Basil Chambers recounts his experiences stationed in volatile post-war Berlin. The severe winter of 1947 motivated Basil to enlist in the Royal Norfolk Regiment. He joined the Signals Corps where he trained to become an instructor, and on passing his exams was sent to post-war Berlin. Taken to barracks in the suburb of Spandau, Basil recalls open land, and a lack of building, that is except for Spandau Prison, which housed convicted Nazi war criminals. Basil recounts the surreal experience of watching Rudolf Hess take his daily walk. Identified as a sportsman, Basil tells of his eagerness to run in the 5,000 metres, despite not having ‘a clue what that was’! His desire to succeed means he can boast the rare accolade of victory at the Berlin Olympic Stadium! The souring of Western Allies and Soviet Union relations resulted in road, rail and water blockades by Soviet forces. The airlifts that followed, taking food and fuel into Berlin, introduced Basil to flying, albeit sitting on crates of cheese! Basil and his colleagues gained a rare insight into life in post-war Berlin. He describes a community dealing with power outages and food shortages, but his overriding memory is that of resilient hardworking people ‘really making an effort to get back on their feet’.

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.