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An Englishman at War: The Wartime Diaries of Stanley Christopherson DSO MC & Bar 1939-1945
‘An astonishing record...There is no other wartime diary that can match the scope of these diaries’ James Holland
‘ An outstanding contribution to the literature of the Second World War’Professor Gary Sheffield
From the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and the crossing of the Rhine, An Englishman at War is a unique first-person account of the Second World War.
Stanley Christopherson’s regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, went to war as amateurs and ended up one of the most experienced, highly trained and most valued armoured units in the British Army.
A junior officer at the beginning of the war, Christopherson became the commanding officer of the regiment soon after the D-Day landings. What he and his regiment witnessed presents a unique overview of one of the most cataclysmic events in world history and gives an extraordinary insight, through tragedy and triumph, into what it felt like to be part of the push for victory.
‘ An outstanding contribution to the literature of the Second World War’Professor Gary Sheffield
From the outbreak of war in September 1939 to the smouldering ruins of Berlin in 1945, via Tobruk, El Alamein, D-Day and the crossing of the Rhine, An Englishman at War is a unique first-person account of the Second World War.
Stanley Christopherson’s regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, went to war as amateurs and ended up one of the most experienced, highly trained and most valued armoured units in the British Army.
A junior officer at the beginning of the war, Christopherson became the commanding officer of the regiment soon after the D-Day landings. What he and his regiment witnessed presents a unique overview of one of the most cataclysmic events in world history and gives an extraordinary insight, through tragedy and triumph, into what it felt like to be part of the push for victory.
556 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 24, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 14, 2025
This is a fascinating book. Stanley Christopherson began as a Second Lieutenant in the Nottingham (Sherwood Rangers) Yoemanry, and by the war’s end was Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Christopherson, DSO, MC, TD*, and Commanding Officer of the regiment.
The regiment was usually referred to as the Sherwood Rangers Yoemanry (SRY). Yoemanry, btw, means it was a territorial (part-time) unit in a similar way to the National Guard in the USA, and yeomanry referred to an ancient term – Yeoman, which was a small landowner or gentleman farmer who would have supported the king in previous centuries. The regiment’s officers were all pretty wealthy (or filthy rich) and pretty ‘posh’ at the beginning, although not as snobbish as in regular units, and combat experience led them to appreciate everyone’s opinions. They lost so many officers in combat, they later promoted good men from the ranks to make up numbers. Thus, the SRY was a much less class-conscious outfit than many in the regular army of the day, and this helped them to survive, thrive and adapt to difficult conditions in combat. They also cooperated very well with their infantry brethren, providing armoured support to the British, Canadians and Americans alike.
In this book, James Holland has written the story of the regiment through Stanley’s wartime diaries, and a fine job he made of it, too. The regiment was a cavalry unit in 1939 and was initially posted to Palestine – complete with their horses – for training. Later they became an artillery unit and participated in the siege of Tobruk. Luckily, they had friends in high places, and this meant pressure was brought to bear in London and they were finally mechanised and trained to use tanks.
Much of the book covers their time in North Africa, where they fought from Egypt, through Libya and into Tunisia, where they finally ejected the Deutches Afrika Korps from that continent after getting them in a pincer movement in conjunction with other Allied forces landed in Morocco – Operation Torch, which was the American 1st Infantry Division’s (The Big Red One) baptism of fire.
Stanley’s diary provides a wealth of detail about not only the battles and horrendous casualties but also their daily life and worries. We learn about the personalities, the boredom (when they weren’t fighting), the flies, heat, dust, sandstorms and lack of water. All of this gives a fascinating insight into the realities of war, as well as being a cracking good story.
