Mastering sea-sickness and enduring rough waters was only the beginning of Bob Gale's military life at sea. Desperate to explore the world outside of a baker’s shop in Farnham, Bob describes his multiple attempts to volunteer in the military before he was offered a place in the Royal Navy. In 1942, he boarded the Duchess of Bedford liner bearing landing crafts (LCAs), where he experienced his first assault landing off the coast of Algiers in the dark. After narrowly missing an opportunity to take part in the invasion of Sicily thanks to a scarlet fever outbreak at HMS Pasco in Scotland, Bob was subsequently assigned to the oil tanker Derwentdale with a Canadian LCM flotilla. He spent a fortnight on Sicilian beaches, accompanied by rough Mediterranean seas, delays in movement, and limited provisions for him and his unit. Bob eventually found himself in Bombay, spending his time there guarding various facilities from mobs and strikes by the Indian navy.  When intense preparations for the Normandy landings begin, Bob recounts how he and his flotilla conducted nighttime exercises and large-scale troop landings from the secret HMS Cricket camp. A drill at Hayling Island tragically claimed lives due to strong currents, while another at Poole Harbor saw Bob heroically save a sinking landing craft by offloading weight and steering it ashore.

Although Ted Verbiest had “a lovely war” in South Africa, he initially describes the chaos of recruitment and defending the beach at Littlehampton against a rumoured German invasion. More darkly, he recalls diving for cover with a WREN when German aircraft killed 32 people at RNAS Ford (18^th August 1940). He then spent a year in Scotland, where one of his mates shot at a parachute, only to discover it was a parachute mine – fortunately, he missed. In Cape Town, his squadron built a new airfield so they could uncrate aircraft and prepare them for operations in the South Atlantic or Indian Ocean. He married a WREN in the airfield church, memorably spending his honeymoon on Table Mountain. Back in England, his squadron took over airfields as the Americans vacated, but they were cross to find they had been smashed up. Although he was duty Petty Officer on VE Day, his abiding memory is seeing a naked drunk man upside down in a dustbin.

Pete Dunning shares with us his journey from being a bored pub worker in Wallesey to a medically discharged ‘meaningful Marine’ after being posted to Afghanistan twice with the Armoured Support Company during the mid-2000s. Pete recounts his gruelling training for the Royal Marines and how ‘exhilarating and exciting’ it was to operate the Viking armoured vehicles during his two tours in Afghanistan. In May 2008, Pete was involved in an incident where the vehicle he was travelling in hit an IED, resulting in the amputation of both of Pete’s legs. He spent over seven weeks at Selly Oak Hospital where he underwent surgery on his spine and received skin grafts for his severe burns before being sent to Hedley Court for rehabilitation. Pete talks about his ‘stubbornness to get back up from this’, and it was his sheer determination that helped him walk again. Despite opting for medical discharge from the Royal Marines just short of five years of service, he is now focused on watching his young family grow and thrive. His account of the incident and the changes it brought to his life is inspirational. A story of great determination to adapt to a life post-injury.