What a great post everyone!

My grandfather was a mountain gunner and never really talked about it. The story that touches me the most was a friend of my family called Jack. Quietest most unassuming man you could ever meet. It was only after he died that the story came out of how in Africa, he and 1 other man singlehandedly defeated a Panzer advance - everyone else killed, one gun left - he had to drive a jeep back and forth to get more shells while his friend kept firing - Jeep hit with him in it, carried the shells the rest of the way and they got the last tank. Decorated for it - but not once ever spoke about it. We we were all in tears when we heard it..

My dad (well all of our family) were in occupied Netherlands. They were quite lucky, famers (my dad is a farmers boy) weren't sent to do forced labour in Germany. From what I gather for the food provision of course.

My granddad (never knew the man) was part of the local resistance and they have hidden people (downed pilots and Jews) throughout the war. Actually my dad was the one that would bring them food etc. as they kept them (the young Jewish children) in the swamps. My dad was the youngest and lightest of the kids so he could get to the shelter safely and would raise the least amount of suspision. A few years ago he met one of the Jewish girls that they hid for some time, he was quite taken aback to see her as he never knew whether she (and her brother) made it.

I remember his stories of how they "pestered" the Germans as kids (the horseshit in the sidecar was my favourite), taunted the collaborators but also how his dog got shot by Germans and how they stole food from "collaborating" farmers and gave it to the people that were starving.

But the most gruesome one I only heard about a year ago, some of the patrols of German soldiers ventured into the swamps and because they were quite heavy with their boots, uniforms, weapons, they sometimes died in there. He never told us that until last year how he sometimes stumbled onto a dead German soldier. That brought home the cruel hard facts, where a young kid (around 8 or 9 at the time) had to see that but also knowing that they could have shot him and his family if they were discovered harbouring Jews.

My mothers family was not spared hardship either although her dad was able to trade stuff for food and her uncle was with the railway so he knew when food trains were in the railway compound so they stole food from there. He (my grandad) was also lucky to find the German soldier that was supposed to take him to the German factories (forced labour) was kind enough to let him stay (my aunt was just a few weeks old) instead of dragging him off.

I grew up with a lot of stories about the war, in school, in the family and on TV. I was very interested in it to understand what happened and why. I think it is one of the most horrible institutions we have deviced as humans and can't think why people would take up arms to free others (I have been in the Dutch army for 2 years as well). I am however very very glad that a lot of people did.

I still don't agree with a lot of the "modern" wars as they are fought for economic gain more than anything else but I am still glad that there are a lot of military men and women willing to defend their country / people who can't defend themselves. Everytime I see WW1 or WW2 rememberances all the stories from my youth come flooding back and I can't help feeling sad that soo many people needed to die because of a few crazy people that were able to presuade a few countries to take on the world TWICE. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
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Thanks for typing that up Eugene.

+1

Last edited by Prop on 10th Jun 2014 5:30pm. Edited 1 time in total

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Been interested in both WW1 and WW2 for a long time and we're off next week with the Tin Tent to Northern France for a week of visiting cemeteries, trenches, museums etc all relating to WW1 and will also be at The Menin Gate one evening for the usual service of remembrance they have every single evening to commentate the fallen, it's an incredibly moving experience and to think they've held it every evening since the war is just too amazing to comprehend! It's so moving to see how many graves there are and should serve as a serious lesson to all nations of the futility of war.

IMHO it is both good and bad that memories of the two big wars are fading. Good in the hope it will never be repeated, bad that the lessons from it may also fade.

The commemorations should continue for a long time and I think education in the schools should really bring these wars up. Especially the holocaust, war crimes and warped ideology since those issues are still very much alive today.

It is very sad to hear Holocaust deniers or people that don't know about it, question the extent etc. are still all over the place.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Geneva Convention (its history and scope), the International Court of Justice, those should all be studied by every single kid in school. Because I really think that they are not getting the attention they need these days, looking at the amount of firebrand idiots walking the planet today, preaching hatred and extermination.

In one of my old places in Holland (the hamlet where the Dutch formally surrendered to the Germans after Rotterdam was bombed to smithereens in WW2 of all places) I used to walk past a memorial for a downed bomber (British) when walking my dog. I never have been able to not think about the sacrifice those guys made to protect their homes/family/country and liberate that less fortunate occupied countries that weren't able to do so themselves. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
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It's already forgotten or not known about by a lot of people Eugene, which makes me despair.

To a lot of people it is just dragging old cows from the ditch (Dutch expression) but the lessons that can be learnt from it are lessons needed today for the people that hold our future in their hands i.e. our kids. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

All over Europe there are neo nazi parties and you see them doing Hitler salutes and singing the Horst Wessel song, even in Greece, Ukraine, and Poland which suffered terribly under Hitler. I think every country has it. Tiny brained cretins.

I love visiting the Balkans and when you see all the expensive yachts in Dubrovnik and tourists from all over the world it's hard to believe less than 20 years ago genocide was going on.

I know things are improving, I'm just astonished how long it takes.

My partners grandad was in the sas of the era and were the first outsiders that went into Belsen to liberate it and all they saw were thousands of bodies many still in furnace and half way through burning as the Germans tried to fill the ovens,as the Germans were fleeing at the time they wanted to hide everything but no chance as the scale was huge it can't be imagined, I know he was a trained killer but what a soft quiet spoken gentleman when I first met him 25 years ago sadly he passed away 8 years ago but he was never one for medals and parades and fuss he called it bunkum it was what we were trained to do he said. _____________________________________________________
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Well said, ebajema.

Knowledge is always key. And the critical thinking not to blindly follow any jingoistc leader.

Just to let you guys know that FFRR was represented in Normandy this year by myself. Great thread guys and don't worry I also was impressed by the RR and Bentley too

It was probably one of the most memorable experiences of my life. And I was truly honoured to be able to jump onto the same DZ my forefathers did seventy years ago. We will remember them.

Bushy !

I had a treat last night... Sitting outside my local in East London, and got a relatively low fly past of a Spitfire !!(Battle of Britain Memorial Flight). All painted up with the "invasion" stripes

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living in swindon we are very close to lyneham,fairford and brize norton and we constantly get the spitfire and merlin [?] flying over....oh, and we get the b2,b52,all kinds of transport planes going to brize,lancaster,red arrows,and hercules to name a few.. ... - .- -.




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