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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from CSV Berkshire on behalf of Ivan Repton and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Repton fully understands the site's terms and conditions

I was called up when I was 18 years old and I was sent to Dover Castle to do my basic training, then on to Sandwich in Kent for more training. When I was 20years old I was in Inverarry in Scotland practising landing from landing craft at night.

One night we went out on a training mission, the sea was a bit rough and we got ready to jump off the craft. As I jumped I caught my leg on a rock and the landing craft flap came down on my leg as I landed and broke my ankle. The officer behind me cut his leg deeply on the chain. We were both taken to Inverarry Hospital where my leg was put in a plaster. I found the plaster very uncomfortable and the skin used to itch. I managed to get hold of a children’s 12” ruler and poked it down the cast to scratch my leg. Unfortunately, I broke the plaster and had to have my ankle reset. I got into trouble for that.

On another occasion when we were transferring from a big boat to a small boat, one of my friends wearing full kit dropped between the two boats into the water and disappeared. The divers found him on the bottom the next day.

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