Your family members in the WW2...

[Jack]

I am currently recording both of my Grandfathers history during WW2 one of my Grandfathers was SM in the Royal Marines and was captured at Crete and my other Grandfather went up through France and Belgium but not sure where he finished the war.........I have aloads of blanks to fill in but it is important to do so now while I still have oral history to work with.

 

I know one of my ancestors was killed in final days of the Somme......

 

Where any of your family in the war or have any of your family been in more recent conflicts?

[Centurion]

Hi all

 

Just to add on from Jacks piece my Dad was in the signals during ww2 initially as driver of heavy vehicles and later as a motorcycle dispatch rider. He came over from the Isle of Man and joined up in Manchester the day after war broke out . He was at Dunkirk and was carried out to a small boat by his mates because he couldnt swim so he carried their kit and they carried him.

They had driven down from the Belgium border in a large British radio truck which was difficult due to the number of refugees on the road and the fact it wasnt exactly inconspicuous.

He said that when the got near dunkirk an Officer told them to destroy it which niggled them a bit because they could have made the journey quicker without it.

He was also at the D Day landings, I think on day one with 3 div signals. As with most of these things you dont think to ask when there alive and when there gone its too late. He survived the war and died in 1994 but I wished I had asked him more.

In 2004 I sent for a copy of his service record from the Army Historical Disclosures section which gave me some insight into where he had been etc. Its a good starting point. I went to Normandy on june 2004 and had intended to try and track his route from Caen across France but it proved a bit difficult and I ran out of time. I do know that at one time he was dispatching for Maj Gen Sir Brian Horrocks

I havnt as yet got round to researching 3 div if anyone can suggest a starting point or suitable books let me know.

I could go on with this for ages but dont want to hog the forum.

 

regards Centurion

[Spood]

My father followed his brother into the RM's in 1936, both ended up as gun crew on ships. Dad was on HMS Ajax for most of the war and managed to get himself wounded at the River Plate battle. After this he spent a long time in the Med, again getting burnt and wounded though not enough to get him sent home. On D-Day he was on the HMS Arethusa which was of Ouistreham bombarding targets in the Caan area, he came out in 1947 and always maintained that even with the war he would have joined up again if he had his time over. There are other places he served but these are the most well known events that he was involved in.

 

His brother was on HMS Rodney when they sank the Bismark, he had I think four battleships blown from underneath him during his stint and it effected him quite badly for the rest of his life.

 

Mum's brother was in France before the war with the R.Eng's and was evacuated at Dunkirk, returning again on D-Day. I still have a lot of things to find out about him yet. He was another one who was badly effected by his experiences and never really opened up about the war. Mum did tell me that when they were fleeing the Germans in France that he had crawled on his hands and knees for several miles never standing up once and he could see the enemy in the fields around him. He was also ordered to shoot two prisoners, basically in cold blood, and I think this is the one thing that really took its toll on him.

 

As centurion said this is a subject that one could go on about for ages but I will leave it at that for now.

[Jack]

As centurion said this is a subject that one could go on about for ages but I will leave it at that for now.

 

No, please do carry on, wonderful accounts of history.

[Jessie The Jeep]

My dad was a kid during the war, living near to Thornaby and Middleton St George bomber bases. Heard several stories of damaged aircraft flying back over the house on the way back to their home base.

 

His dad was in the Royal Engineers in WW1, and served in Ypres among other places, working on the ammunition trucks. He said there was never time to do a job properly. All the maintenance was done as the trucks were being reloaded, so that loose nut never got fully tightened, just nipped up enough to hold it till the truck came back next time!!

 

Steve

[ArtistsRifles]

During WW1 Grandad on mums side spent the war charging - literally -around the battlefields on a horse or limber as part of the Royal Horse Artillery. Story in the family says he was up for the VC during the Somme but the officer and witnesses were all killed before the commendation could be processed. Grandad would never talk about his experiences.

