♪♪ -In 1939, millions of our grandparents went to war.

-This is a man, you know, I loved.

He was my grandpa.

-Now four Hollywood stars are exploring their families' extraordinary World War II stories.

-You are going to fight an enemy who will kill you.

-Captured Christmas Day.

I didn't know that.

-Yeah.

-She must've been completely bonkers, going out with bombs flying, going out.

What are you doing?

♪♪ They'll travel the globe to meet the last survivors... -He was a very good captain.

-Was he?

-Thanks to him, I'm still alive, really.

-...and speak to descendants with a shared history.

-So my grandfather would've known your father well.

-Oh, very well.

-Both: Very well.

-...confronting the terrors their families faced... -"You have to be Jewish, but not go to the slaughterhouse for it."

-Oh, my God.

...and the threats they encountered.

-This is the first kamikaze strike on a British ship in World War II.

♪♪ -They'll uncover the sacrifices all our grandparents made... -Young men would be in the water, screaming for their mothers.

-[ Crying ] Absolutely horrific.

-...and learn how World War II changed their lives forever.

It's exciting because it brings him back again.

-How extraordinary history is, particularly this link of grandchildren and grandparents.

♪♪ -This program was made possible in part by Elaine and W. Weldon Wilson and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪♪ -It has been an emotional, poignant day here in Portsmouth.

-Today's commemoration has been a sobering experience.

75 years ago, Lieutenant Commander William Scott Thomas sailed for Normandy.

I'm his granddaughter Kristin, and I now realize how little I've understood about the war he fought in.

-D-Day was and still is the biggest military operation in history -- a catalog of thousands of personal sacrifices.

-My heart always beats a little bit faster when I go onto a naval ship.

There's something quite special about that.

And, you know, I grew up in a naval family, so it's very much in the blood.

As a young child, I absolutely adored my grandfather.

He served as a commanding officer in the Royal Navy, all the way through the Second World War.

He was a really, really, really sweet, lovely man.

Told us stories and sang us songs, you know.

♪ I joined the navy to see the world ♪ ♪ And what did I see?

I saw the sea ♪ And then there's a whole list of seas, you see, which I can never remember, and can't today.

[ Laughs ] My grandfather survived some of the navy's most devastating battles.

And my poor grandmother, Mary, bravely endured the wait for his return.

I think she was very protective of him and I think it was because he's been through hell and you're gonna want to keep him safe.

My father, Simon, followed in his footsteps, flying airplanes for the Royal Navy.

He married my mother, Deborah, in the late '50s.

They had four children.

And I was born in 1960.

And I always remember my father as being really exuberant.

But, I mean, of course he was -- he was only in his 20s, you know.

[ Laughs ] And he flew very fast airplanes and was having a great time.

My father was killed in a training accident flying a Sea Vixen in 1966.

Um... Ah.

I remember very little about him.

But, you know, if we heard planes and... we'd run out into the garden and have a look and see whether we thought it might be Daddy.

To be waiting for someone to come home -- I mean, I know what that's like, and it's horrible.

[ Breathes deeply ] Sorry.

♪♪ The death of their youngest son in a peacetime training accident was devastating for my grandparents.

Families accept this, um...

Some better than others, some more healthily than others.

And I think that was very, very difficult for my grandparents.

We all understood the costs of serving in the armed forces.

The idea of military duty, it's just part of life.

And we experienced that in its most dramatic form as children, you know, first-hand.

And I can tell you that it affects everything forever.

When my mother married my stepfather, Commander Simon Idiens, we saw less of my grandparents.

And so we never talked about the war.

I took the long and difficult path of becoming an actress.

Sadly, my grandfather died in 1983, before my first film.

I don't think he was that keen on the cinema, but I sense he would have been proud of my role as Clementine, Winston Churchill's wife.

It's now 80 years since World War II began.

A granny myself, I'm going to explore what my grandfather actually did during that conflict and understand how it shaped my family's life, and me.

We're going to visit Emma, who is my cousin.

And Emma is the child of my Uncle Richard, and it's in recent years we've become closer.

She's actually really nice.

Uncle Richard's career was very different from my father's.

