What did your grandparents do during the war (or great grandparents)

[listsandbudgets]

Was thinking about my grandparents last night and how they were involved in the wars. they all did very different things

My grandfather was an older father to my dad (IYSWIM) and fought in the trenches in World War one. He was exposed to mustard gas and left with life long breathing difficulties but was involved with Air Raid Precaution during the World War 2.

My father's mum was a nurse at one of the big military hospitals and also a volunteer for the WRVS.

Both of my mother's parents were farmers so were in reserved (and necessary) occupations. They had Italian and German prisoners of war working on the farm as well as the Land Girls and my Nana had to learn Italian and sometimes did translation for the military - not bad for a girl who left a very rural Irish school at the age of 12 and worked on teh land ever after

I don;t really know about DP's grandparents but I do know his great uncle was a code breaker at Betchley Park (DP would probably have ended up in the same place I think)

One was a regular infantry soldier in WW2 and the other was an expert at radio communication, so he was involved in that instead of front-line fighting. The latter's brothers, although too old to be called up, volunteered to work on mine-sweeping ships. Don't think any of them survived the war.

GF1 military service, fixing aircraft radios
GM1 no idea, never met her
GF2 still at boarding school
GM2 married, had a baby, widowed. Not sure what she did for work. Always avoided talking about the war.

DM was adopted so I don't know much. Her father was a solider and was probably old enough to fight in WWII. Her DM was 15 when it ended.

Other DGF was in the Indian army and fought the Italians in Ethiopia. DGM volunteered in India where she was born/lived then.

Grandma - Housewife
Granddad - Air Raid Protection Warden. He wanted to join up but his health wasn't good enough

Grandma - Housewife
Granddad - Worked for an aeroplane company at Brooklands. I don't know exactly what he did or for which company but I've got no one left to ask.

My Dads Irish and his family emigrated to Manchester in the 1950,s so his parents were not involved in the war, my mums Dad failed the medical to be enlisted,he had congenital year problems and subsequently died of heart attack in the early 1950,s but he was a volunteer fireman and they had two e Evacuees.

And my (step) Grandad was a cook in the army I think the was in Africa?

My mum's parents: -
Dad worked on an airbase for a while but was invalided out due to long term health issues.
Mum was an air raid warden spotter.
Dad's parents: -
Dad was in the 8th army and was part of an artillery crew. He did the maths to make sure the shell landed in the right place. He would never talk of his experience, and we're fairly certain he saw or was involved in some heavy fighting. Possibly El Alamein but we're really not sure.
Dad's mum: - by her own admission did nothing but flirt with American servicemen. Don't blame her, she looked like Kate Beckinsale. She kept a whole stack of photos of them!

DH was a very late baby and his dad fought in WW2 in the RAF. He worked on an aircraft carrier and it was his job to load the bullets into the planes.

My Grandad was in the 3 commando. Was in Normandy on D-day, missing presumed dead for a while. My grandmother worked in a factory.
Grandparents on my fathers side no involvement. They were Irish and in their teens(I’m Irish, mother is English)

One grandfather died as a result of the gas in WW1 and my other grandfather was in the Somme and was wounded.

In the First World War, my mother's father was in the Machine gun corps and was gassed, which gave him life-long breathing problems.
My father's father was an engineer, and worked for the man who invented the hydraulic machine gun synchronization gear which allowed airplane-mounted guns to shoot between the spinning blades of the propeller.
In the Second World War, my mother was first at school and then training as a nurse and my father was one of the team working on the development of radar (which he'd been doing since 1937)

Mine weren't born!

I'm 35 but my DM had me at 17 and same again with grandparents.

WW2 One Grandad in the Navy and the other a miner, so remained at home in his usual job. One Gran worked in a rope making factory and the other was in the WAAF as a telephone operator.

Something dodgy in India pre-partition
Munitions factory worker
Evacuated
Women's home guard type thing

Gran 1: A teenager
Grandad 1: Worked on RADAR, got taken as a prisoner of war on Crete. Germans took him to Poland as a pow and he and some other guys made a fake Monopoly set and played that for about 4 years. I think he was quite underfed. He had a friend there who he named my dad after later on and I named my son after my dad, so there's still a link to that camp. When the Russians closed in on Poland from the East the Nazis forced the pows to walk west through the winter. They ate frozen vegetables out of the ground and God knows what else.

Gran 2: She was a nurse in one of the London hospitals throughout the war.
Granddad 2: A pharmacist in one of the same hospitals (reserved occupation).

My grandad fought in ww2 returned home at the end of the war having been shot through his elbow. My Nan did the milk rounds with the horse and cart.

My dad was 15 when the war ended and wanted to be a fighter pilot.

maternal grandfather - fought in WW1, reserved occupation WW2 (civil servant
maternal grandmother - housewife and then 2 small children
paternal grandmother - housewife with babies
paternal grandfather - actually I don't know he died in 1945 in India, sent there for work. that kind of overshadows all I know about him

DH
from Netherlands, so under occupation.
paternal = farmers, but evacuated when Germans flooded the island they lived on
maternal = fire brigade and housewife/mother

My dad was in the REME in WW2. His parents were too old to serve but did a lot of work with the Salvation Army with homeless people due to bombing. My mum was not born yet (parents had a 31 year age gap). Her dad, my grandad was in a reserved occupation so didn't have to do military service. Grandma was a housewife and did things with church/community.

