Chapter 7 Thanks for the Memory
  12. Chapter 8 The Father of Muddles
  13. Chapter 9 Barbed-Wire Blues
  14. Chapter 10 We Leave Athens
  15. Chapter 11 Golf Professional, Forsooth
  16. Chapter 12 This is the News
  17. Chapter 13 What To Do All Day
  18. Chapter 14 Camp Concert
  19. Chapter 15 Christmas Past
  20. Chapter 16 Ins and Outs
  21. Chapter 17 DSO
  22. Chapter 18 Look After Your Organ!
  23. Chapter 19 More Ins and Outs
  24. Chapter 20 The Dover Road
  25. Chapter 21 Repatriation, November 1943
  26. Chapter 22 On English Soil
  27. About the author
  28. Appendix
  29. Bibliography
  30. Plate section