He became a rear admiral.

-Come in, come in, come in.

-So, Emma inherited all of Grandpa's photos and records, which I've never seen before.

-That one -- that's how I remember him.

-Yeah?

-I remember him like that.

That's so sweet.

I can just hear him giggling there.

-That's a really sweet picture.

-He was a very good chuckler, wasn't he?

-Yeah, a really sweet picture.

I never heard him be cross, I never heard him raise his voice.

-No.

He was the most important person in the house.

You felt that everything had to kind of move around him.

Grandpa this, Grandpa that, you can't do that because Grandpa, da da da da da.

-Yeah, he was, but he was protected, wasn't he?

Granny definitely protected him, yeah.

-She was absolutely a sort of lioness around him.

-But I don't really remember Grandpa talking about the war.

He didn't really talk to me.

I don't think he talked to my brothers and sisters about it.

-There was definitely a feeling that you don't -- you just don't talk about it, it's sort of off-limits.

-Yeah.

-And that's... -That's Grandpa, right at the start.

-I love this picture.

-It's sweet, isn't it?

He joined in 1917.

He was literally a child -- 13 1/2.

-13 1/2.

Can you imagine letting your boy go?

-And this is Grandpa's service record over the next sort of 10 years or so.

-So, the remarks -- "Leadership fair, tact good.

Personality does not stand out in any way."

[ Laughs ] -That's not great, is it?

That's not great.

-It probably is, very good.

-Though maybe they meant that he's, you know... -No, that's very good, I think.

-Not rocking the boat.

-"Physical and social good.

Conscientious and hardworking, carried out his duties satisfactorily, but rather slow and uncertain."

-So here's Grandpa's photo album of between the wars.

-Oh, look at this!

-This must be training.

-1922, 1922.

-Yeah, this is training between the wars, when they just had the most amazing time.

-My grandfather quickly found his feet and was made an officer by the mid-1920s.

At that time, the Royal Navy was the largest navy in the world.

Look at all these ships here.

-Bethlehem and Cairo.

-Look at the ships.

Commanding the seas, it helped safeguard the British Empire, which in those days stretched across seven continents.

Church of the Nativity.

Oh, they're in Egypt, in Cairo.

-Cairo, yeah.

-And then the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.

-So, you understand why you'd want to join the navy.

-They literally, they did use -- Wasn't that the strapline or something?

"Join the navy and see the world" or something?

And they absolutely did.

-In 1931, he married my grandmother, Mary.

They soon had three children -- Richard, Iola, and my father, Simon.

But on the 3rd of September, 1939, at 36 years old, my grandfather would be thrown into what would become the world's deadliest conflict.

-This is Hitler at the peak of his arms might, and all Europe is aflame.

Poland and the world learn the meaning of a grim new word -- Blitzkrieg.

World War II is a reality.

-Hitler's belief that the Germans were the master race led to the invasions of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

Britain had no option but to declare war.

As we scrambled to send 400,000 soldiers to France, the Royal Navy was immediately called into action.

-So, I think these pictures are definitely taken during the war.

-Was this one sinking?

I mean it's quite terrifying, that.

-It's horrendous.

-With people hanging off the edge.

-It's in an album with family pictures on the other side, and no reference.

-I know.

Isn't that weird?

To find out more about my grandfather's early experiences of war, I'm visiting the last remaining World War II destroyer.

She's almost identical to HMS Impulsive, which my grandfather was captain of at the outbreak of war.

Naval historian Duncan Redford has been researching my grandfather's career.

-Welcome to HMS Cavalier.

-Thank you.

-This is our only surviving World War II-style destroyer.

So, this is the bridge, and here is the captain's chair.

-My children would love to see me in this.

I get called the admiral at home.

[ Both laugh ] So, what did Impulsive do?

-Impulsive's job was to protect other ships, be they battleships or merchant ships in a convoy, and to take the fight to the enemy.

-So, who makes all these decisions?

-The captain -- your grandfather.

-Gosh, such a responsibility, isn't it?

-It was quite an awesome responsibility.

150-odd people hanging on your every word.

-Yeah.

