大象传媒

This story was submitted to the the People's War site by Stoke-on-Trent Libraries on behalf of Janet Evans and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My dad, Fred White, was in the maritime - half sailor, half soldier. He was on one of the ships which sailed out to collect the men from Dunkirk.

Before and after Dunkirk he sailed on convoys - the ships taking the big ships out. He was torpedoed seven times, reported 'missing in action' twice and once spent 14 days on a raft. The last time he was torpedoed the record showed that 'Private White claimed to have got out through a porthole.' It was always said that a man couldn't get through a porthole but dad never changed his story.

Dad was 90 last September and to this day doesn't talk about his war record. Everything we know about his war today is from his war records which we will always treasure. Dad is resident at Austin House Nursing Home now in Abbey Hulton. During the war his family lived at 17 Edmund Street, Hanley. It's gone now and tower blocks of flats are where it used to be.

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