Bayonets and Blue Flames

Tom Barker’s first and most important goal as a young lad was to avoid the wrath of his Dad, and his Dad’s belt. Growing up in a small town in Lincolnshire, England during the 1920s, Tom left school at the age of fourteen to work at the local bike factory. He quickly grew bored of the mundane work, and quit. In 1938 Tom found himself digging ditches in Scotland during a very cold winter.
Tom decided the only way up was to join the British Navy. Walking into the nearest recruitment office, Tom was soon enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (the army). Little did he know that he would soon be swapping the Scottish mud, snow and freezing cold, for Palestine and North African sand, flies and burning heat. He would also end up taking part in two of the British Army’s most notable battles of the Second World War (Operation Compass in Egypt and The Battle of Crete – the Germans named it Operation Mercury), and would take part in one of the longest bayonet charges.
In May 1941, acting as a sniper on Crete Tom was wounded and taken prisoner. For the next four years he was placed in various prisoner of war (POW) camps in Germany, attempting to escape on a number of occasions. Tom provides great detail of the daily life of a POW, sharing the humour, the absurd and at times the macabre.
Told in his own voice Tom takes the reader on a real life journey mixed with humour, action, turmoil and lots of sand. His son James has edited Tom's original memoirs, and also written chapters including background information on Palestine, the Italian invasion of Egypt and the Argylls’ involvement in the Battle of Crete.