He served in the Second World War, joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in 1939–1940. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 January 1941. After being evacuated from Dunkirk, he served in the Western Desert with the 7th Armoured Division from 1942 to 1943, seeing action at El Alamein. He then joined the U. S. Fifth Army in Italy from 1943 to 1944, returning to join the Normandy invasion with the Royal Horse Artillery in 1944, where he was badly wounded.