They shall not grow old ..

Old_Laytonian said:
👏 thinking of my Dad who lied about his age and served from 1939-1945
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Snap.

My old man ran off and joined the RAF at the outbreak of the war aged just 16 he to lied about his age trained as a rear gunner in Bomber command on Lancasters at Scampton the Police eventually tracked him down due to a letter he wrote to home they returned him to his parents 6 weeks after he had joined up and just 2 weeks before he started active service.
He spent the rest of the war down the pit as a Bevan boy (from South Yorkshire)
He was devastated he didn’t remain in the RAF and for years he blamed his parents for tracking him down.
When I was growing up I used to ask him why of all jobs did he sign up as a tail gunner in a bomber which was just suicidal “because they were short of them back then” he used to tell me “so it was easier to join up” 😞
 
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My father was a Royal Marine from 1940-46. He went through loads of shit with 41 RMC. I could write a book about his exploits. Brought us up on his own after Mum died. I’ ll never forget him telling us, ‘After you’ve gone through one battle you never want to go through another’ God Bless that generation. #neverforgotten
 
Thinking of my mum and dad, my uncle George, and my mother and father in law.

Don’t know much about my dad’s experiences in the second world war. He never talked about it and died when I was only ten, but I think he fought in the liberation of Belgium. Don’t really know how to find out more?

My mum was, as far as I know anyway, evacuated from London early in the war with the War Department to the Metrepole Hotel in Blackpool. The main reason I am now a seasider!

My Uncle told tales of being “dropped off”during the D day landings in the channel out of his depth (he was only 5 foot four) with a heavy pack on his back. Fortunately his taller colleagues hauled him forward until his feet were on the sand!

My father in law spent the war in the Fleet Air Arm on the North Atlantic Convoys.

My mother in law was the most genteel lady you could ever imagine, but incredibly, to me anyway, she drove lorries all across the South of England during the war through darkened roads with no roadsigns 😱.

👏 👏 👏 ❤️❤️.
 
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Grandad fought on the Somme and lost his brother there, aged 20, on the first day.

Dad was in the navy in WW2. Raids into Norway, Atlantic convoys, Russian convoys, Malta, Egypt. When he had a hip replaced in his old age the doctors found shrapnel in his leg. He also never talked about it and even threw away his medals. Mum retrieved them from the dustbin and I have them now, to show to his great grandchildren when they are old enough to understand.
 
In memory of a great Uncle (Coldstream Guards) who died in 1916 and is buried in Ypres, an Uncle of my wife killed in 1943 and buried in Dunkirk.
My Grandad who was in the artillery and deafened for life in WW1, My father who served in the Army Physical Training Cops during WW2 and survived, but didn't ask to fight, My Father in Law, again conscripted, who spent two days in a bomb crater at Arnhem under fire, before being rescued by the locals and spirited back to the UK.

I wear my poppy with pride.
 
My grandad joined Army in Singapore ( from a military family) and was a Sgt age 21 - was caught by Japanese in Burma and spent most of war as pow on railways

We were never allowed to speak about the war during his lifetime but my nan told us snippets

My mum told me he would wake up screaming which I was told was down to malaria fevers?? Suspect it was ptsd but no such thing back then or not spoke about .
 
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Jaffa_The_Hut said:
Snap.

My old man ran off and joined the RAF at the outbreak of the war aged just 16 he to lied about his age trained as a rear gunner in Bomber command on Lancasters at Scampton the Police eventually tracked him down due to a letter he wrote to home they returned him to his parents 6 weeks after he had joined up and just 2 weeks before he started active service.
He spent the rest of the war down the pit as a Bevan boy (from South Yorkshire)
He was devastated he didn’t remain in the RAF and for years he blamed his parents for tracking him down.
When I was growing up I used to ask him why of all jobs did he sign up as a tail gunner in a bomber which was just suicidal “because they were short of them back then” he used to tell me “so it was easier to join up” 😞
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Snap. My grandad was a tail gunner in a Lancaster. Was there a base in Kirkham?
 
Kirkham Prison used to be RAF Kirkham.


"RAF Kirkham was built by George Wimpey on 220 acres of land bordering the A583 Blackpool to Preston Rd. Work commenced in 1939 and the camp opened in 1940 as a training camp for RAF tradesmen. Up to 1945 it trained 72,000 British and allied service men and women. In November 1941 Kirkham became the main armament training centre for the RAF, with 21 different trades and 86 different courses on equipment and weapons varying from 22 rifles to 75mm guns. Pupils came not only from the commonwealth but USA, Holland, Poland, France, Norway, Czechoslovakia and Belgium. No. 10 School of Technical training was based at the camp from 1950."

redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk

Former RAF Station, Kirkham

c1980
redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk redrosecollections.lancashire.gov.uk
 
Graves said:
Snap. My grandad was a tail gunner in a Lancaster. Was there a base in Kirkham?
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No. most operational squadrons flew from bases in the east of england. linconshire yorkshire. RAF Scampton was home to the Dambusters. but the Winter Gardens was used to train radio operators / gunners . Out of the way of most of the heavy bombing . Blackpool did have a large RAF contingent. Wellingtons were contructed at Squires Gate. And would be flown to operational squadrons by WAAF. Women pilots . Could be wromg about Kirkham. My aunts cousin was killed in 1943 flying in a Halifax bomber in May 1943. Sgt J T Murray . All the crew were killed.
 
