‘We were awakened by two terrible crashes and we felt the ship vibrating violently, the sound of running feet, and someone opened our cabin door and said, ‘To your boat at once sisters, we have been torpedoed’.  Daisy Dobbs, A British nurse torpedoed off Le Havre on the Warilda in 1918 

I felt myself coming to the top, yet being drawn towards something which I found out to be the small boat upside down, the waves were very strong and dashed me against the sides unmercifully, this, with the terrible cries of the men and women in the water was horrifying, then I sank once more… Daisy Dobbs, A British nurse torpedoed off Le Havre on the Warilda in 1918

‘Indeed upon release he weighed little more than 7 stone and at almost 6ft, this must have looked absolutely painful.’   George Bainbridge, upon his release as a POW under the Japanese in 1945

‘ I remember an overriding feeling of fear wondering if bombs were going to land near us. … When the bomber’s drone started to diminish we knew if we heard the whistle of bombs they would impact somewhere beyond us.’   David West as a 9 year old during the blitz in London

‘Battle is by nature ‘chaotic and brutal and our experience was to be no different. Our strength lay in the qualities of the airborne soldier. Guts, an utter determination to succeed, professional fighting skills of the highest order..’  Dair Farrar Hockley, fighting with 2 Para in the Falklands war

‘A week later the boyish looking 19-year-old flew his first sortie. He and the rest of his section did not return…’  Geoffrey Gledhill, who was killed during the Battle of Britain flying his first sortie

‘Then there was a terrific noise as the plane opened up with cannons and machine guns.  I was terrified and froze, I could not move a muscle…’  Bob Payne as a young boy describing an attack by a German plane in Bury St Edmunds