’this Is War!’: The Diaries and Journalism of Anthony Cotterell, 1940-1944

Jennie Gray is a researcher and writer. She is the author of Fire By Night, The Dramatic Story of One Pathfinder Crew and Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943 and Major Cotterell at Arnhem and runs websites on the RAF, the Pathfinders, 97 Squadron and Anthony Cotterell.

Anthony Cotterell was a brilliant journalist, conscripted into the British Army in 1940. After the publication of his best-selling book on his time as a conscript, he became an official Army journalist, flying on bombing raids, sailing with convoys, crossing to France on D-Day and taking part in the Normandy Campaign. During this time he kept a diary, a hilarious and caustic record of his role in the war, a role which was abruptly ended in mysterious circumstances. Here Cotterell's diary and selected war journalism are presented together to give a new insight into the life and work of the man who created a unique and vivid form of war reporting. Covering his life as a junior infantry officer, the preparations and execution of D-Day and the Normandy Campaign of 1944, this is both informative and engaging primary source material that sheds new light not only on the British Army in the Second World War but also on the role of the press during times of war. The quality of Major Cotterell's writing justifies this book becoming part of a series dedicated to providing acknowledged classics for the military enthusiast, and works that are destined to become classics. 'This is WAR!' is one of the latter.