and after returning from a period of sick leave for diesel poisoning, he was promoted to lance corporal and selected as a potential officer. After passing the commissions board he was sent to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst as an officer cadet in August 1942. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 20 March 1943. In the company of a friend he applied successfully to Brigadier John Van der Byl DSO for selection as a cornet in the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars. He eventually made his way to Kasra-nil Barracks, Cairo where he joined the regiment under the command of Colonel Cuthie Goulburn. The hussars then sailed to England to begin training for D-Day and were embarked for France with the 7th Armoured Division. D-Day to Berlin Initially, he was placed in charge of an echelon which meant he had to shepherd his group of supply vehicles to various locations to replenish stock used by the regiment. During the Battle of Villers-Bocage, his jeep ran into retreating German infantry and was hit by sub-machine gun fire. He was wounded in the head but after receiving seven stitches stayed at his post. A Squadron required re-organisation after Villers-Bocage and Bellamy was drafted in as troop leader of 3rd Troop where he took over as commander of his own Cromwell Tank, one of three in the troop. On his first day in command of 3rd Troop, he chanced upon two British armoured cars from the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment. As they approached him, they were hit by fire from a well concealed enemy gun. Dismounting his own vehicle, Bellamy approached the two destroyed armoured cars and rescued several members of the crews whom he found alive in the wrecked and gore-streaked interiors. This was the first of many experiences as a tank commander in the van of the battle he was required to face an increasingly desperate, retreating German army at its fiercest and most savage in what can only be described as "heavy combat" situations. Through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into the German heartland following the line of advance of the Eighth Army which the tank and cavalry regiments were spearheading. Military cross On 22 October 1944, Bellamy's troop was part of a screen for infantry advancing near Doornhoek in the south of the Netherlands when it came under small arms, mortar and artillery fire. He engaged the enemy