Despite recurring bouts of Bovine TB contracted from her uncle's cows, Patricia Davies passed a fitness test to join the Women's Royal Navy Service [WRN - AKA the Wrens] in 1942. She was 19 and was sent to Southmead House in Wimbledon to develop her linguistic skills. She benefitted from some schooling with German refugees. She recalls that the Royal Navy repurposed various buildings for optimal radio coverage, including Scarborough racecourse. Patricia's work, detailed from her base at a Lyme Regis golf club, involved intercepting German radio traffic. Though not the most thrilling location, she fondly recalls some enjoyable moments. Her next post was at Abbots Cliff near Dover, a busier station closer to enemy lines. Patricia vividly remembers the buildup to D-Day and the moment she learned of the second front's opening. Two weeks later, she turned 21, reflecting on the period's innocence. The war's end was bittersweet for Patricia. While it was a time of great celebration, her father remained a POW in the Far East, with little information about his condition. Thankfully, he survived, allowing the family to move forward and Patricia to pursue a career in television. Meeting both Patricia and her sister Jean Argles was a privilege.

Franck was called up to the Royal Navy in 1943 and assigned to serve on a Arromanches Merchant Navy ship. This was an Estonian cargo ship in Hull, armed with two 20mm anti-aircraft guns and an old 12 pounder. They sailed in a 6-knot convoy to Canada which took eleven days. On arrival in Canada they experienced great hospitality before sailing back to Belfast. He was then transferred to an ex-Danish vessel based in Cardiff that was being modified to carry troops and ammunition for the Normandy invasion. It was partly crewed by Puerto Rico stevedores serving in the US armed forces. The US infantry on board impressed Franck with their fatalistic defiance, their attitude being that they were not coming back and they just had to seize their objectives on the beach whatever the cost. On arrival at Omaha beach they began to ferry troops and ammunition ashore, using DUKW amphibians. Only one of these vehicles returned to the ship. From his vantage point on board Franck could see the course of the assault and observed how the US troops persisted in the attack, despite taking heavy casualties as they disembarked. In Mumbai on his next posting they got news of the dropping of the Atom bomb to end the war and celebrated with free beer. At the time, as a young man, the whole thing seemed like a big adventure. Looking back on these events he recalls the waste of life and the single-mindedness of the American troops.

Spurred by the looming threat of D-Day, Nick Rumble married in May 1944, just one month before he would find himself amidst the chaos of the invasion.    On board the Anthony Enright, a Merchant Navy ship, Nick and his crew set sail on the 5th of June in total darkness. As dawn broke over Normandy, the sight of Allied traffic was unmissable, from jeeps to fellow troops, as was the unfortunate display of dead bodies floating in the water.  Although he wasn’t frightened, Nick recalls his time in Normandy as being very tense. As a Royal Navy gunner, he had the responsibility of shooting down enemy crafts, having to concentrate through the intense noise of surrounding gunfire from other much bigger and more powerful Naval ships.  Using an Oerlikon gun, Nick’s first attempt at shooting down an enemy plane seemed successful, much to the delight of his fellow crew members. His victory, however, was short-lived, after discovering that he had only managed to shoot down a balloon on the side of another ship.