If you survive

"If you survive the first day, I'll promote you."

That was the promise George Wilson's commander made among the hedgerows of Normandy during the Second World War – a promise that would be dramatically fulfilled. Wilson fought from July 1944 until the final days of the war in some of the toughest battles, from the initial breakthrough of the Siegfried Line to the last desperate Nazi assault in the Battle of the Bulge. He took part in capturing small towns, fighting house to house across northern France and Belgium.

George Wilson was the only man of all the soldiers and officers who started with him in F Company, 4th Infantry Division, to finish his service. In the end, he felt not like a conqueror or victor, but like an exhausted survivor with nothing left but his life – and his emotions.