Coward on the Beach by James Delingpole
“”But how much of it is actually true?’ This was invariably the first question publishers asked when I showed them the transcriptions of my grandfather’s taped war memoirs and I can hardly blame them. The number of actions in which Dick Coward claims to have participated does indeed almost beggar belief; the fact that he lived through them to tell the tale is, as he was fond of saying, a minor miracle”.
Dick Coward is a man out to prove his worth: to his father who has declared that the ancestral home shall go to whichever of his sons has “the better war”; to the love of his life, the gorgeous Gina, who is sure to marry him once he returns covered in glory; and to the officers and men of the 47 (Royal Marine) Commando that he isn’t some glory-hounding toff who got in because his father pulled the right strings. From the beaches of Normandy to the capture of Port-en-Bessin, Coward charges straight into battle and straight into trouble.