Our brave parents

My dad was already in the army (enlisted 1936 at the age of 18) when war broke out, and he was on the tanks. He went to Egypt, India, Malta, Italy and Africa. He saw some terrible things, suffered Dysentery, Malaria, and eventually, of course, saw the war to the end. He met my mum, who was in the ATS and stationed in his home town, and they got married. They've both been gone some years now, and I still miss them.

That was indeed a remarkable generation and I salute their courage and fortitude.

While it is true that there has not been a comparable conflict in Europe for 75 years, it is not true that there have been 75 years of peace. From the Greek Civil War that began in 1945 to several wars continuing today, there have been numerous European conflicts. We are probably all familiar with some, such as the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the Croatian war of independence, the Bosnian war, two Chechen wars and the Kosovo war all in the 1990s and the war in Georgia in 2008. These were reported in our news media, but there have been many others in unfamiliar places with unpronounceable names that have had little or no mention in British newspapers or on British television.

Whitewave my FIL was coming home on leave from the RAF and could see the glow in the sky from Haldon Hill and knew that Plymouth had just been blitzed; his family survived but he lost his life later in the war.
My father was in both World Wars and survived. He never really spoke about his experiences.

It was very moving to see the veterans on the Boudicca this evening on their way to France. Dan Snow was interviewing some of them.

We are grateful to them all.

I think those wars were a different thing absent internal wars people fighting for their own country...my friends in Croatia lived in their car for a year during it and they are the most wonderful hospitable family you could ever hope to meet .They say they dont regret it as it changed their lives for the better .The WW of course involved all of Europe and we must hope that wont happen again .The rise in the far right is very frightening and we should all guard against it before it gets out of hand and we have another..maybe the last war given whose fingers are on Buttons .

My uncle told me about that day - he was a child playing around in the bushes on the shores of Plymouth Sound. He'd been watching the amazing sight of tanks and trucks pouring into the port and going on to the many ships in the Sound. Then one morning , the Sound was empty. All the ships had gone. It was only later that he realised that he'd witnessed the preparations for the D Day landings.

Mum and dad were both in the army. Dad parachuted into Arnhem, served time in Iceland and did a lot of things that even now we can't find out about ?
He never talked about it and never understood the vets that wore their medals, berets and attended parades, he just wanted to put it all behind him. He didn't even claim his medals.

paddyann Of course we have not had a pan-European war since 1945 and I profoundly hope we never do. Not all of the few wars I mentioned – and there were many others I didn't – were "internal" or civil wars. Even conflicts that have never been officially classified as wars – who decides that – such as twenty years of "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland, cannot possibly be classified as peace.

I don't want to hijack a thread that honours and respects a generation whose courage, fortitude and endurance I can only begin to imagine. I honour and respect them too. I just don't want our generation to kid ourselves or the next generations.

My dad was in the Royal Navy 1939-45. I know he was on aircraft carriers and minesweepers in the North Atlantic. I’d love to find out more about his service history, but like many others he didn’t talk about it and when I was younger I didn’t bother to ask. After he died I found his medals shoved in the back of a drawer, I took them to a medal collectors’ shop in London and they got new ribbons for them , and framed them for me with a photo . I had the same done with my GFs WW1 medals and they are displayed proudly in my hallway. I know they will be passed down the family and they will not be forgotten.

nina you could probably still get your dad’s medals.

My Dad was a Royal Marine Commando. Like so many other men he never spoke about his experiences, even though we asked. It wasn't until after his death that we found out that he'd been fighting for Walcheren island in Belgium on D Day.
We should indeed be grateful, and proud of those brave young men who, like my Dad, didn't want to fight and kill, but knew it was their duty to serve their country.

The one thing that seems to be repeated again and again is that those who were there rarely, if ever, spoke about it.

It was only after my father died that I learned he had been in the D-Day landings. One of his friends who attended his funeral let it slip but refused to give further details as he said my father never wanted his children to know what he saw.

My father was in Bomber Command and killed in 1942 before I was born, my stepfather was a POW in the Far East, my second cousin died of wounds in North Africa in 1944, my uncle was at D Day, he survived,but never spoke of it. How brave they ALL were, and what a debt we owe them.

younger generation got no idea of the sacrifice our armed forces and ordainary people made during the war years. i'm too young to know the real war and how frightening it would have been .with all the bombings etc. i always do a display for the salvation army charity shop window .as soon as i had done d-day yesterday .people were congratulating me....not that i need that. its to point out what those brave men and women did for us ,to keep england free of nasty nazis.

