 Gorman was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Irish Guards on 5 December 1942.He was posted to the regiment's 2nd Battalion, which formed part of the 5th Guards Armoured Brigade of Major General Allan Adair's Guards Armoured Division, which, in late June 1944, landed in Normandy as part of Operation Overlord, a few weeks after D-Day landings.On 18 July 1944, while taking part in Operation Goodwood, he was commanding a group of M4 Sherman tanks east of Cagny that suddenly encountered a mixed group of four German tanks at a range of only .