大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Chloe Broadley on behalf of Sadie Saunders and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

He had always been keen on the Navy and ships, so P.R.T. Saunders - "Please Return To Saunders" he said when he marked his kit with it - joined the RN on the very day he was old enough. He was accepted in spite of his spectacles, and drafted as a coder. He was on HMS Bentley on the Russian convoy run to Murmansk and Archangel for a while. (Wonder what happened to Sippers, the Bentley's mascot - a dog?) Then he was sent to Moscow, miles from the sea and with the freezing winters he so hated. He saw the facts behind the Soviet propaganda. But he didn't speak much about the dark side of his war experiences, although he made up lots of fantastic stories to amuse his little sister. Later on, in complete contrast, he was sent across the Atlantic to the USA: he spoke of swimming just off Bermuda where the water was so clear he could his own shadow on the seabed below.
Although his depot was Chatham (were they really all the RN's misfits?) he also went to Cardiff, where he met Mary, the girl he later married. He was quite glad to be demobbed, but he never lost his love of boats and sailing.

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