Bill Bennett talks openly about his service and his life, joining the Merchant Navy at a young age after leaving behind a difficult home life. He describes tough early training and rising to a wireless operator and pipeline specialist. His skills and experience led him to be involved in the top secret Tombola Division, where he played a crucial role in the first wave of the D-DAY landings, laying pipelines from the beaches. Bill talks explicitly about his chilling first hand experiences at Port-en-Bessin, on the boundary between Gold and Omaha beaches, aged 18. These experiences have stayed with him all his life. Despite his service and heroics, Bill talks about hard times after the war. But now in his 70s, he leads a busy and active life, describing his life as an adventure from which he’s never stopped learning. Bill’s interview is a lesson in overcoming extremes of adversity, and flourishing, making the most of his life by turning adversity into strength.

Eric was born in Reading and after leaving school, worked in a camera factory. The factory was a reserved occupation and subcontracted to the Royal Air Force where Eric undertook precision work making gun cameras for fighter planes. At the weekend he was part of the Caversham home guard and recalls having little free time as a young man. After four years working at the factory, Eric volunteered as a Seaman in the Royal Navy, training at HMS Royal Arthur in Skegness, first as a telegraphist air gunner and then as a wire man. From there he went to the Coastal Forces base HMS Saint Christopher in Fort William Scotland. He was trained on motor launches and torpedo boats and passed a gunnery course. Eric joined HMS Forward Newhaven (Coastal Forces Maintenance Unit 1) for training, camped at the stone frigate HMS Collingwood and then went straight to Gold Beach, an allied area of German occupied France. Once there, he dug trenches in Arromanche Normandy and sea patrolled Mulberry Harbour, temporary piers built by the British. After leaving Normandy Eric went to Italy, mine sweeping with coastal forces. Eric describes his experiences working with important figures such as Admiral Ramsey, Captain Peter Scott and Field Marshal “Monty” Montgomery, the pressures these men were under and their different ways of working. He also reflects on choosing to focus on the good times after returning home.

Betty “Bet” Dobson grew up in Scotland and was just a teenager when war broke out. With her father called up in 1939, she was determined to do her part. Though he forbade her from joining the Army, she applied elsewhere and was accepted into the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS).

In her interview, Betty recalls her training in Dunfermline, the pride of putting on her uniform for the first time, and the strict rules about hair and dress. Posted first to Rosyth and then to Donibristle Fleet Air Arm Station, she worked as a teleprinter operator, sending coded signals, weather reports, and urgent supply requests. She describes the relentless noise of the machines, the discipline of secrecy, and the constant rhythm of wartime communications.

Her service later took her to Largs and finally to the Admiralty in London, where she worked underground alongside the WAAF on vast teleprinter switchboards. She shares memories of Christmas pantomimes, strict food rationing, the loss of cousins in the RAF and Army, and the euphoria of VE Day celebrations.

Betty’s story offers a vivid glimpse into the essential but often unseen contribution of the Wrens during the Second World War.