After serving in the Home Guard and experiencing bombing in the blitz in London, Cornelius Snelling was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942 and carried out his basic training on HMS Ganges at Shotley. From his port division, Chatham, he was assigned his first posting, as a Bosun’s mate, to a newly commissioned ship docked at Glasgow, HMS Wild Goose, a Black Swan-class sloop. HMS Wild Goose specialised in anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay and Snelling took part in some of the ship's most notable actions, including the renowned "six in one trip" in 1943, which saw HMS Wild Goose, alongside other Bird-class sloops, sink six German U-boats in a single patrol. Snelling’s final journey aboard HMS Wild Goose was participating in an Arctic convoy to Murmansk and he describes the extreme conditions. In 1944, Snelling transferred to HMS Tyler, an American-built frigate on loan to the Royal Navy. HMS Tyler conducted patrol and escort missions in the North Atlantic and the English Channel, where it also escorted landing craft and supply ships during the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches. Snelling's service concluded in October 1945 when he steamed with HMS Tyler back to the United States, where the ship was returned to the US Navy.

Albert Malin recounts the early days of his Naval service spent living in a Nissen Hut on the shoreline of the Solent, coordinating the loading of D-Day landing crafts. A few weeks later, he received his first draft to HMS Oxlip, a Flower-class corvette, whose surprising appearance left him rather taken aback. Albert explains Oxlip’s role in anti-submarine convoy duties, before detailing the heart-stopping moment the crew realised the ship's power had failed, leaving them adrift and alone in the Barents Sea. A successful rescue mission afforded Albert and his crewmates a night of respite aboard sister-ship HMS Bluebell at Polyarny, the Russian base on the Arctic Coast. But the following day, as Oxlip set sail again, Albert recalls witnessing the devastating torpedo hit that sank the Bluebell, killing all but one of its 92-strong crew: a brutal reminder of the desperate situation faced by all those who sailed on the convoys during the Second World War. Every year, Albert raises a glass to the crew of the Bluebell, and by sharing his memories with us here, he ensures their legacies will also live on.

Fred was a teenager when his home was destroyed in a bombing raid. At the age of eighteen he volunteered for the RAF, trained in gunnery and became the tail gunner in a Lancaster bomber. He took part in the nighttime bombing of Germany and, against the odds, survived 45 missions. There were some close moments and during this period he lost most of his friends in combat. After the war he had a recurring nightmare where, among a landscape of crashed aircraft, there was a space reserved for his bomber. At the start of the Berlin Airlift he was posted to Gatow as an intelligence officer, where his unit at first worked in a tent. Despite misgivings regarding its feasibility the Airlift went ahead anyway, initially using Dakotas and building up to larger aircraft. His billet was at the end of the runway, and at first he had trouble sleeping as the noise was constant, 24 hours a day. The Soviets were close by and made things awkward but never directly interfered although the local population were terrified that the Allies would leave them for the Russians. The devastation caused by bombing in Berlin was awful and the civilians were in poverty, although the airlift ration was about the same as those in Britain. While on duty a plane carrying coal crashed on take-off, killing all the crew. He served in Berlin for the entire duration of the Airlift and felt that it was better than bombing the city.

Tom Cromie’s free spirit sparked initial ambitions to be an RAF fighter pilot, but so did every other nineteen year old, so instead he joined the Royal Artillery as a soldier of the 231 Mortar Brigade. His story starts with the invasion of Sicily as a dispatch rider and Tom shares fond memories of practicing trick cycling on his motorcycle in quiet lulls. But his part in Sicily was cut short when a Bren Gun Carrier reversed over his leg, breaking it and sending him back home to England, not before, however, a remarkable moment in which he shared a cigarette with a terrified German who lay in the bed next to him in hospital. Tom then shares his memories of the D-Day landings as a field gunner, and recounts his lucky escape from almost drowning off of Green Beach. Another injury ends his part in the Normandy invasion and unable to return to his brigade, he eventually volunteered to be sent out to the Far East, ending up in India. Tom’s story is one full of character and gives glimpses of lightheartedness and humour into the terror of WW2 invasions.

