Rememberance Day - Veterans still living.

[Shropshire Lass]

Hi Frances

What an awful time your father-in-law had in the war - we have been so fortunate to grow up in peaceful times.  I think these men have incredible courage, not just to cope with what happened in the war, but to come home and go back to work and raise families with all those memories in their heads.  My Dad has hundreds of stories about the war - but they are all the funny moments and the narrow escapes.  He has never been able to talk about the awful things he experienced.

Man of Kent - I couldn't watch the programme about the old soldiers.  I have seen some interviews with them in the past, and they were so moving that I found it upsetting.  One of my husband's grandfathers fought in WW1 and was at Mons.  He told the family about seeing the Angel of Mons even though researchers now think it was fabricated.

Monica

[Frances]

Hi Monica,

Your comments about not talking about things that happened in the war are very true. If ever my father-in-law mentioned anything we had to listen and never ask a question or he would just stop talking. It was in writing his story that really helped him get it all out of his system, although in doing it brought back the nightmares again.  A television producer did make a programme a few years ago where he interviewed soldiers who were still alive to tell their stories. None of them had been in contact but they all said the same things!!  The TV companies chose not to televise it.

Frances

[philipsearching]

Hear, hear - Frances and Monica.

A quote from "Oh What a Lovely War" sums it up for me:

         And when they ask us
         How terrible it was
         We'll never tell them
         They'd never believe us


Philip

[MarieC]

None still living in my family.  My Dad and two uncles fought in WWII and were lucky to return home, as three of their cousines did not. 

For us Aussies, Anzac Day in April is a far bigger day (remembering Gallipoli).  This is when I go to a service and stand silently, remembering my Dad.

Maybe this may partly excuse what I heard in a shop today.  At 11 am, as the muzak fell silent and the lights were dimmed, several young people were asking, "What's going on??"

MarieC

[wheeldon]

No, none in mine - but just seen a vet who is 109 yrs old - what a life he must have had!  I think it said that there are only 10 left from WW1

[Will Marshall]

My great grandad and three brothers served in ww1 all on the western front along with four on my dads side of which one was killed. Another great grandad was in the Boer war.

 Then my Grandads three brothers served in ww2 of which there is one left uncle Arthur who served in Itlay until a grenade wounded all of the left side of his body and he was captured. The other was in Normandy and Kohima and all over Burma another was in Normandy and Germany. As for My grandad he was in Malaya in the early 1950's. My dad was in the Fauklands and hardly ever speaks of it.

Its so sad that the ww1 generation is just out of reach of my generation that many dont know what happend to their great grandfathers. Its such a shame.

I know I wont forget though

[Shropshire Lass]

Oh Will - your family has certainly done more than their share!  What wonderful, courageous men to have in your family. 

I think so many of the boys and men who enlisted in WW1 had no idea what they were getting into, but the WW2 soldiers must all have understood about war from the impact of the first war on their own families.  For the men in your family to give so much says a lot about them. 

We need to remember them.
Monica   

[Man of Kent]

This link takes you to the Beeb and Henry Allingham, 109 years young.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3534068.stm

[DianaCanada]

My Dad, a WWII vet, still living, 84 years old.  Born in Burnley, Lancs., came to Canada as a child, and enlisted in the Canadian army (Black Watch).  My mother's uncle, age 21, died in WWI (Alfred Oliver, b. Heathfield, Sussex).
My mother was a war bride, belonged to the Observer Corps. on Sussex coast (plane spotter), she died in 1995.
I am a high school teacher; yesterday we had a Remembrance assembly, hopefully that tradition will continue forever...