Michael Portillo meets 100-year-old WWII veteran who survived 16 days stuck at sea

Norman Gibson, a 100-year-old former Merchant Navy sailor, has spoken to Michael Portillo about surviving 16 days adrift after his ship was torpedoed during the Second World War. His account recalls the dangers faced by merchant crews and the unexpected friendship he later formed with an officer from the German submarine that sank his ship.

Gibson enlisted in 1942 and was serving aboard SS Fort Buckingham in the Indian Ocean when U-188 attacked on 20 January 1944. Unable to launch a lifeboat, he and another crewman swam to a raft with nine others; the Norwegian tanker MV Ora rescued the survivors after 16 days at sea. The interview was published ahead of Remembrance Sunday.