大象传媒

I joined the Royal Marines on my 18th birthday the 8th June 1940. I was pleased because I had asked for the Marines and I was given exactly what I wanted.

The first six months training at Exmouth were hard but the time spent in Wales was very much harder.

I remember climbing cliffs, swimming fully clothed with my rifle slung across my back and the route marches, not by day which although tiring would have much easier once we had got used to it but by night..

1942 brought a different type of exercise. These were the probing raids along the French Coast. A party of 5 marines would be landed along the coast with instructions to meet with members of the French Resistance and reconnoitre the area. We would be interrogated on our return.

Later I became part of the crew of three on a landing craft. Our task was to collec t those who were injured and bring them back to England. I ended my war serving on Hayling Island

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