Remembrance Sunday....any war hero Grandads?

[Tinkerboo]

Mine weren't officially hero's, but thought it would be good to share all the stories in people's families.
One Grandad was at Dunkirk and rescued by the boats, Granny still didn't hear from him for 2yrs and 'presumed he'd gone down with all the rest.' Meanwhile he was sent to Italy and took part in the terrible battle for Monte Casino.
Other grandad Polish. Captured in first weeks of the war. Escaped couple of years later, recaptured and sent to Norway by Nazis. never returned to Poland.
Extraordinary stoies, but not unusual in that generation.
Anyone else want to remeber and honour their Grandad/Granny.

it's just so tragic that even in this day and age, women become widows, children become orphans, and men die 'fighting for their country'.

(feel really sad now - my granddad died 8 years ago and I still really miss him . He was such a fine man, as well as a doting granddad. )

Hi geekgrrl

See you and your gorgeous dd are in the press again?

I'll have to beat the paparazzi off with a stick soon, notherner. ;) Where did you see us?

Both my dh's and my grandad were in the war.
Bizzarly although they never knew each other they were posted in the same place.

My Grandad didnt like talking about it very much. I think it upset him too much. I do know that he witnessed his best friend being killed and I think that traumatised him alot, even years on.

my grandad was in the 9th battalion royal tank regiment. he got a personal commendation from montgomery and a medal for his bravery. hes mentioned in a book about the war.

he saw things no-one should ever have to see but he wont tell me about it - but then he thinks im 5 - eg, i went over there the other week and he was showing me some of his collection and there was an old flicknife and he wouldnt let me touch it because "its sharp, poppet, and you might cut yourself"

hes got a hell of a collection of stuff, including a nazi flag, a collection of badges - all the regiments etc, hes got ration books, 1000s of photos, a bit of parachute silk, a jacket he 'liberated' from a german, just tons and tons of things.

he's bloody fantastic, my grandad. i love him so much and am in awe of what he coped with and all he did - he was only 18! and i observe the rememberence as a tribute to him personally as well as a general gratitude.

although he says the country has gone to pot and he wonders why he bothered.

This thread is wonderful. Is anyone else in floods of tears as they read it?! My Grandad, who is luckily still here, was in WWII. I never tire of hearing his stories, e.g. the time he was on a motorbike being shot at by a german plane and he had to throw the bike down a ditch to get away. When he got back to barracks he was told off for damaging army property because he bent the foot rest - never mind that fact that he stayed alive... He won medals and got mentioned in despatches but he keeps medals in a drawer and does not go to memorials. I think he likes to talk about it but he wouldn't want to brag about it in public. I am really proud of him and love to listen. Luckily, my Grandma is still here too - they have been married 66 years and are still together.
You can understand why their generation get upset by the lack of respect from some kids today and how they have everything so easy. It's very humbling to read this thread.
I also had a great Grandad who died at Ypres. Would love to go to the grave sometime.

What is Remembrance Day for? Is it to remember those who died or those who fought or both? Is it for all wars or just the two WW's? Is it done in any other country?

What I think is really sad is that these old people who endured such trauma are treated so badly today. I really would like to see decent elderly homes, decent pensions and decent fuel provision to keep them warm.

My father was in the RAF (Pathfinder Radar) and was one of the first into Belsen.

I did a tour in Croatia & Bosnia in 92/93....

yeahinaminute ....DH & I, and now DS(4) have spent many an hour in the Somme & Normandy

i was on duty at the victory in japan day in london as a QA (army nurse) a veteran grabedb hold of me and said 50yrs ago the nurses saved my life, i didnt thank them then so i am thank you now. i felt incrediably humble as if it wasnt for that person and many other like him i would be able to do what i do today.

From Wikipedia.....Remembrance Day (Australia, Canada, Colombia, UK and Ireland), also known as Poppy Day (South Africa and Malta), and Armistice Day (UK, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries; and the original name of the holiday internationally) is a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I and other wars. It is observed on November 11 to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. The observance is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on November 7, 1919, possibly upon the suggestion of Edward George Honey though Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917

My great-grandad was taken POW at the Somme and put in a camp in Germany. He was freed from the camp at the end of the war.

My Gran says he told her that he lived underground. There were grids where they could see the officers patrolling above them and my great-grandad and his mates made a metal coat-hanger device which they would stick through the grids when one of the officers dropped their finished cigarettes on the floor so they could smoke the leftovers.

My paternal grandad was in the forces from being a young lad and was stationed all over the place. I remember he told me that during the war he had had to pretend he had died by lying underneath one of his friends who had been killed.

He was a sergeant and according to my Gran, had his stripes taken off him for fighting in the pub.

I need to learn more about him while my lovely Gran is still here.

