Soldiers in tin hats and children clutching their gas masks were among the thousands who flocked to Haworth for the village's tenth 1940s festival.
One of the first questions he concerned himself with on arrival in France was whether a tin hat, when not being worn, should be carried on the left or right shoulder.
One woman told of how her older sister did her rounds of the wards wearing a tin hat and with a small low light torch to pick her way in the blackout.
And there, on the front line, presiding over events in a tin hat and flak jacket, is the war correspondent.
Later on I borrowed a tin hat and went out among the fires.