Second World War he fought in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, was wounded and mentioned in dispatches and won an MC and a DSO in Italy in the battles of Monte Spaduro and the Argenta Gap. When war broke out in 1939, he resigned from The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and took the train back to England to enlist in the British Army as a private soldier. He was selected for officer training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst where he was awarded the Belt of Honour for the best cadet in his intake. Saunders was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the East Surrey Regiment. He fought with the 1st Battalion of the regiment, part of the 11th Infantry Brigade of the 78th "Battleaxe" Infantry Division, of the British First Army, in Tunisia, North Africa, first as a platoon commander and later as intelligence officer. The division had a very active role in the campaign and after hostilities in North Africa ceased in May 1943, it became part of General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army and took part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, notably in the heavy fighting at Centuripe at the start of August 1943. In late September the division was shipped to Taranto in Southern Italy and joined the Italian campaign up the Adrian coast. Across the Eighth Army's line of advance lay the Biferno, Trigno and Sangro rivers which marked a series of German prepared defensive lines: the Volturno Line, the Barbara Line and the Winter Line (variously referred to as the Gustav Line or Bernhardt Line). The division fought a notable action at the Battle of Termoli on the Volturno Line and was one of Montgomery's lead divisions for the attacks on the two subsequent lines. Following these actions the division was rested at the army's leave centre in Campobasso. After a week the Surreys were placed in a quieter section of the front high in the Apennine Mountains guarding the Eighth Army's left wing during the Moro River Campaign in December. The land was very bleak and wild; although there was little combat during the period (mainly skirmishes between opposing patrols) life was very uncomfortable because of the freezing temperatures, deep snow and remoteness from town comforts. In February 1944 (by which time Saunders was the Battalion Adjutant) 78 Division moved across the Apennine Mountains to the Cassino sector to become part