Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955 He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign landing in Normandy on D3 fought throughout the Battle for Normandy & into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks & was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945 Against the rules Bill kept diaries & notes of his experiences His account is fresh & open & his descriptions of battle are vivid He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action & this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter are graphic & compelling