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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Castle Douglas on behalf of Mr William H S Dale of Dumfries, and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Dale understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was still three months short of 17 when I volunteered for the Royal Navy in 1943 in Aberdeen. Though I was just too young I received the volunteer medal. But when I returned home to Dumfries Mum said there was a big brown envelope on the mantelpiece. This told me to report for duty to HMS Malvern, a coal ship. My duties were as a stoker mechanic, later called a mechanical engineer. Just imagine — this’ll make you laugh — the poker weighed 90 pounds!
After a spell at HMS Victory in Portsmouth I was sent to Liverpool to HMS Rosemary, an LSD. We sailed up and down the Atlantic, but we weren’t given much information or told what our role was. We just did our work — and it was really dirty work, and hard.
I managed to get drafted off the ship, but not without a row with the captain. I was returning from Edinburgh, but the trains were late. Even though I had stamps to prove it, the captain took no notice. So my next posting was the barracks in Portsmouth. By now it was 1945 and the war in Europe had ended.
The hardest experience for me came soon after. All we knew was that we were sailing. No-one said where or why. As it turned out we were on our way to India, and from there to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It was while we were halfway to Singapore that we heard over the loudspeaker that the atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that the war in Japan was also over.
When we got to Singapore we were sent into the prisoner of war camp. We were detailed to help the POWs on to the ships that would take them home. It was an awful sight. I'll never forget it. They were just skin and bone. We had to carry them because they were so weak. Remember, I was only young, I was just 19. Sometimes I couldn’t help breaking down in tears. The POWs didn’t say much. They were just happy to be alive, would put their arms round our necks, and hug us. We worked 36 hours at a stretch. We were on K rations and water was rationed.
After I was demobbed I joined the Australian Navy.
I am still proud of the part I was able to play.

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