"I came here in 1943, when I was posted here with the Army to the camp on the seafront. I was with the amphibious landing craft unit.

Amphibious landing craft, or DUKW - an American code for amphibious tanks and jeeps - are craft that can go on land and sea.

The whole of the promenade was taken over by the Army. The big houses were officers' mess and ATC quarters, the house that the people know as Gwelfor was the military hospital and where the Red Dragon pub is now was a big NAAFI complex with a cinema and ballroom. You could dance every night of the week in Tywyn. There were dance halls all through the town - the amphibious lot had a dance hall with a 13-piece band and so did the marines at Llanegryn. There were lots of Tywyn ladies who came to the dances, but lorries used to go to Aberystwyth, Machynlleth and Dolgellau to bring more ladies to Tywyn.

The pubs used to shut at nine o'clock but it didn't matter because everyone in Tywyn belonged to the messes, so you could drink all night! During the war, there were about eight large Army camps round here and the queues at the cinema used to be right down the Gwalia. There'd be two shows every night.

The independent chapel in the middle of town was a forces canteen. You could go in and have a game of dominoes, a cup of tea and a bun.

The Army came to Tywyn because it was away from the south coast, so it couldn't be bombed so easily. Also you'd got every type of landing here - shale, mud in the Dyfi estuary, sand, sand dunes - every type you were likely to meet. They practised for the Normandy landings here.

There were Buffalo and Alligator tanks for the water - they could go over from here to Abersoch. We had a tank landing craft anchored in Aberdyfi and a ship called the Drake which was used for training.

They were most useful - put the tank on a landing craft, then when you get near the beaches let it go. If they hadn't had the DUKWs in the Sicily landing they would never have got in - it was so shallow, the big ships couldn't get close.

These amphibious crafts used to also get the goods off the ships out at sea and bring them to the land. They've got one you can have a go on down in East Anglia and the monks use one to go backwards and forwards off Caldy Island.

I was on the permanent staff. They were bringing trainees here, teaching them to drive these amphibious craft. The DUKWs we worked on at Tywyn were used to cross the Rhine and while they were loading soldiers to go across, a Tywyn lad jumped on and asked where we were from. We said Tywyn - and he was quite upset because after we dumped them over the Rhine, we returned to Tywyn - he had to go on into Germany!

The DUKWs were brought back here to Tywyn because we thought the army would have to invade Japan, but of course the Americans dropped the bomb so there was no need.

After the war, it quietened down a lot, although there were still two camps over at Tonfannau. We had to move from the prom because the council wanted it back!

Tywyn was still a lovely place to live after the war. I had never been to Wales before coming to Tywyn - well, I'd been to Rhyl for the day once on a choir trip! But it's the sort of place that grows on you. I had to go back to work in Stafford for 12 months in 1948, but I couldn't get back here quick enough!

I was talking to an old school teacher who came here for a two-year posting to the school in 1964 and he's still here - even though he promised his wife they'd be leaving!

It grows on you - I wouldn't go anywhere else in the world."