James Holland

But I think he also thinks...

He's watched the regiment evolve, and what he wants is a fresh approach to leadership.

You know, Laycock is hugely respected.

No one doubts his fighting spirit and the fact that he's been the backbone of the regiment, but everyone's a bit scared of him.

And Christofferson wants to shape his command of the regiment in a much more accessible way, which is much more suited to the times with these young guys like David Render arriving, age 19, and

Stuart Hill's also 19.

You know, he wants to be a bit more avuncular.

And consensual.

And consensual.

He wants to absolutely impose his authority, which is, you know, he just has a natural authority.

People just jump when he says jump.

He wants a sort of more collegiate, softer kind of...

more caring approach to his men, more approachable.

So Stephen Mitchell becomes second in command, official.

John Semkin becomes A squadron commander, and Peter Soleri takes over as C squadron commander.

Anyway, fighting continues around that area, point 103, 102.

for the next couple of, you know, for the next 10 days.

And there's some really, really bitter fighting around the Bois de Boulogne, all around that area.

And again, you know, I mentioned these aerial photographs, but if you look at the aerial photographs taken around that time, all the fields around there, absolutely pot-marked with shell bursts and, you know, and shell holes and what have you.

The next big operation is going to be Operation Mahler, which is a precursor for Operation Epsom, which we talked about in some length in our Normandy series.