Spurred by the looming threat of D-Day, Nick Rumble married in May 1944, just one month before he would find himself amidst the chaos of the invasion.    On board the Anthony Enright, a Merchant Navy ship, Nick and his crew set sail on the 5th of June in total darkness. As dawn broke over Normandy, the sight of Allied traffic was unmissable, from jeeps to fellow troops, as was the unfortunate display of dead bodies floating in the water.  Although he wasn’t frightened, Nick recalls his time in Normandy as being very tense. As a Royal Navy gunner, he had the responsibility of shooting down enemy crafts, having to concentrate through the intense noise of surrounding gunfire from other much bigger and more powerful Naval ships.  Using an Oerlikon gun, Nick’s first attempt at shooting down an enemy plane seemed successful, much to the delight of his fellow crew members. His victory, however, was short-lived, after discovering that he had only managed to shoot down a balloon on the side of another ship. 

Ted was born into a boating family and became an apprentice towing up to 150-ton barges on the Thames. He joined The Royal Engineers as a Sapper (Combat Engineer) Waterman. He was sent to Field Company Kitchener Barracks Chatham, then to the 229 Field Company, a territorial unit in the 49th West Riding Division. He undertook pontoon training, building rafts and dismantling bridges. Ted was put on a cadre course to earn his lance corporal stripe and travelled to Norway as part of The North -Western Expeditionary Force (NWEF). He arrived in the port of Narvik to obtain iron ore supplies, facing gun fire and bombing. After damaging cranes, quays and railway lines to slow down the enemy, he travelled back on The Lancastria ship, stopping to build defences from Scotland to East Anglia. Ted became a sergeant and was posted to 947 in the world of transport company. He later became a sergeant major, working as a tug skipper and undertaking OC2 (Officer Cadet) training. As D-Day approached Ted had a detachment of army lighterman with the 953 Inland Water Transport Company (IWT).  He was sent to Normandy in charge of Rhino ferry barges on Gold beach. He describes the responsibility of the men in his ferries and the dangers of mines and mortar shells as they loaded cargo at the Mulberry Harbour. Ted brought his company back after V-E Day and was sent to Marchwood as Marine and IWT Superintendent. He was demobbed after serving for over six years. Ted later reminiscences about the fear he felt, his friendships with his fellow sergeants, and how lucky he was to survive.

Jeff York offers a gripping tale of his service as a Sonar operator aboard HMS Spartan during the Falklands War. Raised in Northampton, Jeff grew up far from the sea. His first sample of seamanship began after becoming a member of the Sea Cadets. However, at the young age of sixteen, he received permission to enlist in the Royal Navy, seeing it as the natural course for his career. Even before his basic training, Jeff was determined to become a submariner, recalling a trip to Portsmouth where he went down in a submarine. From that moment, he was hooked. Once he was given the choice, he joined HMS Dolphin to do his submarine training. During this period, he served aboard ships from HMS Sceptre to HMS Aurora in the Mediterranean before being assigned to HMS Spartan, a new type of submarine which had a trial system implemented. During an exercise in the Bay of Biscay, the Ship's captain, Jim Taylor received an order to head for Gibraltar to make preparations for something. The young crew remained oblivious all throughout until Taylor revealed that they were preparing to join the Task Force in defending the Falklands from Argentinian rebels. HMS Spartan would become one of the first vessels to reach the islands. Jeff describes some of the ship's systems, including a dependable sonar which was used to locate enemy targets from a long range. He discusses the difficulties of being in unfamiliar waters, from the uncertainty of submarine combat to facing many navigational problems. The crew was not immune to a sense of confusion and vulnerability, feelings that increased after the loss of HMS Sheffield. Their unfamiliarity led to many precarious situations, including the ship getting trapped in a forest of kelp which jammed their systems. This posed a serious threat to the Spartan since it was fuelled by a nuclear power source. Despite these hardships, the crew managed to pull through, benefited by the strong comradery shared among everyone onboard. Jeff reflects on the overlooked contributions of submariners, taking pride in their obscurity whenever the topic of the  Falklands War is brought up in a conversation. His interview reveals their importance to the War effort as well as providing a glimpse into how submarine warfare changed during the period.