Officers and Gentlemen - post IV

The latest stage of the war ends for Guy with him again being sent home slightly against his will. After the collapse of Crete he drifts in the sea for days and is picked up and saved but as a result is confined to hospital for weeks. When he is released he is sent home and back to his original regiment.

He is not in disgrace, unlike a fellow officer Ivor who fled and let colleagues be taken prisoner by the Germans, but it feels odd. Insistent doctors inform his superiors that he has to leave the warm climate of Egypt and so a blitz ravaged London awaits.

Just as the ending of the first book you are left wondering if that is the end of the war for Guy. In the scramble to get off Crete he failed to shoot a weapon in anger and make much of an impact. Perhaps that is the true distinction of an officer and a gentleman that they stood alongside the men prepared to face whatever came at them.

A review will follow soon…