I wished I'd asked him more about what he did but they didn't like to talk about it. I know he was a Leading Seaman in the Royal Navy and radar operator. He was on the Arctic Convoys and around North Africa and also on a min sweeper. Can you imagine being 17/18 years old and spending six years of your life at war instead of Wetherspoons?
 
Old_Laytonian said:
I wished I'd asked him more about what he did but they didn't like to talk about it. I know he was a Leading Seaman in the Royal Navy and radar operator. He was on the Arctic Convoys and around North Africa and also on a min sweeper. Can you imagine being 17/18 years old and spending six years of your life at war instead of Wetherspoons?
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I got a few stories from my dad but not many.

His favourite was hanging over the side of his destroyer throwing up. The Chief Petty Officer walked up and said “Never mind [surname] better men than you have been sick at sea”. And then promptly joined dad over the rails and emptied his stomach.
 
My Dad was a Postman in Blackpool when the war broke out.
He was 36 years old at the time with 3 young children aged 10, 6 & 4 (me).
I remember him, eventually, after his training in Scotland, leaving us in 1940 and going to war.
He was a driver in the RASC. Went through North Africa driving with a trailer carrying Bailey Bridges which bridged
caverns for vehicles to pass over.
He was near the front line most of the time.
Ended up in Italy before demob in 1945.
One day my Bro' and I were walking up Regent Rd opposite the Regent Cinema.
There was a soldier crossing Church Street, he had a kitbag, rifle and other stuff on him.
He looked at us and said 'Are you Alan and David Pickering.' We said 'Yes'.
He said 'I'm your Dad'. We didn't know or recognise him.
 
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Davepick said:
My Dad was a Postman in Blackpool when the war broke out.
He was 36 years old at the time with 3 young children aged 10, 6 & 4 (me).
I remember him, eventually, after his training in Scotland, leaving us in 1940 and going to war.
He was a driver in the RASC. Went through North Africa driving with a trailer carrying Bailey Bridges which bridged
caverns for vehicles to pass over.
He was near the front line most of the time.
Ended up in Italy before demob in 1945.
One day my Bro' and I were walking up Regent Rd opposite the Regent Cinema.
There was a soldier crossing Church Street, he had a kitbag rifle and other stuff on him.
Ke looked art us and said 'Are you Alan and David Pickering.' We said 'Yes'.
He said 'I'm your Dad'. We didn't know or recognise him.
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Thanks Dave. That's a very bittersweet story of the different types of sacrifices people made.
 
Ny Brother, 19 months older than I, only ever wanted to do one thing.
That was to join the Royal Navy. This he did at 16 y.o.
Years later he was on a Destroyer (I think) near the Monte Bello Islands off the NW of Australia.
They were going to explode an Atomic Bomb.
All the men on board were told to stand on deck and face away from where the Bomb would be, a few miles away.
This they did and after the bomb went off they were told they could turn round.
The after effects of this was that many of the men had babies, many of which had some form of deformity etc.
My Bro didn't have children and I think this was always on his mind.
Years later , when he was 62/3 he literally drank himself to death. Went to bed with 2 bottles of Rum, and never woke up.
I always thought that the A Bomb fall out was to blame.
 
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Shandypants said:
My grandad was conscripted and was a rear gunner (5 foot 6 tall) he flew over Germany 32 times. Got pneumonia, suffered enphasmia and suffered all his life. My great grandad died at 29 in the 1st World War, an utterly pointless event that had zero to do with freedom etc that I see banded about. War is wretched..
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It is indeed - might be worth telling that to our new Foreign Sect as his Gov stands back and watch thousands get murdered daily.
 
We’re currently liaising with the Royal British Legion and also the French organisers of the 80th Commemoration of the D Day landings next year. As a D Day veteran, Dad’s never taken part in any of the ceremonies before but we thought why not arrange for him to return to Normandy one more time seeing as it’s the 100 ‘biggie’ next year ..

The RBL have said there’s about 20 vets wanting to travel but they’ve all said they’ll let the RBL know nearer the time if they feel up to it, as obviously a lot can change in a few months at those kind of ages…
 
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Camberwell1 said:
It is indeed - might be worth telling that to our new Foreign Sect as his Gov stands back and watch thousands get murdered daily.
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why spoil thread by making it political. It's a thread about memories of relatives. Shame on you.
 
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20togo said:
why spoil thread by making it political. It's a thread about memories of relatives. Shame on you.
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I responded to Shandypants point and his point ‘War is wretched’ for which I used the latest example in the Middle East

The only matter shameful is our political disinterest in stopping it - that was my point and that was the point of very many of our MPs yesterday voting on attempting to pause (at least) the carnage and non-military personnel open murder

War is wretched and there hasn’t been a more unpalatable example of
It in the last month in my life time imho
 
Camberwell1 said:
I responded to Shandypants point and his point ‘War is wretched’ for which I used the latest example in the Middle East

The only matter shameful is our political disinterest in stopping it - that was my point and that was the point of very many of our MPs yesterday voting on attempting to pause (at least) the carnage and non-military personnel open murder

War is wretched and there hasn’t been a more unpalatable example of
It in the last month in my life time imho
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i won't reply on this thread again after this, NO-ONE and that includes Shandypants mentioned anything to do with politics. It was you who mentioned it. You are even doing it again. Shame on you.
 
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