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D-Day to Victory: The Diaries of a British Tank Commander
Tank Commander Sgt Trevor Greenwood of C Squadron, the 9th Royal Tank Regiment, sailed for France in June 1944 as part of the Allied invasion of Normandy.
From D-Day until April 1945, he kept a daily diary of his experiences of the final push through France and into Germany, often writing in secret and in terrible conditions. Under fire, outgunned and facing a bitter winter, he never loses his moral compass or his sense of humour - finding time to brew tea and maintain morale with characterful British reserve. He writes candidly of his frustration and despair of seeing Bomber Command mistakenly bomb Allied lines near Caen (August 1944), the liberation of Le Havre (September 1944), the fighting around Roosendaal, Holland (October 1944), the reception of soldiers by the Dutch families on whom they were billeted (December 1944), and concludes with 'mopping up' operations in northern Germany (April 1945).
His astonishing diary has left us a unique record of the war in Europe from the rarely-seen perspective of an ordinary soldier. An accompanying essay about the tank battles of Normandy by Duxford Museum's tank expert provide added value.
From D-Day until April 1945, he kept a daily diary of his experiences of the final push through France and into Germany, often writing in secret and in terrible conditions. Under fire, outgunned and facing a bitter winter, he never loses his moral compass or his sense of humour - finding time to brew tea and maintain morale with characterful British reserve. He writes candidly of his frustration and despair of seeing Bomber Command mistakenly bomb Allied lines near Caen (August 1944), the liberation of Le Havre (September 1944), the fighting around Roosendaal, Holland (October 1944), the reception of soldiers by the Dutch families on whom they were billeted (December 1944), and concludes with 'mopping up' operations in northern Germany (April 1945).
His astonishing diary has left us a unique record of the war in Europe from the rarely-seen perspective of an ordinary soldier. An accompanying essay about the tank battles of Normandy by Duxford Museum's tank expert provide added value.
407 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 20, 2020
I highly recommend reading this book if you have any interest in the WWII. This Diary made me want to cry at times but also made me laugh. Yes, in and amongst all those horrible moments and fighting there was also some quite humorous parts - like in the part about the chickens :) There are some very short entries where not a whole lot is happening, but the amount of description about the places they were, the personal experience with the fighting/ wars, the living conditions described, and how the troops lived or kept their spirits up. I found it a fascinating read and would recommend it to anyone who has interest in WWII.
January 15, 2019
4.5 stars rounded to 4.
This is one of the most rarest books- WWII from the perspective of an ordinary soldier. The author has written his diaries in often terrible conditions. For example- the author once wrote the days events while caught in the middle of artillery fire. Considering the circumstances, the quality of the writing is awesome. This book also gives us real time experiences of battles of an ordinary soldier, and his feelings about the whole war, which is rather impossible to find. A very highly recommended book.
This is one of the most rarest books- WWII from the perspective of an ordinary soldier. The author has written his diaries in often terrible conditions. For example- the author once wrote the days events while caught in the middle of artillery fire. Considering the circumstances, the quality of the writing is awesome. This book also gives us real time experiences of battles of an ordinary soldier, and his feelings about the whole war, which is rather impossible to find. A very highly recommended book.
November 28, 2017
It is an "OK" record of life in a British tank squadron during WW II. I'm not really a fan of diary style writing.
August 3, 2017
D-Day: The Diaries of a British Tank Commander is a very well-written and extremely vivid account of a campaign which started in Normandy and ended in Northern Germany in April 1945.
There is very little overt heroism, lots of fear and no end of examples of privation. It hardly seems credible that men should survive the discomforts of this type of war. They seldom slept in decent beds (if they slept at all), spent most of the time living on field rations or scrounging from the local community, took infrequent baths in canvas receptacles and lived every moment of every day wondering if it would be their last on earth.
The author, Jack Greenwood, admits to many moments of terror and panic yet he got on with his job, as did others under his command, without fuss. The Germans, despite being hugely inferior in numbers to the Allies, fought ferociously and, with superiority in weapons, made Normandy one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Sergeant Greenwood records this impeccably and the result is one of the most alive of campaign memoirs.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen and Two Families at War, all published by Sacristy Press.
There is very little overt heroism, lots of fear and no end of examples of privation. It hardly seems credible that men should survive the discomforts of this type of war. They seldom slept in decent beds (if they slept at all), spent most of the time living on field rations or scrounging from the local community, took infrequent baths in canvas receptacles and lived every moment of every day wondering if it would be their last on earth.
The author, Jack Greenwood, admits to many moments of terror and panic yet he got on with his job, as did others under his command, without fuss. The Germans, despite being hugely inferior in numbers to the Allies, fought ferociously and, with superiority in weapons, made Normandy one of the toughest campaigns of the war. Sergeant Greenwood records this impeccably and the result is one of the most alive of campaign memoirs.
David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen and Two Families at War, all published by Sacristy Press.
August 25, 2022
Interesting read, the book is an edited diary of a SGT commanding a Churchill tank in WW2.
As it’s a personal diary it gives not only accounts of fighting but if life and tribulations of the crew. The diary abruptly ends before the end of the war, this is explained by the editor and the end of the book gives a brief history of 3 RTR.
