Yup, it's when you hear 'em first hand from those who were there that it really comes alive.
A good friend of mine's Grandfather (now sadly deceased) told me about a time he was on a Merchant ship in WW2 manning the anti-aircraft gun with another guy, and they were running low on ammo. While his pal carried on firing, he left the turret it was placed in and ran over to an adjacent gun to fetch some ammo back. Halfway back to his pal, the gun was hit and his friend killed and the gun knocked out of action. If it hadn't have been for that trip to the next gun to get some ammo, he'd have been killed too. Stuff like that must really freak you out. As far as I recall, that was in the Med.
I must try and scan some of his photographs sometime, because there are some real interesting ones that have probably never been published before, including a few of them picking up a U-Boat's crew after their sub had been destroyed. The thing that really strikes you in those pictures is how young the U-Boatmen look, it's quite shocking and it really sticks in my memory.
Chock