My Uncle Bill was in the Navy in WW2. He was sunk twice in six months, first on HMS Cornwall and then on HMS Martin in the med. There were many casualties from both ships but he survived. I suspect he spent most of the rest of the war looking over his shoulder.

My dad was in the Fleet Air Arm for his service. He spent his war travelling from Skegness to Scotland to the States to Canada and finally to Ceylon on HMS Indomitable. He never saw active service although it would have been a different story if he had been four inches shorter and thus able to fit into a Grumman Avenger gun turret.