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Post by Alex on May 14, 2020 5:54:48 GMT
Neither of my grandfathers ever really spoke about the war, which is a real shame. My paternal grandfather didn't go abroad to fight I don't think but was heavily involved in troop transport within the UK and thus moved on to be a bus driver after the war.
My maternal grandfather was stationed in N.Africa and spent a lot of the war in Egypt but I know little of what he did there other than that he taught new recruits to drive (he remarked to me when I passed my driving test that he'd gained his full uk licence merely by correctly identifying the brake and throttle pedal of a jeep!)
So many men of their generation didn't want to talk about the war and what they'd seen and had to do. A lot of those who survived service overseas would have done so having killed many enemy men and once home, knowing they were responsible for the death of someones son/husband/brother must have been quite difficult to come to terms with. Most of them were just normal, usually young, men like you and I thrust into a position of having to fight to defend our country not the professional soldiers that we were able to deploy at the beginning of the war.
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Post by Roadrunner on May 14, 2020 7:27:00 GMT
My parents were both too young to serve in WWII. My paternal grandfather worked at Swan Hunter shipyards, so he was more than busy in the day job without having to join up. My maternal grandfather was in a similar situation, at Vauxhall Motors in Luton.
One great grandfather (maternal side) fought and was killed in Palestine during WWI. Another was in the Royal Horse Artillery and fought in France. He once want into no mans land to recuse a French officer and was awarded a very high French medal for his efforts. Another time he was shot in the neck, but survived, returned home and lived to an old age.
One great grandfather on the paternal side was also at the ship yard but still managed to get killed. A fire broke out on a ship which was being built and he went to rescue someone who was stranded inside, but also become stranded. Somewhere we have a newspaper cutting describing his funeral procession through Wallsend.
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Post by alf on May 20, 2020 9:27:53 GMT
My grandfather was stationed in the UK during WW2 at Netheravon as part of No.38 Group - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._38_Group_RAF. At one point, during the battle of Arnhem in 1944 (19 September), my grandmother received a telegram to say that her husband was missing in action after the Stirling bomber LJ939 he was a returning to England in as a passenger was shot down over Oosterbeek. In fact he'd managed to parachute safely out, only to find himself in the middle of the battle of Arnhem but eventually managed to be evacuated to safety. Jeez - I just read the "Arhnhem" book by Antony Beevor (whose WW2 histories are always incredibly gripping reading). The fighting at Arnhem was absolutely brutal, he did very well to get out of that one! This thread is making me want to add a Tomahawk or Kitthawk 1:48 to the current list.... I still have a Mosquito, Sea Fury, and Spitfire Mk1 to build... And I want a P-47 as its just such a bizarre, fat, thing to have been so successful/fast. I'm just finishing a great book by a WW2 pilot who started on Hurricanes in the battle of France, was frontline in the Battle of Britain, then worked with Hawker developing the Typhoon and then Tempest, both of which he flew operationally, including the Tempest around D-Day. It's incredible that he lived - at one point early on, at the end of the "phony war" in France he says the squadron wanted action finally - then one month later, after the Blitzkrieg started, 75% of the flying members of the squadron were dead or injured. He did months more of that, then the Battle of Britain, then loads of night flying - which, navigationally (in cloud especially) sounded more dangerous than anything. A great read ("My part of the sky" by Roland Beaumont - only available SH but I recommend it for WW2 plane buffs).
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2020 9:43:53 GMT
If you are really into aircraft models, there is an Israeli designer on the paper model site I visit. He has released some amazing aircraft models which are available foc. Some have been scaled up from the usual 1:32 to adult human length and flown by rc.
Amazing designs but they may take a few months to build. All you need is to print them out and seal the ink. Depron is the material used for the flying models but they are a bit big for paper tbh.
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Post by racingteatray on May 20, 2020 10:32:22 GMT
My grandfather was stationed in the UK during WW2 at Netheravon as part of No.38 Group - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._38_Group_RAF. At one point, during the battle of Arnhem in 1944 (19 September), my grandmother received a telegram to say that her husband was missing in action after the Stirling bomber LJ939 he was a returning to England in as a passenger was shot down over Oosterbeek. In fact he'd managed to parachute safely out, only to find himself in the middle of the battle of Arnhem but eventually managed to be evacuated to safety. Jeez - I just read the "Arhnhem" book by Antony Beevor (whose WW2 histories are always incredibly gripping reading). The fighting at Arnhem was absolutely brutal, he did very well to get out of that one! Both of these books about Arnhem actually reference my grandfather in the context of the crash I mentioned: www.amazon.co.uk/Air-Battle-Arnhem-Alan-Cooper/dp/1781591083www.amazon.com/Arnhem-1944-Human-Tragedy-Bridge/dp/1526732734An extract from the first reads: " Squadron Leader John Gilliard of 190 Squadron, flying Stirling LJ939, was hit over the DZ and came down at Park Bilderberg, Oosterbeek. The navigator Flight Officer Reginald Lawson heard the order to abandon aircraft and when the aircraft was at 1,000ft, bailed out and landed in the woods near Oosterbeck. Squadron Leader Gilliard was killed, as was the rear gunner Flight Officer Norman McEwan, and the two air dispatchers, Driver Denis Breading and Frederick Taylor, both aged 21. They were reported by Lawton as being killed in the aircraft, the flight engineer Flight Sergeant C Byrne, bailed out but was injured on landing and taken to hospital at Arnhem. Squadron Leader [R-B][my grandfather] from HQ 38 Group, also bailed out and survived.
Once on the ground, Flight Officer Lawson took cover quickly as he was surrounded by machine gun fire and two heavy flak batteries that were firing at a nearby aircraft. He decided to wait until darkness when he crawled for two hours towards the river. At about 21.30 he managed to make contact with a patrol of the 1st Airborne Division who took him to their artillery battery near Oosterbeck, it was here that he met Squadron Leader [R-B] and, the next day, the bomb aimer Flight Officer Cullen. They stayed here until the 25th when orders came to try to cross the Rhine, Flight Officers Cullen and Lawton crossed in an assault boat and then they parted."
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on May 20, 2020 11:12:12 GMT
In the 60s my Mother in Law worked at the Pensions Dept at Longbenton, Newcastle. Her boss had been a paratrooper at Arnhem and had lost an arm. He still drove a small sportscar, very fast, with his false arm clamped to the steering wheel, changing gear with his good hand. He took some of the girls in the office to a mine in Teesside (as you do) for a works outing, bringing a mate along to drive another car load of girls. That driver met my mother-in-law at the bottom of the pit shaft and they were subsequently married.
He did confide in me once that he'd had a permanently jaundiced opinion of the National Coal Board after that due to their inability to install decent lighting down there.
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