AGE 83, and diagnosed with dementia I am often surprised when one single word brings flashbacks.

In 1948 at Oakham Public School I spent a prep session playing Battleships.

That night in the dorm under the bedclothes with a torch I desperately tried to memorise the German Lorelei Maidens whose song lured sailors to their death on Loreley Rock, near St Goar on the Rhine. In fear of our bull necked German master Herr Wanstall who took small boys up to the attic in his lodging and gave them six of the best if they failed their prep test.

I still remember it today and what a great game Battleships is.

Captain Philip Pearce-Smith MBE, Holbury