Over the decades I have read ever so many books about the Second World War. Most have been by professional journalists or by the military top brass who have written about their own experiences. I have just finished what must be one of the best autobiographies I have read which has the Second World War as a backdrop. This is "Train To Nowhere" by Anita Leslie, a young lady from a well to do aristocratic Anglo-Irish family who was distantly related to Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. In 1940,  aged 26 she joined the Mechanised Transport Corps where she became a qualified mechanic and ambulance driver, to do her bit for the war effort.



Anita first served in the Middle East seeing action in Libya, Syria and Palestine where her experiences included tending to the wounded from the battle of El Alamein. She volunteered to edit The Eastern Times which was meant for the troops to enable her to stay on in North Africa. Here she had the opportunity to go to distant locations and meet the troops who were hungry for news of the war effort. In those days, the British Army did not allow women to be in the front line so Anita joined the Red Cross. This move enabled her to see action in Italy in 1944 where the Fascists were collapsing after the Battle of Monte Cassino which left thousands of Allied soldiers maimed and wounded.

Not being satisfied with service in two fronts, North Africa and Italy, Anita wanted to be where the action was, the invasion of mainland Europe. She volunteered to serve the Free French Forces as an "ambulancier" (ambulance driver) and fought with them till the momentous day in 1945 when she witnessed the grand Victory parade in Berlin. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre, for heroism in battle in the face of the enemy by General de Gaulle. Her experiences included caring for the survivors of newly liberated Nazi concentration camps and she writes with feeling about the miserable conditions in which these unfortunates were found.

She writes with compassion and a dry sense of humour about what she saw and experience in these war years. She describes so eloquently the myriad of emotions she saw in others - from the lowliest soldier to top ranking military and political leaders amongst the British and the French as they experienced abject defeat in the beginning of the war ending in 1945 with a glorious victory.

A must read for those interested in military history. I am glad this book which was originally published in 1948 soon after the War has been recently re-published, allowing a new generation of readers to re-live those days through her book.

During WWII, Anita serves as an ambulance driver throughout several fronts. I had a really hard time getting into this book and taking it seriously. It was more of a social diary - I went here, it was hot. Person x did this. I met person y - over and over again. Unfortunately, this is not a book I would re-read or recommend.

5 stars

Synopsis: Anita Leslie was a "society girl" who joined the Mechanized Transport Corps as a driver and mechanic during WWII. As part of the MTC, she was stationed in Libya, Syria, and Palestine. When the MTC was disbanded, Leslie decided not to join the British version of ambulance drivers, because the women didn't work on the front. Instead, she joined the Free French Forces, and saw action in Italy, France, and Germany.

What I liked: this seemed to be a very honest and surprisingly impartial account of Leslie's time during the war. There wasn't any hatred of the Germans, and Leslie didn't try to make herself look like the hero of her story, although she was at the Front, and drove the sick and wounded in very extreme circumstances, so she could definitely be considered heroic. Leslie had friends and people she was friendly with killed, accidentally got ahead of the tanks advancing several times, and had to live in conditions that, although she became inured to them, were not what she was used to growing up.
I enjoyed seeing the respect that Leslie had for a lot of the people that she met, no matter their race or origin, and her recounts of things that had obviously hurt when they happened were treated with a matter of fact tone that made everything that much more real. I also enjoyed the fact that she felt that the French men were much more realistic about gender equality than the British at that time, since British women were not allowed to serve on the Front, and French women had done so in WWI as well.
This told the story of something that I had never read about in history books, and I feel that it is a story that needs to be heard.

*I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This book sounds amazing. Everything about it it right up my alley... written by a woman, her true story about working during the war. Traveling, helping, surviving, interacting with all different people. I wanted to be intrigued and inspired. Expected to be wowed and enthralled...
None of that happened. This leaves me feeling cheated, empty, confused, and conflicted. How could a book that everything about it even down to the cover seems to call to me leave me so flat? There is SO much here! Her details are impeccable, her journeys far flung, but I was utterly bored almost from the get-go. This has to be the hardest review I’ve ever left. I feel like I’m slighting the author, somehow denigrating everything she’s done and shared.... but I just can’t deny how terribly uninterested in this I was. I think it was her writing style, overly verbose to too descriptive about the little things.
If it seems interesting to you give it a chance. Please do. Perhaps what didn’t appeal to me will appeal to you. She truly has a lot to share.