George & Janine: True-life love Stories - Elizabeth Battaglia - Bog

More than seventy years later, this is still a love story for today. George & Janine. Part One. It is late summer, 1944. St. Tropez in the South of France. The German and Italian occupation of the town is finally over. French, American, and British troops are now in control, but it will be a long time before life in this once sleepy fishing village returns to any kind of normality. Buildings have been destroyed by German bombing in the final days before their retreat. Lives have been shattered. Food is scarce and there is very little money to buy what food there is. Stories of atrocities and misconduct abound. But freedom rules. British troops are aboard ships making their way along the coastline stopping in at these devastated towns for "mopping up" operations. Aboard one of these ships is George Rogers. A young private from London's East End who is serving in the Air Sea Rescue division. On a sunny afternoon, he has a few hours leave and heads to a St. Tropez beach. Fate brings him briefly into the life of the young and beautiful Janine Juppet, a local girl with heartbreaking war stories of her own. There is an immediate rapport but there is also an expiration date on any connection they might have. George must leave in ten days, never to return. But what happens during those ten days changes their lives in ways they could never have imagined.