Again to digress, in the summer of 1979 Esther Rantzen of the BBC approached The Beaminster and District Gardens and Allotments Society (BADGAS), which Joan had formed in 1972, asking it to put on a garden at the Chelsea Flower as a programme in The Big Time series. Against the prudent wishes of the male chairman, she carried 120 members with her to begin nine months toil and filming under the clever direction of Nick Handel and his linkman, John Pitman. That too was a distraction for me since Joan needed all the support possible for a truly daunting task. Being transport manager was fun. Best of all was the emotional pride of that great day in May 1980 when she brought home a coveted Gold Medal - the first ever won by an amateur organisation - and by unanimous judgement at that. Never will I forget the July evening in prime time when, for 50 minutes, Beaminster's streets were deserted as Nick's outstanding film was shown; and afterwards the telephone exchange was blocked by calls for nearly two hours.

While dealing with that, however, I was writing another sort of novel, this time for Lionel - a joint idea, dreamed up over lunch, called Invasion. It simply, but authentically and realistically told how relatively easily the Germans could have conquered England if they had crossed the Channel on the heels of the defeated British early in July 1940. Thus avoiding being thwarted by planning the operation for September. Most carefully researched and checked, and drawing on known precedents, it evolved into something of a sensational anti-climax since it failed to arouse the fierce controversy anticipated. The chilling fact of the matter was that nobody could fault it. It sold well in both hard and paperback and has been translated into several languages - though significantly not into German.

Lt-Col Bud Taylor's letter from Canada arrived in the midst of preparations of Invasion and for the Chelsea show. It certainly was another thrilling moment to be invited to write, for the Canadian Army, yet another novel, what he called 'an inter-active tactical scenario'. This one, however, though on the lines of Battle; was to deal with an imaginary encounter between 4th Canadian Mechanised Brigade (4 CMBG) and an invading Soviet Mechanised Division in Germany. 'If you are interested' wrote Bud, 'we will have you over and talk about it.' To which I replied: 'Interested. Happens my wife and I are coming to Vancouver in the fall and going east by rail. Meet you at Toronto? Do you pay?'

Thus began eleven fascinating years work with the Canadians writing what became known as The Clash Series. Broadly speaking First Clash was about a defensive operation by 3 RCR Battle Group against a Soviet Mechanised Division on the outbreak of war in Europe in 1984. First I had to spend two weeks in the Black Forest up-dating myself in the form of organisation, tactical doctrine and equipment of 4 CMBG prior to putting together a well-illustrated, tactical scenario on characteristic ground.

Not unreasonably I encountered some scepticism from my hosts, who nevertheless did everything, and in due course, far more than was asked of them. Here I was dealing with top rate, high-flying officers, many destined for stardom. The Commander, for example, was the bagpipe playing Brigadier General John de Chastelaine who was to become a brilliant Chief of the Defence Staff; and his chief of staff was Colonel Tom de Faye, a future commander of 4 CNBG, Commandant of the Staff College and Lieutenant General. My principal tactical advisor was Major David Bondurant of 3 RCR with whom I constructed the scenario. And having delivered the draft to my sponsors at HQ Mobile Command in St Hubert near Montreal, it was Major (at the time of writing Colonel) Ed Fitch RCE, whose father had fought alongside me at Boulogne, who took over as an admirable Editor, and prompted the title First Clash.

