Product Description

Many years after becoming the youngest person ever to be awarded the VC for attacking a company of Panzer Grenadiers on his own an action that proved a turning point in one of the major battles of the Second World War John Kenneally made an extraordinary confession. The courageous hero of the Irish Guards, who had taken on a whole company single-handed was not, in fact, John Kenneally at all, but Leslie Jackson, the illegitimate son of Neville Blond and Gertrude Robinson (a high-class whore), who had deserted his former regiment, the Honourable Artillery Company.

In THE HONOUR AND THE SHAME, he tells his story with great verve and frankness a story of riotous living, great courage on the front line, and intense loyalties. Full of the escapades of battle from the triumphant Tunisian campaign to the bloodbath of Anzio and the many adventures of a freewheeling youth, THE HONOUR AND THE SHAME is a vivid portrait of a fascinating man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #439672 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Review
'A wonderful introduction to the Second World War' -- Max Hastings 20070916

About the Author
John Kenneally was awarded the VC during the Tunisian campaign in the Second World War.  He was promoted sergeant after the fall of Tunis and later wounded during the battle of Anzio in February 1944.  He subsequently joined the Ist Guards Parachute Battalion, and went out to Palestine.  Tempted to join the Israeli forces, thoughts of his wife and two sons, and his loyalty to the Guards, kept him from doing so.  After the war, he had a successful career in the motor industry.

Customer Reviews

what a life!
This soldier certainly had a bold outlook, a truly brave person in the old fashioned sense, faced with fire on all fronts and surviving against the odds whilst his comrades fell. This was balanced by his personal ups and downs once war was over, an exuberant character not always suited to army rules, well worth the read with the photos at the back.

outstanding tale of heroics
John Kenneally won the Victoria Cross (Britain's highest military honour) during WW2 for his actions in Africa when he single handedly took on an entire Company of Germans. This is his biography through to the end of military service that included Africa, Anzio and Palestine. His tale is simply and honestly told and comes over very much as 'matter of fact' and 'you did what you had to do'. This is a fascinating view of an elite regiment (the Irish Guards) the soldiers within it and their many acts of stoic bravery.

But there is a twist to this tale. John Kenneally was an assumed name for someone who had deserted and rejoined under fake papers. This charade (and of course the awarding of a VC to someone who technically did not exist) makes for extra interesting reading. There are not many holders of the VC and this was a typical tale of a young man on the rough side that found true calling and comradeship in the Army who then performed a heroic deed on a dusty African hill. There is no doubt that the author deserved his medal, but, as he points out, so did many who held that critical strategic point against the Germans.

An engrossing tale of the dirty end of war, the author (who sadly died in 2000) remains a credit to his regiment and to the British Army.

The privilage and the honour
This book is a warts and all story of ten years in a soldiers life
not any soldier but a vc
the action is bloody gritty and brutal, with a epilaloge to boot

The writing is so addictive that I cut through the pages in 2 nights
gasping for more