Rutherford Chronicles

Could you have survived a soldier's life in the wretched trenches of the Western Front or the strict Prussian POW camps of WWI? Having served in South Africa and British India, Joe Rutherford and his friends returned to their old way of life on Tyneside. They married and settled happily until the European Great War erupted in mid-1914. As reservists, Joe and his friends rejoin their old regiment and are shipped to the Western Front in France. There, they experience the perils of that horrific conflict in the deadly trenches and open, sodden farmlands under constant fire, where two of Joe's friends and many more lost their lives. Joe and his last remaining friend, Mike, are captured and taken to Germany, where they must survive in captivity by the enemy. After a heroic attempt at escape, the friends are moved from one camp to another as living conditions gradually worsen. They cherish the care packages sent from home as they slow and trickle to a halt. They wonder why? At least they are in touch with their loved ones, experiencing their own difficulties at home, the women taking their places in the farms and factories. Will the soldiers and their families survive the war and the 1918 Flu pandemic? Will the soldiers overcome the harsh conditions of the POW camps, be freed and transported home to safety and medical treatment? This second book of the Rutherford Chronicles traces the horror of WWI on the Western Front and in the POW Camps and how those prisoners and their families coped and survived such horrific times and events. Other personalities include Kaiser Wilhelm, Winston Churchill, Douglas Haig and the Canadians William Hart-McHarg and John McCrae.

Could you have survived a soldier's life in the wretched trenches of the Western Front or the strict Prussian POW camps of WWI?Having served in South Africa and British India, Joe Rutherford and his friends returned to their old way of life on Tyneside. They married and settled happily until the European Great War erupted in mid-1914. As reservists, Joe and his friends rejoin their old regiment and are shipped to the Western Front in France. There, they experience the perils of that horrific conflict in the deadly trenches and open, sodden farmlands under constant fire, where two of Joe's friends and many more lost their lives. Joe and his last remaining friend, Mike, are captured and taken to Germany, where they must survive in captivity by the enemy.After a heroic attempt at escape, the friends are moved from one camp to another as living conditions gradually worsen. They cherish the care packages sent from home as they slow and trickle to a halt. They wonder why? At least they are in touch with their loved ones, experiencing their own difficulties at home, the women taking their places in the farms and factories. Will the soldiers and their families survive the war and the 1918 Flu pandemic? Will the soldiers overcome the harsh conditions of the POW camps, be freed and transported home to safety and medical treatment?This second book of the Rutherford Chronicles traces the horror of WWI on the Western Front and in the POW Camps and how those prisoners and their families coped and survived such horrific times and events. Other personalities include Kaiser Wilhelm, Winston Churchill, Douglas Haig and the Canadians William Hart-McHarg and John McCrae. Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.History was always Michael's first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.Part 1, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "An absorbing and unusual look at the Anglo Boer War, one of Britain's costliest in terms of money and men, as well as women and children."Part 2, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "A revealing insight into Britain's involvement in World War I told from the viewpoint of a prisoner of war, with all the horrors of war."Part 3, Empire and Tyranny, is about the interwar years following WWI, including the tragic times of the Great Depression. It is also the story of WWII through the eyes of a soldier of the Royal Canadian Artillery in England, Scotland and Italy and his marriage with a Rutherford daughter.The last book, Part 4, Empires Lost, follows events during the Cold War, based on Michael's own experiences during the later half of the 20th century. The Rutherford Chronicles is a four-book series that follows the life, passions, and struggles of Joe Rutherford's family's tumultuous journey through the four most significant conflicts of the 20th Century. The journey begins on Tyneside, Northeast England's coal mines and shipyards industrial district. It continues through the Boer War of South Africa and British India in the early ye

