War and Chance

WWII is imminent. Thomas, a naïve, 18 year-old, has just received his call up papers to join the Hampshires and fight for King and country, and do nine godawful weeks of boot camp. Thomas, Spud, Paddy and Archie, armed only with a .303 rifle and boot camp training, are sent to the battlefields of France, killing men as young as themselves. Nothing has prepared Thomas for the terrifying brutality. When men who have become his friends are blown to shreds, his first unbidden thoughts are 'Thank God that wasn't me'. But one incident will haunt him forever in his nightmares.
Taken off the beach at Dunkirk wounded and shell shocked, Thomas is sent back home to recuperate in Netley Hospital. The boy who left England has long since disappeared, in his place is a shell of a man who wears a mask in the company of his parents, his best mate Freddie Murphy, a wheeler dealer in secondhand dodgy gear, and Claudette, his girlfriend, who has joined the ATS.
A more urgent foe has been unleashed, the Southampton Blitz. Thomas’ fragile state of mind becomes unhinged, but when Freddie, the man who always treated Thomas like a son, is murdered by looters, Thomas, heartbroken and bent on revenge, enlists the aid of Spud and Paddy. After the war, Thomas finds himself on an unexpected journey to Berlin.