For 33 years, Frank Renton climbed the ranks of the British Army, starting out as a trumpet player in the Band of the Royal Horse Guards and ending as Principal Director of Music at Kneller Hall. He shares memories of his various roles along the way, including Head Brass Tutor at the Guards Division School of Music; Bandmaster of the Gordon Highlanders; Captain, Director of Music of the Parachute Regiment; and Senior Director of the Royal Artillery Band. Frank talks about some of the highlights and challenges of his illustrious career, and gives a fascinating insight into the skills required to lead a band not just in a musical arrangement but also in a live-fire defensive operation. Although deeply grateful to the Army for all of the opportunities it opened up for him and the tremendous career he had as a result, Frank is also very clear on the ways in which improvements need to be made in order to secure the future of military musicians in the UK.

For the first few years of the war, Leslie Fernandez was an Army Physical Training Corps instructor who trained SOE candidates in Hertfordshire and Manchester (parachuting). He was then invited by Colonel Munn to become an operative, deploying to SE France in July 1944; when the American landed there in August 1944, his group moved to Italy to help the partisans prevent the Germans in Italy from interfering with American operations. He provides a hugely detailed and modestly understated account of SOE operations (he does not mention his Military Medal or Croix de Guerre), starting with selection for different roles and his insertion by parachute, weighed down by weapons and equipment. He focuses heavily on little-known operations in the mountains between France and Italy, gathering explosives from his cache in a bakery, blowing up roads and negotiating the surrender of 80 Germans to 5 SOE. He also talks about the challenges of communication and receiving resupplies in harsh conditions where they were often isolated, as well as the psychological pressure of warfare and seeing people executed. He has fond memories and recalls the bravery of those involved, especially as he married a woman from the region, who was a courier.