00:00:06 Introduction

00:00:41 At 20 years old, Allen enters the war as a crew member of an armed merchant cruiser (a converted, old P&O liner, retrofitted with six inch guns)

00:01:23 After sailing to Edinburgh, the ship is sent north to patrol the Denmark Straight, where the ship was soon torpedoed, the crew eventually being rescued by a fishing trawler sailing out of Reykjavík, Iceland

00:03:30 Living in Ynyshir, Porth. Allen’s working life before the war, as a shop assistant at Peglers (Ynyshir); and after the war building pre-fab houses in Porth; and then in collieries, Wattstown, Lewis Merthyr and Blaenrhondda

00:06:18 Allen’s next posting in the navy was the HMFS Mistral (a French naval destroyer, brought over by French sailors after France capitulated to the German forces) where they were on convoy duties in the Atlantic Ocean

00:08:01 Life on the ship; Allen’s rank and duties while serving on the Mistral

00:09:35 Allen trains as an anti-aircraft gunner before volunteering on the minesweeper, HMS Gleaner which operated between Iceland and Murmansk, the northern Russian port until 1944

00:11:32 Conditions on HMS Gleaner, coping with the cold, ice and lack of fresh food

00:13:26 The experiences and dangers of transporting the convoys after the Germans had taken Norway and established a base at the Norwegian town, Hammerfest

00:15:26 Icebreakers and the dangers of ice forming on the Gleaner itself

00:17:44 HMS Gleaner is brought south to sweep mines for the D-Day invasion