Burt Richard Sadler was born in the suburbs of London in Hounslow, Middlesex [Annotator's Note: England]. His grandfather built a row a stores in 1923. Of the 11 children he had, Sadler's mother became his secretary. He retired into one of the shops he built. He gave one of the shops to Sadler's parents. Sadler was born in that shop. He enjoyed looking outside the shop window. There was a bus that would stop on the block for tea and snacks. Sadler would jump on the empty bus, open in the ticket deposit, take them into the house, and sort them. When the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: global economic depression lasting from 1929 to 1939] started, his father lost his job. He had worked for the Firestone [Annotator's Note: Firestone Tire and Rubber Company], then Gillette. Sadler was told to work for his uncle on Saturdays. He would knock on doors to gather grocery lists and then deliver produce. Sadler then took home whatever produce that did not sell. While he was at school, Sadler learned how to play soccer. His teammates called him Ginger and the parents called him Dick. He played through high school. Sadler started wearing a gas mask to school because he thought something was going to happen. Neville Chamberlain [Annotator's Note: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain] returned to Great Britain after meeting with Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and told the nation there would be no war with Germany. Not long after, Germany invaded Poland. Because Great Britain had a treaty with Poland, that nation declared war on Germany.

Burt Richard Sadler turned 15 years old in 1940. Not long after, he started experiencing German bombing raids. Sadler saw Spitfires [Annotator's Note: British Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft] flying overheard. He finished school and started working at the local grocery store. The store had a flat roof. When the sirens went off, they would lock up the store and Sadler would go to the roof to watch dogfights [Annotator's Note: aerial combat between fighter aircraft]. He saw Spitfires fighting Messerschmitts [Annotator's Note: German Messerchmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft]. He did not like seeing the British pilots being shot down, but enjoyed seeing the Germans go down. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was doing that to destroy the Spitfires. He wanted to land in England, but needed the British planes to be destroyed. During the last real German effort, so many planes were destroyed Hitler called off the invasion. After that, the nightly bombings of London [Annotator's Note: London, England] started. During that time, incendiary bombs were dropped. [Annotator's Note: Sadler shows part of a German incendiary device.] There were over 30,000 people killed in the bombings. When the sirens went off, Sadler would get excited to get the store closed and go to the roof. He saw more Germans being shot down than Spitfires. When they were shot, he could see smoke trailing the plane. The Battle of Britain [Annotator's Note: air war fought over Great Britain that lasted from 10 July to 31 October 1940] is commemorated every year in his area. Sadler attends the commemorations every year.

The bombings started getting hectic. By then, Burt Richard Sadler was 15 years old and had joined the local Boy's Brigade [Annotator's Note: an international, interdenominational Christian youth organization]. All the men of age had joined the military, so there was a lack of officers for the group. Sadler was promoted to staff sergeant. When the air raids would occur, it was exciting. Sadler received a badge for completing 100 hours of air raid precaution services. He would patrol up the street to keep an eye out for fire bombs. He found one on 16 February 1941. Bombs were dropping all around him. He was taught to pick up sandbags and throw the sand on the fire. The bombs were designed to break through the slate roofs and explode in the houses. This made it hard to get to the fire. The following day, Sadler managed to get a part of one of the firebombs. A warden came by and asked Sadler to show him how he put the fires out. The warden asked about the nearby candle factory. The warden showed him how close he was to being killed. Sadler was given extra money for his work that night. He wound up being featured in a newspaper article.

