Known fondly as ‘Bunts’ to his friends, after the Naval slang for bunting, David Jefferies had always dreamed of joining the Royal Marine Marching Band. Due to increasing hostilities, he was denied entry in a devastating blow, but didn’t let the news stop him from pursuing a job in the armed forces.  Upon discovering that the Navy was short of signalmen, David decided to concentrate on his knowledge of semaphore and Morse code. He took quickly to life as a signalman and decided to try his luck in the Navy, where he found himself aboard HMS Foudroyant, at the time the oldest warship afloat.  In 1944, as part of D-Day preparations, David joined a crew of 11 and experienced his first journey on board a Landing Craft Tank. Arriving at Gold Beach, Normandy, the role of David’s crew was to provide assistance up and down the coast; despite being a young man at the time, he kept his calm throughout the invasion, even when his craft was hit by an 88, which he considered to be nothing more than a temporary shakeup.  During D-Day, death didn’t occur solely as a result of gunfire. Although David and his crew were lucky, other men were sadly lost amidst the chaos of the operation. 

John shares with us his memories of training as a Commando, including learning to swim, and specialising as an assault engineer. He was sent to Japan where he had to retrain on American equipment and weapons supplied by the US Marines. John would take part in raiding parties setting off explosives. John recalls the contrasting environments of desolate Hiroshima and beautiful Mount Fuji. His next objective is to get to the Chosin River Reservoir but they come under heavy fire from the Chinese in freezing conditions and with ammunition running low, so the decision is made to surrender. John admits that while he was mentally prepared to be killed or wounded, he had never thought about becoming a prisoner of war until he was one. He describes the terrible three week journey crossing the mountains, being made to march at night and in freezing conditions. Once at Camp 10 the men were subjected to indoctrination about the evils of capitalism. They were forced to march again, this time they believed to their freedom but, cruelly, only some POWs were handed over and the others, including John, had to march on to a different camp where the conditions were worse. John recalls day to day conditions in the camp and the punishments meted out, especially on those who tried to escape. John is finally released to Freedom Village at the end of the war. He recalls it was all a bit of a blur and that returning home took some adjustment as it felt like no one in authority cared.