My grandfathers briefly fought on opposite sides of the war. One in the RAF the other the Romanian Navy. (it amused me at first that Romania has a navy). He deserted and fled to Turkey though because he didn't believe in the war. To my knowledge they didn't share any combat with each other (I don't know for sure my grandfathers died-one before I was born and the other right after. So I never got to speak with either). Still it always fascinated me the concept that one grandfather could have killed the other if they were deployed differently.
I couldn't fully say without going through similar experiences. Of course it changes them but some come back and are still very sociable, participate in the memorials and the veterans activities, he wasn't like that and didn't want anything to do with any of that and kept very much to himself generally, and you could barely get a word out if him about it, i remember if I asked he would always tell me this one story from when he was in Italy and even that was very vague
.italy sounded like an awful slog of a campaign so i think theres an element of long drawn out suffering over time there that would be draining but then theres the seeing death and all that. Really its impoosible to tell. I suppose theres an elememt of how do you approach it all mentally too. Volunteers, conscripts, is it fair or is this unfaur from the outset. Its imponderable until you experience it yourself.
As you'll know, anyone born before the 90's didn't bother with over the top H&S bullshit. Wash your hands? ****off, I'm eating!
Wow. Did he have a few stories? Sorry to hear that mate. I was close to my granddad, luckily I got to see him before he went, realized he was in a better place when he was gone. Hope you felt the same comfort. 96 is a great innings, I'd take that now definitely. Rest in peace to the big fella.
Condolences Druid. I still have both my grandads still although one is on the way out as he was diagnosed with cancer 2 weeks ago. He's 89 so doesn't really fancy chemo and most of my family have gone back to hongkers to see him and he's gotten significantly weaker. He's been saying some morbid stuff apparantly so i'll probably miss him (flying back on the 19th Aug). I don't think he ever served although he was still around when the Japs invaded HK. Some reason i've never gotten any stories from him though. My other grandad has, he was just a kid and basically had to beg on the streets for food i think as they took his mum away and his sister also had to fend for herself.
He must have done but he never really told them to anybody or spoke about it much at all in the several decades since my parents got married so I'm told, and he never said anything much to me when I probed him on it when I used to visit him in his little flat before he got put in the rest home, only a couple of small things. He was always more vocal on the sport and current affairs. He was a big angler and won some competitions, I remember him taking me to several ponds and not really enjoying it much, mostly because he made me get the bait and maggots and that out of the box all the time When Thatcher was in power he tore pages out of the newspapers and drew witches hats on them and stuck them on cupboards at my mum and dad's house. I think he would have probably been very socialist if he wasn't a dismissive cynic about everything and not that educated, obviously sharp and intelligent but with no formal study of any of that And then his mind started to go from the dementia so there was no chance of getting any more on WWII, various things from his life started to kinda come out sometimes mixed in with the present, the chronology all gets mixed up and the wiring goes wrong when that sets in. His best mate in the home was a bloke called Mohamed from Egypt who he - I think possibly jokingly/piss taking, but definitely not aware of how offensive that now is - once called a raghead, terrible but so That guy is still there, he escapes apparently and he has a PhD and was some kind of physicist, my grandad had no qualifications, drifted through nothing jobs after the war, caretaker, factories and that
Do you know what regiment he was in, it's probably possible to piece together where they were and what they did out of the Internet. Maybe even read accounts of the time. Might be an interesting project to to.
That's a great suggestion, I will deffo look into it, sure I can find out that info from somewhere, either personal effects or records
A note on those trainers I posted about ... those things are so super duper comfy it's like wearing slippers or pillows around your feet It's weird in some trainers i'm a 10.5, most I'm an 11 but these are an 11.5 and fit amazing, think it's bcos they're like a sock-style fit so quite tight around the foot, you really don't need to lace them up although I would if I was going to go running in them as it would give that bit more stability around the foot #toptoppost
Going on a pub crawl tomorrow from midday onwards with my two youngest kids, both over 18, wife has already said she is not picking up 3 drunks from the town centre tomorrow evening and we are not to act embarrassing if we see any of her friends whilst out. I do love a challenge!
Had a unexpected afternoon in the pub today. About seven pints and a KFC later, I'm thinking work might be a bitch in the morning!
