My book is available to pre-order. The title is - SAS Operation Pistol - and it is on Amazon UK right now. Here my father is shown in his 3 Para uniform - he was RSM for 3 Para at Suez in 1956. Few of the Third Battalion would have known he had been in 2 SAS in WW2. he was also RSM to the Jamaica Battalion in 1953 where he organised the trooping of the colour for the new Queen Elizabeth's visit. He was originally a Sergeant Coldstream Guardsman at Dunkirk and he fought at Long Stop Hill in North Africa. I have met the French who hid my father on his SAS mission. The medal shown top right of the book cover is his Croix de Guerre at the Silver Star level. It is one of ten only won by the whole of the SAS in WW2. It was awarded to him by General Koenig the Paris Governor and FFI leader. Two were such medals won on Operation Pistol. The other was won by Tim William's grandfather - Sergeant Williams. Like my father, he too blew up a German railway train on his mission.
The writing of this book has taken many years as I was working full-time as a teacher for most of them. I was motivated to do it after father died in 1997. My motivation was strong because he and I went together to France in 1982 and there met the French who had bravely hidden him and his men in their homes. It was amazing to me that they did not think they had done something very special. In my father's case he was hidden by one family who had a four-year-old child in the house. I would still like to hear from anyone who knows of the whereabouts of Corporals Hannah and Holden. I found the Lyczak family at one point but have now lost contact with them,. These were the men in my father's C3 group. But recently I found out something interesting and it was that my father Jack Alcock accompanied Bill Stirling to Malta to recruit from a Commando unit that was being disbanded. This was in the very early days of 2 SAS's formation. Anyway, I hope those of you who read this book enjoy its combination of oral history with formal history or evidence through research.
Be aware that at one point in this mission his report says two girls were executed for having helped him and his men. There is a mystery surrounding this and I have left it open to the reader to conclude it. Perhaps it is better left as a mystery. I am not certain we shall ever know for sure, but I have stated my case.The other key man in this story is Jean Koenig of Ferriendal Farm. He was the man who coolly held off the gestapo when they called at his house when C3 group were hiding within it ready to shoot them.
In 2012 I rewalked his route as much as was practical to due so (farmer's crops were avoided). y book in part follows his route from the drop field all the way to where the American front lines lay in 1944.
The writing of this book has taken many years as I was working full-time as a teacher for most of them. I was motivated to do it after father died in 1997. My motivation was strong because he and I went together to France in 1982 and there met the French who had bravely hidden him and his men in their homes. It was amazing to me that they did not think they had done something very special. In my father's case he was hidden by one family who had a four-year-old child in the house. I would still like to hear from anyone who knows of the whereabouts of Corporals Hannah and Holden. I found the Lyczak family at one point but have now lost contact with them,. These were the men in my father's C3 group. But recently I found out something interesting and it was that my father Jack Alcock accompanied Bill Stirling to Malta to recruit from a Commando unit that was being disbanded. This was in the very early days of 2 SAS's formation. Anyway, I hope those of you who read this book enjoy its combination of oral history with formal history or evidence through research.
Be aware that at one point in this mission his report says two girls were executed for having helped him and his men. There is a mystery surrounding this and I have left it open to the reader to conclude it. Perhaps it is better left as a mystery. I am not certain we shall ever know for sure, but I have stated my case.The other key man in this story is Jean Koenig of Ferriendal Farm. He was the man who coolly held off the gestapo when they called at his house when C3 group were hiding within it ready to shoot them.
In 2012 I rewalked his route as much as was practical to due so (farmer's crops were avoided). y book in part follows his route from the drop field all the way to where the American front lines lay in 1944.
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