Clifford Herridge recalls his National Service in the King's Regiment (Liverpool) serving in the Korean conflict, often described as ‘The Forgotten War’. When South Korea was invaded by North Korea’s KPA in 1950, many countries, including Great Britain, sent troops in support of South Korea. After a year of conflict, a period of static trench warfare ensued; this is what Clifford encountered when he arrived. He tells of his role in the mortar platoon, digging trenches and ‘hutches’ in the hillside for the men to live in. A landscape of ‘hills, hills, and more hills’, and the extreme weather, overwhelming summer heat and freezing winters, are still vivid memories. Despite knowing the old adage ‘never volunteer’, when the platoon cook was taken ill, Clifford, with no formal culinary training, stepped forward to take over. He describes feeding forty-five men with an array of food supplied by the Americans, including fresh salmon, which Clifford had no idea how to cook! When he returned home, his fiancé, Doreen, was waiting for him. She gives the perspective of those left behind and tells of her abundant letter writing to stay in touch. Despite some apprehension, Clifford calmly ‘did what he was told to do’, commenting that National Service changed him by broadening his mind, and making him realise he was ‘a lot better off then he thought’.

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.

En route from France to England in 1942, a chance encounter with two American SOEs in Ireland led Betty Norton to join the FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). After training as a coder she was sent to serve as a WT operator in North Africa, where she worked in blistering heat and sometimes for 16 hours at a stretch. In her interview, Betty shares fascinating insights about her life and work during service, and the constant innovations needed to keep coded messages secure. After falling ill with malaria and jaundice, Betty was sent back to France where she could continue working closer to home, and she recalls the difficulties and unhappiness of life under occupation. When the war finally ended, Betty was demobbed in France but it wasn’t until she returned to London that she experienced the true relief of freedom.