T H E K N I G H T I N G O F Harry Sanders’ incredible story of survival at sea in World War II AN OLD SAILOR
N o doubt anyone who reaches the advanced age of 95 has some stories worth telling—and Tillsonburg senior Harry Sanders is no exception. Like others in his generation, he remembers well what it was like to scrimp and save during the Great Depression, and function in a world before television. Some of his memories are funny, some poignant, and some, like his reminiscences of World War II, nothing short of incredible. “I am not a writer, only an old sailor,” Harry writes in the preface to his memoir, World War II at Sea—A Personal Narrative . Covering the years 1942 to 1946, the 40-page manuscript provides a moving account of Harry’s experiences in the British Merchant Navy. “The events are factual, the date at times a bit iffy,” he writes. “Seventy-three years is a long time to remember every detail. I kept no war diary.”
The son of a British army officer, Harry was just a teenager when the war be- gan. Like so many other youngmen in Europe, he didn’t know what the war would mean for his future. “I knew I didn’t want to be conscripted to fly a plane or sit in a tank,” he says.
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