I was told of the mighty spirit of Britain which is manifested in every man, woman and child in every city, town and village. I was given news of my own people, of my old friends, most of them doing their bit for En, land in the Services or in the factories. It seemed to me that everyone was in uniform at home, fighting and working like mad to finish the Nazi menace once and for all.
Shown to me was my old school's monthly magazine and in it was a list of old boys who were doing their bit in H.M. Services. Most of them were in the B.EF. My friend had met some of them before he sailed. It filled me with pride to think that they had asked to be remembered to me after the terrible ordeal they had been through at Dunkirk. Some of them had been wounded, I was told, but they were itching to get back and have another smack, as they put it, at the Germans, I heard many more stories, too numerous to mention here, of the wonderful spirit of Britain, told in a homely, quiet way by these men of the sea, who would be facing danger from Nazi attacks when they reached British waters. It did not seem to worry them much. I think I was more worried than they were. Anyhow I left that ship certain that the Nazis cannot win this war when they are fighting Britain.
"The salt of the earth, these British seadogs."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.