Rememberance Day - Veterans still living.

[Shropshire Lass]

My father spent most of the years of the second World War abroad.  He fought in the desert in North Africa, was part of the long retreat from Burma, spent time in Iraq and Palestine and then was part of the invasion of Italy. 

No counselling, no treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder - just welcome home, Soldier, now get back to work. 

I think it's a miracle that he survived - so many of his mates didn't, so many who did have died since.  Remembrance Day is a hard time of year for him.

Any WW2 veterans still around in your family?

Monica

[Zelley]

Thanks for adding this thread -  they are likely to be the ones standing on guard on November 11 th., then swapping stories at a British or Canadian Legion.  Likely, they may recall the names of the Vets mentioned in the
"Last Post" in 2004 or 2005.

[philipsearching]

Last year there were still a couple of veterans of the Great War still living.

All my relatives who served in the armed forces are dead, but I will be paying my respects at the cenotaph as always.

[sarah]

Hi Monica,

None of my family are left but I will be there on rememberence Sunday to see our friend Percy remember his friends and neighbours who were not as lucky as him to return home.

Although we have lost so many,  we should never forget.

Sarah

[saar3]

My father was a dispatch rider in France in WWI. He managed to survive but all his male first cousins were killed.
It has been quite a shock to me to discover how many members of my family were killed in that war.

On my mother's side my great grandfather was killed in the trenches in France in 1918. He was 38 and his widow was left alone to bring up an enormous family.

No matter how much time has passed, we should never ever forget.

[linmey]

Since I have started my family history research I have been given some letters by a family member that my great uncle wrote during the first world war. I always knew about him and that he died in July 1918, but reading his letters has given me so much more of a link to him that this year November 11th will mean even more to me. He was 23 years old.
               Linmey.

[Zelley]

Looking forward to our daily paper on November 11th for the special section:
"Remembering Our Heroes"

[Man of Kent]

Tonight Tuesday, the BBC aired a program called "The last Tommy"
, last episode next week.
The men in the program were over 100 years old and memory fantastic, very moving.

The Last Tommy
Tue 8 Nov, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm  60mins

In 2003, only 27 veterans of the five and half million who fought in the First World War remained.

This final platoon of Tommies tell their stories for the last time, from earliest memories to 1916. Alfred Anderson is the last of the Old Contemptibles, Britain's tiny peace-time army, who stood up to the might of overwhelming German forces. He is also the last Tommy alive to have witnessed the Christmas truce of 1914 when soldiers on both sides stopped fighting.
 

[Frances]

I agree with everything Monica has written in her posting.

My father-in-law also fought in the dessert of north Africa and was captured there by  Rommel and his troops on 15 December 1941.
He and his fellow soldiers were than handed over to the Italians who held them until February 1943. They then were put on train journeys, handed back to the Gemans and ended up at a station called Auschwitz.

There they were then used as slave labour to help build the IG Farben Industry factory.

Coming towards the end of the war they had to endure one of the "Death Marches", thorugh the mountains of Poland in the middle of winter, seeing all the poor Jewish prisioners who had died along the way.

What my father-in-law and the others in the British camp saw and heard while they were there has affected him all his life. It is only in more recent years that his nightmares have receded after writing his down story for his grandchildren, in the hope that the younger generation will never forget.