Albert Malin recounts the early days of his Naval service spent living in a Nissen Hut on the shoreline of the Solent, coordinating the loading of D-Day landing crafts. A few weeks later, he received his first draft to HMS Oxlip, a Flower-class corvette, whose surprising appearance left him rather taken aback. Albert explains Oxlip’s role in anti-submarine convoy duties, before detailing the heart-stopping moment the crew realised the ship's power had failed, leaving them adrift and alone in the Barents Sea. A successful rescue mission afforded Albert and his crewmates a night of respite aboard sister-ship HMS Bluebell at Polyarny, the Russian base on the Arctic Coast. But the following day, as Oxlip set sail again, Albert recalls witnessing the devastating torpedo hit that sank the Bluebell, killing all but one of its 92-strong crew: a brutal reminder of the desperate situation faced by all those who sailed on the convoys during the Second World War. Every year, Albert raises a glass to the crew of the Bluebell, and by sharing his memories with us here, he ensures their legacies will also live on.

Lewis Trinder joined the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday in 1942, as his father had done before him. After training he went to sea on HMS Fleetwood, an escort ship based at Gibraltar. The ship was used in convoys to West Africa. On his second convoy a stricken U-Boat U528 was spotted by an aircraft and Fleetwood located it and released depth charges forcing it to the surface where it was shelled. Fleetwood took on board the surviving 45 crew. After Fleetwood was sent for a refit, Trinder joined HMS Magpie as a plotter. Magpie was a convoy escort ship in both the Atlantic and Arctic, before being used on assault convoys in the English Channel for D Day. In August 1944 the ship was used to clearing a path across the Channel for laying a fuel line from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg as part of Operation PLUTO. After this Magpie was stood down for a refit in November 1944 and Trinder joined HMS Opossum which was sent to the Far East, joining the British Pacific Fleet and was deployed on patrol duties based out of Hong Kong. Trinder opted to be demobbed in 1946 and retuned to the UK.

Stanley White joined the Navy in 1946 and describes some of the challenges of working as an aircraft armourer at sea: tight living conditions, frightening typhoons, messing arrangements and working with explosives. He joined HMS Unicorn in June 1949 when she was recommissioned as a maintenance carrier; she sailed in September on a 12-month “show the flag” tour but was off Japan when the Korean War started in June 1950, so she diverted to Singapore to pick up aircraft. Stanley then transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS Triumph, where he was responsible for rearming Seafires (fighters) and Fireflies (ground-attack) with rockets, ammunition and bombs to support ground troops. He describes how the crew took their CO’s death in a deck-landing accident in their stride. He met his wife of 64 years during leave after returning from Korea. He subsequently served aboard HMS Ark Royal before leaving the navy and spending 29 years at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough.