Editing Edward Heath (section)

==Second World War==
Heath spent late 1939 and early 1940 on a debating tour of the United States before being called up. On 22 March 1941, he received an emergency commission as a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Artillery]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35133 |supp=y |page=2100 |date=8 April 1941}}</ref> During the war he initially served with heavy anti-aircraft guns around [[Liverpool]] (which suffered [[Liverpool Blitz|heavy German bombing raids]] in May 1941) and by early 1942 was regimental [[adjutant]], with the substantive rank of [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|captain]].<ref name="auto">Ziegler, ''Edward Heath'' (2010), ch. 3.</ref><ref name="auto1">{{London Gazette |issue=37340 |supp=y |page=5437 |date=6 November 1945}}</ref>

Heath participated as an adjutant in the [[Normandy landings]], where he met [[Maurice Schumann]], French Foreign Minister under [[Pompidou]].<ref>Heath, Edward. ''The Course of My Life''. p. 390.</ref> As a temporary major commanding a battery of his own, he provided artillery support during the Allied campaigns in France and Germany in 1944–45, for which he received a [[mention in despatches]] on 8 November 1945.<ref name="auto1"/><ref name="auto"/>

Heath later remarked that "[it's] one thing to be in the war, and you see the enemy on the other side and so you bombard them, and then later on when you pass over their ground, you see dead bodies lying around". In September 1945 he commanded a firing squad that executed a [[Polish Armed Forces in the West|Polish soldier]] convicted of rape and murder.<ref>{{cite news |first=Kathy |last=Marks |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/heath-i-executed-polish-soldier-for-wartime-rape-1200115.html|title=Heath: 'I executed Polish soldier for wartime rape'|date=22 October 2011 |newspaper=The Independent}}</ref> He was appointed a [[Order of the British Empire|Member of the Order of the British Empire]], Military Division (MBE) on 24 January 1946.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{London Gazette |issue=37442 |supp=y |page=621 |date=22 January 1946}}</ref> He was demobilised in August 1946 and promoted to the substantive rank of [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant-colonel]] on 1 May 1947.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38006 |supp=y |page=3065 |date=1 July 1947}}</ref>

Heath joined the [[Honourable Artillery Company]] as a lieutenant-colonel on 1 September 1951,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=39334 |supp=y |page=4872 |date=14 September 1951}}</ref> in which he remained active throughout the 1950s, rising to commanding officer of the Second Battalion; a portrait of him in full dress uniform still hangs in the Queens Room of the HAC's Armoury House. In April 1971, as prime minister, he wore his lieutenant-colonel's insignia to inspect troops.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=A History of Our Reserves |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/283812/a-history-our-Reserves-Epub-v2.pdf |publisher=[[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]] |page=31 |year=2014}}</ref>