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

MagicPigDetective

Both of mine had 'reserved occupations' so exempt from conscription. Not glamorous but some jobs had to be done.

One was a farmer. The other was a miner/joiner. He ended up working in the factories in Coventry where he met my Grandmother, they survived Coventry Blitz and my auntie was born there before they moved back to Wales where both were from.

My grandad's brother was a prisoner in Burma; he came back with a Samurai sword. I was told it was given to him by a Japanese guard he befriended; wondering now whether I was told a child friendly version of events. 

skunkwerx

My grandad's brother was a prisoner in Burma; he came back with a Samurai sword. I was told it was given to him by a Japanese guard he befriended; wondering now whether I was told a child friendly version of events. 

Haha would be interesting to find out! 
I have an 'uncle' of some description who was posted in Burma too, got a few pics somewhere. I have no idea how or even if I'm directly related to him or whether 'uncle' was just always the term my mum used for easiness when she'd mention him. 

I'll try n find them. 

lasermonkey

My great uncle was on Malta during the very worst of it. He told me about the time some kids were playing football with a downed Italian pilot's head. Even though it would have been some forty years after the event, the look of horror in his eyes was striking, and has stayed with me.
 Later he survived being torpedoed, and then fought against the Japanese.
 He'd been a bit of a hellraiser as a young man, but he told me that he cried like a baby when he killed his first man. I can't begin to imagine what he endured, but I know he had terrible nightmares every single night until the day he died.
He was a lovely man though.

Sambostar

One was 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf France 1940 and the other 17th Infantry division Wehrmacht 1939 in Poland.  Gran was a sekretärin in Belzec from 1941 to 44.

Sambostar

The other gran had a propensity to cross dress and hated spaniels

Sambostar

And my great Aunt was attached to the 319th out in Jersey.

blobb

MagicPigDetective said:

My grandad's brother was a prisoner in Burma; he came back with a Samurai sword. I was told it was given to him by a Japanese guard he befriended; wondering now whether I was told a child friendly version of events. 

It's well known that the Japanese did not surrender easily. In fact, they would booby trap themselves when injured so not many injured were ever taken prisoner. If you see what I mean.

If they did surrender they would insist that they gave their swords to a British officer, to maintain some degree of honour. Usually, the British CO would make them hand it over to a private soldier. In general they had no love for the Japanese soldier, respect yes but love absolutely not.

Saying that though, I have read some accounts of mutual assistance being offered, say for an extremely sick prisoner who may have missed a particular trick. So your Grandad could have been telling the truth.

blobb

lasermonkey said:

My great uncle was on Malta during the very worst of it.

My Great Uncle was also in Malta, a Chief Petty Officer on the Destroyer HMS Cheviot, .

We used to go to Malta on holidays as they still had friends there.

.......he knew how to get you out of bed in the morning!

freakboy1610

My grandad fought the Boxers at the siege of Peking. He died long before I was born but I bet he would've had some great stories. My dad was a mid upper gunner in a Lancaster bomber for the last few years of the war. His plane actually got shot at and hit by a German on the ground with a rifle when they were flying low dropping food parcels.

Sambostar

Sorry, didn't mean to troll, I just thought it was ironic that the thread could be perceived as verging on military romanticism, nationalism and patriotism, where as every where else on here those are all dirty words.  Poor bastards.  No idea what they did to be honest other than they were in Scottish and Australian units, didn't know them well enough to talk to them, I know their fathers were all wiped out in the first one though like most others.  I also know my great Aunt was a Scottish Wren who used to have sex with a hell of a lot of American sailors though, she told me, it was apparently a good time to be a female nymphomaniac.

Flanging_Fred

What did my Grandad do in the war?  Well, if my dad's birthday is anything to go by, he apparently did my Granny.

BigMonka

One of my grandad's was too young for WW2, but did an uneventful national service afterwards.

My Dad's dad was Polish and in the Polish air force when the the Germans invaded. He would never speak about what happened to him during the war, except one night after a few glasses of wine he spewed the whole story, then never spoke of it again. The details are sketchy but I know that he was in two PoW camps, one of them was somewhere in Africa and he was smuggled out of it in the boot of the prison chaplain's car. He then made his way to the UK where he settled for the rest of his life.
I'd love to know more about what happened but unfortunately now he's dead I don't think there's any way of finding out.

