Other Times: Leslie Thomas

At the start of World War II James Bevan is a junior officer approaching middle age, attached to a small anti-aircraft unit on England's south coast. Abandoned by his wife, the soldiers under his command are his family: Bairnsfather, whose sexual encounters with girl friend Muriel take place in an air-raid shelter; Cartwright, trying to keep two women on a gunner's pay of one shilling a day; Higner, cosily educating himself in the orderly room. It's a rude shock when they are called upon for the real war!