Part one of two. BBC diplomatic editor and former army officer Mark Urban examines the exploits of six members of the 5th Royal Tank Regiment during the Second World War, beginning in northern France, where in 1940 rookie driver Gerry Solomon joined veterans including Jake Wardrop and Harry Finlayson. He follows in the soldiers' tracks across the deserts of North Africa, where he looks at the battles of Sidi Rezegh, Alam el Halfa and El Alamein, which changed the course of the conflict. With archive footage, including rarely seen colour film, as well as first-hand testimony from surviving veterans and letters and diaries