Megan Moir joined the WRNS (Women's Royal Naval Service) aged 18 in December 1944. After brief training she went to Larne in Northern Ireland, but soon had the rare opportunity to join HMS Philante, a former luxury yacht which was used to train warships involved in anti-submarine work, with submarines acting as U-boats. They sailed to the naval base at the Kyle of Lochalsh opposite Skye, where she spent the rest of the war typing training instructions and training results. After the war she typed up reports in German following the surrender of U-boats there. She recalls her excitement when offered the chance to go to sea at 10 minutes notice, because very few WRENS went to sea; she vividly recalls being on the bridge, where she could see what was happening. She only stayed onboard one night; the rest of the time she slept in the “Wrenery”, where she enjoyed socialising in the common room with fellow WRENS and visitors. She narrates many fascinating anecdotes, including the celebrations for VE- and VJ-Day.

Having never left Yorkshire before joining the Royal Marines at 17, Geoff was initially stationed at the Yangtze River, where he saw Royal Navy ships fired upon during the Amethyst incident. After the Korean War began, Geoff was sent to shell North Korean supply wagons and then to Camp McGill in Japan to join US raiders. His unit made a decoy landing at Inchon, which he survived uncaught against all odds. Without backup, he fought his way to assist in the capture of Kimpo airfield. Geoff recalls seeing his friend killed in an explosion, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and sustaining a bayonet injury at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, after which he was airlifted to hospital. He describes the vast Chinese troops, the terrible condition of the bodies returned for burial and how the dead were piled up in makeshift defensive barriers. Many decades later, South Koreans welcomed Geoff warmly when he visited the now-flourishing country, yet he feels that people at home know little about the sacrifices British troops made in Korea. Geoff’s animated and reflective account vividly conveys the chaos of Korea’s battlefields and the challenges marines faced upon returning to civilian life.

When Joe Pitcher was called up into the Royal Navy in 1941, his military career began at HMS Glendower, a training facility preparing sailors for service on defensively equipped merchant ships (DEMS). Throughout his ensuing service, Joe sailed on the coastal, Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific convoys. He shares his memories of how it felt each time he changed ship and had to get used to working with a completely new crew, and adapting to the ship’s life and rules. He also remembers with wry humour a number of near misses along the way, including a scramble to find an ammunition locker stopcock, dodging a bullet from a round accidentally fired off by a young sailor in the mess, and surviving two separate torpedo hits on the same ship. Joe’s service ended in Singapore where the true horrors of war were brought into sharp focus when the hospital ship he was on took aboard countless near-to-death POWs. With great modesty, Joe says he was glad to have been able to do his bit, and shares with deep emotion his gratitude for surviving the war when so many others weren’t so lucky.