Synopsis
A frontline artillery officer recounts decisive campaigns from Normandy to Germany, detailing leadership under fire and strategic power in World War II and beyond.
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.
About the Author
Jes Mainwaring is primarily an architect rather than writer (albeit these share common elements), and an unpublished poet. Jes names his father Harry as the true author as he lived the story. Jes prompted and enabled Harry to make an audio recording of that story while it was still ‘living history’. Since the spoken word does not read so well in word-for-word transcript, Jes edited the script to make it more reading-friendly whilst adding Harry’s occasional further recollections and Peggy’s civilian insights. Initially Jes made a few hardback copies by hand for family under the title Bow and Arrow Man, but encouragement from various directions has lead to this point of publication.
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