-And, you know, watching you like a hawk.

-Why -- Why?

Explain that a bit more.

-He's got to keep his emotions under control.

If he's not afraid, they will try and master their fears.

-Right.

I'm suddenly curious about this.

-Mm-hmm.

-Was it -- Was that all there was?

-Well, this is just for in harbor.

-So you're outside all the time?

-Mm-hmm.

-Completely out in the open, even in the worst storms.

-Yep, it was.

-And you'd get wet and... -Waves could be breaking right over the top of the bridge here.

You could be isolated up here for days on end in a storm because there will be no way to get down along the decks without being swept overboard.

-[ Gasps ] I want to show Duncan the photos I saw with my cousin Emma.

-That's HMS Courageous, one of the Royal Navy's six aircraft carriers.

Courageous alters course to turn into the wind, and that maneuver took Courageous into the... -Into the path?

-...into the path of a German U-boat.

-He just got lucky that day.

When?

-That would have been two weeks into the war.

-Oh, gosh.

-And these pictures are taken as she's rolling over.

-Oh, gosh.

-And sinking.

It took about 20 minutes.

-20 minutes?

-Mm-hmm.

-Were there a lot of people lost?

-About 500.

-Oh!

-In fact, over 500.

-God, how awful.

Who took these pictures?

-They were taken from your grandfather's ship.

-Oh.

-He was there.

Your grandfather's ship picked up about 360-odd survivors.

We've got an account from one of the survivors.

-"The navy's first wartime loss.

Some of the chaps made the mistake of running up the starboard side, but as it got higher and higher, they found they couldn't jump into the sea."

Don't think I can.

It's just awful.

"And some started to run down the flight deck."

A lot must have lost their lives that way.

-Well, unfortunately, not all of them had life jackets.

-Was that because they didn't have time to put them on?

Or they just didn't -- wouldn't exist?

-They hadn't been issued at that stage of the war.

The navy was still trying to get them out.

-Right.

Can I read this bit here?

-Mm.

"The Captain of the destroyer maneuvered his ship and then he threw ladders and ropes and hauled the men up as they came towards him.

Some of the crew dived off the side of their ship and pulled up exhausted men."

Amazing, amazing.

"I should like to pay a special tribute to the captain of the destroyer for his fine seamanship."

That was my grandpa?

-Mm-hmm, yeah.

-If you saw something like that, you'd be... What would you do with it?

I mean, you just sort of keep that memory and you've got it...

But two weeks into the war, so you know that until this stops, you might have to... -And it might be you next.

-Mm.

-It might be your ship that's torpedoed.

-Yeah.

-I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.

-At the end of May 1940, my grandfather, William Scott Thomas, captain of HMS Impulsive, was heading to the French coast.

Just eight months into the war, Hitler's army had swept across Europe.

400,000 British soldiers, the majority of our army, made a retreat to Dunkirk, where they became trapped.

Winston Churchill launched an audacious rescue operation.

Hundreds of civilian ships volunteered to help, but the Royal Navy took the lead.

-You ask, what is our policy?

I will say -- It is to wage war by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us.

-The German air force had bombed Dunkirk's port, and to evacuate soldiers in large numbers, the only location was the mole.

I'm meeting historian Joshua Levine.

-What we are standing on now is the mole, right?

-Oh, this is the mole.

-This is the mole.

And all this is is a huge breakwater, never intended for ships to come alongside.

-This is to protect the port.

-So, this is where your grandfather comes into the story, because he was incredibly important.

So, he is one of the very first ships that is told, "Come in."

-Come here.

So he's here right at the start of it all.

-The Germans were doing everything they could to prevent the soldiers coming back.

So you had planes that were bombing.

You had planes that were bombing from the air, just dropping bombs.

You had dive bombers that were screaming as they came down.

And they were bombing on the beaches, they were bombing the ships, they were bombing here on the mole.

We've got some documents here.

This is a report that your grandfather made just in the immediate aftermath of the evacuation, which shows what he was doing.

-"We sailed for Dunkirk at 12:35.

It was during this passage that the ship was attacked and heavily bombed by six Heinkels.

