[Typescript:] 'Two Years Ago', unpublished first-hand account of the D-Day landings.

(World War Two.) HUTCHINSON (George)

[Typescript:] 'Two Years Ago', unpublished first-hand account of the D-Day landings.

Description: original typescript with some manuscript corrections in ink and pencil, the first and last passages cut and laid down to a second sheet, pp. [6], 4to, sometime folded for sending, a little corner creasing, some rust from original paperclip, good condition

Publication Details: [1946]

Notes: An inside account of one of the defining episodes of the War, its power deriving from an understated tone: George Hutchinson narrates his part in history in a clear, unfussy fashion – providing sufficient detail to be literary, and with a measure of wit, but with no attempt, and no need, to create artificial drama. Hutchinson describes the reaction of the men, one of simultaneous pragmatism and trepidation as the 'Second Front' mooted for so long became a reality, as well as their equipment – both military and personal ('the little things sailors hope they'll save') – and how events unf...moreAn inside account of one of the defining episodes of the War, its power deriving from an understated tone: George Hutchinson narrates his part in history in a clear, unfussy fashion – providing sufficient detail to be literary, and with a measure of wit, but with no attempt, and no need, to create artificial drama. Hutchinson describes the reaction of the men, one of simultaneous pragmatism and trepidation as the 'Second Front' mooted for so long became a reality, as well as their equipment – both military and personal ('the little things sailors hope they'll save') – and how events unfolded. What is striking is the level of obscurity regarding the operation, even with regard to those directly involved and extending up the ranks – 'the Captain spoke to us [...] he himself didn't know just where we were going'.Evidently taken from a longer memoir – the laid-down passages and alterations to the page-numbers evidence of this – Hutchinson's account remains unpublished: it is accompanied here by a letter covering its return from Kaye Webb, later the editor at Puffin Books and the wife of Ronald Searle, but here the Assistant Editor at Lilliput magazine – where it has arrived 'too late for our June number [...] We hope that you will manage to place it somewhere else'. HIDE