WAR FOOTING

[topchippyles]

Afternoon to all and hope you are all OK, Little thought crossed my mind today while sorting out the tool box. I  am a grandson of a world war 2 hero and my IDOL, Reason i am a wood butcher is due to my late grandfather who passed away back in the eighties but the enjoyment and time we spend together has a massive bearing on how i have lived my life, They got caught by the japs and most died (cannot imagine)  What a tough time that was and now we are dealing with this shit is just baffling (EGGS)  would be in charge of the shit bucket (expert) at the utilities of natures needs (NEW CAP)  coming eggs 

[trigger_andy]

My Great Grandfather was a WW1 and WW2 Vet. He had some amazing stories to tell but never told me any of them. Some where told to my Old Man and passed down to me. He had numerous roles in the war. One story was he was sent on night missions with his Riffle but he liked the German equivalent much more. So he had one stashed away and used that, but had to fire off some rounds with his riffle and show his superior the casings to prove he'd used it. He was also lined up against a ditch with his buddies and machine gunned by the Germans, through pure luck they missed him but he pretended to die with the others and had to wait to dark to escape. He also hated crawling along trenches doing the missions he was on as he'd often put his hand and arms through peoples bodies and he'd puke his guts up, he ended up taking his chances along the top at times (night). He dies at 92 and hated the Germans til he died. We'd play Chess up till when he got really ill. He also let me have a swig of his home brew and a pinch of snuff when I was about 6.  Until my mother found out. When we emptied out his loft there was so much up there. I wish I was allowed to keep some, but most of it all went in the skip.  A lot of WW2 bring back from the Nazis and British. What was worth anything was sold. What was now illegal I have no idea. 

[daveindales]

Following on from them stories. My grandfather was in WW2 and ended up being machine gunned and shot through the shoulder. His mate next to him got it in the head and was killed. He told me many stories (and was also my idol). How they were held up at Caan for a month, meeting the Russians at Lubeck, who he described as 'bloody awful'

[daveindales]

Many a time I've thought what would have happened if that bullit was a few inches to the left and got him in the head. No Mother, no me and no kids??

[eggsarascal]

Don't have any personal family experience of the war, my farthers farther died of TB in 1948 after doing his bit, mums dad didn't have to serve due to having pneumonicosis (sp).

[Jcarbor]

My family are all military up to me, my great grandfather was killed at the Somme he was a career soldier in the Cameroonian Highlanders he also served in the South Africa campaign and the Boer war. My father served in Aden and suez, I served in the Royal Marines. My son has no interest whatsoever in being in the forces, to tell you the truth I don’t blame him.

 

[PeteB]

Mum's Dad was in the tree game, felling and converting before WW1 and was a sniper in Ypres where he met his future wife. Post war, as well as the timber, he ran the village post office from his house, poached, shot with local landowners, ran the local gun club etc. After he died, his kids met to clear out the house and found a cache of Martin Henry action guns, 410 in a walking stick and a fair pile of ammo of various sizes. The local Bobby did not want to be involved, so a deep trench was dug and the lot got pushed down with a sledge hammer! All the rounds got heaved into the canal. He never really spoke about the war....

 

Dad's  Dad was in the local tank regiment and was injured in, essentially, an RTA at Anzio. I once tried to talk to him about it and he just laughed and said "you don't really want to know all that boring stuff, I've got nowt to say".

 

My Dad was an Air Force pilot until the 1990's. He flew V Bombers with the atomic payload, with enough fuel to get to Russia but not  back. He flew spy planes in various countries, worked for Intelligence, flew air to air tankers, did Ops Wing for the Falklands flights and is officially a bad pilot as he had one more take off than landing! We find out some details of what went on but not much. Proud of them all....

[TIMON]

My Great Grandfather served in WW1 and 2. I only remember him vaguely. He was one of only a small handful made it back from his region. Most of his regiment got wiped out round about the same time, so everyone back home got the letters at the same time too, must have been awful, the whole area plunged into mourning.
Not long ago I went to the National Arboretum at Alrewas, Staffs to see the trees planted in memory of his regiment.

[peatff]

A chap I worked with when I first started work in 1969 had been a prisoner of the Japanese and forced to work on railway building. He was near retirement age and weighed about 8 stone when I worked with him at the foundry he had never put any weight on since his release. A Japanese trade delegation was visiting and he had to be given the day off he hated them so much.

[tree-fancier123]

My grandad had what I thought was a funny story - after Dunkirk he went India and Burma, he said somewhere in India the troops pulled into a station in a railway carriage and lots of Indian women were carrying water in some things across their shoulders like leather pouches, he said some of the troops would poke these pouches with a wooden handle or rifle etc so the water poured out  - the poor Indians had probably walked for miles with that water