My Dad and the war.

My GF was in the Royal Navy in the first WW, and my Paternal GF was in the Army. Sadly he was gassed in the trenches but lived until 1938.
My dad failed the medical for the forces due to rheumatic heart disease (or something similar) so worked as a lorry driver. Perhaps OPs dad had a medical condition and was exempt from Service.

Rosies my father was in one of the companies that opened up Bergen Belsen as well. He never spoke of it either. My mother told me.
Her other comment was more of a “ trust your Father” one. She told me that as he’d been in the Territorials at school he joined up a week earlier than the outbreak of war and didn’t come home until a week later than everyone else. Jokingly inferring that it been a choice.He never spoke about the war at all.

One thing I’m very thankful for is that although I was born during the war I don’t have any memories of it as one of our friends only a year older had. Although I can remember asking for reassurance that there would never be another war. Thank God my Mum had the common sense to reassure me that of course there wouldn’t.

Incidentally my Uncle was in a reserved occupation. The house he was lodging in had a bomb drop on it on the morning of his wedding. He survived, dusted himself and his wedding clothes off and went off to get married and was back on fire watching the following night.

I has been very interesting reading this thread. My parents were children during the war; Mum in occupied Jersey, and Dad in occupied Brittany. Mum would often tell stories about her very tough childhood (she was also an orphan), but Dad never told us anything. I do thing they both witnessed things they would not want to re-visit.

I had a school friend who's father lived in Canada, but worked in a steel mill, which was a protected occupation. He said he would often be handed white feathers to shame him. I think in their minds they understood they were needed at home, but it would sometimes be hard to hold their heads up in society. War brought out the best and worst in people.

I agree all your stories are so interesting, it’s a pity my own family never ask what I know about our family history as after I’m gone it will all be lost.

tanith thank you for starting this thread . I have said before it showed man who fought in the war or had reserved occupations but did their bit as they would have said fighting fires,being ARP wardens ,manning cuts ,look outs for enemy planes etc non of them wanted to talk about what they had to do or saw. Plus all the women that worked in factories for the war effort, driving vehicles , ferrying planes to various airbases ,working the land etc. To them it's what they had to do too protect a way of life and freedom.

Those that didn't fight because of religious or moral grounds where just as brave as many where on the from lights working at stretcher barers ,drivers ,carrying messages and lot where sent down the mines . They still worked in awful conditions and died and got injured along side those that fought.

During both world wars men and women just did what was expected of them . If this country was attacked today how many able bodied men and women would fight? Apart from those in the armed forces and people over 60 I don't think many. They would protest about war that's about it.
I know that's a cynical point of view but life has become to easy for many.

Not all or we wouldn't need food banks, people frightened to put the heating on because of the cost. The amount of people living on the streets is increasing. And still the rich get richer and poor poorer.

I remember my dad saying not long before he died in 2007 we fought and died for this country and for what . People come here with nothing and expect everything . And people are dieing because of lack of food , medical care and homes.

He would have been appalled at the protests on remembrance Sunday. I know I was.

Manning guns 🤦

Like DrWatson’s father, mine was in the Service Corps (now 'Ordnance' or 'Logistics' perhaps) issuing supplies to the army and he spent most of the war in Egypt.

I think it's quite apparent from many posts, that most fathers never really talked about their war years. Mine was very much of that ilk it never got a mention, no deference to Rememberance Day, never wore a Poppy. He was in the Middle East for much of those years, so the only nod to it was to say how much he disliked sand on beach holidays. I regret I never asked him about any of it now, but I wasn't interested when I was growing up and he was of the opinion it was something to move on from there was no reminiscing. Whenever my kids moaned about life in their growing up years I would say "and what do you think life was like for your grandfather aged 19 to 25 stuck in a war overseas?" that did give them pause to ponder on that sometimes. Personally I feel one of the lucky generation I was born into the 50s when rationing had stopped.

My mother was more prone to mark Rememberance Day and wear a poppy. She occasionally related how elated everyone was on VE Day and how she and friends celebrated that in London, a day to remember!

My father was cashiered towards the end of WW2 because of severe wounds. He had been in The Lancashire Fusiliers, now defunct, and was mentioned in Despatches twice. I have yet to find a way to discover why he was mentioned but the
Lanc Fusiliers do not have this info. Anyone know where i can find this info please?

My dad was a Sergeant in the army during the war, while his brother was a miner (poor lad), both survived (fortunately). My mother was there, too, in the operations room.
None of them spoke about the war except once when a teacher sent us home 'to ask our grandparents about the war' - I didn't have any grandparents so asked my dad.
At first he said stuff like it was in the past and not to ask - he had been badly wounded. But the teacher sent me to ask again.
Dad told me of 3 Germans who had fallen asleep, one was meant to be on watch I guess, but they'd been side by side. The poor lad in the middle woke up in the morning to find the 2 either side dead. Gherkas in dad's platoon had found them all sleeping!
Another was when he was leaving Italy, he was in the back of a truck and was watching men clean up the area. They went to move a body, one at the shoulders and one at the feet, but he'd been burned and all they got was hands full of ashes.
He said, "If your teacher wants to know more, tell her to come and ask me directly!"
She didn't, of course, and the lesson was changed.
My dad was a well known man, so I suspect she knew him or of him and decided it was best to leave him alone!!

My father had been in the First World war so he was not called up for WW2 due to his age. He was too old.
He was a stevedore and worked on the London Docks. I remember him telling us that the banana boats had been used to ferry the dead and injured men back from Dunkirk.

I had two brothers who served in WW2, plus my uncle.
My eldest brother was with his squadron in Burma and my younger brother finished up in North Africa. Unfortunately my eldest brother saw so much cruelty when fighting the Japanese he came back after the war a very embittered chap who turned to drink to overcome the dreadful things he had witnessed.

I was 9 years old when the war started and living in the East End of London. We were going hop picking the next day after the declaration that we were now at war with Germany.

Hop picking was a paid holiday for the Londoners although it was hard work that even the children helped with. During the third week into the war we were busy picking the hops when an enemy plane got through what defences we had and decided to use us as practise targets. No one was killed thank goodness because a Spitfire came to our aid.
It was fantastic to see the dog fight between the planes. More so when the enemy plane was shot down and the pilot came parachuting out.
The Spitfire did the Victory Roll for us before he went on his way and a big cheer went his way from us on the ground.

I went all through the London Blitz. We lost two homes and finished up living in the Anderson shelter we were finally evacuated to a town in the Midlands but once again was machine gunned on the evacuee train.
Many tales to tell of those far off years.