Book excerpt: Although only children at the time, the Second World War had a permanent effect on the schoolboys who lived through the conflict. Watching a country preparing for war and then being immersed in the horrors of the Blitz brought encounters and events that some will never forget. Now in their seventies and eighties, many are revisiting their memories of this time of upheaval and strife for the first time. In this charming book, David F. Wood recalls his days as a schoolboy in Essex, where his family moved when the Luftwaffe threatened his native London. With the same sense of fascination that grips many men of his generation, he describes watching airmen parachute to safety during the Battle of Britain and witnessing a Messerschmitt dramatically crash-landing close to his home. The accounts of his days spent playing with his new friends in the nearby countryside provide a stark contrast to the ravages of a war that was going on all around them. The first of a new series documenting the memories of these wartime schoolboys, this book is a must for anyone who wishes to learn more about life on the Home Front through the eyes of someone who witnessed it first hand.