Tony was brought up during World War Two and was conscripted into the Army, aged 18, in July 1950. The Korean War had begun and, after training, he was dispatched there via Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. At the front the weather was cold enough to freeze weapons and several men got frostbite. He was terrified when he had to use a mine detector and relieved when the Royal Engineers took over this duty. Later his platoon was hit by mortar fire and took heavy losses. At the Battle of the Imjin River his unit, with tank support, attacked a Chinese held hill. He remembers a tank destroying a bunker at point blank range. Later he caught dysentery and spent time in a hospital. When he returned to duty the war had stabilised and, by the end of the conflict, he thought he had become a good soldier although always frightened of capture.

Keith Watson was a carpentry apprentice before he was called up into the Royal Norfolk Regiment for his National Service. His first posting was on the Yugoslav/ Italian border in 1952. When he returned home, he served as batman to the Regimental Sergeant Major, a role that kept him out of trouble until he arrived in Korea. On arrival, Keith was moved to B company and sent to the frontline. He gives a first-hand account of life on the hills in Korea, which mostly involved: digging trenches, keeping warm, and trying to avoid the mosquitoes. Keith details the configuration of barbed wire fences and mines in No Man’s Land and how, as a patrolman you had to be very aware of how to navigate these defences. He recalls being sent to a small hill in No Man’s Land nicknamed “the island” to survey the enemy – the hill was very exposed, and Keith counts himself lucky not to have been attacked. Keith served the maximum of 12 months in Korea and was pleased to be sent home. His interview culminates with a moving poem dedicated to soldiers who served in Korea.

Harry Hopkins had to pretend to be 16 to join the 1^st London Rifle Brigade in 1943. His age never proved to be an issue as by June 1944, he was a Lance Corporal and preparing for the Normandy invasion. Harry provides an enthralling firsthand account of being one of the first platoons to land at Arromanches in the D-Day invasion. Shortly after landing his squad was ambushed in a cornfield near Bayeux, where he lost two officers and was himself badly wounded and subsequently evacuated to the UK. After recovering Harry rejoined his battalion in Villers-Bocage where he had to be rescued by the French resistance after being pinned in a ditch by a German tank. The French underground returned him to the Allied front lines, and from here, Harry faced German paratroopers, flamethrowers, and more tanks as he campaigned through Belgium and Holland to St. Just where he suffered another serious injury and was again evacuated. Harry returned to Europe with the Army of Occupation which was deployed in Hamburg at the end of the war. He found it hard to adjust to the slower pace of life in the occupational army, and further struggled to re-enter life on the streets, but with the help of his new wife he slowly re-acclimated to society.