Author Topic: What do you remember about both world wars ?  (Read 8075 times)

Michael Rolls

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #30 on: Mar 27, 2019, 03:21:58 PM »
Really interesting reading all the posts thanks  :)
My father was in the RAF 633 Squadron I think, spending most of his time retrieving spares from crashed aircraft especially Spitfires and Hurricanes which were desperately needed being transferred all over the country from the Orkneys to St. Mawgan in Cornwall.

His brother was in bombers as a rear gunner in Shackletons the slowest and most vulnerable bomber of all. One night they were given orders to bomb the German submarine pens in St. Nazaire which was very heavily defended and many were shot down, he never said anything about it neither did my father and was awarded a DSO in recognition. Somehow he came through the war when so many brave men didn't.
I think you mean Stirlings, not Shackletons which were a post war maritime reconnaissance and ASW a/c introduced in 1951. Certainly the Stirling was considerably inferior in performance to the other RAF heavies, the Lancaster and the Halifax, with a theoretical ceiling of only 16,500 feet (and apocryphal comments at the time reckoned it struggled to get much above 10-12,000 feet) - by contrast the Lanc could top 21,000 feet .
Mike
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Devonian

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #31 on: Mar 27, 2019, 03:58:01 PM »
Thank you I still can't remember now what the aircraft was but according to the RAF wartime forum researcher I do remember him saying that the chances of survival in the aircraft were very slim. The other thing I've just remembered he mentioned was the serious danger of German night fighters.

Yet not once did he say anything. Being a whizzo, life and soul of the party chap he was irrepressible opening a night club in Mayfair soon after the war and being a tennis player he had pictures of Gorgeous Gussie everywhere ! So it must have been inevitable she visited his club on several occasions.... ;D

https://www.onthisday.com/articles/gorgeous-gussie-shocks-wimbledon

Johned

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #32 on: Mar 28, 2019, 01:57:43 PM »
I had a work colleague at one time who had been an air gunner on Stirlings, Michael Rolls, and he told me when they were on a mission to Turin, the experience was rather hair raising as they did not fly over the Alps, they literally flew through them owing to the aircraft's relatively poor ceiling.

fortyone

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #33 on: Mar 28, 2019, 04:07:05 PM »
I think it was all hair raising stuff regardless of aircraft or target. The first boss I had for who I had any real respect had been a flight engineer on Lancasters towards the back end of the war when the Luftwaffe was a shadow of its former self and  it was mostly radar controlled flak that caused the casualties but the stuff he told me about the raids was still teeth curling. The way Bomber Command was treated post war was imo a national disgrace.

Michael Rolls

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #34 on: Mar 28, 2019, 04:28:19 PM »
I think it was all hair raising stuff regardless of aircraft or target. The first boss I had for who I had any real respect had been a flight engineer on Lancasters towards the back end of the war when the Luftwaffe was a shadow of its former self and  it was mostly radar controlled flak that caused the casualties but the stuff he told me about the raids was still teeth curling. The way Bomber Command was treated post war was imo a national disgrace.
Abso-bloody-lutely. Those responsible should have hung their heads in shame - but they didn't. BC suffered the highest proportionate losses of any comparable allied command of anywhere near the same size.
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Michael Rolls

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #35 on: Mar 28, 2019, 04:33:37 PM »
On a related note. A late colleague of mine had been a navigator on Lancs, earning the DFC and ending as a Fl/Lt. Late on, it had become 'reasonably' safe for BC to raid in daylight. He was due for a weekend pass, but agreed to swap with another navigator and then had to stand in as the nav on another a/c when the usual guy was sick. Consequently he was on a daylight raid and actually saw 'his' a/c , with the guy he had swapped with at sort of second remove, blow up in mid-air with no survivors.
Mike
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Traveller

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #36 on: Mar 28, 2019, 09:36:04 PM »
It's similar to my late F-i-L who was a stoker on the Atlantic convoys.  He tells of being moved to a different ship and seeing the one he was supposed to be on, torpedoed.
Similarly, one day he and his mate were swapped from one ship to another, just before sailing. When he asked why, he was told that they needed experienced men for a special voyage.   It certainly was - his ship was sailing as backup to the D-Day invasion, with a cargo of ammunition!

Years after the was when my wife was a baby, FiL decided that he should look for a shore job. One day when he was passing a factory, he decided to ask if they had any jobs.  He said the foreman looked at him and said, "you're a seaman, aren't you? I can tell by the way you press your trousers"
FiL said yes he had sailed on the Atlantic convoys and the foreman said, "You've got a job".  He worked for that company for over 21 years until he retired.
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prestbury

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #37 on: Apr 06, 2019, 11:59:07 PM »
I am another one who was born to late for WW2 but I remember my dad telling me that he served in the navy on HMS Ocean, an aircraft carrier as a Petty Officer. Never having heard of the ship I took it with a pinch of salt until the time I visited a friends house and on the wall was a photo of the said ship.