My nan never let Grandad talk about it- I remember an audible sigh from her when she realised that DH's Grandad was also a RAF man and sat near them at our wedding. She passed on a few years ago (), but for years Mum and her generation didn't talk to him about it.... now they realise what they missed he's given up, which is really sad.

I cried in marks and sparks today during the 2minute silence and my contact lense fell out.
I'm always so moved by the scale of the sacrifice of the generations that went before us.

The carnage of the 1st WW is particularly shocking.

my paternal grandfather was in the south staffs and the black watch (his dad was in black watch too, he was irish but g-nan was scots). he got some sort of medical discharge from one, went back in and re-enlisted in the other. he stood on a mine so that all the people in a french cafe underneath the hill he stood on could evacuate, then he stepped off the mine. my dad wanted to go in black watch too, but gf wouldn't let him. that's how my dad told me, can't ask gf now as he died in 79. still miss you gf

maternal gf, still alive , was in reserved occupation and enlisted in '42, he did tell me which regiment tho i can't remember which one. i know that he was a driver for an officer and that he was in monte cassino & egypt, and talked of the stern gang who were to be avoided at all costs. it is only the past couple of years that he has started talking.

i am not a religious person, more spiritual, but i thank the heavens that i haven't had to go through what their generation did. even though many more of my generation have gone to war.

i fill really moved by reading this thread .my lovely nan died this morning she was 101.she often told me storys of my grandad when he was in the war.i alway buy a poppy.but now it will always make me think of her as well.

drosophila, I couldn't agree more. Our elderly are treated appallingly (sp).

The generation that made all we have possible and they are seen as no more than a nuisense on many levels!

It shames me!

marymay, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. It was nice that she shared those stories with you.

My maternal Grandad was in the RAF he fixed planes in Eqypt and what is now Iraq and Iran.

My paternal Grandad was in the Army logistics corp, he was captured and spent most of the war in a camp in Poland - he never spoke of it because he was so traumatised

And my maternal Grandma's first husband died in 1944 when his merchant navy ship was bombed, he was not in the services as you think of them but the merchant navy did such an important job - ensuring supplies reached the UK and I often think of how tough it must have been for my poor Grandma who was left with a 2 month old baby and a widow at age 23 and who rather ironically worked in muntions in the war - bit on the wargraves site about him

my paternal grandad fought in the 1st world war for the Anzacs (we're NZers), the Otago regiment. He survived Gallilopi and then went to northern France, where he was injured and invalided out for the rest of the war. He died before I was born, but he lived with my family in London for a while and lived to a pretty good age in the end.
My dad has just been to Northern France with my brother to retrace his steps before he moves back to NZ and probably never visits the UK/France again. He is really glad he did it even though it was very very sad and solemn.

Just wondering do the Germans have a remambrance day or similar? As Geekgirl showed the death of all soldiers are personal tragedys. how do they remember there? Never thought of this until this morning.

My maternal grandad was at the battle of El Alamein. He was an engineer. He used to tell a story about how he was once lying underneath a truck when a pair of boots came into view, so he asked the person they belonged to to pass him a spanner. When the person replied, "certainly, my man" as he passed the spanner, Grandad realised it was Field Marshal Montgomery, out inspecting the troops! He was involved in a horrendous fire and lost his sight for six months. All this with my newborn mum at home. Mum's got a Christmas card with "to my darling wife and baby" on it, which always brings a lump to the throat.
Mind you, my maternal grandma suffered, too. As there was only herself and mum in the household, her rations were very meagre throughout the war, so she practically starved herself to feed my mum properly. This aggravated a heart condition brought on by childhood scarlet fever, and she died aged 36, leaving 2 dds, aged 7 and 15. Does anyone ever feel spoiled when hearing of the unthinking self-sacrifice of that generation, when all we do is bang on about "me - time" ?

tinkerboo check out the white poppy thread these stories are so sad

My dad in WW2 was a teenager in the RAF whose job was to stand at the open door of a Dakota shoving whatever payload they had out. And he didn't wear a parachute, and there was no strap or line holding him in the plane.

He kept lots of mementos (medals, books, training manuals etc.) which will be handed down to dts however dts1 can spot "Grandpa's airplane" from photos etc. which is sadly more than I can. He has a letter from one of his mates who was given leave because his wife had gone off with a GI, to read the letter is heartbreaking. This man put it perfectly the hopelessness of his fighting for their freedom when she could do something so cruel, I can't read it without tears!

Although we will never hear all his stories, he just doesn't talk about everything that went on. He does scorn the Americans who were so cocky they often crashed, he witnessed a few of these in Italy. And of course the anecdote I didn't believe until I saw an article about it, one of the payloads he kicked off the plane: donkeys in Burma! No, really!

There was also the time he was in Northern Africa and he was doing some dispatch work when he and a colleague had to hide in a ditch as the Italian army marched past. Turns out this was them surrendering and when they found out the next day they were ribbed about it mercilessly.