Could you survive a life of poverty, gruelling toil, a war in a distant barren wilderness, fast-moving sharpshooting farmers' bullets and dangerous diseases?Joe Rutherford, a young shipbuilder from industrial northeast England, is unusual among his peers. He's an avid reader and inspirational storyteller about the 1899 Boer War between the British Empire and the Afrikaans Boer farmers in Southern Africa. Soon, despite the opposition of their loved ones, he and his friends join the British Army and set out on a great adventure. They soon encounter the harsh and terrifying reality of war, with its atrocities and the desperation of holding on to friendships, relationships and romance in the light of what may be a shortened life ahead of them. For the British Empire, the stakes were the vast resources of diamonds, gold and copper in South Africa. For the Boers, they would fight fiercely for their farmland and freedom.Unsure of what may happen from one day to the next, the lifelong friends cling tightly to each other, learning that only they, and perhaps luck, can avoid the Boer bullets, disease, sabotage, and keep each other safe. Joe's relationship with a nurse from home blossoms, and she follows him around South Africa and on to India. How long will Joe endure in these perilous times of the British Empire?This is the first book of four about the lives of ordinary working-class soldiers and wealthier, more famous politicians, commanders and personalities like Winston Churchill, Deneys Reitz, Herbert Kitchener, Jan Smuts and Emily Hobhouse, thrown together and relying on each other in hazardous twentieth-century times of war and economic gains. Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.History was always Michael's first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.Part 1, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "An absorbing and unusual look at the Anglo Boer War, one of Britain's costliest in terms of money and men, as well as women and children."Part 2, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "A revealing insight into Britain's involvement in World War I told from the viewpoint of a prisoner of war, with all the horrors of war."Part 3, Empire and Tyranny, is about the interwar years following WWI, including the tragic times of the Great Depression. It is also the story of WWII through the eyes of a soldier of the Royal Canadian Artillery in England, Scotland and Italy and his marriage with a Rutherford daughter.The last book, Part 4, Empires Lost, follows events during the Cold War, based on Michael's own experiences during the later half of the 20th century. The Rutherford Chronicles is a four-book series that follows the life, passions, and struggles of Joe Rutherford's family's tumultuous journey through the four most significant conflicts of the 20th Century. The journey begins on Tyneside, Northeast England's coal mines and shipyards industrial district. It continues through the Boer War of South Africa and British India in the early years of the

Were you or your ancestors' victims of Hitler's war? Joe and Mike returned from WWI to Tyneside at the end of 1918, alive but walking skeletons. They recover from their life-threatening ordeals with the support of their families and readjust to a radically changed world. However, before long, the fallout from such an expensive war took its toll on their community. The reparations demanded from Germany affected the home front. The Great Depression, profound closures, and unemployment bite, devastating the Industrial Northeast. Joe's family moved to the south London area for the promise of better prospects. However, before long, they found themselves in a new war during the Blitz, resulting in catastrophic numbers of dead, wounded and homeless around them.How will the Rutherfords survive these crises? Allied Canadian forces joined WWII, and vast numbers of troops arrived to defend the British Islands before being sent to fight the Nazis on the continent. Gunner-driver George forges lasting friendships among his fellow Canadians and the British hosts, meeting Joe's youngest daughter, Dolly, by accident. They soon marry during one of his leaves and have a baby boy. Then, George is dispatched to the Mediterranean to participate in the Italian Campaign. While in Italy, George frets about his new family. Will his new family survive the Nazi vengeance rocket onslaught on London and Croydon? Will the Allied soldiers survive their daily ordeals on the European battlefields and rejoin their families? This third book of The Rutherford Chronicles tells the frightening personal stories of the people of England and the brave Allied soldiers fighting to defeat Hitler and end the war in Europe. Other personalities include Winston Churchill, General Albert Kesselring, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Bernard Montgomery, General George S. Patton and a murdered Canadian Bombardier.

Were you or your ancestors victims of Hitler's war?Joe and Mike returned from WWI to Tyneside at the end of 1918, alive but walking skeletons. They recover from their life-threatening ordeals with the support of their families and readjust to a radically changed world. However, before long, the fallout from such an expensive war took its toll on their community. The reparations demanded from Germany affected the home front. The Great Depression, profound closures, and unemployment bite, devastating the Industrial Northeast. Joe's family moved to the south London area for the promise of better prospects. However, before long, they found themselves in a new war during the Blitz, resulting in catastrophic numbers of dead, wounded and homeless around them. How will the Rutherfords survive these crises?Allied Canadian forces joined WWII, and vast numbers of troops arrived to defend the British Islands before being sent to fight the Nazis on the continent. Gunner-driver George forges lasting friendships among his fellow Canadians and the British hosts, meeting Joe's youngest daughter, Dolly, by accident. They soon marry during one of his leaves and have a baby boy. Then, George is dispatched to the Mediterranean to participate in the Italian Campaign. While in Italy, George frets about his new family. Will his new family survive the Nazi vengeance rocket onslaught on London and Croydon? Will the Allied soldiers survive their daily ordeals on the European battlefields and rejoin their families?This third book of The Rutherford Chronicles tells the frightening personal stories of the people of England and the brave Allied soldiers fighting to defeat Hitler and end the war in Europe. Other personalities include Winston Churchill, General Albert Kesselring, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, General Bernard Montgomery, General George S. Patton and a murdered Canadian Bombardier. Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.History was always Michael's first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.Part 1, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "An absorbing and unusual look at the Anglo Boer War, one of Britain's costliest in terms of money and men, as well as women and children."Part 2, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "A revealing insight into Britain's involvement in World War I told from the viewpoint of a prisoner of war, with all the horrors of war."Part 3, Empire and Tyranny, is about the interwar years following WWI, including the tragic times of the Great Depression. It is also the story of WWII through the eyes of a soldier of the Royal Canadian Artillery in England, Scotland and Italy and his marriage with a Rutherford daughter.The last book, Part 4, Empires Lost, follows events during the Cold War, based on Michael's own experiences during the later half of the 20th century. The Rutherford Chronicles is a four-book series that follows the life, passions, and struggles of Joe Rutherford's family's tumultuous journey through the four most signifi

