Dunkirk to D Day is about some of the leaders of the RAOC who together achieved the astonishing supply success of the D Day landings.

It follows the lives of some twenty men and one woman caught up in war. Most of the men served in two world wars, many came together on a course in 1922 (the Class of ’22) when enduring friendships and rivalries formed, some came later from careers in the industrial world.

In the months leading up to publication, I plan to highlight some of these remarkable people.

Jack Omond, born in 1884 son of an Edinburgh historian, wrote a remarkably frank account of his service in the Great War and later in Gallipoli. I drew on his writing in my book, Ordnance, and tell more in Dunkirk to D Day. He was a DADOS (Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services – essentially the ordnance officer for a division) and served in France. He witnessed the first tank, and the panic caused by the German advance in the spring of 1918. His writing describes the day to day life of a young officer struggling to keep his division supplied. He had been one of the older men to attend the Class of ’22.

He was stationed in Gallipoli in the early twenties and saw evidence of the horrors that had taken place during the disastrous WW1 campaign. In the run up to WW2 and during the early years of that war, he commanded the RAOC Training Centre.