Empire and War: The Rutherford Chronicles Part 2 - Softcover

Bergen, Michael G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0620918047 ISBN 13: 9780620918046

Publisher: Michael G. Bergen, 2021

Synopsis

Could you have survived a soldier’s life in the wretched trenches of the Western Front or the strict Prussian POW camps of WWI?

Having served in South Africa and British India, Joe Rutherford and his friends returned to their old way of life on Tyneside. They married and settled happily until the European Great War erupted in mid-1914. As reservists, Joe and his friends rejoin their old regiment and are shipped to the Western Front in France. There, they experience the perils of that horrific conflict in the deadly trenches and open, sodden farmlands under constant fire, where two of Joe’s friends and many more lost their lives. Joe and his last remaining friend, Mike, are captured and taken to Germany, where they must survive in captivity by the enemy.


After a heroic attempt at escape, the friends are moved from one camp to another as living conditions gradually worsen. They cherish the care packages sent from home as they slow and trickle to a halt. They wonder why? At least they are in touch with their loved ones, experiencing their own difficulties at home, the women taking their places in the farms and factories. Will the soldiers and their families survive the war and the 1918 Flu pandemic? Will the soldiers overcome the harsh conditions of the POW camps, be freed and transported home to safety and medical treatment?

This second book of the Rutherford Chronicles traces the horror of WWI on the Western Front and in the POW Camps and how those prisoners and their families coped and survived such horrific times and events. Other personalities include Kaiser Wilhelm, Winston Churchill, Douglas Haig and the Canadians William Hart-McHarg and John McCrae.

About this title

About the Author

MichaelBergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europeand South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprangto life.
 
Historyhas always been Michael's passion. Not surprisingly, it led to an explorationof his own fascinating family heritage. Years of extensive research culminatedin his writing The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books basedon his ancestors' lives, their friends and their families and the broader worldin the turbulent years of the 20th century.
 
The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust intoextraordinary circumstances. The series evocatively depicts how they confront eventscontrolled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on allsides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the books' pages. Thesewell researched historic references reveal the facts behind the fiction, whileMichael's creativity and skill transmute these facts and his personal heritageinto exciting novels.
 
Book one, Empire Discovered, beginsduring the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into BritishIndia.
 
Book two, Empire and War, takes place inthe trenches and German POW camps in WWI.
 
Book three, Empire and Tyranny, is thestory of a soldier of the Canadian Artillery during WWII and his encounterswith the Rutherford family.
 
The last book, Empires Lost, followsevents during the Cold War, based on Michael's own experiences during the lateryears of the 20th century. As such, it completes a sweeping historicaltableau of love, life and adventure in tumultuous times.

Edition details

• Publisher: Michael G. Bergen
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0620918047
• ISBN 13: 9780620918046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 478