大象传媒

Story told by Joanna Roberts

My uncle James Muir was in the Royal Navy during the war as a radio operator. He was a Plymouth man and was already in the Navy when the war broke out.

He was very fortunate and lived a charmed life. He actually got torpedoed 3 times and pulled out of the water 3 times and survived that the fourth time. While he was in hospital his ship sailed and went down with all hands so he was saved once more. So like a cat he had four charmed lives.

Unfortunately during the last part of the war his mission was to take a group of American soldiers to land on the island (not named because it was wartime) in the Far East. The American solders would not wade through the water to get to the shore and would not get off the boats so the navy officers used rifles to encourage them to go ashore. As a result of this action my uncle ended up on the beach. He got bayoneted in the stomach by a Japanese soldier which he survived and was brought home. Then came on shore training other naval officers in the use of radio operations. Sadly however some years later he took his own life. There was no counselling in those days.

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