By proceeding at full speed and making frequent and violent alterations, of course, basically zigzagging, the bombs which could be seen falling were successfully avoided and no hits were scored."

-Now, can you imagine that?

-No, that's unbelievable.

-I mean, it's crazy.

I mean, so you're watching the bombs come down.

-And you're dodging them.

-You're dodging them!

-In this massive ship.

-One way, another way.

Just the sort of courage and the fortitude to keep your wits about you while you're dodging bombs.

-"On completion of the bombing, three aircraft remained behind and attacked with machine gun.

And it was during these attacks that the ship was damaged and the casualties occurred -- two seriously.

I cleared the bridge of lookouts and signalmen, remaining up there by myself."

-He is basically saying, "Everyone out.

Let me deal with this."

To me, that's unbelievably moving.

That's somebody taking total responsibility for his men.

-And having been up on that bridge, I see how vulnerable you are up there.

This is terrifying, this bit here.

"On arrival at Dunkirk, there was no berth available alongside the pier, four destroyers being alongside already.

So I anchored off and waited for a berth to be vacated."

So you've got to wait out there, knowing that they were going to come along, and with your bleeding, dying men.

Having just been shot at, to be then stuck out there waiting to be shot at again.

-You're vulnerable and you're helpless and there's nothing you can do.

-"I proceeded alongside.

About 1,000 troops were embarked, and I sailed."

1,000?

-Yes.

On his ship?

-Yes.

So, it's getting -- -That's 10 times as many people as it was built for.

-They're getting more and more desperate.

The survival of the British army depends on this.

And if the British army doesn't get home, then what happens?

-Yeah.

-It's the end of the war.

-The Dunkirk evacuation lasted for nine days.

My grandfather's report reveals he made four trips over four days with very little rest.

-So it was basically constant action.

And in the end, they got well over 300,000 off.

And of those 300,000, 2,919 came back on this ship.

-2,919 on Impulsive?

Wow.

And this is at the beginning of the war.

So I have no idea what happened to him afterwards.

And you think, it must be sort of relentless.

How do you get through that as a human being?

It's quite a lot to take on board, really.

Because this is a man, you know, I loved.

He was my grandpa.

He was a very different person from the person we understand this man to be.

-Mm.

-But it is -- I mean, it's unbelievable, this.

I do find it incredibly moving.

The navy saved the majority of soldiers, but Dunkirk is remembered for the bravery of hundreds of civilians in their little ships.

The evacuation came at a great cost to all.

Nearly 200 Allied ships were sunk and 66,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured during the French campaign.

I've come to meet Liz and Alison.

Their father, Leslie Maw, was inextricably linked to my grandfather's last day at Dunkirk.

Well, I know that you've got -- we've got something in common, I think.

-Yes.

-So, it's to do with your father... -Father, yeah.

-...and my grandpa.

-Mm-hmm.

-So...?

[ Laughter ] Spill the beans.

-Turns out your grandfather's ship rescued... -Oh, wow.

-Took our dad off the mole.

-Oh, that's fantastic.

-Yeah.

On the 31st of May.

-So that was the last trip back.

-We think, well, if it hadn't been for your grandfather, there wouldn't have been that, and then there wouldn't have been us four.

[ Laughter ] -Yeah, that's great.

That's really sweet.

Yes, it's true, of course.

That's quite extraordinary to actually have the... -Mm.

-...the proof, in you... [ Laughs ] -Yes, yes.

-...that this happened.

And do you know how he got to Impulsive?

Did he go along the... -It was on the mole.

It was on the mole.

It managed to get in.

I think was the only one that could get in that close.

So, of course, they were on the mole.

And he was yanked over, 'cause he described it -- he'd got to the point he didn't care.

-He was so tired, exhausted, hungry, thirsty.

-And very young.

-20.

-And they heard... -Ah, yes, he, the... -The captain.

-The captain.

-Oh, really?

-He says he heard the captain shouting, "Come on, lads" sort of thing.

-In many respects, we were so lucky to have our dad for so long.

We wouldn't have heard half of what he was able to tell us.

