My nan never knew her father. He was a mechanic before the war and was conscripted very early on. He met my great gran shortly before leaving to go and be trained to join the RAF as a pilot navigator.
he was an incredibly good pilot and following many many weeks of non stop flying and fighting in the skies he was given some leave.
he came home to my great gran and married her.
they spent one weekend together before he had to return.
My nan was concieved during that weekend.
My Great grandad quickly rose through the ranks of the RAF as more and more or his friends died, he was soon seen as an experianced officer...he was 22.
he was called to join a special operation called "operation chastise" it was an elite group of pilots whose job it was to fly very low and drop a brand new bomb that could bounce. it had been invented by a gentleman called Barnes Wallace and as yet no one had seen it.
this elite group would forever be known as the 617 squadron or more commonly the "dambusters"
on the night of the operation he went and did his job. the bombs were dropped and despite losing most of his squadron he returned safely.
the squadron returned the following night.
when he returned to base in the early hours of the morning following a succesfull night he found that there had been many many casualties amongst the air crew that night and the german planes were destroying them in the skies.
despite having flown all night he got straight into his plane and went to help his friends.
unfortunatly his plane was hit by a falling german aircraft that had been shot down, his plabe lost a wing and crashed. my great grandad did not survive.
my great gran was 5 months pregnant.
my gran was invited to collect many medals awarded to my grandad posthumously but she nver did. she was incredibly proud of her husband but she was also angry that he flew again.
i have never met my grandad but Thomas Johnson, you are the bravest man i have ever known of and my poppy is for you and all those who gave themselves tp save others.
My paternal grandad was thankfully young enough to not be conscripted until 1944. he was sent to Japan.
i know the odd anacdotal story of the laughs he had and the friends he met but thats all. he would never speak of what really went on, and he never needed to. what i knoew of the war in japan and by his silence i can imagine even the best case scenario would have been horrific.
he had 5 brothers, 3 died. i know that 1 was in a very famouse battle but don't know which. it was not until quite recently i even knew of the 3rd brother, his eldest as he was born to my great grans 1st husband who died from a wounds recived from WW1. she then married my great grandad William Bell who tok on her son as his own and gave her 5 more.
my grandad gave his medal to his mum to be put with his brothers medals. my great uncle now has them. he was too young for the war but old enough to tremember London during the blitz and ome of his stories made for excellent school essays.
i am incredibly proud of the men in my family who fought for my freedom, despite not even knowing i would exist, im proud of the women in my family for having the strength to fight the war back home (my great aunt melted down pots and pans to be rebuilt as bombs, my nan made ciggerettes to help the soldiers moral)
war shouldn't happen, but it has and does and whether you agree with it or not the men that fight in them should be remembered as hero's each and every one of them