Written by a preeminent historian of the British Army, this is the
definitive history of the British Army in the Second World War: its
campaigns and battles, defeats and victories, across all theatres of
operations from the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939 to the final
defeat of Japan in 1945.
Here the listener will find grand strategy at the highest level, but
also the reality of command in the field and the experience of combat
for the infantry, gunners and the tankers as the British Army fought its
way through the war. But above all this is a full, authoritative and
vividly written account of the British Army in the Second World War as
it came to grips with, and in the end triumphed over, its enemies in the
field.
Born the son of Brigadier The Honourable William Fraser (1890-1964) DSO
MC, who had been the military attaché in Paris when the Second World War
began, David Fraser was educated at Eton College and Christ Church
College, Oxford. He left school to enlist at earliest opportunity after
the Second World War begun, and joined his father's regiment, the
Grenadier Guards, in 1940, serving for much of the War with the Guards
Armoured Division, later in northwest Europe, ending the war in the rank
of major. He was appointed general officer commanding 4th division in
1969, assistant chief of defence staff (policy) in 1971, and vice chief
of the imperial general staff in 1973. He went on to be British military
representative to NATO in 1975, and commandant of the royal college of
defence studies in 1977 before retiring in 1980.
