Before I realised there was a major new film about Dunkirk coming out, I had been working on my Great Uncle's book about his experiences in helping the planning of D-Day following the disaster of Dunkirk. So it's good timing, I guess, to say I'm just about to release my newly edited version of his book which came out originally in 1945.
Below is a biographical paragraph or two on him and details about the book.
Major John Dalgleish R.A.S.C. was directly involved in the complex planning of the Second Front, the pre-planning for D-Day and the Allied Invasion of France. He led a colourful life, as a journalist, for the ‘Daily Express’ and as a BBC commentator. Later, he married a famous film star of his day, Wendy Barrie, who, before she fell from the public eye (due to an ill-considered relationship with the gangster Bugsy Siegel) starred in many Hollywood movies with the likes of Charles Laughton, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G Robinson and many others.
After the war John Dalgleish continued his, sometimes, mildly nefarious lifestyle, by restyling himself as a businessman. He worked in the diamond mines of South Africa and introduced the first sapphire gramophone needles into Britain. He had mixed results in business and is described, by Tim Dalgleish, the editor of ‘After Dunkirk’, as, ‘A cross between Oscar Schindler and Richard Branson’.
He also published, ‘I Was an Eighth Army Soldier’, an account of the Allied Campaign in North Africa and was editor of the war time newspaper, ‘Tiger News’. A new edition of the former, and a book about the latter, are to be published shortly.
Blurb for After Dunkirk: In this minor war classic, first published by Victor Gollancz in 1945, Major John Dalgleish, R.A.S.C., ‘Daily Express’ journalist and BBC commentator, provides a short account of the planning for D-Day. A complete history of the so called Second Front would run to a million words and still be incomplete. The present volume is intended to be a bird’s-eye view of what happened behind the veil of secrecy which shrouded the two years of planning after the disaster of Dunkirk and before the success of D-Day.
‘What a great book! Very readable, written by an RASC officer involved in pre-Neptune, pre-Overlord planning especially regarding movement and catering. An excellent addition, published just after the war, to the literature; pleasing to have a very British view of what could have been chaos.’ Amazon.com (5 Star review)
‘MAJOR DALGLEISH has written a valuable book … Here is no abstract enunciation of the importance of "administration," but a statement of the planners' task in terms of a series of interlinking and very concrete problems. The armchair strategist of the future ought at least to read such a book as this before he passes judgement, unless he possesses the valuable practical experience of having been responsible for the movement of at least a company of real troops… Very wisely, in a popular book of this kind, he gives a general picture of the planning as a whole, placing special emphasis on the problems which concerned him most… such diverse activities as training, the equipment of the invasion troops, their concentration and movement, their embarkation and transportation by sea. Life is given to his account… by constant reference to particular problems and the way in which they were tackled. There was humour in this triumph of planning, and I particularly enjoyed the story of the R.A.M.C. officer whose unit failed to appear at the time of embarkation because his practice was to file all "Top Secret" instructions unopened and wait for orders to open them… Reading [this] might well form part of the military and political education of every citizen.’
S. H. F. JOHNSTON in ‘The Spectator’
Below is a biographical paragraph or two on him and details about the book.
Major John Dalgleish R.A.S.C. was directly involved in the complex planning of the Second Front, the pre-planning for D-Day and the Allied Invasion of France. He led a colourful life, as a journalist, for the ‘Daily Express’ and as a BBC commentator. Later, he married a famous film star of his day, Wendy Barrie, who, before she fell from the public eye (due to an ill-considered relationship with the gangster Bugsy Siegel) starred in many Hollywood movies with the likes of Charles Laughton, James Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G Robinson and many others.
After the war John Dalgleish continued his, sometimes, mildly nefarious lifestyle, by restyling himself as a businessman. He worked in the diamond mines of South Africa and introduced the first sapphire gramophone needles into Britain. He had mixed results in business and is described, by Tim Dalgleish, the editor of ‘After Dunkirk’, as, ‘A cross between Oscar Schindler and Richard Branson’.
He also published, ‘I Was an Eighth Army Soldier’, an account of the Allied Campaign in North Africa and was editor of the war time newspaper, ‘Tiger News’. A new edition of the former, and a book about the latter, are to be published shortly.
Blurb for After Dunkirk: In this minor war classic, first published by Victor Gollancz in 1945, Major John Dalgleish, R.A.S.C., ‘Daily Express’ journalist and BBC commentator, provides a short account of the planning for D-Day. A complete history of the so called Second Front would run to a million words and still be incomplete. The present volume is intended to be a bird’s-eye view of what happened behind the veil of secrecy which shrouded the two years of planning after the disaster of Dunkirk and before the success of D-Day.
‘What a great book! Very readable, written by an RASC officer involved in pre-Neptune, pre-Overlord planning especially regarding movement and catering. An excellent addition, published just after the war, to the literature; pleasing to have a very British view of what could have been chaos.’ Amazon.com (5 Star review)
‘MAJOR DALGLEISH has written a valuable book … Here is no abstract enunciation of the importance of "administration," but a statement of the planners' task in terms of a series of interlinking and very concrete problems. The armchair strategist of the future ought at least to read such a book as this before he passes judgement, unless he possesses the valuable practical experience of having been responsible for the movement of at least a company of real troops… Very wisely, in a popular book of this kind, he gives a general picture of the planning as a whole, placing special emphasis on the problems which concerned him most… such diverse activities as training, the equipment of the invasion troops, their concentration and movement, their embarkation and transportation by sea. Life is given to his account… by constant reference to particular problems and the way in which they were tackled. There was humour in this triumph of planning, and I particularly enjoyed the story of the R.A.M.C. officer whose unit failed to appear at the time of embarkation because his practice was to file all "Top Secret" instructions unopened and wait for orders to open them… Reading [this] might well form part of the military and political education of every citizen.’
S. H. F. JOHNSTON in ‘The Spectator’
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