The Quiet Gunner at War is a delightfully fresh & well written account of war at the sharp end of North Africa Sicily & North West Europe. In 1939 the Author was already a professional soldier stationed in India. After the Dunkirk disaster he was recalled & initially involved in training recruits at Plymouth before going north to help re-form the 51st Highland Division Gunners. With his regiment he travelled by sea to Egypt & thereafter it was all intense action as part of Montys Eighth Army at El Alamein & the long gruelling advance to Tripoli. HUSKY the invasion of Sicily followed & Gorle describes the horrors of war in the mountains & towns with the locals almost oblivious to the momentous events unfolding around them. After attending Staff College Gorle rejoined the fray in North West Europe. His new Regiment part of 15th Lowland Division fought through Belgium the Netherlands & Germany alternately receiving thanks & welcome from those liberated & fierce & deadly resistance from the retreating Germans. As well as describing his own immediate world he perceptively analyses the wider war situation. In the best traditions of fighting mens memoirs the Author writes with modesty (he was awarded the Military Cross & was Mentioned-in-Despatches) & humility & the dangers that he & his comrades-in-arms faced are consistently understated. At the same time The Quiet Gunner at War sums up the elation of victory the closeness of comradeship & the desperate sadness of losses.