I AM VERY CONSCIOUS that the narrative in this book repeatedly switches from one perspective to another: from British to German, and from French to Italian and then to American and even Dutch and Norwegian. In an effort to help distinguish who is who, I have written ranks in the language of the respective nationality. Thus it is Captain Field, but Capitaine Barlone, and Major-General Kennedy, but Generalmajor Rommel. The aim is not to be pretentious but rather just to help with the flow of the narrative.
I have applied this rule somewhat inconsistently to military units too. As a rough rule of thumb, any unit of corps or above in size has been written in the vernacular, but there are also a few other examples, especially German, where I have used the original words. Luftwaffe squadrons are Staffeln because actually, a German Staffel was not quite the same as a British squadron. German paratroopers and mountain troops are written as Fallschirmj?ger and Gebirgsj?ger. This will certainly help lessen any confusion by the time I reach Volume III and D-Day, for example, where there were German, American, Polish, Canadian and French airborne troops all operating, and in the case of Americans, Poles and Germans, often with similar sounding surnames.
I should also explain how some military units were written. A corps is numbered in Roman numerals and a military operation in upper case. Luftwaffe gruppen were written in Roman numerals, but staffeln in Arabic numbering. There were three staffeln per gruppe, so 5/JG2, for example, would be in II/JG2, but 7/JG2 would be in III/JG2.
