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This story has been submitted to the People's War web-site by Heather McGrouther from ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Coventry & Warwickshire on behalf of Jack Sprung with his permission. He understands the terms & conditions.

I was 17 in 1939, the year the war began. We heard the war had broken out and immediately went down to Corporation Street in Birmingham to sign up. I wanted to sign up because the war seemed so exciting and I wanted to be a part of it, and to fight fascism.

I turned up at the recruitment centre and they asked me how old I was, and I said "Seventeen", and they told me to "Come back tomorrow when you are twenty-one"!

A few days later, I returned with a friend, and this time when they asked how old we were we both said "twenty-one" and we were both recruited and put into the south Staffs Young Soilders Battalion - no questions asked!

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