Normandy – the Bocage to Belsen

In 1989, Major Harry Mainwaring—veteran of two wars and career officer of the Royal Artillery—recorded six hours of memories spanning some of the most decisive military events of the twentieth century. This book brings together those recordings with the informed perspective of his son, creating a rare primary-source narrative that illuminates both the front-line experience of a British artillery officer and the broader strategic developments of the Second World War and beyond.Commissioned in March 1940, Harry served throughout the war with the 53rd Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, a formation tasked with providing the long-range firepower that shaped operations from the Normandy breakout to the drive across North-West Europe. His recollections follow the Regiment through England’s years of preparation, coastal defence, and the transformation to mobile, mechanised warfare. After landing in France shortly after D-Day, Harry witnessed the brutal artillery duels of the bocage, the slog through Belgium and Holland, and the final push into Germany—eleven months of continuous operations that tested every skill of a Gunner officer.But Harry’s military story did not end in 1945. In the uncertain years of Britain’s post-war decline, he returned to uniform with the Royal Army Education Corps—only to be deployed once more, this time to the Korean War, where British forces fought in some of the Cold War’s most challenging campaigns.Blending operational detail with candid personal testimony, this memoir offers military-history readers an invaluable window into artillery warfare, leadership under fire, and the lived reality of a soldier shaped by two global conflicts.