As it’s a personal diary it gives not only accounts of fighting but if life and tribulations of the crew. The diary abruptly ends before the end of the war, this is explained by the editor and the end of the book gives a brief history of 3 RTR.
June 20, 2019
Being a day by day account you get a lot of repetition, especially towards the end. Combat descriptions are not in much detail which is not surprising when you consider his view was often from a closed down turret.
February 5, 2017
Whoo, first book of 2017 down. Shame it took me 10 days longer than I needed to hit my target this year. Got to speed up from now on!
As a book, this is quite hard to describe... and what I say now I say in a positive way. But this book is quite... well, boring. Now I hear you ask - how can boring be a positive thing?? Well - in my experience the war books I read tend to be about squadrons or companies, or divisions or whatever, who are thrown into a heated battle/battles or face a huge seemingly insurmountable enemy. You read about them dodging bullets, pulling colleagues out of danger... each sentence shows you the resilience of the human spirit (I say that a lot when talking about these books).
This book though is a diary of an ordinary man who was thrown into a horrible situation. As a diary this doesn't have the benefit of hindsight, it hasn't gained a hazy rose tinted glow of glory days gone by. It deals with a lot of the minutiae of the life of a solider - when you can safely sleep "without trousers on", how you make tea in a tank, what the facilities are in a tank... stuff that you may not necessarily think about but which many many people had to deal with.
I wrote in my review of The Great Escape that a great many books based on wars are frantic, this one has moments where it is clear something was going on and the writers attention was not wholly here, but on the whole there is this ... languidness to the story. It made this somewhat hard to really read as it wasn't gripping, but it was interesting.
Trevor is an interesting character, at times he seems almost snobbish (mostly in relation to the music and films made available to the troops), but he seems to have always looked for the beauty in his surroundings. He really does seem unhappy that some beautiful places were destroyed, that lives and homes were forever changed. I honestly don't think any of the other books I have read on any war have talked about the destruction in that way.
I admit I found the latter parts of this book more interesting as Trevor was around the area my relatives come from which was quite cool. I do wonder if he might have been near my Grandfather, and whether any tanks supported him... and I really regret now not listening or asking more about where he fought when he went over to Germany.
It also taught me something new - Franklin Roosvelt held a record number of terms as a US president and is now the reason why they may now only hold the presidency for a maximum of two terms. I honestly though before this that it was written into the rules of presidency in America from the start!
So, would I recomend this book.... well, I don't know. It really wasn't an 'easy' read - but then shoukd a book about war be considered as that? It's readable but there are other books on WW2 battles and objectives (see Band of Brothers and Beyond Band of Brothers) that are far more readable. If you're particularly interested in WW2 or tank battles then I think this would be really interesting for you, but if you're interest is more general then maybe give it a miss.
As a book, this is quite hard to describe... and what I say now I say in a positive way. But this book is quite... well, boring. Now I hear you ask - how can boring be a positive thing?? Well - in my experience the war books I read tend to be about squadrons or companies, or divisions or whatever, who are thrown into a heated battle/battles or face a huge seemingly insurmountable enemy. You read about them dodging bullets, pulling colleagues out of danger... each sentence shows you the resilience of the human spirit (I say that a lot when talking about these books).
This book though is a diary of an ordinary man who was thrown into a horrible situation. As a diary this doesn't have the benefit of hindsight, it hasn't gained a hazy rose tinted glow of glory days gone by. It deals with a lot of the minutiae of the life of a solider - when you can safely sleep "without trousers on", how you make tea in a tank, what the facilities are in a tank... stuff that you may not necessarily think about but which many many people had to deal with.
I wrote in my review of The Great Escape that a great many books based on wars are frantic, this one has moments where it is clear something was going on and the writers attention was not wholly here, but on the whole there is this ... languidness to the story. It made this somewhat hard to really read as it wasn't gripping, but it was interesting.
Trevor is an interesting character, at times he seems almost snobbish (mostly in relation to the music and films made available to the troops), but he seems to have always looked for the beauty in his surroundings. He really does seem unhappy that some beautiful places were destroyed, that lives and homes were forever changed. I honestly don't think any of the other books I have read on any war have talked about the destruction in that way.
I admit I found the latter parts of this book more interesting as Trevor was around the area my relatives come from which was quite cool. I do wonder if he might have been near my Grandfather, and whether any tanks supported him... and I really regret now not listening or asking more about where he fought when he went over to Germany.
It also taught me something new - Franklin Roosvelt held a record number of terms as a US president and is now the reason why they may now only hold the presidency for a maximum of two terms. I honestly though before this that it was written into the rules of presidency in America from the start!
So, would I recomend this book.... well, I don't know. It really wasn't an 'easy' read - but then shoukd a book about war be considered as that? It's readable but there are other books on WW2 battles and objectives (see Band of Brothers and Beyond Band of Brothers) that are far more readable. If you're particularly interested in WW2 or tank battles then I think this would be really interesting for you, but if you're interest is more general then maybe give it a miss.
January 20, 2013
The Second World war seen through the eyes of an ordinary person who had enlisted and ended up in the tanks. Reveals the boredom interspersed with fighting. The author kept this forbidden diary in an attempt to keep in touch with his wife and baby son, to let her know how he was and to keep them as part of his life. Fascinating for anyone interested in this period of history.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews