"You could say I had a fortunate life really." Dick West recalls his time as an Engineering Artificer (ER2) during World War II in the Royal Navy, following in his father’s footsteps. Follow his journey from Chatham Tech (A.K.A Collingwood) through to his first posting in Portsmouth to Torpoint (Cornwall) all the way north to Scapa Flow. His time on the Destroyer called Oribi and the Sheffield “Shiny Sheff” (cruiser). Dick recalls life in the mess on a boat, the roles he had in supporting the Cruiser and places they visited and friends they made along the way, including Canadians. From Scottish ports, to Icelandic fronts (Akureyri, Hvalfjordur), to the Arctic Sea Battle of Scharnhorst alongside the Belfast and The Norfolk, fighting off German tanks in Italy. Dick recalls a lot of spent time in the Arctic Circle but also making stops in the Med and North Africa before finishing in Canada and the USA (picking up parts from General Electric).  

Frank Bewley, born in London in 1931, joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1948 and was initially posted to RNAS Culdrose, where he recalls early trials of jets landing without undercarriage. He volunteered for Korea and joined 821 Squadron, which trained at RAF Makrihanish before heading to Korea in 1952. He served on HMS Glory, which flew old World War II Firefly 5s for ground support. He was responsible for maintaining his assigned aircraft and had a close relationship with his pilot, Lieutenant Barrett. Initially unfamiliar with Korea, he learned about its history through old World War II books. He found HMS Glory more friendly than other ships, but prone to rolling. He describes the challenges of working on the flight deck, where a lot of maintenance and arming work was completed, in inclement weather and the camaraderie among the crew. They still operated on messdecks containing up to 14 men, sleeping in hammocks and collecting food form the galley, rather than having a central canteen.

Stories of the Korean war by the men who experienced it.