Just before he turned 16 years old, Burt Richard Sadler went to work in a factory that made grease guns for tank wheels. He was approached about joining the local army defense force. He was given a uniform and rifle. He started doing night maneuvers with other people from the factory. When air raid sirens turned on, he would hide in a gutter until the raid ended. He was then put into the Home Guard. He guarded the factory on Christmas Day and was allowed to fire his ammunition. He shot a big black bird. Two years later, Sadler joined the Royal Marines and became a Crossed Rifles Marksman. Kids in Sadler's locality did not get injured during the air raids. Other kids did get injured. Sadler wrote down all the bombs on every street during the bombing in 1942. One of his friends had a bomb land outside of his house. Four other bombs landed near the barracks. Had the Germans dropped one more bomb, it would have hit his house. He did not see any casualties. A factory and a Woolworths [Annotator's Note: F. W. Woolworth Company] and another factory were set on fire. When the bombs got really bad, he would go into the public air raid shelter. The shelter held about 50 people. The first time Sadler shot a gun was when he shot the bird. Some weeks later, he was taught how to throw a hand grenade. During that time of the war, things were not too scary, he just did what he was told. A couple days after learning how to use a hand grenade, Sadler was told a grenade killed another boy and the trainer. That was the closest thing he came to someone being killed in his early years. When he was still in the Boy's Brigade [Annotator's Note: an international, interdenominational Christian youth organization], he was organizing his group of 20 boys. He organized to bring the boys to Devonshire, in the South of England. He had them walk a mile to a town called Beer [Annotator's Note: Beer, England], where they slept in tents. One boy was autistic and Sadler did not know what to do with him. One of the mothers who came along knew what to do with the boy. They stayed in the field for a week, then returned to London [Annotator's Note: London, England].

In May 1943, Burt Richard Sadler would turn 18 years old. He did not want to join the Army because he saw so many drunk soldiers. One time in January, Sadler saw a friend walking around town. The friend asked him if he wanted to join the Royal Marines. Sadler liked the uniform. In January 1943, Sadler decided to join the Royal Marines. [Annotator's Note: Sadler shows his uniform cap and explains the difference between the Royal Marines and the United States Marine Corps uniforms.] The Royal Marines see themselves as family oriented. Sadler is a horary member of the United States Marine Corps. He helped form a celebration for the founding of the Marine Corps in the pub he owned. It is still celebrated, but in the local VFW [Annotator's Note: Veterans of Foreign Wars] building. Sadler enjoys explaining the history and similarities between the uniforms of the two military branches. He was made an honorary Marine in Florida. Sadler was told it would be eight weeks before he was called up for service. He was sent to the Chatham [Annotator's Note: Chatham, England] Marine barracks, where he did eight weeks of training. He had gone through a Marine medical test. Two Scotsman failed their medical test and were sent back to Scotland. One weekend, Sadler's squad did a marching parade on the barracks field. When the parade ended, the commander was disappointed in the squad and made them stay an extra week for training. Sadler, however, was chosen as the top Marine, also called "The King's Marine," in the squad and did not have to stay back. Sadler believes it was because of his upbringing that got him that recognition. He was sent to another base in Devonshire [Annotator's Note: Devonshire, England] for infantry training. He was given a test to determine his mechanical abilities. He wanted to join the Marine Commandos, but was told he was not old enough. He was instead trained in landing crafts. Sadler traveled across the country learning about the various engines used for landing crafts. It took six months to complete the training. He was interviewed again to determine his position in the landing craft. He was assigned to work with the engines. His craft was an American made landing craft [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Mechanized Mark 3 or LCM Mk. 3]. After his Christmas leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], Sadler was assigned to his flotilla [Annotator's Note: 652 Flotilla].

In January 1944, Burt Richard Sadler started training in northern England. They did training in night time amphibious assaults and loading and unloading their craft. Before the training finished, he was told to pick up Royal Army engineers, or sappers, and trucks with explosives in them. In April, Sadler was assigned to a specific landing craft to train with. He painted the inside of his engine room when he had free time. He would then put up newspaper clippings and pictures on the walls of the room. On the last day of May, Sadler's landing craft was assigned to go to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England]. Once he arrived, he saw hundreds of LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and LCIs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] loaded up with troops and equipment. Sadler's craft was designed to be carried on a larger ship and offloaded near the beach. He did not know what his mission was at that time. In South Hampton, he tied up to a buoy and raised a red flag so other people would stay away from the ship, which still had explosives on it.