These officers, along with many another, became personal friends as well as mentors after First Clash was published. It not only achieved its aim with the Canadian Armed Forces but also was a success with the general public after Lionel Leventhal received permission to publish it on both sides of the Atlantic. So satisfied were the Canadians that they decided to have me write a sequel, eventually named Counterstroke. Initially Tom de Faye was behind this one at Mobile Command, but there was delay when the Canadians opted for a big expansion of their land forces in Germany simultaneous with the launching of a revolutionary, theoretical divisional organisation. Tom's successor, Colonel Ian McNabb, who also was a First Clash admirer, instructed me to revise Counterstroke on these lines - a most challenging task which made necessary numerous visits to Germany (where, aged 57, I lived in AFVs and took part in infantry assaults) and Canada. Furthermore, Counterstroke was still in preparation when a Third Clash was sent my way, a highly imaginative idea of Ian's to involve the Militia in a scenario indicating what might happen if Canada mobilised and went to war. But even as I was attending the last ever major NATO exercise in 1989 with 4 CMBG, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union showed signs of collapse, the Cold War ended and it was plain that the Clash Series was no longer entirely relevant.

Yet that project, I like to think, had played as much a part in defeating Communism and oppression as anything else done by millions of comrades in a lifetime at war. We had demonstrated by word as well as deed that there was no future in pushing the democracies about. And I was privileged to be present when one of the 20th Century's great turning points was attained in a stunning victory for our side.

In parallel with the Clash Series I had by no means been idle with other projects - as Annex A shows. Pre-eminent among my publishers of the 1980s stand Lionel with his Arms and Armour Press and Greenhill Books; and Penguin with the encyclopaedias of Modern Warfare and Weapons and Technology, requested by Ravi Merchandani.

To begin with note the books concerned with technology. Each of these involved Bill Woodhouse, my erstwhile 2IC in A Squadron in 1960, who contributed his grasp of technology as co-author besides advisor and sub-editor for several books. Strangely, but maybe predictably, the sales of these highly praised and well-illustrated books fell below expectations. Probably Bill put his finger on it when commenting adversely on inherent British resistance, influenced by traditionally minded classicists, to a technical education. These books certainly demanded a wide spectrum of military and technical information, besides a shrewdly balanced selection of subject matter. But this sort of thing was now well within my capacity since, over the years, I had accumulated a useful archive of books, documents and information from the PRO, MOD, US Archives, RAC Tank Museum and many another library. In fact, it was a data base (without cross reference cards or computer) to supplement my own fairly capacious memory of experience.

Nevertheless, the first Penguin encyclopaedia was composed on an Amstrad PCW8256 Word Processor. For, Felicity who had typed 21 manuscripts, now decided she had had enough. It was very understandable, extremely sad and also awkward. The chances of finding another Felicity were remote. So I spent three horrendously frustrating weeks endeavouring to make sense of the ridiculously written instruction manual, picking other peoples brains and wasting time on trial and error before at last being able to squeeze some sort of service from the machine. Loathe the PC as I did, and fail as I have to coax more than the minimum use from its undeniable potential, it types this and I would not be without it for all the tea in China. Let it also be remembered that the word processor's marvellous facility for re-writing-as-you-go is a vital benefit denied previous generations of authors. Thus it saves money and, above all, time in accurate book production.

Military Errors of World War II, proposed by Lionel, was almost Felicity's last effort, and worthily remains an unqualified success of many editions and translations. Trading on peoples' fondness for setbacks, disasters and scapegoats, its concentration on commanders' mistakes (and the reasons why) rather than statements of faultless performances was very attractive. So far it has out-performed the collection of eight essays called The Hitler Options, which, à la Invasion, proposed various 'what might have happened if' scenarios. While From Triumph to Disaster, praised as it has been for its analysis of German arrogance and politico-military behaviour, has yet to realise its potential.

Having retired from local government in 1983, I could spend more time on foreign travel, increasingly associating it with highly enjoyable and rewarding instructional battlefield tours for the RTR and other British army units and formations. My repertoire has expanded to include Vimy Ridge and Arras (both world wars), aspects of the Somme, Cambrai and Amiens in WW1; and Normandy inWW2. These expeditions Joan shuns, but only rarely can she evade visits to battlefields when we visit such fought over territory as the USA and Poland. Her stretched patience occasionally has been ill-disguised, memorably when climbing Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga on a rainy November day one birthday.

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Turning Points: Table of Content

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