Wartime Wanderers

Authors:

By Tim Purcell, Mike Gething

Format:

Paperback

Availability:

In print, usually dispatched within 3-4 days.

Price:

£7.99

Tagged with:

Football, British Team, Bolton Wanderers FC

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Further Details

• Published: 20th Nov 2001
• ISBN: 184018583X
• Pages: 160

From Word of Sport:

The remarkable story of the Bolton team who signed up in 1939 to fight against Germany and endured six years of some of the war's heaviest fighting in North Africa, in the 53rd Field Regiment of the Bolton Artillery. The book also tells of their return to Britain and the resumption of their football careers.

From the Publisher:

The war against Germany is about to be declared. In front of a 23,000-strong crowd at Burnden Park, Bolton Wanderers captain, Harry Goslin, gives a rousing speech before leading the entire team to the local Territorial Army drill hall where they all sign up.

For the next six years, as gunners in the 53rd Field Regiment of the Bolton Artillery, they face some of the heaviest fighting of the Second World War, in France, North Africa and Italy, and also establish themselves as a formidable regimental football team throughout the theatre of war. Of the full squad only one is killed in action - the remainder return home to their families and to their football careers.

But this is much more than a war story. It is much more than a football story. It is the story of three individuals - Ray Westwood, who is already a star; his inseparable teammate Ernie Forest, whose ready wit carries them through in the face of adversity; and Nat Lofthouse, who is still only a schoolboy when war intervenes to link their destinies.

This is the story of a team whose loyalty led them into a bloody world of conflict, and whose indomitable spirit enabled them to survive it. Most of all it is the story of a football club whose very existence is an essential part of a town's soul.