Leakey's Luck: A Tank Commander with Nine Lives

Major-General Rea Leakey is one of the Royal Tank Regiment's greatest heroes of the Second World War. 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 regiment to the end of the Second World War.
Leakey's Luck is important because it provides us with a graphic eyewitness 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.
George Forty, well known in his own right as an author, and formerly director of the Tank Museum at Bovington, has edited Leakey's autobiography, setting the scene to each chapter and placing the events of the war within their strategic contexts.

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