Armistice day

[Bryony]

As it's armistice day I thought I'd share this with you, he was my Great Uncle.

The poem brings a lump to my throat every time I read it.

I will also remembering my Grandad who died in Burma in the Second World War, as well all the other brave soldiers who have died for our country.

 

[Aperitif]

I will also remembering my Grandad who died in Burma in the Second World War,

My Uncle is buried over there. He made it to age 25 before the railway took its toll. Fair play to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for developing the history of the events, as my Mum had no idea what happened to him (apart from presumption etc) until a few years ago.

 

[Berties]

We did a family tree a few years ago and I always knew I had a great uncle killed in ww2 but as we researched his final movements we found he was captured by the Japanese being moved by train to a pow camp and the train was shot up by the American Air Force ,his name appears on the commonwealth graves and in my parish church role of honour where I was born ,which by coincidence was on the southern news today as they held an armistice service at a German pow grave today a mass grave held over 400 bodies

 

[gbb]

My departed grandfather fought at Gallipoli and was gassed in France, but survived and lived to the ripe age of 92.
He never spoke of his time apart from seeing horses being winched off boats at Gallipoli. Such a gentle man, I'll never begin to understand or experience the horrors he and his like saw.
Total and utter admiration to them all.

 

[TVC]

My dad never talked much about the second world war. He served in the RAF in 44 to 45 as radio operator flying Wellingtons over the Irish Sea from Anglesea, but never saw much action given that the U boat activity was pretty much done.

It was only at his funeral when I spoke to his best childhood friend that I discovered that at 15 years old they both lied about their age and got jobs on the Tyne tugs, my father as a radio operator. So at 15 years old he was crewing tugs, towing bombed, burning ships out of Tyne dock to sink outside the harbour whilst still under attack.

Hero, but the old sod never mentioned it, so I never got the chance to tell him as much when he was alive

 

[slowmotion]

My wife's grandfather was blown to pieces by a shell in 1916. His brother was killed the same day. My father-in-law was still a foetus when it happened.
We are pretty lucky really.

 

[RedRider]

My mum's dad Albert died in '43 when a train crashed carrying troops in Persia/Iran. He was a sapper in the Royal Engineers, drilling wells with 7 Boring Section. I bet they had some wry laughs about the section name. He's buried in the Tehran War Cemetery. I'd like to know more about him and what happened to the train. I have a picture of him he sent to me nan just before he died, looking suntanned in his desert uniform. Strong-looking bloke, he rowed boats on the Mersey before the war.

My dad has a letter from his dad John written from near Caen just after D-Day. It's a lovely letter decorated with nicely drawn pictures of Disney characters. In it he asks my dad to remember all the German boys and girls in his prayers. I just about remember him as a very quiet and gentle grandad and was surprised he volunteered in his 40s. I asked my uncle about this and he said he thought it was after a terrible incident he witnessed as a fire warden during the Liverpool blitz when a bomb shelter took a direct hit.

 

[Bryony]

What courageous people they were, we owe them so much.

I wish my nan told me about my grandad she never really spoke of him I think she found it too painful even after all those years.

She did tell me stories about the war, the sort that for her were scary at the time but looking back she could laugh. One that always sticks in my head was when she had just made a load of rice pudding and a bomb got dropped not far from the house and it sent her big pan of rice pudding flying through the air and it ended up all over the walls and ceiling! She also got shot at by a German pilot while she was working out in the fields, they all had to run for cover, she reckons that he was just trying to scare them and missed on purpose because he could have easily have shot them all if he wanted.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I took my now ex father in law back to his childhood home in Dresden. The last time he was there was when he returned from the war as a 15 year old soldier in the verhmacht. He told me the road up that hill was stacked five deep with burnt corpses from the allied bombing.

 

[Sandra6]

I think this is the first time this month that I've heard 11/11 referred to correctly as Armistice Day, I'd almost forgotten what it was called so many people seem to be calling it Poppy day!
We tried to observe the silence in work (after I was hushed for not realising it was 11 when I arrived!) but a couple of customers insisted on being spoken to.