70 years ago today

[FamilyGuy]

My Dad and his family lived thru the Blitz and I can remember the Shelter was still buried in their back garden when I was a kid about 1959, my Mum was evacuated to Devon, 2 of my Uncles were in the RAF (where one of them met my Aunt 'cos she was in the WRAF), my mother-in-law made Parachutes in Baldock, my father-in-law was a Royal Marine and fought across Africa and up Italy, his (future) brother-in-law was in the Royal Engineers detecting mines alongside him, my wife's Uncle was in the Navy on Convoy Protection and made several trips across the Atlantic dodging U Boats, another Uncle was stationed on the South Coast in 1940 "protecting 20 miles on my own", my wife's Godfather landed in the 2nd Wave on Sword Beach on D-Day............... never forget!

 

[beorhthelm]

I'm playing devil's advocate a bit here - but would Nazi Germany have attacked us if we hadn't declared war on them over the invasion of Poland?

no. the Germans admired the British and wanted to emulate us and our empire. the point about operation Sea Lion demonstrates this as it was very poor and hastily put together with the naval part hopelessly under prepared (barges from Holland carrying troops vs British Navy... yeah). it was certainly no blitzkrieg, Germany had made little attempt to significantly bolster their navy pre-war. I dont think Hitler was even that interested in war with France, he wanted free run of eastern europe.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

another Uncle was stationed on the South Coast in 1940 "protecting 20 miles on my own", my wife's Godfather landed in the 2nd Wave on Sword Beach on D-Day............... never forget!

He can't have been on his own because my Great Uncle Bill was there as well as a Captain in the RA..he was in charge "of all the guns on the South Coast" according to my dear old Nan...so there was at least Two of them.

Hitler must have been shitting it at the thought of the pair of them standing stiff backed and steely eyed facing the Wehrmacht down!

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

.......another Uncle was stationed on the South Coast in 1940 "protecting 20 miles on my own", my wife's Godfather landed in the 2nd Wave on Sword Beach on D-Day............... never forget!

He can't have been on his own because my Great Uncle Bill was there as well as a Captain in the RA..he was in charge "of all the guns on the South Coast" according to my dear old Nan...so there was at least Two of them.

Hitler must have been shitting it at the thought of the pair of them standing stiff backed and steely eyed facing the Wehrmacht down!

Hang on, there must have been at least five defending the South Coast because my father in law and his gun crew apparently had Romney Marsh to themselves with only a 6 pounder artillery gun and four shells for company.

My Great Uncle Alfred fought with the International Brigade in Spain and was with the Royal Engineers (Sappers) who landed in Normandy before the main invasion to clear paths through the mines, underwater obstacles etc. He's stayed quietly in Bayeux ever since.

 

[User removed 4]

Hang on, there must have been at least five defending the South Coast because my father in law and his gun crew apparently had Romney Marsh to themselves with only a 6 pounder artillery gun and four shells for company.

My Great Uncle Albert fought with the International Brigade in Spain and was with the Royal Engineers (Sappers) who landed in Normandy before the main invasion to clear paths through the mines, underwater obstacles etc. He's stayed quietly in Bayeux ever since.

have you ever visited his grave ?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

have you ever visited his grave ?

CWGC :: Cemetery Photos

XV.A4 - Battson. Front row, just past the marble cross on the rhs if my memory is correct.

 

[The Grockle]

My Dad went to Singapore in 1939 to visit his Dad who was on leave from the navy, war was declared in Europe whilst he was there but he was lucky enough to be able to get a boat to Canada (must have taken a bloody long time) where he lived during the war. Sadly his Dad’s submarine was sunk off Malta 1942, his boat the HMS Olympus had rescued crew from another sunken ship, only about 20 men survived by swimming several miles back to shore.
My Dad always tells me his memories of coming back to Liverpool. His mum had spent days explaining how beautiful a city Liverpool was but when he arrived she was shocked how badly it had been bombed especially the docks. From there they went back to Hampstead to the family home my Dad said the area where his house was wasn’t actually that badly bombed.

My mum’s Uncle was a squadron leader in the RAF and was involved in the liberation of Copenhagen. It’s a fairly famous story, he was leading a machine gun attack when he lost control at low level and crashed into a children’s hospital, unluckily the rest of the squadron assumed it was the target and opened fire. It was called the shell house raid

Video of British air raid on Copenhagen 1945 - Military Photos


If anyone else's family was involved in this raid or was ever in Peter Kleboe's squadron please get in contact!

 

[jakarta]

no. the Germans admired the British and wanted to emulate us and our empire. the point about operation Sea Lion demonstrates this as it was very poor and hastily put together with the naval part hopelessly under prepared (barges from Holland carrying troops vs British Navy... yeah). it was certainly no blitzkrieg, Germany had made little attempt to significantly bolster their navy pre-war. I dont think Hitler was even that interested in war with France, he wanted free run of eastern europe.

Unfortunately capital ships with no air protection are useless as the Royal Navy found out in 1941 when the Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese, who lost 3 bombers to sink 2 battleships - I am sure the Luftwaffe would done the same thing.

In fact if you read any history of the Battle of Britain it is clear the Luftwaffe did get air superiority over the Channel in July/August 1940 & stopped convoys sailing through there by day - the Royal Navy withdrew from Dover as they were losing too many escort ships.

Agree it was a poor invasion plan compared to Overlord in 1944 but had the RAF been defeated then the Royal Navy wouldn't have been able to get at the invasion barges and with no British Army to speak of we would have been defeated. We will never know of course!

Agree the Germans had no interest in competing with British surface fleet, hence they didnt even complete a single aircraft carrier. They were more interested in U Boats for blockade purposes and they produced a hell of a lot of them - the Battle of the Atlantic was probably the closest we came to defeat.

Have to disagree about France, Hitler was never to going leave a potential belligerent country to his rear before attacking Russia, although it must have suprised the Germans quite how quickly the French military collapsed in 1940.

 

[Brovion]

Hang on, there must have been at least five defending the South Coast because my father in law and his gun crew apparently had Romney Marsh to themselves with only a 6 pounder artillery gun and four shells for company.
...
.

Oh there was more than that. My Dad reckoned there were about 30 in his Home Guard unit. He said: "We each had a rifle and five rounds of ammunition. If a load of heavily-armed Nazi Stormtroopers had come up Thornton Heath High Street backed up with Panzers, flame-throwers and Stuka dive-bombers - we'd have given 'em hell!"

 

[Brovion]

Grandad was in the Home Guard as well (he was too old to fight in WW2 having done his bit in WW1). Here's a copy of his certificate he got:

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Oh there was more than that. My Dad reckoned there were about 30 in his Home Guard unit. He said: "We each had a rifle and five rounds of ammunition. If a load of heavily-armed Nazi Stormtroopers had come up Thornton Heath High Street backed up with Panzers, flame-throwers and Stuka dive-bombers - we'd have given 'em hell!"

Surely would have saved their ammo by just re-directing the "visitors" to Selhurst Park?