George Talbot was a young lad when WWII broke out and so had to wait until 1940 to enlist when he was just 18 years old. George recollects how he volunteered for the airborne division and joined the 52^nd Ox and Bucks Regiment where he trained in gliders. It was an intense training regime, including an assault course so tough he says Rambo would have struggled with it, but George believes they were better for it. George recounts how the initial excitement of leaving England for the first time soon dissipated as they flew over the smoking French battlefields. Soon he and his glider were down, battered and broken, but safely in France. What follows is an in-depth, and at times graphic, account of George’s campaigns in Normandy, the Ardennes, the Rhine and onto Palestine including a very close shave with a German tank, the awful effects of a phosphorous bomb and the relentless shelling from the Germans which would have mentally ground them all down was it not for the camaraderie of the men. George shares a valuable account of the day to day experiences of troops on the ground and looks back on the loss of his youth as a sacrifice, but one ultimately worth making.

George Reynolds tells the story of his military career, where each memory is as engrossing as the next. Following in his father’s footsteps, George enlisted in the army in 1937. Not long after, in 1939, he was off to India, where he had become both a stand out signaller and a skilled equestrian.   By 1941, his regiment found themselves embroiled in battle against the invading Japanese army. Troubling times followed; the Japanese succeeded in their occupation, George among the 80,000 taken as POW.   He was first put to work in a Singapore prison, where he detailed his starved but tanned condition, a result of outdoor work. After being shipped off to Taiwan in 1942, George recalls his torturous experience in a copper mine, where he faced the threat of beatings, malnutrition, and sickly skin, all at a level he had never seen before.  I’m sure you’ve gone through a roller coaster of emotions engaging with George’s story, but he closes on a powerful note. Following his liberation by the American Navy in 1945, George was plunged into a moral dilemma – how was he supposed to feel about the people who had hurt him?   To hate them, he says, was akin to a “cancer eating away at him”. At once, there and then, he decided to “forgive but not forget”. This ultimately underlines the hardiness and determination of a soldier, who, after seven long years away from home, was favoured to live to tell the tale. 

On his 18th birthday in 1943, Fred Bailey joined up with the Royal Armoured Corps and passed out as a radio operator gunner. After a short stint in the 13th Battalion of the Green Howards, he volunteered for a Balkans mission with the Jedburghs which first required him to learn the art of parachute jumping. Fred’s memories bring vividly to life what it was like to operate amongst occupying forces, and how difficult it could be to keep the different groups of resistance fighters working together. He also shares eye-opening details of the parachute jumps he undertook, including one that dropped him from 1,000 meters higher than planned! After France, the Jedburghs became part of Force 136 and headed to Burma where the action became altogether more intense, and Fred talks about the difficulties of operating in the jungle. Finally, he reflects on the strong bond that formed between the Jeds: a fitting way to end a fascinating interview about a remarkable time.