Adele's uncle has got a piece in the local paper today as he was an air gunner in the RAF, so with it being the anniversary today, I wondered how many other folk have got relatives who were there?
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/bill-caster-d-day-story-7223361 (http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/bill-caster-d-day-story-7223361)
I have no relatives in WW2 My Mums dad was a in the fire brigade in Manchester due to having TB and My Dad's Dad was too old
My respect to all those that were involved in some part in WW2
Watching the ceremonies on the BBC today the most touching part was a veteran who was approached by 2 small French girls who handed him cards saying 'Merci ,Thank you for our freedom'
The Veteran said it meant more to him than all his medals that he has received from various members of the Royal family and other dignitaries
No, my Dad was a "D-Day Dodger", and proud of it. He served as an Able Seaman on Landing Craft in the invasion of Sicily, and the landings at Salerno and Anzio, and in the South of France. When the Atom Bomb dropped he was on Embarkation Leave to go to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. He knew what the Atom bomb achieved in 1945. Maybe we are all luckier than we think that the bomb was dropped when there were only a couple in existence, rather than launching us into the post war world with an Armageddon weapon which had never been used?
Mollinary
All my family were merchant navy. Probably trolling around the North Atlantic at the time.
I'm not disrespecting the Normandy Landings, but there does seem to be a lot of hyperbole about. "The Turning Point of the War" for example. I would have put that nearer Kursk in 1943, or even the landings in Italy which opened a 2nd front on mainland Europe.
My grandparents all too old and one grandfather in restricted occupation. Not sure if they were in the Home Guard or not. All I've ever heard is that there was a German PoW in my Mum's village helping out on the farms.
One of my Grandads was on HMS Duke Of York, but was training over DDay for Japan.
The other was in Iceland!!!
Adele's uncle was providing air support for my father. He was with 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire which was the lead battalion on Sword Red.
Quote from: paulr on 06 June 2014, 09:30:08 PM
Adele's uncle was providing air support for my father. He was with 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire which was the lead battalion on Sword Red.
I'll tell her that when I get in. Her uncle only lives a couple of doors away from Dave, so we'd known him as a neighbour for years. It was a bit of a surprise when after I met Adele to find out they were related!
39 yes got a photo in a book of them digging a foxhole in France , also some where undoubtedly there too as they were in 50th Division. Most were long gone before I got old enough to be interested. MY uncle was in a swordfish that went against the Bismark.
I interviewed about 50 veterans of Normandy for my university dissertation. Some of their stories made me laugh, and others had us all crying.
HIgh point of the day...2 old guys with their trousers round their ankles comparing war wounds, one never made it off the beach. As he went over the side of a landing craft to avoid incoming fire he opened his thigh up on an anti tank obstacle, he said (Geordie accent needed here)
Bonny lad ah clattered up the beach and was shootin' at Jorman's, whey suddenly this medic hoys himself doon aside me and said Howay mate your gannin haem.
Bugger off says me I am shootin Jorman's.
Whey Billy man your hit,says he,
bugger off says me kneeling up and pattin meself in the chest and heed
BIlly man.... its your bloody leg
So a looks down and EEEH ah felt a bit queer there, Ah could see me own bone through me trousers.
So they hoisted us onto a stretcher and chucks me on a landin craft goin back for more lads.
At which point second said gentleman looks at him and says... HAve yee got a hole in your leg.
Whey I says number one
Bugger me says second.. so have I
EEEEH they both say and to cut a long story short remove their trousers to inspect said wounds.
The second bloke had been 'clatterin along a road and some bugger shot an anti tank gun at him, (Well maybe not at him) It struck a cobblestone and went straight up, unfortunately his thigh was in the way. both wounds stretched from just above the knee to just below the hip.
I heard some amazing stories that day
My late uncle was there - on a support landing craft which prepared food, presumably for other small boats.
IanS
My late Grandfather landed at Sword beach today (DDay+1) as a Sgt in a REME LAD of a Royal Artillery Unit. He had served in the BEF, the Western Desert, the Invasion of France and the advance into Germany.
He served from 39 to 45 and survived without a physical scratch. His mental state however was never the same as when he left home according to my Grandmother.
He passed away at home in 1977 aged 58 from COPD and asbestosis.
He was my personal inspiration for joining myself in the late 80's.
My grandad went in at Arnhem and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. His diary now resides in the Kings own Scottish Borderers Museum in Berwick. He always spoke nicely of the guards who he said were in a similar position, doing what they had to do, they swapped stories for cigarettes and the like, they were treated well unlike in some other places.
Grandad on my Dads side I believe was in the Royal Engineers, but he never spoke about the war and my father in law was stationed in Egypt. He contributed a lot of material to the local heritage center.
My Dad was too young for WW2. My uncle enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1939 and was captured in one of the rearguard actions around Dunkirk, so he spent the rest of the war as a POW. He still felt that he had been lucky, as the SS shot a bunch of British prisoners in the next village along on the day he was taken.
My Dad was a "D-Day Dodger" serving in Far East. His unit was lined up for the invasion of Japan with their expected 90% planned losses. So he was relieved that the bombs and the Soviet invasion did for Japan in August 45.
Uncle Bernard also a D-Day Dodger fought up Italy only to die at Cassino
Uncle Frank died at Cologne on a 1,000 bomber raid.
Ironically in the first world war I cannot find any family who died or even wounded - one in Heavy Artillery, one in RFC (ground crew) and one serving 4 happy years in India
Such is fate
My Mothers dad was on montgomery's staff during the war travelled into Germany with him then met my grandmother when they moved to Mons.
She was in the Belgium resistance as a courier during the war.
My dads dad was in the Cameronian rifles
Sean
My Dad was 'called up' in May 1939 and served in 2nd Bn Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). He went to France with the BEF and like Sunjester's uncle was captured during the retreat to Dunkirk in May 1940, spending the rest of the war in various POW camps in Germany and Poland. He took part in the 'death march' across Poland and Germany in 1945 and was liberated by Patton's 3rd US Army. His experience of the German guards was a bit different from Genom's granddad based on how he saw the ordinary German soldiers treated (sorry, miss-treated) the Polish and Russian prisoners in camps next to his.
In the 1960's and early 1970's we went to Germany together several times and I wouldn't like to say here what he said he would do if he happened to meet one of those guards again......
Bearing in mind that he spent 5 years (of his early twenties) in prison camps I never remember him being bitter about what happened to him but thought of himself as being a lot luckier than so many others who did not return.
Thanks Dad.
Cheers Paul
Not sure where my Grandfather was on D-Day but he did end up in the Nuremberg Trials a year later.
As a trial photographer for the British Army !
On the other hand my wife's grandfather captained one of these on D-Day
(http://i1355.photobucket.com/albums/q703/ColdwelM/grandpaproctorsboat2_zps7ba1c5ea.jpg)[/URL]