Harry Hawksworth joined 1^st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, spending his first 18 months after basic training in Bermuda. After returning to the UK, the battalion was warned off for Korea, so completed training at Thetford and then deployed by troop ship, a journey taking over six weeks to travel via places like Gibraltar, Sri Lanka and Singapore. The battalion initially marched to the Yalu River without encountering any enemy forces, but then withdrew to defensive positions on the Imjin river, where they were attacked by the Chinese from 22-25 April 1950 until they ran out of ammunition and surrendered. As the NCO in command of the company’s 2 inch mortar, Harry provides insights into the harrowing battle and its aftermath: his company was driven off a small hill, withdrawing to Hill 235 (now Gloster Hill); the Gloucesters’ bugler playing every bugle order he could remember to confuse the Chinese, who relied on bugles to pass orders; dismantling their weapons prior to surrendering; the 6-week march into captivity; escape, recapture and punishment; losing two of his best friends during two years in captivity.

Hearing what was happening in Europe, Sidney joined the territorials in 1937 ahead of being called up in 1939. He remembers his excitement at being able to walk away from his desk job and there being people out on the streets cheering and waving at the heroes going to war. Sidney joined the Royal Corps of Signals which he admits he knew nothing about and at times struggled with the technical work. There was a lot of training in Morse Code in particular. After a year’s training Sidney was sent to Africa. The Italians had landed in Egypt and their mission was to stop them taking Cairo. It was on a mission in Tobruk that Sidney experienced warfare full on, witnessing the death and devastation caused by previous battles and experiencing the immediate loss of a man when a truck hit a mine, all while guns were continually firing. Sidney remembers coming across the body of an Italian soldier and the futility of war hitting him hard. That said, Sidney thinks his time in the army was ultimately worthwhile, there was no question about having to defeat the Nazis. Sidney also spent time in Greece attached to the 7^th Armoured Division, aka the Desert Rats, but the German forces were so strong they were forced to evacuate. Sidney recalls in blistering detail their attempted escape on the HMS Carlisle, how they were hit and had to change course for Crete where Sidney ended up in the Battle of Crete which he remembers vividly.

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.