Before WW2, Nick Wells was an engineer who specialised in commercial vehicles. At the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Navy and became an engine room 'artificer'. He was at sea for four years.

Ray arrived in 1946 - an early baby boomer.

​​Nick didn't talk much about his war but one horrific tale stuck in his son's mind: Nick saw a colleague get vaporised by steam from a damaged turbine when their ship was hit by a torpedo.

​Other stories included accounts of going ashore in Crete with commandos in small dinghies to sabotage enemy supply lines. Then hurtling perilously back to the UK across the Mediterranean. "Blood, sweat and tears," was how he described the voyage.

​​There were also mentions of freezing Murmansk and motorcycling in the desert on a Moto Guzzi with a dangerously rogue flywheel. (It shot off into the sand at 60mph.)

 The overall effect of his father's war on Ray was a lifelong wariness of moving parts in engines. He's never serviced his cars.

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Richard Foster tells Matthew about his father, Jack, an ace night fighter pilot who shot down nine enemy aircraft - three of them within 50 minutes!

Richard brings his father's log books to the interview and reads out reports of combats - as well as a crash in Libya. 

After the war, Jack became a test pilot at Farnborough, exploring the possibilities of supersonic flight. He flew over 50 aircraft, including British, American, and captured German and Italian planes. His outstanding flying talents - and his modesty - shine out of the discussion. 

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Matthew met Edward and David Toms in the picture framing shop they ran. 

When they framed a booklet of Matthew's father's quotes (which included a few lines about WW2) he got to know a little about Edward's war. 

But it was only when Edward died and obituaries appeared in national newspapers, that Matthew found out quite how extraordinary Edward Toms' war had been.

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Eric Grant talks about his father George who took 11 bullets after parachuting into Arnhem.

He also talks about his mother, Pearl; about wartime romance; and about a desire to erase wartime history.

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Matthew talks to Robert Sackville-West about his father Hugh.

Hugh won a Military Cross for his heroic actions in a tank battle during the liberation of France. 

But none of his family knew the full details of how he won his medal until after he died.

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Richard Hicks and Matthew met in prison - when they were teaching in Wormwood Scrubs. 

Richard's father, Thomas, was a Wellington bomber pilot with 458 Squadron. Thomas had so many lucky escapes that his crew thought he was in league with the devil (because the devil looks after his own....) and his crew refused to fly with any other pilot. 

Thomas was a survivor but, says Richard, his war experiences left him desensitised. 

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Matthew speaks to Cumberland farmer Joe Roe about his father John.

Joe was born in 1947 but describes the Second World War as "a thread which ran through my entire life".

John's war took him to Dunkirk; the Western Desert; Italy; and, afterwards, to Palestine.

When he came home, John took over the local post office. But, says Joe, "Not a day seemed to go by when the war wasn't mentioned in some way."

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Matthew speaks to Londoner Andy Trevillion about his father, also called Andy.
Andy Senior's war saw him rescued from Dunkirk; fighting Rommel in the Western Desert; seeing action in Southern Italy; and, after the war, fighting in Greece.
Retired architect Andy describes his father as "A good bloke, an easy person to be around". But it was only after his death that Andy Junior fully appreciated the extent of the toll that his father's war experiences had taken.

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Matthew speaks to Brighton-based journalist Murdo Morrison - who grew up on the Isle of Lewis - about his father John. 

John took part in the Normandy landings (on D-Day plus 4).

They explore the huge cultural differences between the baby-boomer son and his war vet father. 

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A pre-launch taster for this new series in which sons talk to Matthew Collins about their World War Two Vet fathers. 

Sons tell their fathers' stories. And explore the effects of the war – on both their fathers who fought in it and on themselves, the sons born after it.

In this trailer we hear from some of the sons who appear individually in episodes of the series.

We Sons of World War Two Vets - launching April 2025.  

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