Episode 10, Ray and "Nick"

Before WW2, "Nick" Wells was an engineer who specialised in commercial vehicles. At the outbreak of war, he joined the Royal Navy and became an engine room 'artificer'. He was at sea - away from his wife and daughter - for four years.

Ray arrived shortly after the war was over. Born in 1946, he was an early baby boomer.

"Nick" didn't tell Ray much about his war but he did tell him tales of going ashore with marines in small dinghies to sabotage enemy supply lines in Crete - and hurtling perilously back to the UK across the Mediterranean. "Blood, sweat and tears," was how he described the voyage.

During one mission a torpedo hit his ship and a colleague in the engine room was vaporised.

Other stories included mentions of Murmansk and motorcycling in the desert on an Italian bike with a rogue flywheel.

The overall effect of his father's war on Ray was a lifelong wariness of moving parts in engines. He's never serviced his cars.

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