Stanley goes on to describe the regiment’s experiences on D-Day and all during the Normandy campaign, which was utterly terrible in terms of casualties. By 20 days after D-Day, the regiment had lost 80% of its officers, so had to train up replacements in double-quick time. It would have been worse if they hadn’t been so adept at changing tactics to suit the conditions and listening to all ranks when it came to ideas. It was so bad because the only way you could see enough to drive and fight in the tank was for the commander to stick his head out of the turret, leaving him vulnerable to snipers and wounds from shrapnel from mortar and artillery attacks – something the Germans were very good at.
He then covers the rest of the war because the SRY fought all the way through Belgium, Holland and into Germany, including coming across a concentration camp.
James Holland’s editing is excellent and he gives good explanations of things not immediately obvious to the reader. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in armoured warfare and the campaign to liberate Northern Europe, as well as those who want to know what fighting in a war is really like. This book will make you damn glad you weren’t there.
*DSO = Distinguished Service Order, MC = Military Cross, and TD = Territorial Decoration.
The regiment was usually referred to as the Sherwood Rangers Yoemanry (SRY). Yoemanry, btw, means it was a territorial (part-time) unit in a similar way to the National Guard in the USA, and yeomanry referred to an ancient term – Yeoman, which was a small landowner or gentleman farmer who would have supported the king in previous centuries. The regiment’s officers were all pretty wealthy (or filthy rich) and pretty ‘posh’ at the beginning, although not as snobbish as in regular units, and combat experience led them to appreciate everyone’s opinions. They lost so many officers in combat, they later promoted good men from the ranks to make up numbers. Thus, the SRY was a much less class-conscious outfit than many in the regular army of the day, and this helped them to survive, thrive and adapt to difficult conditions in combat. They also cooperated very well with their infantry brethren, providing armoured support to the British, Canadians and Americans alike.
In this book, James Holland has written the story of the regiment through Stanley’s wartime diaries, and a fine job he made of it, too. The regiment was a cavalry unit in 1939 and was initially posted to Palestine – complete with their horses – for training. Later they became an artillery unit and participated in the siege of Tobruk. Luckily, they had friends in high places, and this meant pressure was brought to bear in London and they were finally mechanised and trained to use tanks.
Much of the book covers their time in North Africa, where they fought from Egypt, through Libya and into Tunisia, where they finally ejected the Deutches Afrika Korps from that continent after getting them in a pincer movement in conjunction with other Allied forces landed in Morocco – Operation Torch, which was the American 1st Infantry Division’s (The Big Red One) baptism of fire.
Stanley’s diary provides a wealth of detail about not only the battles and horrendous casualties but also their daily life and worries. We learn about the personalities, the boredom (when they weren’t fighting), the flies, heat, dust, sandstorms and lack of water. All of this gives a fascinating insight into the realities of war, as well as being a cracking good story.
Stanley goes on to describe the regiment’s experiences on D-Day and all during the Normandy campaign, which was utterly terrible in terms of casualties. By 20 days after D-Day, the regiment had lost 80% of its officers, so had to train up replacements in double-quick time. It would have been worse if they hadn’t been so adept at changing tactics to suit the conditions and listening to all ranks when it came to ideas. It was so bad because the only way you could see enough to drive and fight in the tank was for the commander to stick his head out of the turret, leaving him vulnerable to snipers and wounds from shrapnel from mortar and artillery attacks – something the Germans were very good at.
He then covers the rest of the war because the SRY fought all the way through Belgium, Holland and into Germany, including coming across a concentration camp.
James Holland’s editing is excellent and he gives good explanations of things not immediately obvious to the reader. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in armoured warfare and the campaign to liberate Northern Europe, as well as those who want to know what fighting in a war is really like. This book will make you damn glad you weren’t there.
*DSO = Distinguished Service Order, MC = Military Cross, and TD = Territorial Decoration.
June 25, 2025
There are a plethora of Second World War memoirs, diaries, and biographies currently in print, but this is an excellent example of the genre. Stanley fought through the whole war, starting as a mounted yeomanry troop commander in Palestine and ending as the CO of one of the finest armoured regiments in the British Army. As such, the story he tells is comprehensive and satisfying as he records the passage of his regiment through the entire war. In addition, Stanley's writing is vivid and completely lacking in self-consciousness, and he comes across as a thoroughly decent and likeable man.
