This isn't exactly a blog, but I felt it would fit in well here. A soldier's experience isn't dependent on the date or the country, but is fairly universal in its make up of 90% boring routine and 10% deadly excitement.

The following link will take you to a page where Brigadier James Hill recounts some of his military experiences.

James Hill died recently on March 16th, at the age of 95. His first-person account is of his parachuting into France on D-Day. The 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was part of Hill's 3rd British parachute brigade.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A2523016 (scroll down just a bit)


(excerp)
I was born in 1911 and went to Sandhurst in 1929. After a spell as an army officer I went into the family business, but I was called up for duty when war broke out in 1939.

In the run-up to D-Day I was commanding the 3rd Parachute Brigade in the 6th Airborne Division. The brigade had been formed in the beginning of 1943 with the sole purpose of taking part in the Normandy landings. The brigade was made up of three county battalions. These battalions were invited to join the parachute brigade, and being good chaps they volunteered to a man.

These chaps were the salt of the earth, prepared to give their lives without arguing the toss. They hadn't joined the army to parachute, but we said, 'Please parachute,' and they said, 'We'll try.'

...
After about 45 minutes marching along a narrow path with bog on both sides, I suddenly heard a horrid noise. I had seen a lot of fighting and knew it was an attack by low-flying aircraft dropping anti-personnel bombs, so I shouted to the chaps to get down. I threw myself down on top of a chap called Lieutenant Peters.

The aircraft passed over and there was the horrible smell of cordite and death hanging in the air. I knew I'd been hit. I saw a leg lying in the middle of the path and I thought, by God that's mine. Then I noticed it had a brown boot on. I didn't allow brown boots in my brigade, and the only person who broke that rule was my friend Lieutenant Peters. I was lying on top of him. He was dead, I wasn't - but I'd been hit and a large chunk of my left backside was gone. (hear him recount this event - RealPlayer)
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If you're interested, here are some more interesting links about Brigadier James Hill:

Voices of Dunkirk: info and short audio bits of him recounting brief moments (you'll probably need to also open the transcript to understand him better)

Voices of D-Day: info and audio

Obituary from The Times