Blow Out, You Bugles

In St Mary the Virgin churchyard in the Birmingham suburb of Acocks Green, lie a number of World War Two graves. These bear testimony to the tale of some young men, from three local families, who joined up during the war. They were spread out among all three of the armed forces. Some were deployed at home, some sent abroad. Their service ranged from the air battle against occupied Europe to the Arctic convoys, from Java in the Far East to battles on the beaches of Dunkirk, in North Africa, Syria/Lebanon, Italy and Greece. Inevitably not all these stories had a happy ending. Some of the men, happily, returned from the war.This is the story of all these men, and also of the families they left behind when they went to war. The course of the war, particularly as it affected Birmingham and Acocks Green in particular, is followed in detail. The book also follows the lives of the survivors and their relatives after the conflict.'