Evacuated from Dunkirk, France in 1940 while under attack from German forces. He was later captured at the fall of Singapore in February 1942 and spent the remainder of the war as a POW in Japan. He once recalled that while in Singapore, before the fall, they'd had only one bullet for each gun but not enough guns for each man and they'd had to hand them off as they came on duty. His favorite song was "Silent Night". They had sung it one Christmas Eve while still prisoners in camp.