Fighting Through from Dunkirk to Hamburg

When Bill Cheall joined up in April 1939, he could not have imagined the drama, rewards and near continuous action that lay in store. First and foremost a Green Howard (a Northern regiment), as a member of the British Expeditionary Force he saw the sharp end of Hitler's May 1940 Blitzkrieg and was evacuated exhausted from Dunkirk. His next move was to North Africa, courtesy of the Queen Mary, to be part of Monty's 8th Army. After eventual victory in Tunisia, the Sicily invasion followed. Alongside a number of other battle-hardened units, the Green Howards were then ordered back to England to form the vanguard of the Normandy Invasion. In the fierce fighting that followed the D-Day landing on GOLD Beach, he was wounded and evacuated. His comrade Sergeant Major Stan Hollis, won the only VC to be awarded on 6 June 1944. Once fit, Bill returned to the war zone and he finished the war with the East Lancs as a Regimental Policeman in devastated occupied Germany. For all this he earned seven medals and a wounded-in-action stripe. Bill experienced many adventures during those action-packed years. Unlike too many, he survived to share these with the reader. Told with humility and humour, Fighting Through From Dunkirk to Hamburg is, by any measure, a superb fighting soldier's memoir. Bill passed away peacefully in 1999 following a battle with prostate cancer.

A British infantryman shares his harrowing story of life on the frontlines of WWII, from the North African Campaign to the invasion of Germany. In April 1939, when Bill Cheall joined the famous Yorkshire infantry regiment known as the Green Howards, he could not have imagined the drama, trauma, rewards and anguish that awaited him. But he recounts it all here, in this vivid memoir of service and courage under fire. As a Green Howard, Cheall was on the receiving end of the Nazis' Blitzkrieg and was evacuated exhausted. Then, courtesy of the Queen Mary, he shipped off to North Africa as part of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's Eight Army. After their victory in Tunisia, Cheall went on to the invasion of Sicily. The Green Howards then returned to England to be in the vanguard of the Normandy Landings on Gold Beach—where Cheall was wounded. Once he recovered, Cheall returned to the war zone and finished the war as a Regimental Policeman in occupied Germany. It is a remarkable story told with modesty, humor, and an eye for detail.