At first he served with the 423 Battery London Scottish Royal Artillery and was later transferred to train at the Royal Artillery counter-battery Survey at Larkhill. In late 1942, he was sent to Egypt and then to Tripoli to join the 3rd Survey Regiment of the Eighth Army group and took part in the invasion of Sicily at Syracuse and the invasion of Italy at Reggio Calabria. The regiment continued in action through Italy until the end of the war in 1945. They were in action at most of the major engagements, Isernia, the Sangro, Monte Cassino, the Gothic Line and the hills before Bologna for the final winter before the advance to Trieste (he was wounded at Rio Nero in November 1943). Long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror: "it was not all excitement, a lot of the time both sides sat staring at each other until someone started shelling". They were stationed at Ronchi dei Legionari near Monfalcone during the Trieste crisis. He received home leave in September 1945 and married Gillian Drake (1921–2007) who was serving with the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Before demobilisation in December 1946 he spent three months at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence under the Army Education Scheme.