D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] was supposed to be on 5 June 1944. Burt Richard Sadler watched the semaphore [Annotator's Note: messages produced by using flags] signals, but could not read the message. Once he got out to sea, passed Portsmouth [Annotator's Note: Portsmouth, England], Sadler could see battleships. The larger landing craft lined up behind the battleships. His craft was a bit too slow, but it managed to slip into the line. Once it got dark, the convoy started turning toward the French coast. Suddenly, it became apparent to Sadler that this was the real invasion, not a rehearsal. There were no lights, it was completely dark. The sea started to get rough. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was told by the weatherman that that was the last day of good weather for an invasion. During the night, Sadler could sometimes see the landing craft in front of him, but it would disappear behind a wave. All of the crew was seasick. It was terrible. In the engine room, Sadler could see water with vomit in it, which made him sicker. Around three or four in the morning, they felt a bump, so Sadler looked to see what happened. His craft was bumping up on the control ship for the Royal Engineers. The engineers jumped down onto the craft and they started moving towards the beach. When Sadler's craft started moving towards the beach, the battleships started firing. He could see the shells leaving the ships. Sadler could see the Warspite [Annotator's Note: HMS Warspite 03]. Gradually, he could see the beach. As he got closer to the shore, the naval shelling started moving inland. Sadler has photographs of the buildings that were rebuilt after the war. The Germans built pillboxes along the beach that caused crossfire. The Royal Marines landed on Juno [Annotator's Note: Juno Beach, Normandy, France] before Sadler got there. When he arrived at the beach, a Canadian LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] was unloading its troops. The Canadians and British landed with bicycles. Sadler had to get through some beach obstacles that had teller mines [Annotator's Note: a German made anti-tank mine] on top of them. The waves were pushing his craft onto the beach. The ramp lowered and the engineers offloaded with their explosives without taking any casualties. A Canadian tank moved past Sadler's landing craft. The tank commander and Sadler looked at each other. As Sadler looked forward again, he saw the tank turret rise. Sadler watched the Canadians run towards a concrete wall. A wave pushed the landing craft onto a teller mine, which blew a large hole in the vessel. Sadler could do nothing about the hole, but they managed to get the craft off of the beach. While out at sea, the craft started to sink. They made it to the side of the control ship and climbed up the scramble net. Sadler felt fortunate to have made it off the sinking landing craft. Sadler was interviewed years later and told the interviewer he was sad his unique engine room was sunk. While he was on the control ship, Sadler watched medics sewing up bodies in hammocks. After eating, Sadler walked around and thanked the dead. He could still hear the shelling. There was food on the control ship for them to eat.

