GI Limey by Mr Geraint John Thomas
Clifford Edwin Guard was born in 1923, in the South Wales sea town of Swansea, into a life of abject poverty. By the age of 15 he sought escape through joining the merchant navy and set about exploring the world. When the Second World War broke out he took part in the Atlantic convoys before…
Clifford Edwin Guard was born in 1923, in the South Wales sea town of Swansea, into a life of abject poverty. By the age of 15 he sought escape through joining the merchant navy and set about exploring the world. When the Second World War broke out he took part in the Atlantic convoys before joining the US Army after finding himself in New York soon after the Americans entered the war. Having landed on Omaha Beach, as part of the 3rd Armored Division, he and his pals spent the next 11 months at the forefront of the battle to push the German Army all the way back to the heart of Germany. GI Limey is a rags to riches tale of triumph over adversary, a real-life Boy’s Own adventure, laced with friendships forged in the heat of battle that only a soldier can truly understand. With its shockingly honest description of combat, at times brutal to read, you are left in no doubt how death and destruction can haunt a soldier for the rest of their life. Geraint Thomas is a writer and journalist from Swansea in South Wales. Visit GI Limey on Facebook
“I love this book”
Five Star Review on Amazon By MissT
I love this book! A must read for anyone who is interested in WWII. It is written from the perspective of a soldier who served in the 3rd Armored Division, called the Spearhead because they went ahead of the advancing army, clearing roads and minefields, building bridges and occasionally blowing them up, and serving in some of the bloodiest conflicts in the war. The book has a simple honesty about the fear, the danger and comradeship forged in the heat of battle. The pictures help to really bring things to life. Trust me, you won’t want to put it down!
About the Author
Journalist, author and playwright. Swansea Valley based Geraint is a former primary school teacher who retrained as a journalist after spending 10 years in the classroom. A graduate of Cardiff University’s prestigious School of Journalism, where he did a post graduate diploma in magazine journalism, he was short-listed for both Student Feature Writer of the Year in the Press Gazette Journalist Awards and the Periodicals Training Council New Journalist of the Year Awards, as best Student Feature Writer, in 2002. On graduation he secured a position as a news reporter on the South Wales Evening Post where he is currently still employed. He also writes the occasional feature for Swansea Life and County Life magazines. In 2006 he took a year out to complete a Master’s Degree in Creative and Media Writing at Swansea University which he passed with merit. His first play, After Milk Wood, simply described as an updated version of Dylan Thomas’s classic set in the present, was performed by Fluellen Theatre as part of Swansea’s Dylan Thomas Festival in November 2005. This was followed by the comedy, Roofless, which is set around the Welsh rugby Grand Slam of 2005, which played to a near full house in the Grand Theatre Swansea in March 2008. His debut novel, Swansea Spy, was published in December 2011. He also ghost wrote How Winner Think for former Wales star Robert Jones.