What Grandad did in the War.......

blobb

The amazing machines thread appears to have triggered some good memories of 'Grandad / War' and the associated machinery. That got me thinking about what my Grandad did during the war, so rather than post these pictures in the other thread I though it might be interesting to see what you guys can share.

My Grandad was in the RAF during the war, he was a corporal and got injured in the eye as a tail gunner, I think on Lancasters. After that he became a driver.

One of his postings was to RAF Habbaniya, which for the uninitiated, was the main RAF base in Iraq (1936-58). Whilst there he used to drive this thing. It's an articulated Nairn Transport Desert Coach, commandeered by the RAF to transport personnel around the place. 

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach2.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach1.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach3.jpg

He went on to become the official driver if any dignitaries came to visit. We have pictures of him driving the official ambassadors car, with Anthony Eden getting out of it. We still have the official flags which went on the mini flagpoles on the front wings and his secret escape map, which he had sewn into his jacket in case he was captured.

He was posted to the royal palace in Iraq to watch over prince Faisal, and basically became his friend as he was growing up. He taught him how to play cricket.

Great stories to hear as a kid, sleeping in the desert with a camel to keep you warm and a pistol in your hand in case bandits found you out in the open! Real Lawrence of Arabia stuff.

Oh and he was an oppo of Max Bygraves, of all people, so we used to get all the 'You Need Hands' stuff, he could sing like Mantovani (not Max, he could only sing like Max Bygraves).

SO what you got? Stories, memoribilia, photos

EricTheWeary

I've mentioned it a few times on here. It wasn't a thing I knew about for a long time and I'm fairly sure my grandad never mentioned it but he was one of the survivors of the RMS Lancastria. Churchill banned press coverage of it during the war  and the incident has never been officially been recognised by Westminster ( although it has by the Scottish parliament and there is a memorial to it in St Nazaire in France).
The Dunkirk evacuation only took some of the British troops out of France. There was a second go (operation Ariel I think) to take the remainder and the former cruise ship Lancastria was sent to pick people up. No one knows an exact figure or anything like but around 5000 people were killed when it was bombed setting sail out of St Nazaire making it the greatest British naval disaster of all time. 
He still had to go back in the army after all that, ended up as gun instructor I think. Very hard, difficult man after the war but knowing something of what he went through does explain some of that. 

Hootsmon

18 months hard labour

Axe_meister

My grandad was stationed in North Africa fighting Rommel. There he got a massive distaste of upper class officers who acted like hooligans deliberately destroying places of historical significance and art because it was fun.
Also treating the regular foot (as my Grandfather was) like absolute dirt

boogieman

My paternal grandfather was a lorry driver in France in WW1. He never spoke about his military life at all. I'd assumed it was because he'd had a horrific experience and couldn't bear to talk about it but it turned out it had just been all very boring!

My maternal grandfather worked on the railways as a signalman and was never called up as his was a reserved occupation. He was sent away to the countryside for the duration of the war, well away from my granny. He then seems to have spent most of the war shagging his cousin and had two boys to show for it by 1918. War is hell.

Teyeplayer

My grandfather said very little but  was in North Africa and later Italy.

We were told that he was Reme although he married my nana, an Italian whose brothers were in the Italian resistance. I do know my Italian family were heavily involved in trying to get Jews out of Europe (I found this out at her funeral), a role which included some frightening visits from the gestapo. I'm sure that at the simplest level she was involved in carrying supplies up to the resistance fighters (her brothers) in the mountains and the few stories I heard when she was alive where horrendous, they only came out when she was upset. For me though the link sits elsewhere in the family.

My suspicion is that the role my grandfather played was a bit more involved, though this may be wishful thinking on my part. However, my mothers cousin (now in his 60s) recalls being taken round London as a child and being shown the sights by his father (my grandfathers brother) including where Churchills secret exchange was -this may or may not predate that being declassified, I haven't looked into it. Said son and father have both worked for the MOD and have numerous patents to their names, I believe it became a bit of a competition as to who could get the most - so I have a suspicion as a family, both brothers were more involved than they ever let on.

