After serving in the Home Guard and experiencing bombing in the blitz in London, Cornelius Snelling was conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942 and carried out his basic training on HMS Ganges at Shotley. From his port division, Chatham, he was assigned his first posting, as a Bosun’s mate, to a newly commissioned ship docked at Glasgow, HMS Wild Goose, a Black Swan-class sloop. HMS Wild Goose specialised in anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay and Snelling took part in some of the ship's most notable actions, including the renowned "six in one trip" in 1943, which saw HMS Wild Goose, alongside other Bird-class sloops, sink six German U-boats in a single patrol. Snelling’s final journey aboard HMS Wild Goose was participating in an Arctic convoy to Murmansk and he describes the extreme conditions. In 1944, Snelling transferred to HMS Tyler, an American-built frigate on loan to the Royal Navy. HMS Tyler conducted patrol and escort missions in the North Atlantic and the English Channel, where it also escorted landing craft and supply ships during the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches. Snelling's service concluded in October 1945 when he steamed with HMS Tyler back to the United States, where the ship was returned to the US Navy.

Born in 1931, Ronald George Yardley faced the hardships of wartime as a child. At 18, he joined the Navy, trained for six weeks at HMS Royal Arthur, and became a Wireless Telegraphist. He later served on HMS Belfast and was deployed to Korea. Ron remembers the immense cold as they journeyed closer to Korea, travelling through frozen seas. When the Belfast arrived in Korea the bombardment and involvement in the war started immediately. He remembers a sad moment when the ship’s water pipes burst after being hit by enemy fire, scalding a soldier to death. Ron also recalls two marines who died on a mission, their bodies never recovered. Ron recounts a heartfelt moment when a young orphan from his mess deck, who never received letters, asked if Ron could read some of his own to help him feel connected to life back home. After leaving HMS Belfast, Ron was posted to HMS Royal Prince in Germany, where he carried out exercises on Hermann Goering’s luxury yacht. He remains deeply thankful to the South Koreans for funding the National Korean War Memorial, a place he proudly takes his grandchildren to.

Marsie Taylor had a varied and fascinating war. She moved to London with her parents in 1939 and immediately joined the Mechanised Transport Corps because she wanted to contribute to the war effort. She recalls the effect the sights and sounds had on her, driving a Light Rescue Team through bombed-out streets in Lambeth. She vividly recalls receiving the BEM from the King for recovery work on the night of 15 October 1940. She joined the WRNS in 1942 when the bombing reduced, spending over a year in Norfolk House where she typed operation orders during planning for the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. She comments on the enormity of the secrecy, because she held BIGOT clearance, so knew the time and place of the landings. Once the planning finished, she moved to the naval HQ at Southwick House in Portsmouth in readiness for D-Day. She recalls hitchhiking in uniform back to London and working on artificial harbours. She was later commissioned and spent the last months of the war as an assistant to the captain in charge of an air station near Aberdeen.