Christian Lamb returned from a year in France just before war broke out and quickly joined the Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service). She was initially employed as a Coder but switched to plotting, which involved plotting the locations of all the ships and planes on a huge board. She served in this role initially in London, then Plymouth and Belfast before returning to southern England in the run-up to D-Day. She relates many light-hearted anecdotes: enjoying lunchtime concerts in the National Gallery when she was working at the Wren Headquarters in Trafalgar Square; experiencing several close encounters with bombings during the blitz; shopping in the Republic of Ireland where there were less restrictions. Throughout the war, she and her colleagues maintained a strong sense of patriotism and determination, inspired by Churchill's speeches. Despite the dangers, they never considered the possibility of losing the war.

Dennis Bowen retells how as a naive teenager he joined his heroes in the army motivated by the harm World War 2 was having on the UK, the realities of war shattering all of his childish expectations. Initially being too young to fight he served as a demonstrator but due to the lack of action and the overestimation of his own abilities the job felt like a complete waste to him.   Upon reaching 18 he was sent to France as part of the D Day invasion force and was finally among the British soldiers he had always idolised. Whilst Dennis found himself trembling with excitement the older soldiers remained blasé, the realisation of how much experience he truly lacked immediately hitting him. He was shocked to witness them reflexively kill German soldiers before they could even try to surrender but overtime he also found himself treating them more like moving targets than people.   Dennis felt no longer human and like the battle would never end as everything except fighting was leaving his mind; there was no time for hunger, fatigue or pain, only fear, anxiety and excitement. Occasionally the thought of giving up did slip through but the fact none of his fellow soldiers had done so forced him to keep going as to not let them and especially those who had died down. When serious injuries temporarily left him unable to fight Dennis was so angry to be out of the battle he felt none of the physical pain as potentially letting everybody down was so much more distressing to him.  

Even though Michael was in a protected occupation he joined the RAF as soon as possible. He trained as a flight engineer and was assigned to a Halifax bomber squadron, aged eighteen, in 1942. On their ninth flight the crew had to bail out over Britain due to lack of fuel. His parachute malfunctioned and did not initially open. It opened just in time and he went to a nearby farm. The rest of the crew thought he had been killed. His aircraft flew several sorties for Special Operations Executive, dropping agents into occupied France before D-Day. These missions were at low altitude and attracted a lot of fire from German light anti-aircraft guns. Many of the shells went right through the Halifax without causing too much damage. Eventually Michael and his crew completed a ‘tour’ of forty missions, although this took a toll on him, especially when he would notice some of beds in the barracks had not been slept in, meaning that those men were not returning. Michael was often physically sick at the start of a mission and kept a tin in the plane for this purpose. During his tour he went to see the base Medical Officer (MO) and said that he was not feeling well, to which the MO replied that it was Lack of Moral Fibre. Michael told him to f*** o** and just left. Michael wonders that, if there is a God, why he let all the killing of the war take place.

At the onset of the Second World War, 16 year old Andrzej Jeziorski was living with his family in Warsaw, Poland. Within days, his father, a Polish Air Force officer, was transferred to southeastern Poland with his family. After the Soviet invasion of their country, they crossed the border into Romania and eventually made their way to France, where Polish Armed Forces units were regrouping. Andrzej Jeziorski continued his schooling in Paris until May 1940, when, at the age of 17, he joined the Polish Army as an Officer Cadet. He was then evacuated to England along with many other Polish servicemen and continued his training in their Tank Corps. In 1942, Jeziorski transferred to the Air Force to train as a pilot and, in 1943, joined the Polish RAF Squadron 304, flying Wellingtons in Coastal Command, mainly on anti-submarine patrols over the Bay of Biscay. He continued these missions until the war's end and expressed disappointment at the fate of his homeland and its Soviet occupation. Jeziorski remained with the RAF until 1948 and went on to become a commercial pilot, settling in the UK with his family.