Heartfeltdawn

My grandfather on my mother's side was in borstal by his teens for nicking apples from a market stall. He was one of several kids, his ma popped out a double figure number of sprogs. When it came to WWII, he joined the Grenadier Guards. He went through Dunkirk and served in the North African and Tunisian campaigns. After the war, for a time he appeared outside of Buckingham Palace.

ICBM

My paternal grandfather was too old to be called up - he'd been in WWI, volunteered at the start and went right through the whole war in a front-line regiment (the Royal Welch Fusiliers) without a scratch, remarkably - and was in the LDV then Home Guard in WWII. He died before I was born so I don't really know much more.

My maternal grandfather was in the regular army in WWII and served in Italy, and met an Italian girl with who he decided to stay after the war - I now have relatives over there I know nothing about, apparently. I never met him, he never came back to the UK as far as I know. Meanwhile…

My grandmother met a Polish aircraft mechanic who had escaped from Poland after the German invasion - they were ordered to independently make their way south and east until they reached a friendly country, and after a few months he got to British Palestine, boarded a ship to Malta and eventually ended up in the RAF in England. Whether he met my grandmother before or after my granddad announced he was staying in Italy, I'm not sure… things were a bit complicated then I think!

Also, my father-in-law is older than you would expect for someone of my wife's age, and was in the Royal Artillery before war broke out - he was sent to France with the BEF and was quite badly wounded at Dunkirk, coming out on the last big ship - the artillery stayed until the end to try to hold off the advancing Germans - then invalided out and into the reserve, where he spent the rest of the war. He never spoke about his experiences until very shortly before he died, when he seemed to feel he needed to tell me. Some really horrific stuff.

stimpsonslostson

My Grandfather has a distinctive scar on his face was from grenade shrapnel... Or, according to his wife, falling off his motorbike when doing a wheelie showing off for her and her mates!
 He was just finishing his training when the war ended & (thankfully) never saw active duty. 

My wife's Grandfather was an artilleryman & got permanent hearing damage & some horrible memories to show for it. 

I think my grandfather was lucky. 

WezV

One was a conscientious objector.   That is probably not the war story you expected

The other was just a bit too young to see any real action, he drove a tank through Berlin just after the war though 

Nitefly

Paternal grandfather was a squaddy in WW1, but never talked about it. 

Maternal grandfather was of a similar age but I never heard of anything about him military-wise, although he dies at the age of 53 and had health problems all his life.


My dad was born 1925.  The day he left school (his 15th birthday) he went to sign up with his best mate.  Dad got assigned to work on the railway, but his mate got drawn as a Bevin Boy, and sent down the pit, so neither saw "active" service.


No "gap year" for those lads...

strtdv

My great-grandfather was killed on October 1st 1916 at the Somme.
He was fighting in the Canadian Expeditionary Force 24th Battalion, which he joined after leaving the Hamilton police service (he had emigrated to Canada from Ireland shortly before the war).
He was promoted posthumously to corporal. He was 32 when he was killed.

We've been to see his grave, the work the commonwealth war graves commission do is excellent.

Budgie

One Grandfather was a lorry driver, which I was really disappointed with when I was a kid until he told a few tales of driving in London during the blitz. My other grandfather worked for Rolls Royce and was bombed on several occasions, consequently he was as deaf as a post. The great uncles all ended up in the 8th Army in North Africa and Italy, which as a kid was far more interesting, although getting a tale out of them never really happened. A truly amazing generation.

axisus

My Grandad was a driver, he forgot to sign out one time taking a long drive up north. The parts factory he worked from was bombed and he was presumed dead and listed as such. Much happiness when he turned up again a few days later.

My dad was an aircraft engineer. He should have been refused service as he had a hole in his heart (from birth), but they didn't want to let a silly little thing like that get in the way and he wanted to do his bit. Wrecked his hearing though, he's had Tinnitus most of his life due to the aircraft noise.

