Leakey's Luck: A Tank Commander with Nine Lives

by George Forty (Editor), Michael Carver (Foreword), Rea Leakey (Author), Michael Carver (Foreword), George Forty (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $3.66

  Major-General Rea Leakey was one of the Royal Tank Regiment's greatest heroes of World War II. His autobiography is based on the diary which he kept at the time, something which was strictly forbidden. It provides us with an eyewitness account of a man who was actually there at the sharp end and covers the whole period of his army service, from joining his first regiment up until the end of World War II. His story is truly remarkable, from the time he spent as a young tank squadron commander fighting Afrika Korps in the desert, and later as a Churchill tank batallion commander in Normandy and the fight through to the Rhine.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1999

  $3.43

  Major-General Rea Leakey is one of the Royal Tank Regiment's greatest heroes of World War II. He led a charmed life throughout the North African desert campaign and later in the battles of North West Europe. This is his autobiography which covers the period of his Army service, from joining his first regiement to the end of World War II. Many of his exploits are hair-raising, some are even too fantastic to be true - but true they are: he won his second Military Cross as a British Army captain fighting as an Australian lance-corporal during the siege of Tobruk; before taking up a staff appointment he spent ten days' leave with his old regiment, fighting as a tank gunner in the 8th Army's diasterous Gazala battles, escaping with his life. This book provides a graphic eye witness account by one who was there at the sharp end - as a young tank squadron commander fighting Rommel's Afrika Korps in the desert, and later in North West Europe. There, Major-General Leakey served as the Regimental Second in Command of 44 RTR, beforecommanding two other famous tank regiments in succession - 7 RTR in Normandy, where he supported the Czechs and was awarded a third MC, and then 5 RTR in the fight through to the Rhine and on into Germany and victory, for which he recieved a DSO.