Henry William Brown, known as Buster Brown, recalls his early life as an evacuee during the Second World War and his early career as an apprentice electrical engineer before the Blitzkrieg. After this troubling time started, he volunteered for the Navy to avoid being put into the mines. He reflects on his time being trained in Combined Ops. Formed in 1940 by Winston Churchill their operations would generally involve a small group of commandos landing from the sea or dropped by parachute. Combined Ops played a large part in the Allied victory of WWII and particularly on D-Day. D Day and Buster landed on Sword beach. Almost immediately he was put in charge of 12 German Prisoners. He tells stories about the aftermath of D-Day and vulnerable moments of losing those close to him in battle. Overall this reflection on the Second World War provides a detailed and brave account of this Veterans time in the Navy. He ends this in America on VE Day with celebrations as he anticipated the continue fight in Japan.

Harry Eddy was born in Devon and joined the Navy in 1943. Following training in Letchworth and Troon, he passed as a wireman and was posted to the LCT-944 (landing craft tank) in readiness for the D-Day landings. Harry describes in detail life aboard his LCT and the responsibilities of his role, recalling the horrors of war and the Navy’s perhaps rather shocking approach to recruits who abandoned their posts during the height of battle. He also remembers how an attempt by his crew to rescue a stricken landing craft from Sword Beach nearly sank his own ship, leaving him lucky to make it back to Britain alive. After the liberation of France, Harry recalls how he and his shipmates headed for Westkapelle, a coastal town in the Netherlands, where the promised and much-relied-upon air support didn’t arrive. In his own words, “It made D-Day look easy.” Harry also shares his memories of VE Day, and joyfully recalls an emotional reunion at a meeting of the LST and Landing Craft Association with his best friend from the war who he hadn’t seen for 40 years.

Don McArthur recounts how his D Day parachute drop went awry, trapping him behind enemy lines with no supplies and causing him to spend ten months as a prisoner of war. During D Day Don had suspected that his given orders were flawed but the extreme camaraderie he had experienced in the Parachute Regiment prevented him from trusting his doubt and confusion.   Tasked with delivering mortars to a rendezvous point, Don and his platoon were dropped into Normandy on a dark, rainy night with no way to distinguish where to land or where to move towards. Despite the conditions he was able to locate three more of the lost Paras but no maps had been given out so following the noise of explosions was now their only option. After ten days of wandering the empty countryside with no supplies and no enemy or ally contact they were discovered by German soldiers and Don was captured.   Don found the prison camp’s staff strict and quick to anger but he couldn’t blame them for just doing their job and didn’t resist their interrogations due to how worn out he was. After having been released one month after World War 2 ended, the Parachute Regiment asked him to return to their ranks but Don instead chose to go live with his wife and infant child.        

On the same day a 16-year-old Harry Card was turned away from the Army for being underage, he was signed up to the Navy by a passing chief petty officer, and so began his death-defying military career. Harry joined HMS Swift, an S-class destroyer, in late 1943 and set sail on the Arctic convoys. He describes the Arctic’s mountainous seas in terrifying detail, and recalls various hair-raising moments of his service including submarine attacks, clearing ice from the ship’s masts, and Operation Tungsten: the Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship Tirpitz. Later on in the war, HMS Swift was on the front line of the D-Day landings. Harry vividly recalls the opening bombardment as they sat poised off Sword Beach in Normandy, before describing the exact moment the ship was struck by an oyster mine and split clean in half. Despite the sinking of the Swift, Harry survived and was given six weeks to recover, after which he set sail once more.  This time he was on HMS Odzani, heading for the Far East where he embarked on further convoy duties and assisted in the liberation of Hong Kong and Singapore.