Davies joined the Territorial Army as a teenager just before the Second World War and became a regular soon after, obtaining an officer’s commission in 1941 and joining the Commandos, following his older brother. Davies took part in the allied invasion of North Africa in November 1942 and landed by beach behind German lines in Tunisia to assist in a planned allied attack of the town of Bizerte. The Commandos came under intense fire, suffering casualties, including his own troop commander who was fatally shot. Davies eventually lead his own section back to allied lines where they joined the successful allied push against the Germans. Soon after Davies returned to England for training before being sent to the Far East. In January 1945, Davies, now with 5 Commando landed on the Myebon Peninsula in Burma and took part in the taking of Hill 170 at Kangaw, a desperate battle that lasted 36 hours and which led to the withdrawal of the Japanese Army from the Arakan. Whilst planning for the invasion of Malaya, the war ended and Davies then went to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where he assisted in repatriating British men and women interned by the Japanese. Davies was demobbed in May 1946.

As a child Margaret travelled around the world with her father who was in the Royal Navy, therefore when she settled in England, joined the WRAC as a means of continuing her travels. Margaret joined in 1975, and as the first intake of army recruits after the Guildford bomb, she described the unnerving atmosphere and extreme safety precautions that were at place during her first six weeks of training. Having previously trained as a hairdresser, Margaret continued this trade and was quickly posted to Northern Ireland where she ran her own hairdressers in Aldergrove. She describes the horror of the bombings, shootings and overall violence in Ireland and her experience with PTSD following this posting. When asked to reflect on the WRAC, Margaret states that although she enjoyed the confidence being in the military gave her, she felt resentment towards the manner in which her career was so easily terminated as a result of pregnancy.

Daphne Brookes tells how in 1943, after watching a recruitment film and without her parent’s knowledge, she enlisted in the army.  She was just eighteen years old. After a period of basic training, Daphne was sent to the Isle of Man for six months for wireless training, after which she was posted to Kedleston Hall near Derby. She describes her work covering radio stations, which often had a considerable amount of interference, and writing down five letter blocks of code which dispatch riders took away. She comments that she had no real clue about what happened to them, or about the existence of Bletchley Park. At the time, no unnecessary information was disclosed, but Daphne was, in fact, working at one of the ‘Y Service’ secret wireless intercept stations which provided raw material for the codebreakers. She describes herself as ‘a very very small cog in a big wheel’ but is proud of the part she played.