Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story

By Bill Bellamy and Richard Holmes

Bill Bellamy was a young officer in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars from 1943 to 1955. He served in 7th Armoured Division in the North West Europe campaign, landing in Normandy on D+3, fought throughout the Battle for Normandy and into the Low Countries as a troop leader in Cromwell tanks, and was latterly a member of the initial occupying force in Berlin in May 1945. Against the rules, Bill kept diaries and notes of his experiences. His account is fresh and open, and his descriptions of battle are vivid. He witnessed many of his contemporaries killed in action, and this life-altering experience clearly informs his narrative. The accounts of tank fighting in the leafy Normandy bocage in the height of summer, or in the iron hard fields of Holland in winter, are graphic and compelling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Mar 15, 2007
• ISBN: 9780752495613

Bill Bellamy

Bill Bellamy is the executive producer and host of Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes? on TV One and was a longtime VJ and the host of several MTV programs, including MTV Jamz and House. After MTV, he starred in a number of movies and television shows, including Fled, Love Jones, The Brothers, How to Be a Player, Getting Played, and Any Given Sunday. He was the voice of Skeeter on the Nickelodeon television show Cousin Skeeter, costarred on the Fox Network television show Fastlane with Peter Facinelli and Tiffani Thiessen, and had a recurring role on the TV Land original series Hot in Cleveland. He was also a frequent roundtable guest on the late-night E! talk show Chelsea Lately and hosted seasons 5 and 6 of NBC’s Last Comic Standing reality show.