James Holland, who edited and commented on Stanley's diary, summarises both his and his unit's experience when he says, "The Sherwood Rangers can be seen as a leitmotif of the British Army in the Second World War. They began rooted in an earlier age with little understanding of what modern war had become, but gradually, often painfully, learned the lessons, and evolved into a highly efficient outfit...[They] had left England in 1939 with their horses, sabres and little idea about modern soldiering, and had finished the war as one of the finest armoured units in the British Army. It was quite a journey for a local yeomanry outfit; there cannot have been many regiments that saw more action than they did throughout the whole of the war or were engaged in so many major battles. They were the first to enter Bayeux after D-Day, the first British troops into Germany, and during their time in north-west Europe, they supported every single British infantry division and three American divisions, and were often specifically asked for by other formations. Between 1939 and 1945, the Sherwood Rangers amassed an astonishing 30 battle honours, 16 under Stanley's command, more than any other single unit in the entire British Army. And he was in the thick of it for all 30, collecting a Distinguished Service Order, two Military Crosses and a Silver Star, as well as being Mentioned in Dispatches four times."
James Holland, who edited and commented on Stanley's diary, summarises both his and his unit's experience when he says, "The Sherwood Rangers can be seen as a leitmotif of the British Army in the Second World War. They began rooted in an earlier age with little understanding of what modern war had become, but gradually, often painfully, learned the lessons, and evolved into a highly efficient outfit...[They] had left England in 1939 with their horses, sabres and little idea about modern soldiering, and had finished the war as one of the finest armoured units in the British Army. It was quite a journey for a local yeomanry outfit; there cannot have been many regiments that saw more action than they did throughout the whole of the war or were engaged in so many major battles. They were the first to enter Bayeux after D-Day, the first British troops into Germany, and during their time in north-west Europe, they supported every single British infantry division and three American divisions, and were often specifically asked for by other formations. Between 1939 and 1945, the Sherwood Rangers amassed an astonishing 30 battle honours, 16 under Stanley's command, more than any other single unit in the entire British Army. And he was in the thick of it for all 30, collecting a Distinguished Service Order, two Military Crosses and a Silver Star, as well as being Mentioned in Dispatches four times."
February 27, 2019
From the time Stanley Christopherson and his cavalry unit (!) is activated to just before the D-Day invasion he kept a diary which is what makes up most of the book and from D-Day on it's written up as a memoir. He recounts the battles he and his unit have been involved in along with the brutality of it all and the sadness and near depression as he recounts those lost in battle.
This is very well written! I sometimes wonder whether it's possible for anyone English to write otherwise! If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of those that were in the thick of it in WW2 then I would consider this book a must read. I could not put it down which is unusual for me. I cannot recommend it too highly.
This is very well written! I sometimes wonder whether it's possible for anyone English to write otherwise! If you are interested in reading first hand accounts of those that were in the thick of it in WW2 then I would consider this book a must read. I could not put it down which is unusual for me. I cannot recommend it too highly.
April 2, 2021
This is a diary kept during the second world war and follows the transformation of a calvary regiment to a armored regiment that fights through the desert and into Europe.
The book has a terrible habit of making you care about key characters and they are sadly killed along the way.
It's definitely a book you struggle to put down.
The book has a terrible habit of making you care about key characters and they are sadly killed along the way.
It's definitely a book you struggle to put down.
June 9, 2014
Enjoyed this book and also saw Holland's D Day program that interviewed Christopherson's son. My only criticism of the book is one directed at the publishers - it could have done with some good maps in the body of the text. Highly recommended read.
