“At 07.42 hours, U-653 attacked again and hit the USS Gannet with one torpedo. She sank within four minutes.”The four hundredth year of the human settlement of this island, AD 2012, is drawing to a close, with Christmas just a few days away, following by the ringing in of the New Year a mere ten days hence, when the anniversary of four centuries of Bermuda heritage ends. Yesterday was of course the shortest day of the year, in terms of daylight, as it was the winter solstice when the sun reaches its lowest southerly declination, or from my vantage, it now sets over Wreck Hill having trending south from Morgan’s Island these last six months. While the dead of winter is yet to come, the blazing orb is now starting its northward track, culminated hopefully in lovely sunset over Ely’s Harbour for the summer solstice around 22 June 2013, the longest day and shortest night of the new year, six months away. So the Earth and the Sun continue to do their dance of death and life, if you will, because the former has an axis that is a bit off the perpendicular, compared to the latter. Pagans reflected on those phenonema with a ceremony or two.Advancing to the modern Christian era, at least for many in the Northern Hemisphere, Christmas should be a time of reflection on the past year and indeed those before, amid the celebrations of giving and receiving. Some like to see in the New Year with a bang or two, which is not what those in the trenches of Europe had in mind in the world wars, as artillery shells raced overhead. This is a time that some like to reflect on those who had such misfortune and in particular, those who did not make it out of the trenches or the wars, to lie forever in foreign field, some three thousand miles from home. There have been 94 Christmases since the Great War ended in November 1918 and 66 New Years since peace settled on a devasted Europe in June 1945. All of our men and women who served in the first conflict are departed on their last march and but a few winter solstices remain for the veterans of the second.One person who has reflected year-round on veterans, both American and Bermudian, is David O’Shea Meyer, who moved to the island a year ago. Including the story of his veteran father, Eric D. Meyer, of the 95th Infantry, US Army, David worked on the Library of Congress Veteran History Project, traveling across the country to record over 300 former military personnel, who had served in the wars of the last century. Before coming to Bermuda, David contacted the National Museum about interviewing Bermuda war veterans and the idea was greeted with enthusiasm and so a local vets project has commenced.Such recording is a labourious task, especially as the taped conversations must be transcribed to be of added value to the veterans’ memoirs. A group of military men have been interviewed here including Leonard Doars, George Fisher, Kenneth Dunkley and Herbert Tatem. The first gentleman volunteered with Company A (an all Bermudian troup) of the First Caribbean Regiment, an amalgamation of forces from the Bermuda and British West Indies islands. Private Doars saw duty in Italy and in Egypt, where Christmas leave in Cairo in 1944 was interrupted by strife and some of the corps were confined to barracks.Kenneth Dunkley was always interested in the sea and so he signed on with the Royal Navy and did patrols out of Dockyard on HMS Sumar. In early June, 1942, the ship was at sea off Bermuda with the USS Gannett looking for survivors from the cargo ship Westmoreland. The Gannett was struck by a torpedo from a German submarine and quickly sank, some 22 men being rescued by a daring landing by two flying boats of VP-74 out of the Naval Operating Base Bermuda.George Fisher went to Europe with the First Contingent Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps on HMS Mataroa, He trained as a paratrooper but was badly injured at Arnhem and taken prisoner; he was liberated from a POW camp by the US Army in April 1945.Herbert Tatem and many other Bermudians served locally, primarily in the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps and the Bermuda Militia Artillery. Some of the men were still in uniform eight months after the end of the Second World War, when a number were in attendance for an IATA conference at Bermuda in early February 1946.Those were but four of the men and women who served Bermuda during ten Christmases in the two World Wars. Of a percentage of population, the island was one of the highest contributors of personnel to the war efforts, and in the number lost in the course of those conflicts. So spare a few thoughts for those who yet survive from the Second World War and Vietnam and if you know any of those vernerable veterans, stop round and wish them all the best for the coming year and those yet unborn.Dr Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum at Dockyard. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.