Not fought but lived through the blitz.
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70 years ago today
- Thread starter franks brother
- Start date
Don Quixote
Well-known member
- Nov 4, 2008
- 8,362
Yeah my great uncle fought in the war. On the Italian front, he is actually Italian. Harsh.
The Grockle
Formally Croydon Seagull
Where abouts if you don't mind me asking?
Not a family member but a very close friend.He lived in Putney at the time.When you see old films seeing people screaming and running it was nothing like that.Infact the complete opposite.I probably did have family members who fought in the war but they have all since passed away.
Northstander
Well-known member
- Oct 13, 2003
- 14,031
My grandad was a lancaster rear gunner...most dangerous job in the war!
my grandad was on the big guns and my mum's got a big collection of brass ashtrays he made out of the shell casings that were used in the war. i've also got 2 german letter openers with the eagles head on that he pilfered from some office in germany. they have pride of place in my trophy cabinet. my mum's got his bayonet somewhere but she wont let me get my mitts on it til she croaks. respect to Gunner Cook
skipper734
Registered ruffian
My Dad was Sargent in the RAF Regiment and my Mum was a WAAF, wrestling balloons, in the war. My Uncle was RN in the first world war and my Ex wife was an RAF Squadron Leader in Desert Storm. 
GNF on Tour
Registered Twunt
My grandfather (still living) was at Monte Cassino, thats all I know, he has never once talked about, with anyone, he was only 19.
RexCathedra
Aurea Mediocritas
All those squaddies were in Iraq for their health, and are in Afghanistan for the scenery?
I would have thought more of Mr. Blair if he had 'raised the white flag', and politely declined Mr. Bush's invitation to join in his Excellent Mesopotamian Adventure.
RexCathedra
Aurea Mediocritas
IIRC, there was a legend that Gibraltar would fall if the apes ever abandoned the Rock -- like the ravens at the Tower -- so that at Churchill's command a couple of Royal Engineers spent the war as Barbary ape wranglers, keeping the colony fit and happy.
Not quite baboon wrestlers, but close.
jmsc
New member
My father was a Lancaster pilot, he rarely talked about what happened,
the dambusters raid "the film is rubbish, it was nothing like that"
the fire bombing of Dresden "I was just carrying out orders, I cried for days"
and.... "the tail gun charlies - real heroes!"
Men who saw the sharp end of action, rarely talk about their experiences. They are too painful. Brave lads..mates..best friends...lost... gone forever.
My Grandfather was wounded three times and returned to front-line action three times in WW1. He lost both brothers, one by his side in 1915, when 526men were lost out of a company of 600, without an inch of ground won.
My Father and Uncles saw action in WW2 ( one of them on minesweepers...hairy old job that ! )
bhaexpress
New member
Most of my relatives who were in the war have now passed on. My mother's first husband was killed at Dunkirk. I used to belong to a British Legion where many had fought in World War Two as well as later conflicts. Considering what they must have gone through I cannot ever recall any of them ever mentioning their deeds.
Anybody who puts on a uniform that brings them into conflict (and that includes the Police) has my thanks.
Anybody who puts on a uniform that brings them into conflict (and that includes the Police) has my thanks.
I think a lot of us had relatives in the war. My Dad started off in the Home Guard and in 1942 joined the Navy. He started off patrolling the North Sea (and sunk an E-boat), worked on the testings of the rocket-firing ships used in the invasion of Sicily and then commanded a landing craft on D-Day in 1944. His sister, my aunt, had a personal loss as her long-term boyfriend and then fiance served as a tail-gunner on a Lancaster. He was shot down and killed over Germany. Don't feel too sorry for her though, she got over it by dating and then marrying an American GI!
franks brother
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #37
My grandfather who dead 20 years ago was in the royal marines commander in ww2, but it wasnt till he died and we found out he was in the 30 Assault Unit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30AU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30AU
jakarta
Well-known member
My Grandad on my Mums side was a Territorial so went to France in 1940. Got evacuated from Dunkirk, was put on immediate leave and caught got on a train from Dover back up to Macclesfield. Aparently he walked in, went straight into the front room and fell asleep for next 48 hours still clutching his rifle with a live round in it!
Also fought in North Africa and Italy from 1942 up to VE Day so had a long old war. He was a gunner rather than in the infantry so that probably helped his survival.
The war still did for him as when he demobbed he was apparently a totally changed man. According to my Uncle he couldn't cope with going back to working on a building site with a wife and two young kids at home he hardly knew so he walked out one morning, no-one knows where - I have never met him & presume he is now dead but it is interesting that he was probably also a casualty of war!
Other Grandad was an agricutural engineer so in a reserved occupation but was avolunteer fireman and the Cheshire AFS was called up to both Manchester and Liverpool on a regular basis during the 1940-41 Blitz so he saw a fair bit of nastiness - interesting that he was the one that had a copy of Mein Kampf - maybe he was trying to work out what had started it all...
My wifes family were all Merchant Navy, her Grandad on her Dads side sailed down to South Africa on a regular basis but survived OK, was attacked by German aircraft on occasion but never (knowingly) by a U Boat. At one point he apparently didn't come back to the UK for over two years and wasn't allowed to write home so no-one heard from him between 1942 and 1944!
Other Grandad had been a Captain but had a probably more hazardous life as Piermaster in the Liverpool Docks which got bombed repeatedly. Apparently he would come stinking of smoke having spent the evening kicking live incendiaries into the harbour during air raids.
My wifes Dad got to do a bit of looting in Berlin in 1945 but thats another story....
Also fought in North Africa and Italy from 1942 up to VE Day so had a long old war. He was a gunner rather than in the infantry so that probably helped his survival.
The war still did for him as when he demobbed he was apparently a totally changed man. According to my Uncle he couldn't cope with going back to working on a building site with a wife and two young kids at home he hardly knew so he walked out one morning, no-one knows where - I have never met him & presume he is now dead but it is interesting that he was probably also a casualty of war!
Other Grandad was an agricutural engineer so in a reserved occupation but was avolunteer fireman and the Cheshire AFS was called up to both Manchester and Liverpool on a regular basis during the 1940-41 Blitz so he saw a fair bit of nastiness - interesting that he was the one that had a copy of Mein Kampf - maybe he was trying to work out what had started it all...
My wifes family were all Merchant Navy, her Grandad on her Dads side sailed down to South Africa on a regular basis but survived OK, was attacked by German aircraft on occasion but never (knowingly) by a U Boat. At one point he apparently didn't come back to the UK for over two years and wasn't allowed to write home so no-one heard from him between 1942 and 1944!
Other Grandad had been a Captain but had a probably more hazardous life as Piermaster in the Liverpool Docks which got bombed repeatedly. Apparently he would come stinking of smoke having spent the evening kicking live incendiaries into the harbour during air raids.
My wifes Dad got to do a bit of looting in Berlin in 1945 but thats another story....
jakarta
Well-known member
Well he wouldn't have fought long for Italy as they surrendered as soon as the mainland was invaded in September 1943, it was the Germans my grandad was lobbing shells at for the next two years.
Perhaps he was with the Italian Co-Belligerent Army which actually fought with the Allies from 1943 onwards?
I think that's probably what he means, he was invading his own country. Can't have been that much fun.