-'Cause I didn't know any of this, and I think part of that is because my dad died when he was very young, when we were tiny.

-Oh.

-So there was no one to tell us these stories and no one to tell us, so I'm discovering a whole kind of thing that has remained incredibly mysterious.

Just sitting here and imagining those ships out there... -Mm.

-I just find it very powerful to know all this.

They said, "If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here."

The penny dropped then about what that means, to sort of save a life.

I feel very lucky to be able to talk to them.

♪♪ -One might have thought that these boys of ours would be disheartened, to put it mildly.

The answer to that is in these pictures as the men come home.

-While the army recovered from Dunkirk, there was no rest for the Royal Navy and my grandfather.

To prevent an imminent Nazi invasion, the Royal Navy laid a huge network of mines off the coast of Britain, creating a ring of steel.

I've come to meet historian Nick Hewitt on board HMS Middleton.

-Impulsive was converted into a mine-laying ship.

So, actually, what we've got is a photograph.

And that's Impulsive.

-Oh, I see.

And these are all mines.

-So, these are all mines.

-Oh, goodness.

-30 mines on each side of the ship, so sixty in total.

And then the after gun's been removed and the forward gun's been removed.

-Oh, yes, I see.

-And it changes her purpose entirely.

What you do when you convert them into a minelayer is you take off the torpedoes, and they also have to steam incredibly slowly.

-Oh, so they're a sort of sitting duck.

-That's how you lay mines.

-Oh, but that's awful.

-It's really bad.

It suddenly makes the job a lot more dangerous.

You're steaming around on a ship that's got tons and tons of high explosives stored on the upper deck.

It's like driving a gigantic bomb around, basically.

-Terrifying.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Throughout 1940, my grandfather was sent on a series of covert operations into Nazi-occupied waters to seek out and destroy the German navy.

-What they do is they come up with a clever but dangerous technique.

They lay the British mines in the German minefields.

-But how do they do that?

How do they -- -So, very carefully, is the answer.

In the dark, with the enemy looking for you.

-The nerves!

You'd have to have such sort of resolve and, well, just be so concentrated, and I-I can't even imagine it.

-Through all that mine-laying work in German waters, he is recognized for this incredible work.

So, I don't know if you've seen this before.

-No.

-So, that is his citation in the London Gazette.

The Distinguished Service Cross.

-Gosh.

Why didn't -- Why didn't I know this?

This is... -It's wonderful to be able to tell you, actually, it's just...

So, this is... People think of medals as being for sort of a one-off crazy act of derring-do.

But actually, most of them are for extraordinary performance over a period of time and bearing up to incredible strain and pressure and workload through a protracted period, and that's what he's been recognized for here.

-Amazing.

-That's a different kind of courage, to go out time after time after time.

-Yeah, the resilience is extraordinary.

-Resilience is a great word, yeah.

-Start us off.

♪♪ -It must have been exhilarating to be on those secret operations.

And it also makes me worried about how he dealt with that.

I don't know how a human being survives stress and terror like that without having some kind of... being scarred by it in some way.

Over 250,000 mines laid by the Royal Navy helped stave off a German invasion.

And in the summer of 1941, Hitler's attempt to conquer Russia meant Britain had a new and powerful ally.

-One Russian city after the other was overrun by the invader.

This was Blitzkrieg at its best.

-But Russia desperately needed help to survive the initial onslaught, and the navy was the only force that could deliver weapons and supplies in the huge volumes that were needed.

♪♪ Nearly 80 years ago, my grandfather William Scott Thomas was sent to Loch Ewe, deep in the Scottish Highlands.

In those days, it was a top-secret naval base.

Local resident Elizabeth Miles has discovered her house contained a hidden chapter of World War II history.

-I knew nothing at all about the Arctic convoys until we bought this house in 1991, but gradually, we would receive a knock on the door and we would open it and there would be two, three, four veterans standing there and they would come in.

And over the years, we've listened to all their stories.

And they would explain to us, the house actually became the command headquarters for the Russian Arctic convoys.

So your grandfather would most certainly have been inside there to receive his instructions.

-So, can you tell me what the Russian Arctic convoys actually did?