 

During WWII my dad was in the Sixth Airborne inc. Op. Market Garden, his brother was a tail gunner in Bomber command first on Wellingtons then on Lancs - he was one of the few who survived a complete tour - whilst mums brother was in the Fleet Air Arm, I' m told he was the equivalent of a Wop/AG in Swordfish and was on the Taranto raid.

 

Post WW2 Dad was also out in Palestine during the Stern gang times - some of you may have heard of the squaddies murdered whilst sleeping in the back of a truck in Jerusalem; some of those men were Dad's mates.

Fortunately he was demobbed before the Korean "police action". On his return home he immediately joined the T.A in 10 Para and stayed there until the late sixties. Some 10 years after that I joined 215 Sqdrn RCT (VR) before following the family tradition of military insanity by transferring to the Artists Rifles where I served until 1980 when I was discharged P8 following an accident in training.

 

Hows that for a quick potted history of the family???

[Jessie The Jeep]

Here's an interesting story of how my grandad got into the Royal Engineers, and avoided the trenches.

 

He was sent for a test to see if he had the skills needed for an engineer. The test was to file a lump of metal into a perfect 1 inch cube. He was given a lump of steel and a file, and told to start......

 

He immediately replied that it was impossible with the tools they had given him...........as the file was completely blunt; at which point he was told he passed the test.

 

All those who just tried to file the steel went to the trenches.

 

Steve

[Degsy]

A Great Uncle joined up in the Accrington Pals in WW1 was transferred to

Machine Gun Corps, survived wounds and about 3 years in trenches.

WW2, My father was an armourer with RAF Coastal Command on Ansons

and Hudsons and flew as a gunner on ops from Scotland and Iceland.

One of my Uncles was a RM Commando and landed in Normandy on D-Day, another uncle served as an AB on a no of ships, a 3rd uncle was a

rear gunner in Bomber Command, served as a regular after the war.

All survived but played down what they had done and when persuaded to

talk only told humourous anecdotes.

[Mark]

Hi all I think that if you can you should all try to post as much of these accounts as you can, just for the fact that they are real peoples history and memories from a period of their lives that most of us only read about and will never, ever understand, I had a brother-in-law who was in the navy when the Falklands war was on, and he never really talked about what happened on his ship, I for one am fascinated by these stories, NOT for the gruesome side, but for the massive interest in one who has lived through these times and can recollect the funny and also the sad times that have happened to them, this is something that is not taught to the young (I am not that old by the way) today.

Sorry for ranting, but that is what I believe.

 

Mark

[Centurion]

Well seeing as there is so much interest and the fact that if this isnt recorded here it may just fade out. I will carry on with what I know. I agree with someone previously that most of the time only the humerous or fairly harmless events were repeated.

My Dad had great respect for the German 88,s and spandau machine guns he used to say that when they opened up you were pleased they werent firing at you and sorry for those that were getting it.

Also the pak anti tank guns which he said were used a lot in the bocage. " gerry would appear in a hedge in the bend of the road and let you have half a dozen and then just disappear " .

One of his usual sayings was, They ie the propaganda claimed that the Germans were worn out that there gear was all ersatz. like there boots were not leather and they had to make coffee out of acorns. Well he said there was nothing ersatz about the guns especially the Spandau machine guns when you were on the receiving end.!

He had scarred knuckles on the left hand which were caused be being struck when overtaking a quad, limber and field gun on a motorcycle which he said were difficult to get by as when the got a bit of pace on they tended to snake from side to side.

As I mentioned in my previous post if you are really interested in your close relatives wartime history and can no longer ask them. then you can apply for their service record which gives you glimpses into where they went and what they did like this entry from my old mans record. 3 June 1944 embarked uk for ?. well we now know were you were going.

 

The address for the Office is Army Personnel Centre HQ Secretariat, Historical Disclosures,Mail Point 400 Kentigern house , 65 Brown Street Glasgow, G2 8EX tel 0141 224 2670

 

You can write or phone for and application form but if you apply there is a fee and they require proof of your relationship to the person your asking about.

 

Further this office deals with welfare requests by former soldiers and their families which naturally take precedence so you may have to wait several months for the info. I was fortunate when I applied as I had a service number which makes the search easier.