I found out that my dad was stationed in Malta on the ship towards the end of the war and I used to take the pee on what was an easy posting, not realising until after he died that Malta was badly hit during the war.
I do wish I had taken more notice and notes on when he was in service. All I have left are two naval photos although I believe if you are next of kin you can now acquire the full service records from the navy.

Johned

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #38 on: Apr 09, 2019, 07:13:54 PM »
My dad was in the 8th Worcestershire Regiment and was evacuated from Dunkirk.  His youngest brother was in the Royal Navy on a minesweeper pulling blokes out of the water.  It would be a coincidence and nice to relate, the latter rescued his elder brother but it didn't happen!  My uncle said they hauled a barrel out of the water and when broached found it full of French wine.  The ship's Captain ordered all hands to have a mugful to bolster their courage instead of the usual practice of sending it down to the wardroom for the officers' delectation!  On landing back in UK, the Sally Army looked after my dad's little lot and he was then sent home on a few days leave.  I vividly remember playing with his rifle on our kitchen floor while he slept upstairs for a couple of days with strict orders not to disturb him.  Adding to his miseries, he had suffered a bout of malaria while on the beaches, a legacy of his prewar regular service in India.

crabbyob

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #39 on: Apr 09, 2019, 09:38:15 PM »

its a bit of an indictment of our generation I suppose...
we were lucky, we had giants to look up to
todays kids only have us... :o :o
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Maywalk

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #40 on: May 03, 2019, 12:10:00 AM »
My memory of WW1 was told to me by my mother because her brother got killed in the first month of that war starting plus my father joining up although he was really too young and termed as a boy soldier. He came back safely though.
WW2 was what I lived through and was machine gunned in the hop fields apart from being  bombed out twice during the London Blitz. It is all in the book I wrote about the first 20 years of my life. I have a brooch made out of a Halifax bomber windscreen that had been on many missions and I only wish it could talk. What nerve wracking tales it would have to tell. I also have a WW2 website that has been on the net for over 14 years. SO many tales to tell of those years.


zoony

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #41 on: May 03, 2019, 12:49:15 AM »
its a bit of an indictment of our generation I suppose...
we were lucky, we had giants to look up to
todays kids only have us... :o :o


I applaud the sentiment Crabby..They were men and women of a certain education, fed by deep cultural roots and bound to do what was right. Not because they were noble but because it was the right thing to do in the face of an enemy threatening your family, all your mates were doing it and you were scorned if you didn't. There were even some who glorified in it...Most didn't speak of it if they were lucky enough to come home..
One shattered generation followed on the heels of another but came through it and prospered, eventually.
Not giants perhaps but respected and remembered to this day.
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Audrine

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #42 on: May 03, 2019, 03:36:52 PM »
Such great memories of heroes who we should never forget. Thank you!

RocoinSurrey

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #43 on: Nov 12, 2019, 06:46:04 PM »
being born under the Nazi Jack boot in the last day's WW2 ,my grandad was gassed in WW1,I never saw him out of his wheel chair without his oxgen mask   :-[
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sarahbilly 1

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Re: What do you remember about both world wars ?
« Reply #44 on: Nov 12, 2019, 10:32:35 PM »
I.  was born during ww2, I have a very vague memory of being carried into an air raid shelter, my first real memory is of my dad coming up the st. where we lived and mam saying "here's your daddy" although I must have had no memory of him, I ran down into his open arms, he carried me into the house and gave me what I believe was army chocolate, I can still taste it to this day, it was vile, like lots of veterans, he spoke little of the war, in fact nothing at all, until we got some info in later years, I did get bits of info from mam and some of his friends. he too was evacuated from Dunkirk, then joined the commandos, I was born in Scotland when he was doing commando training in Achnacarry,  when he died, a number of his comrades fro near and far attended, draped his coffin in the flag, placed a laurel wreath on his coffin and formed a guard of honour. I was reluctant to research his service, because I argued with myself and felt guilty, that if he didn't talk about it, why should I delve into it? however after a couple of years, I decided to do the research, I found his service number after much research and was able to obtain his service record, I have since been to Normandy and traced his footsteps from sword beach through France, my next trip I hope, will take me into Germany and crossing the Rhine, its amazing how much info. including hitherto unseen photo's I have been able to gather, from really nice people from as far away as Australia, everything I have found and stories I have been told, thus far, is written down and illustrated, for those who may be interested in future years, I gathered sand, stones and shells from sword beach and created a small display at home. my guilt has gone now, I think mam and dad would approve. one little story he did tell me, with some respect, it seemed at the time, was when working a ship on the docks after the war, he heard someone call his name, he turned around to see one of his officers, brigadier peter young coming down the gangplank. he seemed very proud when he told me that.