In this first of a four-volume autobiography project, Colin Clay shares the events of his early life as a schoolboy near London before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, to his time as a soldier for the British Army in the Korean War from 1950-52. He begins his narration with his birth in April 1932 in a small town slightly north of London, England, at a time when political tension in Europe was rising. With the advent of World War II, Colin and his family moved 15 miles south of London where, both at home and at school, the bombers of Germany's Luftwaffe were attacking London almost every night, releasing whatever bombs they had left over the suburbs, which included the town of Ashtead where the Clay family now lived. As a schoolboy, Colin and his family endured the constant stress of German rockets, pilotless and heavily armed, flying overhead any time of the day or night. But peace came eventually in 1945, and the Clay family, along with the rest of the nation, breathed a great sigh of relief, and began once again to enjoy family holidays by the seaside. However, when he turned 18 years old, Colin found himself entering another time of war when he was required to serve as a soldier in the British Army, with the 1st Commonwealth Division in the Korean War. When he came home in September 1952, it was to begin studies at Cambridge University, which is where volume two of the next installment of this autobiography begins.