My wife's nan was a formidable woman, she trained air crew, and later went to work with training at Bletchley park. She would sometimes dress as a civilian and cycle through the country lanes 'inconspicuously' with top secret documents in her shoulder bag.

lasermonkey

My maternal grandfather, who I only met when I was a couple of years old, was an air gunner in Lancasters. That's the only thing I know about him really.
 My paternal grandfather drove universal (Bren Gun) carriers. He was pretty much everywhere: Dunkirk, North Africa, Italy and then the Overlord landings and on through to Germany. He spoke very little of it, except that he almost managed to get a ride in a 601squadron Bf 110 "hack" in exchange for a ride in his universal carrier. He'd arranged the "swap" for the next day, but the squadron had already flown on to the next airfield. He was pretty gutted about that.

paulnb57

My Grandfather was a message runner in the WW1 trenches, would very rarely talk about his experiences at Ypers etc, and would then gloss over it, I know on one occasion he ran a message back and when he returned, the troops had gone over the top.......no one left he recognised.........

Home Guard in WW2

My Dad was too young in WW2

robgilmo

blobb said:

The amazing machines thread appears to have triggered some good memories of 'Grandad / War' and the associated machinery. That got me thinking about what my Grandad did during the war, so rather than post these pictures in the other thread I though it might be interesting to see what you guys can share.

My Grandad was in the RAF during the war, he was a corporal and got injured in the eye as a tail gunner, I think on Lancasters. After that he became a driver.

One of his postings was to RAF Habbaniya, which for the uninitiated, was the main RAF base in Iraq (1936-58). Whilst there he used to drive this thing. It's an articulated Nairn Transport Desert Coach, commandeered by the RAF to transport personnel around the place. 

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach2.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach1.jpg

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc23/blobb1/nairn_desert_coach3.jpg

He went on to become the official driver if any dignitaries came to visit. We have pictures of him driving the official ambassadors car, with Anthony Eden getting out of it. We still have the official flags which went on the mini flagpoles on the front wings and his secret escape map, which he had sewn into his jacket in case he was captured.

He was posted to the royal palace in Iraq to watch over prince Faisal, and basically became his friend as he was growing up. He taught him how to play cricket.

Great stories to hear as a kid, sleeping in the desert with a camel to keep you warm and a pistol in your hand in case bandits found you out in the open! Real Lawrence of Arabia stuff.

Oh and he was an oppo of Max Bygraves, of all people, so we used to get all the 'You Need Hands' stuff, he could sing like Mantovani (not Max, he could only sing like Max Bygraves).

SO what you got? Stories, memoribilia, photos

Those Damascus to Bagdad busses were built by a couple of Kiwi brothers, all scratch built. Always used to travel during the night when it was cooler.

They are featured here, jump to 15.33 although the whole docu is quite interesting.

Vibetronic

My Grandad was a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain, and was one of the last left when he passed away in early 2011 at 95 years old. I miss him massively. He never really spoke about it, but we have his log book which is very interesting (and scary) reading. I also got to fly in a Spitfire last year which was an amazing (and emotional) experience!  HIs details are at http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/SwanwickGW.htm

boogieman

My dad and his brother both volunteered for the navy in WW2. In 1943 Dad was 18, but his brother was underage and still somehow managed to blag his way in. My uncle ended up as a stoker on minesweepers in the North Sea and had a terrible time of it by all accounts.  Meanwhile my dad trained as a signalman, spent a bit of time in East Africa, then on to the Seychelles via India. He spent two years on Mahe doing nothing but sunning himself, came back with his hair bleached blond by the sun and his skin the colour of coffee. He never saw any action. In fact the only foreign combatant he ever saw was the crew of a Japanese boat who had already surrendered. 

peteri

One grandfather - 3.5 tours as a Lancaster pilot in a Pathfinder Squadron, was onboard the Lancastria after Dunkirk (turned down the George Cross as 'he hadn't really done anything') and also flew Lysanders dropping off SOE agents and the like.

Never mentioned any of the above, all found out after his death.

The other one - didn't make it, American bombardier on a B17 that went down off Belgium late 1944.


Spent many, many wonderful days with the English grandfather - he lived life after the war, bit of a Lesley Phillips character - don't blame him one instant 

IvisonGuitars

My grandad, who died a few months before I was born, was in the engineers in Africa and Italy, luckily for him/me, he was captured at Tripoli and spent the rest of the war in labour camps.