Would our soldiers get leave in WW2?

[John915]

Good afternoon,

LIAP (leave in addition to PYTHON) was allowed for those who had spent more than 4 years abroad.

PYTHON was the post war leave entitlement for those who had served more than 4 ¹/₂ years.

John915

[coombs]

My grandfather was a gunner in the RGA and he married at his home town in April 1944. So he must have got some leave. Nan was 4 months gone when she wed grandad so he must have got some leave in late 1943.

[mgeneas]

My father had embarkation leave before we was posted overseas in 1942 and leave again on his return to uk in 1944. In between he was in South Africa, Egypt and Iraq

[Gillg]

My father, who joined the Marines in 1943, was posted to Scapa Flow to guard the fleet.  He certainly came home on leave once or twice and also was sent home with a broken arm to recuperate. 

My uncle who was called up at the beginning of the war certainly had leave, otherwise his two children would not have been born.  Sadly he died towards the end of the war without seeing his younger child  and the older child has no memory of him.

[ThrelfallYorky]

My father was in a Tank Regiment, and he certainly got a whole week in England in 1944, when he married my mother, and managed a very brief honeymoon, too, before departing. Think he'd come- or was going to - Egypt.

[JAKnighton]

I'm no expert but my great-grandfather was in the RAF during WWII, and the majority of his children were born during the war, my grandmother included. In fact the joke was that every time my great-grandfather came home, my great-grandmother got pregnant!