Bill begins the interview by reminiscing his early life in the East End of London in 1920s and the shaping this had on him as a young man, who had interest in joining the army. Bill learned many lessons from First World War Heroes and heard harrowing stories from other veterans as he recalls the journey of his career starting in Cheshire Regiment at Dale Barracks in Chester, to Gordon Highlanders as his Regiment, and his first command is protecting Portsmouth harbour. This is until he is deployed to India, in which he tells tales of horror, humour and honour that happened during the Battle of Kohima; all whilst his career progressed from Captain to the Brigade Intelligence Officer. He finally returned home in April 1946.

Already an accomplished musician, Eddie Pickering joined the 50th Signal Regiment Band of the TA as soon as he left school. After progressing through various short-term roles he joined the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, with whom he spent two years based at Catterick Garrison then four years in Germany. Eddie then enrolled at Kneller Hall as a student bandmaster, and he shares his memories of the privileges and pressures of the course. On successful completion of his studies, Eddie was posted to the Cheshire Regiment, with whom he spent the next 23 years of his career. Eddie shares details of some of the incredible events and diverse venues around the world at which the Cheshires played. He also recalls the devastating bomb blast at the Droppin Well in December 1982 when they were stationed in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland; and talks about the overwhelmingly emotional reception of the band at their first engagement after the blast later that same week. Eddie’s recollections give a wonderful insight into the life and career of a regimental bandmaster, and it’s a privilege to hear him talk about – as he describes it – his dream job: a role he held for more than a quarter of a century.

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.