What was the Cold War, and are we on the verge of another, or worse?I was born amidst the Nazi V-1 and V-2 raids on London and Croydon, England, during WWII. My mother, father and I survived that worldwide conflict and settled in Montreal, Canada, in 1945. That year saw the end of one war and the beginning of another: the Cold War between old Allies in the Eastern and Western Blocs, between Communism and Capitalism.Two of the first to recognize the dangers of that new conflict were the authors and survivors of WWII George Orwell and Winston Churchill. Orwell used the term, Cold War, in an essay in October 1945. Churchill coined the Iron Curtain as the physical boundary between the two sides, or Blocs, of the Cold War in a 5 March 1946 speech in the US. I was a child during the first 'Proxy War' of the conflict between communist North Korea. China and the Soviet Union backed the Communist North. The United Nations, the US, and the Western Allies, supported Capitalist South Korea from 1950 to 1953.By 1961, when I joined the Royal Canadian Navy as a sonarman to find Soviet submarines, and John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. Nikita Khrushchev was the Soviet premier, and Fidel Castro was the Cuban premier. The Cold War was in full swing with those leaders in command. I was immediately thrown into my new role on a NATO exercise off Gibraltar, among others. However, the war and my new occupation reached their pinnacle during the Cuban Missile Crisis on the Grand Banks in October 1962. What would this war's outcome be? Would Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro, and I survive, and would the Cold War increase the dangers to a world otherwise at peace?This 4th book of The Rutherford Chronicles relates the author's personal experiences with the last major crisis of the 20th Century. He searched for Soviet submarines during the Cuban Missile Crisis and for America's most advanced US Atomic Submarine. He saw a divided Germany and the Berlin Wall. He witnessed the fight against Apartheid and the formation of Nelson Mandela's government in South Africa. Finally, he witnessed the collapse of the USSR, and the end of the Cold War and the mighty British Empire.Are we in danger of a similar conflict today, or worse, WW3? Michael Bergen was born in England and grew up in Canada, though he has lived in Europe and South Africa for most of his adult life, and it was here that The Rutherford Chronicles first sprang to life.History was always Michael's first love and sparked an interest in his own family heritage. This led, following meticulous research, directly to his writing of The Rutherford Chronicles, a series of four books based on the lives of his ancestors, their friends and families and the broader world in the turbulent years of the early to mid 20th century, and culminating in the final novel, based on his own experiences during the Cold War of the second half of that century.The Rutherford Chronicles follow the lives of ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and events controlled by their much better known and more powerful contemporaries on all sides of the conflicts, many of whom are referenced within the pages of the books.Part 1, Empire Discovered, begins during the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa and continues into British India. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "An absorbing and unusual look at the Anglo Boer War, one of Britain's costliest in terms of money and men, as well as women and children."Part 2, Empire and War, takes place in the trenches and German POW camps in WWI. Reedsy reviewer Pixie Emsley says "A revealing insight into Britain's involvement in World War I told from the viewpoint of a prisoner of war, with all the horrors of war."Part 3, Empire and Tyranny, is about the interwar years following WWI, including the tragic times of the Great Depression. It is also the story of WWII through the eyes of a soldier of the Royal Canadian Artillery in England, Scotland and Italy and his marr