-Large groups of ships carried vital supplies to Russia -- huge amounts of armaments, thousands of tanks, all manner of stuff.

And actually, your grandfather was on the very first-ever convoy to Russia.

-What was Impulsive's job on this?

-She would have been constantly circling the convoy trying to protect things like the oil tankers, which were doomed if they were hit, to the extent they didn't even have lifeboats or escape vests.

There was no point.

-That's awful.

-Winston Churchill described it as being the worst journey in the world.

I don't think anybody could dispute that.

-The journey to Russia took at least 10 days and was fraught with peril.

Escorting unarmed merchant ships, my grandfather's destroyer stood in the line of fire to protect their precious cargo.

They were constantly hunted by German submarines and aircraft.

♪♪ -Northwards to the Arctic Circle rides the convoy and escort bound for ports in northern Russia.

-The weather actually was worse than the enemy.

-This is just astonishing.

Just watching it is frightening, isn't it?

It's almost out of the water.

What -- What's that?

Is it -- That's iced.

-Frozen decks, yes.

You could get a buildup of up to 150 tons of ice on the ships.

One ship actually capsized under that weight and sank.

So the men had to go out, constantly chipping with pickaxes.

You could only work a very short time on the deck.

Your eyelids would freeze.

You couldn't touch anything, 'cause your fingers would stick.

-And I suppose that could go on for days and days and days.

-Absolutely.

-As the supplies bolstered Russia's military strength, Germany intensified their attacks on the convoys.

-If men were in the water from a sinking ship, they could not stop to rescue them if there was an attack going on.

They had to keep moving.

I've heard recounts where young men would be in the water screaming for their mothers.

-Ah.

-The older ones, who knew actually that there was no hope for them, they would stick their thumbs up and shout, "Taxi, taxi!"

as the destroyers went past and try to make light of it.

-God, how did they cope?

-These are the things that I think the destroyer crews really suffered from afterwards, was the ones that they couldn't help because to stop would have made them a sitting target and they had no alternative but to keep moving all the time.

-Elizabeth has diaries from sailors who traveled on the same convoys as my grandfather.

So, "Lying between us was a destroyer.

She had a miserable and worn appearance -- Impulsive."

Poor Impulsive.

"They'd been to Russia twice and they had been at sea 37 days, running on one occasion, and they hadn't seen anything female for over three months.

They were in a sad way.

Nearly all had beards.

They were full of strange hatreds, neuroses, and dislikes.

And most of their venom was..." Sorry, it's really moving.

But how many trips did he make in total over the...?

-So, he completed eight convoys.

-Gosh.

Just -- I just -- It's sort of unimaginable, really.

-Yes.

-So, it is hell, basically.

-Yes.

Yes, it wasn't just... -You go mad.

You lose your limbs, you lose... you're in pain, you're suffering, and you go mad.

-Yes.

It was described as a three T's -- tiredness, tension, and terror.

-Oh, God.

♪♪ My grandfather endured the extremes of the Arctic Convoys over the course of three years, from 1941 to 1943.

Today, little remains of what was once a thriving wartime community that supported the fleets of ships that left here for Russia.

I've come to meet one of the last survivors -- John Roberts.

At 95 years old, he's been part of a successful campaign to officially recognize the sacrifices men made during the Arctic convoys.

He's also been researching my grandfather's service.

-One of the things that I admire about his career -- He was captain of a destroyer for four years or even longer, but I didn't know anybody else who did four years.

It was usually about two.

I mean, I was captain of two destroyers and then the Ark Royal, so I know what -- how responsibility can weigh a bit on you.

But the first destroyer I went to, the captain had been sunk three times already.

-Oh!

Well, that can't inspire confidence.

-Well... [ Both chuckle ] I got off before his fourth.

-[ Laughs ] -Anyway, the time came for us to go on a Russian convoy, and your grandfather's ship was with us.

-And this is your log?

-Yes, when you go to sea, you have this log.

"The temperature dropped slowly until it was always well below freezing point.

Spray froze as it landed on our upper works.

The captain developed a layer of ice two inches thick all over him and had to be literally chipped out of his clothes."