My paternal GF - was in Navy made it to lower officer level was in far east.
My paternal GM - worked, looked after two sets of elderly parents are raised two young kids in area that was bombed regularly - had Anderson shelter in their garden - DDad used to play in as kid years later.

Maternal DGF – was in army but I never heard much about it.
Maternal DGM - don't know.

DH - maternal GF army shipped out east fought a week then - prisoner of war of Japanese - he never forgave them worked on the notorious Burma Railway suffered with bouts malaria all MIL life.

DH Maternal GM - was evacuated then worked in factory where she'd been evacuated to and never went back.

DH paternal GF - Bevin boy - rarely spoke about it not idea about DH GM.

My grandfather was a bomb aimed on a B-29 bomber

DH
Grandfather: Batman (Butler) in the army
Grandmother: RAF mechanic
Grandfather: Navy captain of a escort ship
Grandmother: Navy, convoy planning

My parents were that generation- Dad was torpedoed and was in several different theatres over the course of the war- has medals to show for it.
Mum was a teenager living in a neutral country but her uncle was here and was posthumously decorated for his work in Coventry during that terrible night.
I watched a programme about it with Mum and she said she remembers the night her mother - sister of the man that died, was told of his death. It made my tough stoic Mum cry to remember it.
Another uncle (who was in the RAF) told me of the night he heard my dad's ship (his little brother) was torpedoed. He had to break the news to his Mum that Fad might have been killed. Took weeks to find out he was alive.

My paternal grandfather fought with the artillery in WW1 and suffered a perforated eardrum because of proximity to the big guns. My paternal grandmother, and aunt on that side both worked at Bletchley during the second war, I'm not sure if Grandpa1 fought in that one or not. We didn't find out about either until they had both died due to the seriousness with which they took their vows of secrecy. I was :o My dad was a young teenager during WW2 so he didn't fight or serve, but he used to tell me all sorts of stories of London during the war and finding shrapnel.

My maternal grandfather was an officer and in charge of supply trucks during WW2. I don't know how close he got to the actual fighting but he was a life-long military man.

My Grandad fought at the Somme. A photo taken of him afterwards is the typical "thousand yard stare". My Mum said that he refused to talk about his experiences but would break down if he heard the last post being played. He died before I was born from the effects of gas.

So many stories that will be lost. It was a different world.

Both my grandfathers were senior civil servants. One worked in London in the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries throughout the war, commuting daily from near Brighton; the other one was in India throughout the war.

Paternal GF reserved occupation, quarryman. Was in Home Guard though. Prisoners of war were set to work in the quarry. My GD would invite a different couple of them to Sunday tea most weeks
Paternal GM was SAHM

Step GF reserved occupation, quarryman worked with my GF. My stepmum also talks of the POWs coming for Sunday tea
Stem GM SAHM

Maternal GF engineer in Republic of Ireland. His sister joined the Women's Auxiliary Service in the UK and was killed. Irish great uncles volunteered for enlistment and became Bevin Boys working in U.K. mines.
Maternal GM SAHM .

Step GF reserved occupation bus driver also joined Home Guard and also Air Raid/Fire Watch. Several of the buses were turned into ambulances and he spent a lot of time driving the buses to Southampton to pick up wounded soldiers to take them to various hospitals. He said the injuries were horrific.
Step GM SAHM looking after a seriously ill child

DH's paternal GF too old to join up but was a train driver.
DH's DF and two uncles were all train drivers who joined up and fought in Egypt
Paternal GM SAHM

DH's maternal GF again to old to join up but was a farmer.
GM farmers wife
MIL's four brothers were older than her and all served. Three in the army one in the navy.

MGF: fought in WW1 - frustrates me that discussions about “teenage Tommies” conveniently forget that the regular army merrily shipped off people like him to France: he’d just turned 16 at the outbreak of war & was straight out to France, trying to pull a field-gun about with his 18yo brother. His mother had joined her sons up as soon as they left school at 14, never expecting... well...
In WW2 he ran a POW camp, I think.
He died before I was born, but (as was usual) pretty much never spoke about the war.

MGM: Was 3 at outbreak WW1, so didn’t remember much about it - she did remember the street party to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (not really street party weather when the Armistice was signed). Her wee brother died in the flu pandemic - he was only 2, & still called “Patsy”, hadn’t even grown into “Patrick”.
In WW2 she was a teacher, but despite being in a reserved occupation, she was desperate to Do Something, so she did shifts in a munitions factory.

PGF: Was a soldier in WW2. He’d not talk about it. Very occasionally an unguarded comment would slip out; & I know he was in both Italy & Germany because that’s how he learned to speak Italian & German.

PGM: Was in a reserved occupation as a Civil Servant, working for the GPO, on the telecommunications side of things. She was on a bus when the Luftwaffe decided that it was time for London to have a 3rd go at designing & building [a] St Paul’s Cathedral & got an unasked-for front-row street as the driver went careering through the streets trying to outrun the planes in his trusty Routemaster...