Ted Taylor, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, was sent to France in May 1940 as part of Calais Force. Outnumbered by at least three to one they held out for 4 days against the might of the 10th Panzer Division until they finally ran out of ammunition and were forced to surrender.
Nicknamed the ‘The Weekend Trippers’ as a joke because of their short time in France before they were captured, the next five years were certainly not funny as Ted found himself part of the huge slave labour force in Poland under the administration of Stalag XXA and Stalag XXB. Life in the POW camps bore little resemblance to the cheerful films of the 1950s and time spent in Majdanek Concentration Camp and a Polish salt mine were things Ted buried deep in his subconscious and never spoke about.
‘The Weekend Trippers’ is based on Ted’s diaries written at the time and 100% of the author royalties from each print and eBook sold will be going to the Rifles Benevolent Trust.