To keep the U.K. free

I think it’s true that many of the younger generation don’t really understand the bravery and sacrifices of our parents generation, and indeed our grandparents generation. My own father was in the front line at age 18, he was shot and badly injured just as he turned 19. He fought in Belgium and Germany. He was shot in the Reichwald Forest during the push into Germany at the beginning of 1945. As a young man he didn’t talk about his war experiences very much, except as very young children when we asked about the scars on his shoulder and neck. Later he told us some of his war time and battle experiences. He was quietly brave, just like all the service men and women in the forces were, and still are today and in recent history.
On the home front, both sides of my family endured the horrendous bombing attacks, and my mother was evacuated to the country.
Perhaps because this is why our older generation is so quietly patriotic. They don’t speak about their wartime experiences except in the intimacy of the family, and then not often.
I am immensely proud of my dear old Dad, who died some three and a half years ago.

Not just England moggie, the whole of the the UK and the whole of Europe, and the Far East too. They were so determined and so brave.

My Dad was in Egypt in WW1 Dragonfly46. after being sent back from France in 1915 with bronchitis.
I was a child in the London Blitz in WW2 and the memory that stands out to me is the comradeship and kindness of everyone in the difficult conditions.
I’m proud and grateful to have lived through those days.

I am watching it at the moment and thinking that there is so much that has not been told in the past and each person's story is only now being told.
My own father was too young to take part in D Day - he did his national service in Italy and was part of the forces that was sent to do a clear up .
My maternal grandfather was a Naval Medical Orderly. He died when I was 4, so have no idea if he took part in D Day or not.
I truly hope that every story is recorded and that it is taught in every school in future so that the children of today and the future appreciate that what happened made the world what it is today.

My dad was at sea for 27 years working for Cunard White Star and a couple of the liners he was on were used as troopships during the war. Dad took me to Liverpool Pier Head in about 1947/48 onto one of the liners he'd sailed on and I still have a vivid memory of a dining room-----like a hotel with pristine tablecloths and everything laid out ready for sailing.
Dad used to feed the troops as he was a ships cook and he used to tell me how he looked after the injured/wounded and feed them his special soup----whatever that was, but easily digestible I would imagine.
He never went into the horrors of the wounds,etc, as he spoke very little about what had gone on. Because dad was always full of Liverpool humour I can well imagine that he also kept up the spirits of those poor men.
Dad's uncle is also named on the cenotaph at Birkenhead.

Late husband had the most dangerous job of all in the Merchant Navy on tankers and took turns on the gun. I think it was the Daphnella that got a hit. He'd befriended a Gurkha who gave my husband a Gurkha sword which I have to this day-------but scared of it in the house even though it's hidden.

My dad was fighting in Spain ,l( International Brigade) as war was brewing with Germany ...he made his way home with many others to join the British army. Cos he’d been. a ‘regular’ during his younger life he’s was made a sergeant. My mother... despite having my sister ( 4 months old)...went into the women’s army, while gran looked after baby. Mum trained on ack-ack guns as a plane spotter and was stationed in Dover Castle for a while . Then she transferred to a group called SOE... and was training in he Brecon Beacons learning to parachute outa aircraft. Remember her telling me on one jump she landed badly and broke her arm/elbow in 6 places.She said the journey off the mountain in back of army ambulance was the worst pain she’d ever had in her life ...and she went on to have six kids!!!

Whilst living in SA, I worked [very happily] for six years for a German chap originally from Lübeck. One day after ca. six months he came to my office and asked "what did your father do during the war". Bit taken aback, but answered that my father was a railway signal engineer and therefore in a reserved occupation. Few seconds silence so I asked what his father did. He replied "bombed most of Coventry"!!! He was a Luftwaffe pilot. We remain firm friends until he died last year.

My parents were too old for active service but my father was in the Royal Observer Corps doing regular night duty besides his day job.

I would just like to say a massive THANK YOU to all who served and freed the UK and Europe.

They knew the possibility that they would not return, but they continued, brave to the very end.

Many of those who did return home were broken, as was my dear Father-in-law, who never spoke about his experiences.

Great post Ladies. So proud of all of our families who saved the world for us.

It is all very moving but I hope they commemorate VJ day this year too. Dad was a POW on Burma railway & in Changi Jail.
They brought them back on a boat rather than fly them so relatives never saw how they looked when they were released. He was 5 stone when he got back to UK- he was 5'10" tall.
He never spoke about it until about 3 months before he died as they had been told not to let relatives know how bad things had been in case it 'upset them'. My poor Grandma was devastated by all the celebrations after the war 'ended'as it seemed they had forgotten all about the lads still in Far East.