Leakey's Luck: A Tank Commander with Nine Lives - Tapa dura

Major-General Rea Leakey is one of the Royal Tank Regiment's greatest heroes of World War II. He led a charmed life throughout the North African desert campaign and later in the battles of North West Europe. This is his autobiography which covers the period of his Army service, from joining his first regiement to the end of World War II. Many of his exploits are hair-raising, some are even too fantastic to be true - but true they are: he won his second Military Cross as a British Army captain fighting as an Australian lance-corporal during the siege of Tobruk; before taking up a staff appointment he spent ten days' leave with his old regiment, fighting as a tank gunner in the 8th Army's diasterous Gazala battles, escaping with his life. This book provides a graphic eye witness account by one who was there at the "sharp end" - as a young tank squadron commander fighting Rommel's Afrika Korps in the desert, and later in North West Europe. There, Major-General Leakey served as the Regimental Second in Command of 44 RTR, beforecommanding two other famous tank regiments in succession - 7 RTR in Normandy, where he supported the Czechs and was awarded a third MC, and then 5 RTR in the fight through to the Rhine and on into Germany and victory, for which he recieved a DSO.

Lt-Col George Forty OBE, FMA, is the former director of the Tank Museum at Bovington in Dorset.