From North Africa to Anzio The Memoirs of a Sherman Tank Driver in the Second World War

Far from being a backwater to the wider events of the Second World War, the Mediterranean theatre of Allied operations was vast in its scale, requiring expert command of materiale and resources in combination with a determined spirit within those tasked with the fighting against not only a highly motivated and very capable enemy, but to do so in what was a challenging environment to both man and machine. The armoured fighting vehicle, namely the tank (alongside that of artillery and air power), would prove vital in the open nature of warfare in North Africa and the Mediterranean, although Nazi Germany held the initiative in many aspects of armoured warfare in WWII. The breed of men who operated tanks throughout the Second World War, honing them into the fearsome weapons we recognise today, became known as ‘Tankers’. Tank warfare by its very nature was unpleasant and claustrophobic. Sergeant Hugh Brian Brazier (2 July 1922/23 - March 2022) joined the British Army on 19 March 1942 at the age of 20\. Posted to the 46th Royal Tank Regiment, he was soon deployed to North Africa, where his experiences of the Second World War would begin.