Ensign in Italy: A Platoon Commander's Story

In 1943, aged 18, Philip Brutton relinquished his place at Cambridge to volunteer for the Welsh Guards. He was commissioned the same year and was Ensign of the Guard as St James's Palace when a near miss by the Luftwaffe hit and badly damaged the surrounding area. At 19, in early 1944, he was sent to Italy where he joined his Regiment and was soon on patrol in the dead-man's-land of the Cassino ruins, threading his way nightly through the minefields, under constant threat of enemy attack, s...