WHY I BECAME AN X TROOP COMMANDO

A fascinating and moving biography of Colin Anson the German refugee who became an elite British commando Born in Germany in 1922 Colin Anson s Claus Ascher childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau where he died shortly after Colin aged just seventeen escaped to Britain in the Kindertransport As soon as he was old enough Colin volunteered in the Pioneer Corps Then in 1942 he was recruited for the elite commando unit X Troop Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 where he sustained a near fatal injury But just months later he returned to duty He fought in the Yugoslav islands became the first Allied soldier to liberate Corfu and was stationed in postwar Frankfurt In this unique biography Helen Fry traces the remarkable story of Colin s life Drawing on extensive interviews Fry recounts his actions in X Troop and beyond in his own words and sheds new light on the experience of refugees in the British forces