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.  

In 1942, John Duke was hand-selected to join the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment of the Armoured Corps. After undertaking intense training, John was sent to Normandy in the 2^nd wave of the D-Day invasion (13^th June 1944). As a Reconnaissance squadron, John’s unit was often further ahead of most soldiers, their job was to gain intelligence on enemy movements and report back. He recalls the precarity of this role, and how as the squadron’s driver, it was often his job to get them out of trouble in a hurry. John served in Normandy until August 1944. He was then sent to Nijmegen in Holland to assist the airborne landing in the Ardennes – this was all a part of Operation Market Garden. He speaks of the poor weather, and relentless German fire, which made it impossible for his squadron to advance. After Nijmegen, John was withdrawn to Belgium where he was involved in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. He recounts the extreme weather conditions – “we were up to our armpits in snow” – and the difficulty of fighting tanks in winter camouflage. After the Ardennes the 61^st regiment was disbanded, and John joined the 5^th regiment prior to the advance into Germany. He made it as far as Hanover and stayed there until 1946, when he was demobbed and returned home to become a police officer.

Peter Lee was at the War Office when his superior tried to have him posted elsewhere but he was able to join Special Operation Executive (SOE). Initially he was at SOE HQ in London, in charge of field agent’s security. After this he was posted to north Africa and later Italy, where he worked with secret agents recruited from First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY). He also supervised two Russian agents who were parachuted into German occupied Italy. Peter was responsible for the training many of the FANY’s and ensuring the secrecy of their missions. One of these operations was the destruction of a huge steel press used to make German tanks. It was realised at the time that many agents sent out would never return and this unnerved some of the trainers. He regards the war as the most interesting time of his life and was in some ways sorry when it ended.