John volunteered for the RAF just before the start of WW2, but failed the vision test and instead joined the Army. He was assigned to the armoured corps and soon after he volunteered for Special Operations Executive. At the time parachuting was not mentioned and John thinks that if it had been he would not have volunteered! During training he specialised in Signals and learned unarmed combat and parachuting, which he was not too keen on. He was scheduled to parachute into France before D-Day but the mission was aborted at the last minute. Instead they dropped after D-Day, from a Short Stirling bomber. Due to a storm the pilot could not find the drop zone but they parachuted anyway. Three days later they met their French resistance contacts near Dijon. Here they received knowledge of a German troop train passing through. John contacted HQ and the information was passed to the RAF who bombed it. During this time he could see German radio detector vans trying to find their precise location. Later he and the Resistance attacked troops guarding Marshall Petain, the Vichy collaborator, as he tried to get to Switzerland. During this time the British stayed in uniform to avoid execution if captured by the enemy. On his return to Britain he was sent to jungle training school and then parachuted into Burma and during this period he was shelled by ‘friendly fire’. His unit fought the Japanese and they eventually met up with the British 14^th Army.

After seeing the WRAC in a magazine, Loraine was inspired to join the army and in 1973 arrived at Guildford. Determined to work with animals, she was quickly posted to Mulgrave where she began her specialised dog training. Loraine describes how following graduation, each woman was given a 'line' to maintain. She recalls the strict disciplinary environment of the kennels and the limited positions for women available. Although members of the WRAC were in training with dogs, they weren't officially allowed to train dogs - only handle them, as this was an overtly male profession. Following her years at the kennels, she left to work in a veterinary hospital on promotion. Devastatingly, she was forced to leave on conditions of marriage but after divorcing years later, was able to rejoin the WRAC with the encouragement of other women around her. She provides some interesting insights into the changing climate when she returned to the army in 1984. After becoming a qualified instructor, in 1988 she was promoted to a professional horse coach and groom at the Saddle Club in Hong Kong. In this interview, Loraine describes the disbandment of the WRAC as a societal indicator that not only were women's roles changing, but they were moving beyond a restrictive system.

As a child Margaret travelled around the world with her father who was in the Royal Navy, therefore when she settled in England, joined the WRAC as a means of continuing her travels. Margaret joined in 1975, and as the first intake of army recruits after the Guildford bomb, she described the unnerving atmosphere and extreme safety precautions that were at place during her first six weeks of training. Having previously trained as a hairdresser, Margaret continued this trade and was quickly posted to Northern Ireland where she ran her own hairdressers in Aldergrove. She describes the horror of the bombings, shootings and overall violence in Ireland and her experience with PTSD following this posting. When asked to reflect on the WRAC, Margaret states that although she enjoyed the confidence being in the military gave her, she felt resentment towards the manner in which her career was so easily terminated as a result of pregnancy.