Kevin Brazier

As a small boy growing up in the 60s, there was only one thing that really interested me, that being anything to do with the military. War books, comics, films and models being at the top of my list. Being dyslexic however, meant that my appreciation of books and comics was limited mostly to looking at the pictures. So, when I found out that my father had actually served in the Second World War, in the Merchant Navy he assumed a new greatness in my mind. It was a subject he did not like to talk about, much to my dissatisfaction. It was only as I got older that he would tell me the odd story. My happiest memory of him is when we both sat down to watch Das Boot together. He was shocked to see how bad things were for the Germans serving in U-Boats and I think slightly surprised at my knowledge of the subject. We talked almost continually throughout, until the part when the merchant ship was torpedoed and set on fire. Suddenly he went very quiet, and I remembered him telling me once about a time when men that had been in the water were brought aboard his ship and they all died a very painful death, due to swallowing sea water mixed with oil.