The captain actually had to be lowered by two sailors down the hatch into his cabin.

-And that's because he'd been on the bridge for too long.

-Yes, and getting spray coming over all the time.

-It's just so frightening.

-I've got here something which your grandfather would have been entitled to if he'd still been alive when it was issued -- The Arctic Star, which is the medal we all got.

-It's got his name on it.

-That's right.

Well, it was issued to him.

They can be awarded posthumously to families.

-Oh!

-Which I think is quite right because... -So this is -- this is for him.

-I have here a letter written by the Russian ambassador which was given to everybody who was awarded a Russian convoy medal.

"Dear Veterans of the Arctic convoys, dear friends, It is a huge privilege for me to thank you on behalf of the Russian government for the invaluable contribution you and your comrades in arms made to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

What you did 70 years ago, taking part in what Sir Winston Churchill rightly described 'the worst journey in the world,' was extraordinary, even among what is considered to be beyond the call of duty.

Your heroism will always be remembered in Russia and Britain.

Your deeds will continue to serve as the supreme expression of bravery and a high point in human spirit."

-Thank you.

-Yeah.

It's nice to know what they thought about it.

-Yeah, it's really fantastic.

I'm -- I'm clearly overwhelmed.

And I think that this... You know, this is a wonderful thing to have, to... -Well, I think that's its purpose.

Not just for the person concerned, but for the family to know that that was awarded because of what he did.

-Mm.

-So, I'm sorry, I'm a bit... ♪♪ Well, the medal is, um...

It's quite wonderful.

It's great, and I know everyone is going to be so excited, and I can't wait to tell everybody.

[ Laughs ] It's marvelous.

The Arctic Star was issued in 2012, after a long campaign by veterans like John.

I had no idea my grandfather was entitled to it.

The convoys delivered 4 million tons of vital supplies, helping to keep Russia in the war.

But this came at a huge price.

100 Allied ships and 3,000 men were lost.

And it really makes sense now, thinking about my grandparents, how quiet he was and how nonstop talking my grandmother was.

It must have so difficult with your family, your children or your wife, and how on earth can they ever begin to understand what you've been through?

Nowadays, we are far more open to talking about the damage that violence and trauma has.

But I think in those days, they just didn't.

And even me, being a little girl in a naval family, you don't want to think about those things, because you don't want to think about the terrible things they had to do.

My grandfather's war was relentless.

From the outbreak through Dunkirk to the Arctic convoys, he'd spent just a handful of weeks at home.

Now he and the navy were needed for the most important operation of World War II -- D-Day.

-The embarkation of troops.

They were allies with a common purpose -- the liberation of Europe.

-On June the 6th, 1944, over 150,000 Allied forces headed to the beaches of Normandy to launch the biggest-ever seaborne invasion.

Hello.

I know my grandfather was at D-Day, but I don't know what he did.

I'm meeting Michael Winterton.

His father, David, was a junior officer serving on my grandfather's new ship, HMS Verulam.

-Your grandfather was the captain.

And here is a picture of the crew, of the officers.

And there is your grandfather.

-And there he is.

Oh, what a fantastic picture.

Which one's your father?

This one here?

-So, my father's this one here.

My father wrote a letter five days after D-Day to his mother and father.

It's sort of very -- -I love the start.

"Here is my version of this invasion business."

-Exactly.

It's classic.

[ Both laugh ] -"I felt a twinge in the stomach at the thought of that arrival off the French coast.

The whole time, I was peering for the next buoy and the captain was firing hundreds of questions at the unfortunate navigator, who was racing trying to find the answers from files of orders only given him a few hours before."

I love the idea of Grandpa firing hundreds of questions at the unfortunate navigator.

-So, the captain, your grandfather, was very tough.

-I think he -- he was quite fierce, I've heard.

-He would have had to be.

-Yeah.

"Hundreds of ships, from battleships and down to small sweepers and launches, were milling around waiting to go in."

Just imagine that -- hundreds of ships.

You can just see it, isn't it?

"We suddenly all started firing, our target being fortified houses on the front."

Gosh.

