Ronald Arnold joined the Home Guard in 1940 aged 16, before joining the regular army in 1942 (Middlesex Regiment) and serving in Normandy. As a wartime teenager, he felt a strong sense of duty and urgency, with most people somehow contributing to the war effort. He provides a fascinating insight into wartime Britain: working as a machinist by day, basic Home Guard training from First World War veterans, learning to use sticky bombs, standing guard at night and vigilance against German parachutists. His reminiscences on wartime Britain continue after he joined the army: the harshness of the conditions, training exercises across the countryside, navigating through Southern England a dispatch rider with minimal resources and relying on army units for fuel and food. His unit landed in Normandy later in June as a support unit for 43rd Wessex Brigade. He recalls the ever-present fear of enemy artillery and nebelwerfer rockets, which had a significant psychological impact. After being injured, he was evacuated for medical treatment and struggled with feelings of guilt for leaving his comrades.

Ted was born into a boating family and became an apprentice towing up to 150-ton barges on the Thames. He joined The Royal Engineers as a Sapper (Combat Engineer) Waterman. He was sent to Field Company Kitchener Barracks Chatham, then to the 229 Field Company, a territorial unit in the 49th West Riding Division. He undertook pontoon training, building rafts and dismantling bridges. Ted was put on a cadre course to earn his lance corporal stripe and travelled to Norway as part of The North -Western Expeditionary Force (NWEF). He arrived in the port of Narvik to obtain iron ore supplies, facing gun fire and bombing. After damaging cranes, quays and railway lines to slow down the enemy, he travelled back on The Lancastria ship, stopping to build defences from Scotland to East Anglia. Ted became a sergeant and was posted to 947 in the world of transport company. He later became a sergeant major, working as a tug skipper and undertaking OC2 (Officer Cadet) training. As D-Day approached Ted had a detachment of army lighterman with the 953 Inland Water Transport Company (IWT).  He was sent to Normandy in charge of Rhino ferry barges on Gold beach. He describes the responsibility of the men in his ferries and the dangers of mines and mortar shells as they loaded cargo at the Mulberry Harbour. Ted brought his company back after V-E Day and was sent to Marchwood as Marine and IWT Superintendent. He was demobbed after serving for over six years. Ted later reminiscences about the fear he felt, his friendships with his fellow sergeants, and how lucky he was to survive.

Bert Crane started work in a factory making military components at 14, but volunteered for the Reconnaissance Corps at 17 despite this being a reserved occupation. In 1944 he completed extensive and varied training for this specialist role, which he believes was comprehensive. In January 1945 he joined C Squadron 43rd (Wessex) Reconnaissance Regiment as a replacement gunner/operator in an armoured car, serving through to the end of hostilities. In an excellent account that blends operational details with personal reflection, he notes that his first instruction on joining his unit was to forget everything he had learned, which was good advice because on his first night patrol he returned fire without waiting for orders; however, when he saw the dead body next day, it caused a moment of reflection. On another occasion they spent 5 hours carefully covering 5 miles of forest, fearing contact, only to find the terrain had already been taken. He recalls the impact of taking casualties in a tight-knit unit in the last days of the war, and how a final task was cancelled. He believes he was lucky because the Germans were retreating by the time he joined, though he remembers being afraid and the risks they took.

Tom Renouf’s journey from infantry recruit to seasoned corporal with a Military Medal began with basic training and the preparations for deploying to France just after D-Day. On 30 June he joined his battalion as a casualty replacement, and went from boy to man during his baptism of fire at Rauray next day. Apart from a brief period recovering from a wound, he served continuously in the front line through France, Holland and the Rhine crossing to the final surrender in Germany. He focuses on some of the more personal aspects: how first battle experiences turned replacements into veterans, heavy casualties epitomised by the small number of soldiers who mustered next day, the different ways each man coped with danger. He recalls, during his first action in command, how he had to lead his section from the front to earn their respect. A recurrent theme is how the corporals, sergeants and sergeant major led from the front in battle and ensured the men’s welfare throughout the campaign.

