"'Mike'" wrote in message
...

a bomb dropped on H.M.S.Collingwood. Most were 17 and 18 year olds and
'volunteers'. On their service record the explanation "To serve for the
duration of the present conflict" would have meant that at the end of the
war they would have been released.

There were three ways of joining the RN during WW2:
1. You could volunteer and sign on as a rating for so many
years' service (just as in peacetime.)
2. You could vounteer "To serve for the duration of the present
conflict." These sailors were known as HO men (Hostilities Only.)
3. You could wait to be called up under the National Service Act
(1939) and then request assignment to the RN (or RAF). You might
not get it: most conscripts were assigned to the Army.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)