Few battalions of the British Army in the Second World War could match the record of the 1st Bn. of the Dorset Regiment in taking part in three assaults on hostile coastlines - and all within a year. For the Battalion was present in the Eighth Army's assault on Sicily in July 1943 - the first Allied invasion of Axis-held Europe; the invasion of Italy itself in September; and finally - the hardest fighting of all - the D-Day landings in Normandy in June 1944. The former commander of the unit, Lt. Col. A.E.C. Bredin, tells the story of the battalion of which General Sir Brian Horrocks writes in his Foreword: 'We in 30 Corps have had many good battalions under command, but none better than this'.