Through Luck and Faith: The Memoirs of a Cambridge Postman's Life and War (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798343750782)

Having served with the Royal Signals between 1928-1935, at the onset of World War II and as a 'Class A' reservist, Les Humm was called up and deployed to France & Belgium with the Royal Tank Regiment during what became known as the static 'phoney' war. Then, having to fight his way back from Belgium during the Blitzkrieg, abandoning his Matilda II tank he was evacuated from Dunkirk in June 1940 on an Isle of Man pleasure boat which almost sank. With death all around him, his life was saved by a Rolls Razor he had hidden in his trouser pocket that had stopped a bullet from an attacking aircraft.

It was during the brief stay back in England training with the 4th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment, he started to write his memoirs, stating 'to relieve the monotony of the mournful air raid sirens, and to take my mind from the present events, I have decided to write a brief story of my own life'.

He gives an evocative account of his childhood, growing up in Cambridge, full of fun and youthful escapades, the excitement of listening to missionaries talk of their world travels at lantern shows stirred a longing for adventure and travel. As a teenager he became a Christian, which would give him strength in the years to come. His yearning for adventure led him to join the 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment territorial army, and from there, much to the consternation of his father, who had served in World War I, in 1928 he joined the Royal Corps of Signals. His chance to travel came in 1930 when he was posted to Kohat in the northwest frontier of India (now Pakistan) during the border uprisings. He was demobbed in January 1935 and after various jobs he became a Cambridge postman and married a local girl.

After Dunkirk, Les continued to write his memoirs, leaving England again in November 1940 on the troop ship 'Regina Del Pacifico' heading for North Africa, the Christmas day menu becomes an important notepad for his writing over the following months. He fought with the 4th battalion Royal Tank Regiment and 1st Army Tank Regiment across Eritrea, Egypt and Libya, seeing action at Tobruk and El Alamein, he was shot, captured, escaped and caught in no-man's land between battling tank brigades whilst scavenging for radio spares. Lack of clean water and healthy food, illness and disease was also an enemy. After suffering 3 years in the desert he was posted to relatively quiet Aden to assist in the establishment of the first automatic telephone exchange.

The last year of the war saw him back in Europe through the liberation of France and Belgium and then finally into Germany as the war ended. In September 1945 he was home and after a short break he was back to work as a Cambridge Postman.

Les survived fortunately, when so many were not so lucky. After the war Les typed out his memoirs hoping they would one day be published. After many years his family took on the project of collating his writings and other source documents into one book 'Through Luck and Faith: The Memoirs of a Cambridge Postman's Life and War'.

Author: I. Hill,H. L. Humm
ISBN-13: 9798343750782
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 11/09/2024
Pages: 162
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.35d