Burt Richard Sadler remained on the ship all night. The next day, he heard the anchor rise, and the ship went into the English Channel to do burials at sea. On his way back to Juno Beach [Annotator's Note: Juno Beach, Normandy, France], he could see the remains of the landing craft. Sadler kept an eye on the coastline to see if he could find a landing craft from his unit [Annotator's Note: 652 Flotilla]. He found one, but it was blown up while leaving the beach. While waiting to set off for France, one of Sadler's friends pushed him off the vessel, but he could not swim. He started to drown, but was pulled back onboard. Many of his friends have told him he was a lucky person. Sadler did not smoke, so he gave his ration to the Canadians. After carrying supplies to shore for seven weeks, the Americans captured Cherbourg [Annotator's Note: Cherbourg, France], giving the Allies a port. Sadler's flotilla was sent back to England. He thought he would be sent to Japan. On 21 July [Annotator's Note: 21 July 1944], Sadler headed back to England. The weather got rough that night. The landing crafts were hard to see in the waves. They had no instruments, so it was hard to navigate. After ten hours, the ship started slowing down. Sadler went up top and saw he was back at France. The storm turned the ship around. At the end of the day, five of the 16 were back in France. A couple days later a landing craft carrier ship came to pick them up. Back in England, Sadler was retrained and eventually sent to Germany. He captured many Germans in Kiel [Annotator's Note: Kiel, Germany]. He was able to pick up souvenirs while he was there. Sadler went into a submarine base. He played with the controls inside one of the midget submarines [Annotator's Note: a small submarine with a two person crew]. The prisoners were put on a large landing craft and sent to prisoner of war camps. Sadler received an order at his floating workshop telling them to turn out their kit bags. Some of the men had to throw out the German weapons they collected. The officers were looking for new secret equipment that was attached to the submarines. On his 20th birthday, Sadler was patrolling on a German storm ship in the Kiel Canal. There were many sunken ships there. While on the night shift, the two Germans guarding the area with him gave him some German vodka. They drank together and returned to the base late. None of the officers heard about the incident. It was illegal to talk to the residents of the city. Sadler and another Marine sat at a bar with two women. One was Russian and the other was German. The German woman wanted him to bring her back to England. Sadler was shipped back to England by train. The French in Calais [Annotator's Note: Calais, France] were pointing out the women that worked with the Germans. Sadler saw the civilians shave the women's hair. They even threw out the women's furniture. Sadler was discharged just before his 21st birthday in 1946. He was given a civilian outfit and three extra months of leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He left the Royal Marines in August 1946.

Burt Richard Sadler did not have time to think about the end of the war. He thought he would be sent to drive landing craft in the Pacific. Instead, he was given infantry training in the north of England. He was sent to Germany during that time. When he returned to England, he heard about the atomic bombings against Japan. After the war ended, Sadler was stationed in Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England]. While there, he was told the war was over and was given leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. The Admiralty gave the Navy and Marines a rum ration every day. When a person was in battle, the men were given two rations of rum with no water. The day the war ended, the sergeant major gave everyone their rum ration. Most of the men had already gone to Southampton. Those that stayed were given more rum. By the evening, Sadler was drunk. He took a bus to Southampton to go dancing. He was given a blue Marine beret during the war. He staggered into the dance hall and danced a bit before he passed out from the rum. Around one in the morning the dance ended. When he woke up, someone had stolen parts of his uniform while he was passed out. It was a memorable night. There were Victory Day parades in Brighton [Annotator's Note: Brighton, England]. He was allowed to march with his rifle. The whole town turned out to see the parade. Sadler wrote books about his time in the war and moving to America [Annotator's Note: United States of America]. He enjoys living in America. He was divorced after opening a pub in his town in Georgia. The co-owner was also a Royal Marine. In Atlanta [Annotator's Note: Atlanta, Georgia], Sadler became the secretary of the local British Association. When Princess Anne [Annotator's Note: Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, The Princess Royal Anne] came to America, the association had a ceremony and they met the princess. She stopped and talked to Sadler. He told her he opened his pub and named it King George II [Annotator's Note: King George II of Great Britain], one of her ancestors. He named it that because it was King George II that was ruling England when Georgia was founded.

Burt Richard Sadler believes Great Britain and the United States will always be friends. He visits the Eight Air Force Museum in Savannah [Annotator's Note: Savannah, Georgia] and is a member of the museum. He enjoys going to its functions. During one anniversary, members of the Eight Air Force from around the country showed up. There were six people sitting at the table Sadler was sitting at. He asked a younger couple why they came across the world for the event. They knew many service men who had been stationed in their towns. Many of the Americans were stationed in England for many years and even married the local girls. Sadler's sister was dating an American during the war. The American found out Sadler was going to join the Royal Marines. His father was crippled, so he would stay in the downstairs. His "soon to be brother-in-law" would stay with his father at night. It left an impression on Sadler. Americans enjoy it when he uses the word "bloody" when describing things. When he opened his two pubs, his menus had an English and an American version. Many of the word meanings have changed since he immigrated. When he returns to England, he will accidentally speak Americanized words.