John volunteered for the RAF just before the start of WW2, but failed the vision test and instead joined the Army. He was assigned to the armoured corps and soon after he volunteered for Special Operations Executive. At the time parachuting was not mentioned and John thinks that if it had been he would not have volunteered! During training he specialised in Signals and learned unarmed combat and parachuting, which he was not too keen on. He was scheduled to parachute into France before D-Day but the mission was aborted at the last minute. Instead they dropped after D-Day, from a Short Stirling bomber. Due to a storm the pilot could not find the drop zone but they parachuted anyway. Three days later they met their French resistance contacts near Dijon. Here they received knowledge of a German troop train passing through. John contacted HQ and the information was passed to the RAF who bombed it. During this time he could see German radio detector vans trying to find their precise location. Later he and the Resistance attacked troops guarding Marshall Petain, the Vichy collaborator, as he tried to get to Switzerland. During this time the British stayed in uniform to avoid execution if captured by the enemy. On his return to Britain he was sent to jungle training school and then parachuted into Burma and during this period he was shelled by ‘friendly fire’. His unit fought the Japanese and they eventually met up with the British 14^th Army.

For the first few years of the war, Leslie Fernandez was an Army Physical Training Corps instructor who trained SOE candidates in Hertfordshire and Manchester (parachuting). He was then invited by Colonel Munn to become an operative, deploying to SE France in July 1944; when the American landed there in August 1944, his group moved to Italy to help the partisans prevent the Germans in Italy from interfering with American operations. He provides a hugely detailed and modestly understated account of SOE operations (he does not mention his Military Medal or Croix de Guerre), starting with selection for different roles and his insertion by parachute, weighed down by weapons and equipment. He focuses heavily on little-known operations in the mountains between France and Italy, gathering explosives from his cache in a bakery, blowing up roads and negotiating the surrender of 80 Germans to 5 SOE. He also talks about the challenges of communication and receiving resupplies in harsh conditions where they were often isolated, as well as the psychological pressure of warfare and seeing people executed. He has fond memories and recalls the bravery of those involved, especially as he married a woman from the region, who was a courier.

Having served in the Irish Army in 1943 to 44, ‘Paddy’ was discharged along with many of his compatriots, so he enlisted in the British Army. Even though he was Irish, on the advice of his father, he joined the Manchester regiment in Liverpool. From there, Paddy volunteered to join the Commandos and transferred to Achnacarry in Scotland in 1944. Although the training was gruelling, he succeeded and was proud to achieve his beret. Transferring to Wrexham in 1945, he was selected for special training and then posted to the Far East, training for Operation Nipper. Surrender following the second atom bomb resulted in redirection to the Malacca Straits and from there to the Middle East. Paddy describes serving in Egypt and then Israel and then in 1948, being posted to London, where he was on guard during the night of King Charles’s birth. Subsequently posted again to the Far East, it was in 1949 that he was sent to Korea. He tells of many battles and experiences including Operation Rowley, the taking and loss of Pyongyang and Kunu-ri. Paddy is critical of the behaviour of the American Military in Korea. Ultimately, Paddy expresses the view that war is futile.