February 24, 2024
I've read three James Holland books that overlap in terms of their material (Normandy, Brothers in Arms, and this) and this is the best. Stanley Christopherson comes across as a thoroughly decent man. He has a humane outlook, pitying death on both sides, and war in general. He is humble, and frequently makes little reference to his accomplishments, with Holland as editor filling in the gaps. He is faithful, believing in God, with a "deep faith". He cares, writing short euologies of friends who are killed in battle. And he is also, human; he frequently notes pretty girls, indulges in wine, and with friends, has a silly goose time.
The book chronicles his journey from Palestine, where he starts with his horse-mounted regiment. Then to Egypt and North Africa, where they switch to tanks. And finally, the invasion of Normandy, and the drive into Germany. The detail is about right, so readable, and the gaps and bigger picture is filled in by Holland. But usually Christopherson is quite well informed and makes prescient observations, both of his individual situation but also about the war at large.
Some highlights for me included his observations of the fighting spirit of Maori New Zealanders, who proved themselves very able soliders; and his recalling of life in British Palestine, which comes across as a much ordered place than history would have you believe.
I kept reading this over other books I had on the go because I enjoyed it so much. I love well-written diaries by honest men, recording their lives. Thank you James Holland for bringing this book into existence.
The book chronicles his journey from Palestine, where he starts with his horse-mounted regiment. Then to Egypt and North Africa, where they switch to tanks. And finally, the invasion of Normandy, and the drive into Germany. The detail is about right, so readable, and the gaps and bigger picture is filled in by Holland. But usually Christopherson is quite well informed and makes prescient observations, both of his individual situation but also about the war at large.
Some highlights for me included his observations of the fighting spirit of Maori New Zealanders, who proved themselves very able soliders; and his recalling of life in British Palestine, which comes across as a much ordered place than history would have you believe.
I kept reading this over other books I had on the go because I enjoyed it so much. I love well-written diaries by honest men, recording their lives. Thank you James Holland for bringing this book into existence.
December 10, 2022
This is a brilliant read and those that know my profile will know that I read many WWII history books. In September 1939 when the war broke out, Stanley Christopherson was already a member of the Inns of Court, a Territorial Army regiment (he was eligible as a Stockbroker) and a cavalry unit. He was an acting lance-corporal. By the end of the war, he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and Commanding Officer of his regiment, The Sherwood Rangers. Of the 37 officers at the beginning of the war, only two had not been killed and one of which was Stanley.
This book is a personal diary which has been edited by the very well-known military historian, James Holland. His notes within the context of the diary are superb. Both his and Stanley's own prose is a joy to read. From the time he landed in Palestine in 1939 with the cavalry horses until they arrived in Normandy across the Channel in their tanks, this a true story of utmost valour. They ended up in Berlin before the Regiment was disbanded and Stanley left the army. The Sherwood Rangers received 30 battle honours between 1939-45 of which 16 were under Stanley's command. He was decorated with a Distinguished Service Order, two Military Crosses and an American Silver Star. He was also mentioned four times in dispatches. What a guy!
This book is a personal diary which has been edited by the very well-known military historian, James Holland. His notes within the context of the diary are superb. Both his and Stanley's own prose is a joy to read. From the time he landed in Palestine in 1939 with the cavalry horses until they arrived in Normandy across the Channel in their tanks, this a true story of utmost valour. They ended up in Berlin before the Regiment was disbanded and Stanley left the army. The Sherwood Rangers received 30 battle honours between 1939-45 of which 16 were under Stanley's command. He was decorated with a Distinguished Service Order, two Military Crosses and an American Silver Star. He was also mentioned four times in dispatches. What a guy!
March 1, 2025
This is a book of two halves. The first, covering the period from the outbreak of the Second World War to the end of fighting in North Africa, is a diary that was clearly not intended for publication. The entries are brief and laconic to the point of being barely comprehensible in places. The editor has not entirely succeeded in resolving this problem. The second half, from D-day to the end of the War, is more of a memoir, part written at the time but part probably afterwards. It is more descriptive, explanatory and thoughtful, and far more interesting to read.
