READING of Normandy veteran Joseph Wood and his services on a minesweeper before during and after the D-Day landings on the June 6,1944 and ultimately his service in the far east, his memories of being sealed into the engine room during the actions reminded me of my Uncle Reg's experience on the Japanese surrender of Hong Kong on August 15,1945.

Reg was originally stationed on a small escort carrier MAC ships (Merchant Aircraft Carrier, converted grain carrier) as an electrician on the Atlantic convoys.

He then sailed on HMS Anson, a battleship, to the far east, and with all the hatches battened down and him deep down in the ship, below even the propeller shafts in Hong Kong Harbour, with the threat of kamikaze underwater attacks still potentially happening, he was terrified with no possible chance of escape from the bowels of the ship

D M Deamer,

Penleys Grove Street,

Monkgate,

York

...

I’M writing this letter on D-Day plus 80. Among the many commemorated I ‘remember’ my godfather who participated in the first ‘D-Day’, in 1940 - Dunkirk, but didn’t survive long enough to witness the second, on June 6t1944.

His name is now inscribed on a war memorial in York.

Derek Reed,

Middlethorpe Drive,

York