This archive photograph of war at its ugliest is on the front cover of Sidmouth author Jonathan Walker's latest book, Poland Alone. They stand five men together, death but seconds away, the bodies of their executed comrades sprawled on the ground behind

This archive photograph of war at its ugliest is on the front cover of Sidmouth author Jonathan Walker's latest book, Poland Alone.They stand five men together, death but seconds away, the bodies of their executed comrades sprawled on the ground behind them.One has hands raised as if in supplication, another is braced ready to die while three stand as if to attention, almost proudly erect.It symbolises the suffering of a brave nation crushed by the brutality of German aggression and the tyranny of Russian occupation.Those who survived have never forgotten and it is their testimony, often searing in its telling, that shocks and horrifies still today.Their stories, and the focus on the conflicts inside the British government and military establishment over a response to Poland's desperate plight in 1944, is what inspired Jonathan to write this, his fifth book.See this week's Sidmouth Herald, out on Friday, for Kingsley Squire's full review of Poland Alone.