One man's memoir of World War II, which took him from the Blitz to the jungles of Burma, to the devastation of Hiroshima.

'I consider myself lucky to have survived the global carnage still myself - a reluctant soldier who had to go to war, who only ever wanted peace for everyone.' - Brian Hennessy

Brian immigrated to New Zealand after the war and lived there until his death aged ninety-two, but he never forgot his extraordinary war adventures.

Born in Germany to English parents, he came from a family that served in the army. He was seventeen years old and living in London when war broke out, and he experienced the Blitz first-hand. Brian joined the British Army and became the youngest armament artificer. What followed was a true adventure story, as Brian journeyed via South Africa to India and the remote jungles of Burma. Danger was always present, and his narrative is sometimes humorous, at other times poignant. At the end of the war, he went to Japan and saw first-hand the devastation at Hiroshima.

This is his story, a sweeping journey through the landscape of war and far more fascinating and exciting than any fiction.