 

Thats it for now, but for all you Jimmy owners there is another miltary item also called Jimmy that was the figure of Mercury on the badge of the Royal corps of Signals

 

regards Centurion

[Joris]

Nothing fancy in my family. My grandma and granddad hid a jew during the war and that's it.

 

 

@ArtistsRifles, was he tranferred to 1st Airborne during Market Garden? The 6th was not involved in the operation.

[whistlinwolf]

To quote Madman,

"Nothing fancy in my family. My grandma and granddad hid a jew during the war and that's it. "

 

 

Well I reckon thats a great understatement , that was an enormous undertaking, easily on a par with others daring deeds.

We do owe them a great deal.

[Degsy]

Absolutely,the risk taken,I think we all know about the Gestapo!

Whilst in Normandy last year I met a Belgian guy whose grandfather and

father helped to save a large no of Allied airmen. They were taken by the

Gestapo,his father escaped, but grandfather was never heard of again.

He showed me certificates signed by Eisenhower and Tedder commemerating their actions,after the war his father re-started the family

haulage business with surplus GMC'S,Diamond T's etc, he even had a

White halftrack.

[Joris]

To quote Madman,

"Nothing fancy in my family. My grandma and granddad hid a jew during the war and that's it. "

 

 

Well I reckon thats a great understatement , that was an enormous undertaking, easily on a par with others daring deeds.

We do owe them a great deal.

 

Well yeah but it doesn't sound as imaginative as actually being in the war as a soldier.

[Spood]

Watched a programme on Sky last night about the Graf Spee, as I said in my previous post dad was wounded in the battle there. There was some film of the Ajax firing her guns, just some stock footage, but did it make me feel odd, it was freaky knowing exactly where your dad was at the time. The Achillies was in the background so it must have been around the same time. When the presenter said about people being wounded when X turret was knocked out it really sent a shiver down my spine.

 

Dad was the gun layer and was sat right at the front of the turret, the shell from Graf Spee actually went in under the turret and exploded behind it killing the crew at the rear. He had an oxo cube sized piece of shrapnell between the shoulders, narrowly missing his spine. I can remember into the mid sixties that it still used to trouble him and he had to have it dressed from time to time due to infection.

 

I'll post some more when I have a few spare minutes.

 

Madman look at it this way, if your a soldier you know where you are and you probably know what to expect, imagine trying to get on with your life never knowing if you're going to get that knock on the door from some not very nice people. Their achievment is as great as anybodies.

[Joris]

I know and I'm very proud of what they did!

[weasel_nut]

Hello All,

 

May I chime in.

 

My father was a 50 mission B-17 pilot with the 15th Air force 97th Bomb Group, 342nd Bomb Squadron stationed in Foggia Italy (at Amendola 1) from May -Sept 1944. He went to Ploesti 6 times. :shock: Also participated in the First Shuttle Raid to Russia in June 1944.

 

My Uncle was a Captain in the 1st Infantry Division, 16th Inf Regiment. His first assignment was operation Overlord. He landed in the First Wave at Omaha Beach attached to the HQ company. Due the death of so many officers...on D-Day+1 he was made a rifle company commander of "K" company and went on to be a Rifle company commander for the rest of the War in "K" then "L" company. He fought in the Hurtgen Forest, Bulge and then on through to Czechoslovakia.

 

My uncle was in the Navy in the Pacific...I am embarassed to say I don't know his posting.

 

My Mom was a "Rosie the Riveter" who as her 2nd night job inspected M-1 Carbine Barrels at the Underwood factory in Hartford Connecticut USA.

 

and

 

My Grandfather was a volunteer air raid warden. He used to go around at night and made sure all the local houses had the "blackout" shades down. My mom's family lived within 3 miles of Colt Firearms, Pratt &Whitney Aircraft, Hamilton standard (propellors) and other war industries. They were worried about Luftwaffe Condors bombing the area. This eased up as the war progressed.

 

And my wife wonders where I get this military HMV infatuation thing from

 

Bill