Strangely enough my Dad served in the same outfit as this bloke who has been living in fear. The Guards Armoured Division of the Irish Guards.

Dad would never really talk much about it. But apparently the killing grounds were just that - wholesale slaughter going on everywhere. They arrived a couple of days after D day, and were straight into the thick of it.

One thing my Dad DID say was one night we had been keeping company with a bloke who had a reserved occupation, but kept saying how he wished he had been allowed to fight. After the chap had departed, he said, 'there were ways out of it....you didn't have to go. but if you wanted to fight, there was plenty of fighting for anybody who wanted it.'

So adding it all up, I'd say - this chap in the programme must have been pretty brave to go, and when he got there - I don't think cowardice was an option. I think he must have been braver than most.

I know the Irish guys couldn't go home in their uniform - they had to be given civilian clothes - otherwise they would have been attacked.

Marching - or driving a tank towards an enemy wearing a uniform is one thing. Going back to the home you have bravely defended, and fearing an unmarked assassin for the rest of your days, is quite another