The editorial apparatus is helpful up to a point but not infallible. The initials DR, clearly meaning Dispatch Rider, are bizarrely glossed as 'dead reckoning', for instance. The editorial comments on the officers' wives in Palestine are slightly unfair; several of those wives, such as Lady Ranfurly, were there not just to be near their husbands but because they knew that they could (and they did) contribute positively to the War effort.
Anyone wanting to read about the Sherwood Rangers in the early part of the War would be better off with Hermione Ranfurly's memoir 'To War with Whitaker' and Keith Douglas's 'Alamein to Zem Zem'. For the later campaigning in north-west Europe, however, Stanley Christopherson's memoir is invaluable.
The editorial apparatus is helpful up to a point but not infallible. The initials DR, clearly meaning Dispatch Rider, are bizarrely glossed as 'dead reckoning', for instance. The editorial comments on the officers' wives in Palestine are slightly unfair; several of those wives, such as Lady Ranfurly, were there not just to be near their husbands but because they knew that they could (and they did) contribute positively to the War effort.
Anyone wanting to read about the Sherwood Rangers in the early part of the War would be better off with Hermione Ranfurly's memoir 'To War with Whitaker' and Keith Douglas's 'Alamein to Zem Zem'. For the later campaigning in north-west Europe, however, Stanley Christopherson's memoir is invaluable.
December 25, 2021
Any diary of service from 1939 through to May 1945 is a rare and valuable record. The author progresses from a callow young man, from what appears to be a well-off and well-connected background. The interwar atmosphere of the yeomanry regiment seems otherworldly in its class structure and preoccupations of horses, sport and practical jokes. That's all gone by the end of the Western Desert campaign, apart from the jokes. By the end of the Normandy campaign even before going into Belgium, there is a strong sense that the rapidly multiplying losses must have been almost unbearable and that Christopherson must have been an exceptional man to lead this excellent regiment. However, it is really only the last 1/3 of the book, I felt, where the depth of feeling is evident and Christopherson begins to record his own useful and insightful thoughts and generalisations with much confidence.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2023
One of the best I have read
This o ok is a picture of a regiment growing up during war time
In a little over 3 years the diarist can be seen growing from a junior officer interested in dancing and having a good time with his horses to being the officer in charge of a regiment of tanks and running that regiment professionally as an experienced officer tasked with hard and dangerous choices
In the form of a diary the insights it gives as to the mindset of the British army at the beginning of the war is edifying to say the least
It also charts the growth of the man who at the beginning has lots of comrades and friends in the regiment but at the end became I feel detached from the new replacements as the often only lived a few days or weeks
This is well worth reading
This o ok is a picture of a regiment growing up during war time
In a little over 3 years the diarist can be seen growing from a junior officer interested in dancing and having a good time with his horses to being the officer in charge of a regiment of tanks and running that regiment professionally as an experienced officer tasked with hard and dangerous choices
In the form of a diary the insights it gives as to the mindset of the British army at the beginning of the war is edifying to say the least
It also charts the growth of the man who at the beginning has lots of comrades and friends in the regiment but at the end became I feel detached from the new replacements as the often only lived a few days or weeks
This is well worth reading
June 13, 2020
Very enjoyable read.
April 21, 2021
Another great book from James Holland
February 5, 2022
Wartime diaries of a remarkable soldier and regiment - deservedly published as a testament to himself and his comrades.
January 7, 2023
An absolutely gripping and terrific account of WW2.
June 25, 2024
Diary/memoir of ww2 tank officer. Hell, they had it hard. Really dedicated to working bravely and assiduously for victory.
December 29, 2024
An inspirational and brave soldier who kept a fantastically well-written diary of his numerous wartime adventures.
March 24, 2025
A fascinating insight into an incredible regiment and a brave man. Someone who stood up to everything thrown at him and faced it with humor and grace.
September 23, 2025
Remarkable insight into the life of a soldier in WW2.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews