James Holland

Anyway, so they head over there and they're advancing.

At one point, Render rolls up his battle dress sleeves.

In his first day in action, he's with Neville Fern.

Right.

Neville Fern is one of the kind of more experienced guys, the troop commanders in A Squadron.

You're not completely thrown into it.

And as soon as he does, Neville Fern tells him off.

He says, never roll up your sleeves because that's protection against fire.

Yeah.

And he says, never get out of the tank and go swanning about or get yourself killed.

He says, never ever wear a helmet because it's an easy target for snipers and gets in the way.

He says, put your helmet on the machine gun bracket instead and the Germans will think it's your head because they never have machine guns on the top of theirs.

No, no, no.

They don't believe in them.

No, it's just a waste of time.

And he says, never, ever raise your voice excitedly over the radio net.

Because as soon as you do that, people can't hear you.

Yeah.

Different time.

So it's an incredibly steep learning curve.