"Of a sudden, the earth shakes and half the village disappears in a vast cloud of smoke.

We were all firing like mad now.

This goes on for about three-quarters of an hour, when we all stop and the troops go in."

♪♪ -That must have been quite dramatic.

-Yeah.

Naval firepower provided essential cover for Allied soldiers.

My grandfather was stationed off Sword Beach, where 29,000 successfully landed in a single day.

These men would help liberate Nazi-occupied Europe.

I was wondering whether your father spoke to you about the war.

-The only things he mentioned to me was the noise at D-Day.

At when they started the barrage, he said the noise was absolutely incredible.

And the shuddering of the ship, you know, as they fired.

He never said any of the details that were set out in that letter about D-day -- never.

-Yeah, it's interesting the way they don't... you know, they don't want to kind of pass on their experience, I think.

-No, and I think they had to.

You know, to remain sort of balanced in the rest of their life, it was compartment-- you know, they put it into a compartment and they kept it there.

-Yeah.

-Otherwise, you couldn't cope with it.

It would have crippled you.

-D-Day was my grandfather's last major operation.

Aged 41, he'd survived some of the navy's most devastating battles.

I've come to Portsmouth to meet someone who actually knew him.

At 19, David Caink was a wireless operator on board HMS Verulam.

Should I lead the way?

-You lead the way, yes.

Lead the way.

-It's quite extraordinary for me to meet you... -Yes.

-...who was on the same ship -- -On the same boat, yes.

-...as my grandpa.

-Yeah.

Most of the men never saw the captain.

-Oh, really?

-They wouldn't really know him, you know.

He was up on the bridge in action.

I saw him more than most men because I used to take messages from the W.T.

office, take the earphones off, and rush up the steps to his inside cabin, and he was in there.

I just ran in -- fell in, you know, with the boat doing this all the time.

He just grinned at me.

He didn't mind.

[ Chuckles ] They told me he had a short temper, but I didn't know about that.

-That might be where I get mine from.

[ Both laugh ] -Yeah.

-And had you been on the sea for a long time before you joined the ship?

-No.

-Were you a very young... -No, never been to sea in my life.

-You'd never been to sea?

-Never been anywhere.

-And were you joining a very experienced crew, or...?

-No, not very.

Most of us were learners.

-So, my grandpa... -He was experienced.

We were lucky to have him, 'cause it was pretty dangerous.

-And do you remember what sort of a man he was?

-He was a very good captain.

-Was he?

-They regarded him as the best captain in the flotilla.

He was excellent.

Very experienced.

Thanks to him I'm still alive, really, I think.

Yeah.

-Was it very difficult to maintain contact with your family during this time?

-It was, yes.

They never knew when you were coming home.

I saw the captain going for his train.

He came down the platform, and I was coming on the other part.

You know, both going the other way.

He was festooned up with bags and kit bags and stuff.

-So, when he was getting on that train... -Oh, yes.

-...he was probably going to find my grandmother and my father and my uncle and my aunt... -Yes, yes.

-...who were very -- who were small children.

Realizing that my grandfather was going back to our family is a very strong image.

♪♪ For some reason, I could never imagine that anybody remotely related to me could do such extraordinary things.

My siblings and me have grown up with this sort of mystery of our own grandfather because, of course, my father died when I was so young.

There wasn't anyone to tell us.

There was a missing link.

And now I have something to give my children, which is really quite precious, about who my family were.

Because they haven't really known anything up until now.

My grandfather and millions of others suffered terrible events over six years.

Now I appreciate why so many from that generation have remained silent about their experiences of war.

♪♪ He did his job very well.

He did it with a good heart.

And that makes me very happy.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Next time... -I'm Carey Mulligan.

My grandfather Denzil fought against the Japanese in the final, decisive months of World War II.

-It was pretty clear that a kamikaze attack was on the way.

-I mean, it's a miracle that he survived, really.

It's a lost chapter of my family's history that I've always wanted to explore.

I've never seen that picture before.

Goodness.

That's amazing.

"My Grandparents' War."

♪♪ -This program is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪♪ -This program was made possible in part by Elaine and W. Weldon Wilson and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.