Major General Roy Dixon holds the new stamp as Stuart Wheeler models the uniform he would have worn in 1944. © Tank Museum Bovington

A tank commander who saw action in the Normandy landings and the subsequent battles of World War Two was at the Tank Museum in Bovington this week to help launch a new first class stamp that the museum helped design.

The first class stamp, featuring a troop leader of 5th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) in 1944, has been produced by the Royal Mail as part of a series commemorating the history of British Army Uniforms.

To launch the stamps on September 18 2007, Assistant Librarian Stuart Wheeler modelled the uniform on which the stamp was based whilst standing on the turret of a Sherman Firefly tank. Major General Roy Dixon, who was a troop leader when he landed with the Cromwell Tanks of the 5th RTR on D-Day, was also on hand to verify the work.

He said: “I’m impressed with the accuracy – it’s very close to what I was wearing in Normandy.”

As a 19-year-old troop leader Major Dixon was awarded the Military Cross during his first week of fighting in Normandy.

“We landed with Cromwells,” he explained. “We had a Firefly in each troop because the main gun on a Cromwell was almost useless against armour. It was quite frustrating to watch our rounds just bouncing off the German tanks.

Major General Roy Dixon stands before a Sherman Firefly WWII tank at Bovington Tank Museum. © Tank Museum Bovington

“That day we came up against a troop of (German) Mark IVs. I was blown out of two tanks, and by the end of the engagement there were just five of us left who managed to escape on foot. Most of the others had been taken prisoner.”

The Major served from Normandy to the very end of the war and was never wounded although there were many times when he came very close.

“On one occasion in Normandy I was sat out of the turret when the Germans sent over an air burst shell. I heard moaning coming from inside the tank, looked down and the gunner, who sits below the commander’s seat, had been hit in the back. He was killed. A piece of shrapnel had shot between my legs through the hatch and missed me by a fraction of an inch.”

To help accurately portray a Second World War tank crewman, the artist used the Tank Museum who helped verify the accuracy of both image and text for the accompanying literature.

“The Tank Museum, as the Museum of the Royal Armoured Corps, is delighted to see that a Royal Armoured Corps Regiment is represented in this interesting new series,” he said,” said Tank Museum Spokesman Nick Wyness.

The Royal Mail has released six new stamps celebrating almost 350 years of British army uniforms, ranging from the brightly-dressed troopers of the 17th century to the uniforms of the two world wars and the camouflaged uniform of modern-day soldiers.