Dominic

My father -in -law ( nearly 90 ,still with us ) was Navy ..Chief Petty Officer ( naval equivalent to Sargeant Major )
Just missed active war service but did Korea etc spent time on Minesweepers clearing WW2 mines before a long stint in Submarines ....
 Interestingly he served under a number of famous Captains including Bonham- Carter and Prince Phillip ......it was no secret that the latter infuriated the admiralty .

MrBump

My dad was apparently in Egypt with the 8th Army - I don't know any detail really, he died when I was 10, and never really spoke much about it.  He was a lot older than my mother.

There were stories of him having been captured, having broken out, and having stolen a plane to escape... Also that he was a spy (he spoke at least 8 languages fluently), and killed a lot of people.  Don't know about that.  What I do know is that post war he retreated fully into hippydom - became a self sufficiency, clean energy, Esperanto-speaking nut, and lived a very peaceful post-war life until his death in the early 1980's.

57Deluxe

One of my Grandfathers was in the artillery but was spared front line action by virtue of his medical condition.... Piles!

blobb

Sambostar said:

Sorry, didn't mean to troll, I just thought it was ironic that the thread could be perceived as verging on military romanticism, nationalism and patriotism, where as every where else on here those are all dirty words.  Poor bastards. 

I'm the last person to see any sort of romantic connection to these stories. As for Nationalism, pff. No really, but I do see that these were real people in real situations, I'm interested in how they ended up n those positions and how they felt when they were doing it, and the aftermath of course. I'm also interested in the political 'causes of war', which is becoming more relevant given the current global politcal climate.

Relating it to family history sort of gets people interested in the subject, from a personal perspective. Hard lessons, hard learned. We forget that sometimes I think.

The days of 'Godfrey's Cottage' are indeed lost for ever.

En-ger-land!

57Deluxe

blobb said:

<EDIT>

The days of 'Godfrey's Cottage' are indeed lost for ever.

En-ger-land!

Godfrey's Cottage - I too loved the eps that featured it! Except the one when it faced demolition...

Axe_meister

My great uncle on my Mums side was a sub mariner, however he never saw action as his submarine never left port because something always went wrong. (He'd always tap his nose when he told the story). He said he spent the war fucking and drinking.

MagicPigDetective

blobb said:

MagicPigDetective said:

My grandad's brother was a prisoner in Burma; he came back with a Samurai sword. I was told it was given to him by a Japanese guard he befriended; wondering now whether I was told a child friendly version of events. 

It's well known that the Japanese did not surrender easily. In fact, they would booby trap themselves when injured so not many injured were ever taken prisoner. If you see what I mean.

If they did surrender they would insist that they gave their swords to a British officer, to maintain some degree of honour. Usually, the British CO would make them hand it over to a private soldier. In general they had no love for the Japanese soldier, respect yes but love absolutely not.

Saying that though, I have read some accounts of mutual assistance being offered, say for an extremely sick prisoner who may have missed a particular trick. So your Grandad could have been telling the truth.

Thanks very interesting........ it's also made me realise I got my facts mixed up............from what I now recall it was the Japanese soldier that was the prisoner, who gave the sword to my granddad''s brother (who I doubt was an officer), which would fit in perfectly with what your saying.

gubble

My Grandpa only once spoke about his experiences during WW2 and it was to me. It was probably the final year of his life and I'm very honoured he spoke to me about this. I'd no idea at the time he'd not spoken to anyone in the family about it and after he died the conversation came up and I was able to let his children (my father and aunt) fill in the blanks.

He started off based near Manchester on the AKAK as a predictor using tables to work out where to aim the anti aircraft guns.

He then shipped out to India on the Felix Russel. On the first night in India he became very ill and he wasn't expected to make it through the night. The rest of the guys in his troop were taking bets on what time he'd die at and were already divvying up his stuff. But he made it through the night.

Whilst in India  he stayed in a Raj's palace and would appear to have had the time of his life. They were given racehorses and servants. The only pictures of him from the war are at this palace and they're rather amazing.  Whilst in India it was his job to fix the large trucks used by the Army.

Then on to Burma - he wouldn't talk about this and we don't know what went on.

He returned home on the Mauretania apparently in a convoy of ships. This may be my memory being a bit hazy but I'm sure he said something about the ship being slower than the rest of the convoy and it causing some concern.