Joe (Joseph) W. Towell hails from Dublin, he joined the RAF at 21 and served in England, India, South Africa and Burma, flying supply missions. His brother was also a pilot and unfortunately didn’t make it through the war, his Flying Fortress was shot down in a raid on the Ruhr Industrial region, and he’s buried in Germany. He describes his decision to join up as being partly motivated by the fact that his family, in his words, were “West Brits”. After the war he returned to a firm in Balbriggan, Dublin. He regrets not having joined Aer Lingus, the Irish State airline, which snapped up many returning Irish WW2 pilots, it was a lucrative and well respected career. Joe is 92 and lives in Dublin.

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Don Mooney was born in Dublin, he was a student of engineering in Trinity College Dublin, when the war broke out, he took the train to Belfast one day with some of his friends and joined the army. He became a sapper in the Royal Engineers, served in Italy and the Lebanon. He also spent a time as a mine sweeper. He returned to Ireland after the war and worked for Guinness in Dublin for the remainder of his working life.

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Stella Hill was born in the Meadway Towns in Chatham. She has lived in Dublin since 1949, having married an Irish man. She joined the army “for a bit of fun” with her friend Maureen. She worked with the Royal Engineers and the West Kent regiment. She worked as a clerk with the Court Martial service at the military training centre in Maidstone in Kent and currently resides in Dublin.

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Brian Smith was born in Swansea in South Wales into a family with a long military history. His father served in the Great War and survived being gassed, twice. His uncle was in a Cavalry division and survived being buried alive by shellfire. Both of Brian’s brothers flew with the RAF during wartime. One brother flew in a Lancaster bomber and survived unscathed, except for hearing damage sustained due to high altitude flying. His other brother was a wireless operator-airgunner on a Beaufort torpedo bomber, he also survived unscathed. Brian describes being surrounded by the war, Swansea was a hive of wartime activity. The large harbour meant it was used in training exercises in the lead up to D-Day. Brian was too young to join the RAF during hostilities but he served as a pilot for three years in the early 1950′s. He later joined the Merchant Navy and then the Coastguard. Until recently he provided safety courses for sailors. He has now retired and lives in County Cork.

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Paddy Bassett was born in England and remembers World War II as a young child. He was evacuated on several occasions, but survived. He worked in England in the Forestry Service for a time after the war, and moved to Ireland in 1952. Paddy has retained a lifelong fascination with collecting all things military. He has a large collection of uniforms, bayonets and other items, some of which he’s had since he was a child. One of the first items he collected was a piece of a downed Spitfire Aircraft.

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George Edward (Ted) Jones was born in Gloucestershire, England. He joined the RAF at the age of 18 in 1941 and flew Catalina and Sunderland flying boats and worked on the Artic Convoy route. He has been decorated twice by the Russian government in recognition of his wartime service protecting convoys. He was based in Iceland and in the Faroe Islands during the war. Ted married an Irish girl and has lived in Dublin since 1947. He still flies, albeit not on a solo basis. Ted is 87.

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Richard (Dick) Kennedy unfortunately passed away before the completion of this project. His father served in the Royal Navy during the Great War and saw action at the battle of Jutland. Richard followed his father into the Royal Navy and spent his service years in the Far East on the HMS Nigeria, after the war he joined the RAF, and served for several years. His service time in the RAF included the famous Berlin Airlift

Margaret (Peggy) McGrath moved to England to take up nursing training at the age of 20. She trained in the Royal Waterloo Hospital and then moved to East Grinstead to Archibald McIndoe’s pioneering plastic surgery “Guinea Pig” hospital. She recalls meeting her husband-to-be on her very first day’s service. He had lost his toes through frostbite and was traumatized after returning from a Japanese P.O.W. camp. She continued to nurse her husband after the war ended as he was unable to take up work. He eventually found work in a new initiative program which was designed to get injured ex-servicemen working. She lived in England for most of her life and moved back to Ireland in the last few years.

Paul Bowe had a fascination with flying from an early age. He joined the RAF in August 1941, just after his eighteenth birthday. His brother had joined the RAF just before the war. He flew supply planes in the Far East and Burma. After the war he spent the remainder of his working life as a pilot with Aer Lingus, the Irish state airline, as did many of his compatriots.