CAPTAIN Leslie Gosling had already been blown up by a mine and wounded by enemy aircraft fire in North Africa, by the time he boarded the ship that was to take him to Normandy.

As he and his battle hardened comrades of the 7^th Armoured Division 3^rd Royal Horse Artillery cruised down Channel, they marvelled at the huge oblong concrete blocks that joined their convoy. They also marvelled at the new self-heating tins of soup with which they had been issued.

"We arrived off the Normandy Coast and it was the most amazing sight," said Leslie, from Canterbury. "There were so many ships. When we saw the Mulberry Harbour under constructions, we realised what the big concrete blocks were for."

Seventh Armoured Division was supporting the Sixth Queen's Battalion. Leslie was a command post officer positioned just behind the observation post. His job was to select gun positions.

"We were at a village called Bricquessard and my forward command post was in a little French cottage," he said.

"I had already been awake for two nights in succession. We were given Benzedrine to stop us falling asleep.

"We were counter attacked and the German infantry was among us firing their submachine guns. A Tiger tank came through the hedge from the field opposite.  Fortunately, it was knocked out by a 17-pounder anti-tank gun.

"We were told to bail out and my battery commander came up in his Sherman tank. We had to leave everything, including the wireless set, my bedroll and even my map.

"We had to run the gauntlet of the German infantry to the tank. My signaller went across first then my aid. Then I went myself and I have never got up the side of a tank so fast."

After that experience Leslie slept for 23 hours without waking.

Seventh Armoured Division eventually broke out of Normandy and moved up through France and Holland to the Ardennes and then down through the Reichwald Forest.

"We went through the Reichwald just after the 43^rd Division had made its frontal assault," he said. "The bodies were still on the ground and we had to avoid running them over with the tanks."

They crossed the Rhine under fire in DUKWs and watched in wonder as gliders and paratroopers descended for the airborne assault into Germany.

Later they witnessed the horror of Hamburg. "It was a city of desolation that stunk of the dead," said Leslie.

However not all Germans had suffered so badly. Leslie discovered a trunk full of Cadbury's chocolate in a house he had taken over as a command post. People in England hadn't seen chocolate for years.

The same house had a cellar full of German sparkling wine. When Leslie sent a truck to "liberate" this treasure trove, he found the Americans had got there first.