They sat down together and Ben pulled her close. ‘Lyn,’ he whispered. ‘You know I’m head over heels in love with you. I’ll never love anyone else as long as I live.’ It was the most romantic thing Lyn had ever heard – and coming from Ben she knew that it was true.

Gwendolyn’s hometown of Southampton was taken over by the Americans of the ‘friendly invasion’ as they prepared for D-Day. She fell in love with a romantic Italian-American officer, and excitedly traveled to California to be with him. But once there, Gwendolyn clashed with a formidable mother-in-law, who told her husband: ‘It’s her or me!’

Listen to Lyn describe an ack-ack attack in Southampton