Dimensions
153 x 234 x 25mm
In 1946 Michael Howard, aged 19, was sent into the British zone of occupied Germany as part of Target (?T') Force, the army unit responsible for locating and removing military and technological hardware ? and, sometimes, people ? of potential value to the occupying power. During his 18-month stay, Howard wrote 67 letters home to his mother; these remarkable documents, linked by the ? often rather more risqué ? reminiscences of the older man, form the text of Otherwise Occupied. It was an extraordinary experience. The author was soon put in charge of gathering intelligence throughout a whole region: risky work that brought him into conflict both with resentful ex-Nazis and with the Russians ? erstwhile allies; now Cold War rivals ? who were making frequent, illegal incursions into the British zone in search of war bounty. Meanwhile, he fell in love for the first time, with Margret, the daughter of the German doctor in whose house he was billeted. This is a unique book, written with charm and self-deprecating humour. It is at once a humane, eye-witness account of a Germany reeling from military defeat, a fascinating piece of military and social history, and a wry, moving portrait of the author's first, impossible love. AUTHOR: Michael Howard was born in Fiji in 1926. He was educated at Rugby school then, after 18 months as an Intelligence Officer in T-Force, at Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages. Now retired, he has had a distinguished entrepreneurial career. Otherwise Occupied is his first book. SELLING POINTS: ?A little known piece of military history with contemporary resonance (cf. the present occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan). ?Interest from BOOK OF THE WEEK on Radio 4; early serial interest from Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail ?A host of now well-known minor characters e.g. John Bayley, who was also in T-force
