Signed FRAYED LIFELINES RAF MILITARY AIRFORCE Germany WAR MALTA Mediterranean

Description: Hi , Please Look at My Other Items for Lots More Scarce Collectible, Strange and Wonderful Books , Enjoy Please Note : I can Combine Auctions , so you can Save Money on Shipping . Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Please Note : FOR CANADIAN BUYERS , please email me for CANADA POST shipping costs within Canada. FRAYED LIFELINES : A SIEGE SURVIVOR'S STORY : A MEMOIR OF THREE DECADES, 1919 TO 1949 SIGNED by FRANK LEIGHTON By Frank Leighton Published by Trafford Publishing Victoria British Columbia Canada 2003 Fourth Printing This book is a soft cover in fine condition with 479 pages with Maps with 27 black and white photographs . SIGNED by FRANK LEIGHTON CONTENTS PART MOULDING OF THE MAN 1. IN THE SHADE OF THE GREAT WAR Gypsy Lane Early Explorations Entering the Treasury of Knowledge Other Windows on the World 2. NEW SHADOWS OUT OF EUROPE School Days A Time of Change Broadening Horizons Tides of Aggression Choosing a Career The Darkening Horizon Eve of Conflict PART TWO = THE YEARS OF WAR 3. BACKS TO THE WALL Hurry Up and Wait Awaiting Invaders Irish Spring Ending Where I Wanted to Begin 4. UNDER SIEGE Destination Unknown Malta: Cross-Roads Island of Sieges The Lull Before the Storm Return of the Luftwaffe The Tightening Noose Bombs and Empty Bellies The Tide Begins to Turn Starvation Summer The Hour Before the Dawn 5. TWICE STRANDED Springboard for Attack Island Hopping Sicilian Hiatus Uncertain Road Home A Change of Course 6. ROMANCE AND REALITY Meteorology in Two Languages The Villa Capeyron Christiane Down to Earth Two Serious Miscalculations A Chapter Closed Heartbreak and High Hopes MAPS The Mediterranean 1941-1942 Valletta and the Grand Harbour Malta 1941-1942 Beleaguered Malta 1941-1942 Sicily PHOTOGRAPHS GENEALOGICAL CHART ABOUT THIS BOOK == This is the story of a sensitive youth who grows up during the Great Depression in rural Britain. The reader shares the writer's traumatic experience of losing a mother at an early age, and is later exposed to the youthful influences which mould the transition from youth to manhood. Under the growing threat of war, the writer is exposed to life in Russia, Germany and Spain, each under its own military dictator. These experiences cause him to change his earlier WWI induced pacifist views. With the outbreak of WWII, the story follows the writer into the Royal Air Force, which he joins with the intention of entering the little-known Air-Sea Rescue branch, but the route to that chosen objective involves a number of pitfalls, least of which is the nation's state of almost total unreadiness for war in 1939 and 1940. Soon after qualifying for the Air Sea Rescue branch, the writer finds himself at sea, deep in the hold of a munitions ship, headed for the beleaguered Mediterranean island of Malta, which is reached only after a nerve-wracking convoy battle in the narrow seas between Sicily and North Africa. For the next two years, life on the encircled island is dominated by shrinking supplies of food and water and by incessant bombing from the Luftwaffe's free-roaming dive-bombers. Frayed Lifelines is a unique look at day to day life under siege, where hunger and ill-health exact their own toll while comrades die from the enemies' bombs and bullets. As the island's installations are steadily reduced to rubble, the writer shares with the reader such varied tasks as unloading vital supplies from submarines by night and manning coast defence positions in readiness for an invasion which is miraculously called-off at the last moment. The book takes the reader through the broad sweep of the war in the Mediterranean as Malta's defenders slowly turn the tide of aerial warfare and as the battered remnants of relief convoys, many barely afloat, enter Malta's harbour. Finally, two and a half years after it began, the siege is raised and the island is transformed from defensive bastion to springboard for attack. After the successful Allied invasion of Sicily and southern Italy, the writer finds himself stranded in a Sicilian backwater, while Italy tries to ease itself out of the war. The author recounts some of the confusions and pleasant surprises of the Italian transition from enemy to ally. The writer unexpectedly arrives back in Britain just 24 hours before the launch of the Normandy invasion and is forced to come to terms with the enormous changes which have occurred in Britain since his departure in 1941. Later the writer is promoted and sent off to France as a Liaison Officer, just as the war is ending. Congenial post-war life in Bordeaux, and the writer's first serious love affair, make demobilization and a return to civilian life an unwelcome prospect. A return to University after seven years without books present its own special difficulties. These are compounded by a summer working in Switzerland as a young student engineer, which sees the end of his Bordeaux love affair. A disastrous second love affair during the final year of his engineering training in London convinces the author that it is time to abandon Europe for a new life in North America, and the story ends on an upbeat note as the writer turns his face to a new world. military army navy airforce marines aeroplanes airplanes jet fighters world war two British Columbia , Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba , Ontario, Quebec, Yukon, Canadiana , New Brunswick , Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island , Newfoundland, Labrador SHIPPING COSTS FOR USA BUYERS ONLY is at $7.50 US Funds Includes Tracking Number .PLEASE NOTE : USA and International Buyers , I ship ONLY ONCE a WEEK on THURSDAY AM from a USPS Post Office in Washington State, USA. Books will be Protected and Very Well Packaged. Buyer to pay shipping costs . Please Note : CANADIAN BUYERS ONLY, I SHIP CANADIAN ORDERS FROM VANCOUVER BC . Please email me for shipping costs within Canada. 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End Time: 2025-01-24T05:05:08.000Z

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