- Contributed byÌý
- Tim Purcell
- People in story:Ìý
- Ray Westwood, Ernie Forrest, Harry Goslin, Nat Lofthouse
- Location of story:Ìý
- Bolton, Dunkirk, El Alemain and Italy
- Background to story:Ìý
- Army
- Article ID:Ìý
- A7884246
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 19 December 2005
‘WARTIME WANDERERS’
SYNOPSIS
The war against Germany is about to be declared. In front of a 23,000 strong crowd at Burnden Park, Bolton Wanderers captain, Harry Goslin, gives a rousing speech before leading the entire team to the local Territorial Army drill hall where they all sign up. For the next six years, as gunners in the 53rd Field Regiment of the Bolton Artillery, they face some of the heaviest fighting of the Second World War, in France, North Africa and Italy, and also establish themselves as a formidable regimental football team throughout the theatre of war. Of the full squad only one is killed in action - the remainder return home to their families and to their football careers.
But this is much more than a war story. It is much more than a football story. It is the story of three individuals: Ray Westwood, who is already a star; his inseparable teammate Ernie Forest, whose ready wit carries them through in the face of adversity; and Nat Lofthouse, who is still only a schoolboy when war intervenes to link their destinies.
This is the story of a team whose loyalty led them into a bloody world of conflict, and whose indomitable spirit enabled them to survive it. Most of all it is the story of a football club whose very existence is an essential part of a town's soul.
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