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What did our parents do in the war?


If you have visited Crete like I have the invasion is still talked about so much by the Greeks! We stayed close to Mamaras. A huge German war cemetery is there. They love the Brits![/QUOTE]

At the end of the war my dad's troop carrier called in at Crete for some reason. When they were all returning to the ship and walking up the gangway, my dad threw his gun in the sea with a great flourish. He was severely reprimanded. He kept his stripes though!
 
Your photos are just amazing .....what special treasures to have to keep x
 
WOW - What an AMAZING thread

Will make this into a sticky - easier to locate and read within General Chat forum .

Anyone else - moved to tears ?
I am this is all priceless - family history ,photo's and many loving memories .
Some memories very painful and personal too (I say with deep respect)
They all bravely fought or contributed in wartime for our future peacetime .

Amazing stories and so very humbling to read of I must add .
 
My dad ended up working in the Courts Martial office in germany after the 2nd war, around 1947. He had some tales to tell. One was of a british NCO who had spent the entire war in an army prison in Egypt because he'd been caught selling british army trucks to the arabs. On his release, he was reduced to the ranks and of course, still had to serve out his time. He sprang into action immediately selling british army petrol in a lay by on the german motorway. Apparantly, many soldiers saw british army stocks as private inventories to pilfer and flog off.

Dad got a bit worried though when he saw a file on his captain's desk with the name of the captain himself as the man to be investigated. Of course, investigating himself, he simply put a big red stamp on it, 'no further action required'. Dad did not look into what the supposed offence was.

His boss, the captain though interviewed many people during the post war years. One was a frenchman who had been in the french army when France surrendered. Of course, they were all out of a job and he had been a career soldier so when the germans started recruiting french soldiers to fight against the communists, he volunteered. In his mind, France had lost the war and this was now a different war. Having survived the eastern front, he found himself in the British sector and a british officer telling him that he couldn't go back to France. As a career soldier he didn't really understand why, he had afterall fought for his country and it wasn't his fault that France lost. He blamed those french that ran away to England for that, even though they weren't that many. But, the captain got this man a job with the french army in North Africa so he could spend 3 years there and then return to France in a french uniform again.
 
As this started because of someone trying to upset a thread. I am extremely humbled.
I can think of many stories that should be told and shared by those who have. Had their relatives. In the armed service and of course not forgetting the home front.

I grew up in a part of the Wirral near the docks which was bombed repeatedly.
The house I grew up in was separated on all sides by bomb sites. If I can remember there was 3 just in my road and a lot more down the main road where all our local shops. Most of these sites weren't built on till the mid to late seventies. We used to have our bonfires on them in November and there was great rivalry backed up by the local pubs.
They actually did bomb one of our chippies!

Cheek!

Or was someone trying to tell us all something! Lol!
 
I only recently found out that my grandfather was a rear gunner in a Lancaster during WW2. Like many others, he never spoke about the war to anyone.
My lovely elderly neighbours who have both passed away within the last couple of years told us many stories of their life in the war. One that sticks out was that when they were first married and lived in London, Mrs Jones worked in an office. One particular time she was taken ill with scarlet fever and was sent home. Later that day her office was bombed to the ground killing everyone inside.
 
My dad ended he war as a MP in Malay, but was sent home because of the malaria. He missed the rebellion there!

I have actually spent time in Germany on holiday and in business. Especially in Berlin, around the time of the wall and all the history therein. I have visited many sites including Spandau prison.
I did actually visit East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. Spent time around the Branderburg Gate. At that time the Ruskies were in charge and they really put the scares on me. Two soviet tanks facing the west, sealed with their dead soldiers in! Frightening! But fascinating!
The reichschancellory, American embassey, the different sectors, French, American, British! We stayed on an old lufftewaffen air base called Gatow. It still had the barracks with busts of soldiers mounted on the buildings that the RAF used.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Not many Lancaster rear gunners made it to the end, and they were so young.
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I really don't know anymore. I only found out as my father is a keen enthusiastic on warplanes and I brought him a "haynes" manual on the Lancaster and that's when he mentioned it and he didn't know much. I will have to speak to my mother as it was her father
 
It was good to read Ian's mothers account. The wives and mothers had to go for such long periods coping on their own , not knowing what was happening. From a limited experience I know that they probably spent time every day ,scared about what's happening and wishing for their men to come home yet having to keep themselves and the household running.Whilst they are away those left at home had to pay all the bills, make all the decisions, deal with everything alone and take all the responsibility For many women this went on for years. I suspect that when the men came home adjustment was incredibly difficult.

( my experiences were in easier circumstances and for shorter periods during more recent conflicts)
 

My grandma's boyfriend enlisted in WW1 and off he went. She was pregnant, although it isn't clear if he knew. My dad was born in 1915 and was brought up by his mother, who never married. Life in those days must have been dreadful for her, with the stigma attached to unmarried mums. She always wore a wedding ring and called herself "Mrs.". Throughout the war she waited for him to come home, but he never did. This affected her all her long life. She died aged 95. So sad for her, and my dad.
 
My mother in law had a colourful early life (my wife's parents had her quite late so they seem closer to my grandparents' generation). She spent a lot of the 1930s in Germany and was active socially in pretty high circles including the upper echelons of the Nazi party. I can't say much more (because I don't know) but when Rudolf Hess died in Spandau she was very upset. She got engaged to a German doctor but had to return to England because of the developing situation. En route she was interrogated in the Channel Islands because of the time she spent in Germany but then worked through the war as a nurse.

During the war she attended a parade in Manchester. In one of the marching groups she recognised a soldier that she recognised from Germany. They made eye contact. She kept schtum. I assume he was a British agent in Germany but who knows?

After the war she did return to Germany and managed to ascertain that her ex-fiance had survived the war and was married with a young family, so she was pleased about that.

A bit of a different story to most, but there's a whole spectrum of experiences. It's a pity she never kept a diary, it would have been fascinating.
 
Yes, my husbands family on the other side of the Mersey suffered damage to their terrace house in the bombings. Houses in 3 streets parallel were flattened. Bombs stopped by their back door, blew all windows out, lost all possessions but all family were safe. Always thought MIL would stop a bomb, even as a child.
 
Sitting here with the biggest lump in my throat. What an amazing thread!
My ex's grandad was blown up while digging the tunnels at the Somme and never left his wheelchair again, until.............
there was a thunderstorm and he dragged himself out using his arms and stood rigid in a doorway with fear etched on his face. What terrible memories must these men have had to live with.
My uncle was in the RAF and shot down twice and amazingly survived both times. Darling man then got killed back home in a car crash.
We owe them all so much.
We Will Remember Them.
 

I have to say this story does make me uncomfortable and I wasn't sure about posting it. But hey it's history and nothing I can do about it!
 
sanguine said:
I have to say this story does make me uncomfortable and I wasn't sure about posting it. But hey it's history and nothing I can do about it!
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Why should you feel uncomfortable? She was a young lass enjoying the privileges of high society in Germany as did many society people between the wars. She was interrogated and cleared, then spent the war in a much needed caring profession. I agree, had she kept diaries they would have made fascinating reading.
 
My grandfather on my dad's side was in some reserved occupation linked with engineering. He had told of watching the USA planes taking off and assuming formation in the skies above East anglia.

On my mother's side, my grandfather was in the RAF and she was in the WRAF, although he wasn't a member of flight crew.
 
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