Mervyn joined the Army in June 1943 and after his initial training he was involved in preparation for the D-Day landings. Before the invasion there was a lot of tension among the troops, despitethe surface bravado. He went ashore on Gold Beach three days after the first landings and was amazed at the number of warships and aircraft supporting the beachhead. The French population were rapturous in their reception although there was still sniper fire. The task of his unit was to set up a vehicle park and supply transport to the front-line formations and the vehicles ranged from bicycles to tank-transporters. His unit followed the 51^st Highland Division through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany.

In Germany his unit was based near the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and he saw hundreds of former prisoners, still in their striped uniforms, walking and trying to find other survivors and seeking a way out of Germany. In the army a lot of Jewish soldiers wore identification tags which stated ‘Church of England’ in case of capture. While he was serving he was aware of the need to relieve the pressure on the Soviet Union, which was fighting the bulk of the Wehrmacht.

To Mervyn the liberation of Europe was more important than ‘King and Country’. He feels strongly that dictators today should be faced up to and defeated rather than just talked at. After the war several job applications were rejected on the grounds that he was too old, aged twenty-three!