Charles Eagles joined the Army at 18, initially completing commando training before being posted to 9^th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. He had boxed before joining up and continued to train in the army, which is how he caught the eye of an officer who was forming S Company, charged with mine clearance. His battalion landed in the second wave at 9.30 on Gold Beach, but he lost all his gear when he was dropped in deep water and had to drop it to stay afloat. In a detailed and enthralling account, Charles's recalls the camaraderie, the tough training and the nervous excitement prior to D-Day. He describes in detail being under fire and the slow pace of advance as they cleared mines with bayonets because the ground favoured the defenders. He shows the humanity of war in describing his capture and interaction with some Germans, and how the tables turned when they realised they were surrounded and asked him to negotiate their surrender. Later, he describes how he cleared a mine under an officer’s foot, and how later he was wounded when his own vehicle hit a mine.

Gosport born Vic Blake recounts his memories of D-Day, fighting in the 43rd Reconnaissance regiment of the Wessex Division. For most of his time, he drove and maintained a light wrecking Daimler vehicle across patrols of Normandy. Through eerie nights and countless close shave encounters with German soldiers, Vic considers himself a lucky man as a part of the B squadron who made it onto French shores. Sadly, his other comrades from A and C squadrons were not so lucky and Vic shares the story of how they lost 188 men after tragically hitting a sea mine off the coast of Juno beach. Sadly, Vic's luck ran out and he didn't make it home unscathed. He recalls waking up in a stretcher surrounded by other injured soldiers after being injured from getting too close to a mortar. In his civilian life, he lived as if he was never in the war, however now in his older age, the memories have returned; one of those being when a German soldier surrender himself to his team and, with no animosity, they offered him tea and a cigarette. This interview truly shows the bravery and understanding nature of Vic Blake.

At only 17, George Batts, MBE, Leg d’Hon enlisted for military service, hoping like many others his age that it would make him a hero. From an ex-schoolboy in the Sussex countryside to a Corporal in the Royal Engineers, life for George changed dramatically when he volunteered himself for special duties, where he was trained on fitness, booby traps, and how to dismantle mines. Although he enjoyed the physical intensity of his training, George soon experienced the first hand 'organised chaos' of Normandy, after landing at Gold Beach in total darkness on board a Landing Ship Infantry. He recalls the terrible storm, the sound of gunfire, and later the sight of ambulances treating the long queues of wounded servicemen.  In this interview, George proudly describes his work on the Mulberry Harbours, before moving to a more front-line role in Belgium. On VE Day, while others celebrated, George knew he would soon be bound for India, to assist the continuing war effort in the Far East. Thirty two days later he arrived in Bombay, and afterwards sailed to Malaya, though was interrupted by the detonation of the atomic bombs in Japan before his arrival. Like many other veterans, here George describes himself as “one of the lucky ones”, and shares his hope for the future. Following the war, George was eventually made National Secretary of the Normandy Veterans Association, and served as an integral part of Legasee's Normandy project, ensuring that similar stories will never be forgotten. 

Marsie Taylor had a varied and fascinating war. She moved to London with her parents in 1939 and immediately joined the Mechanised Transport Corps because she wanted to contribute to the war effort. She recalls the effect the sights and sounds had on her, driving a Light Rescue Team through bombed-out streets in Lambeth. She vividly recalls receiving the BEM from the King for recovery work on the night of 15 October 1940. She joined the WRNS in 1942 when the bombing reduced, spending over a year in Norfolk House where she typed operation orders during planning for the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. She comments on the enormity of the secrecy, because she held BIGOT clearance, so knew the time and place of the landings. Once the planning finished, she moved to the naval HQ at Southwick House in Portsmouth in readiness for D-Day. She recalls hitchhiking in uniform back to London and working on artificial harbours. She was later commissioned and spent the last months of the war as an assistant to the captain in charge of an air station near Aberdeen.

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.