Anyone have family or relatives who served in WW2?

Thanks, he never really talked about it, but the main thing he survived. I would of loved to of known some stories though. Grandad are cool!. My nana worked in a factory making percussion caps for the bullets.

Rear gunner on a Lancaster was probably the worst position on the plane. Most likely to be killed or injured and the whole crew relying on you to spot the German night fighters.

Before my grandad was called up for the RAOC, he did war-work at Trafford Park on the Lancasters. Told me there was a major design flaw on the early Lancaster's rear turrets, in that if the rear gunner was badly wounded while inside it, there was no way for a crew member in the fuselage to turn the turret to get them out.
They rectified it by adding control valves in the fuselage, but on the first batch that was due them fitted, the valves disappeared somewhere on site, and they were nearly sent out without them. After scouring the site they were eventually found; someone had delivered them to the works canteen by mistake.
 
My Dad was in the 75th Anti-Tank Regiment, and was attached to the Q stores, which among other things involved taking ammo and petrol up to the front line. He saw some horrid stuff (which he would rarely talk about) not least as his unit was one of those there when they liberated Belsen. Apparently they rounded up a lot of the local punters and made them take a look too.

Having said that, He quite liked the Germans as a people, and said that the guys in the German Army were mostly like him, doing what they did because they had to. He saved his dislike for the SS, who I gather were stripped of everything they had when captured and treated pretty roughly.

My Uncle George, who was out in the East, was even less keen to talk about the war, and it was a really rare event when he did. But again, I know he saw some dreadful stuff. I wonder how any of them came home sane. I suppose, truth to tell, many didn't, but it wasn't necessarily recognised back then. It was a case of "get on with it."
 
My dad, who died in February, was in the parachute regiment but claimed that whichever theatre he was sent to, the war ended there the day after. Although he was lucky in that respect, they had the hideous job of guarding the condemned Japanese prisoners at Changi after the war. Amongst other things this involved standing either side of them when the trapdoor opened. He was 21 at the time and had nightmares about it until the day he died. Asked if he felt sorry for them, he said "no. I saw what they did. I felt sorry for the poor buggers that had to hang them".
 
Thanks, he never really talked about it, but the main thing he survived. I would of loved to of known some stories though. Grandad are cool!. My nana worked in a factory making percussion caps for the bullets.
John Sergeant made a tv documentary about Lancaster crews if you haven’t seen it. It was on bbc iPlayer just a week or two ago. Worth a look. One flew over when I was playing cricket in the potteries couple of years ago, amazing looking thing, we stopped the game to watch it.
 
My partners Grandad was in the Paras and was caught, Broke out of a prisoner of war camp. Walked back to France and was put up by a French family. He received a bravery medal by the French as he moved away from help as he was scarred of getting the family in trouble. He Killed several Germans and got onto a boat and headed for England. There is a museum in the village and his stuff is on Display with another Para who went with him. A local paper did a write-up on the two when he was still alive. We still have it and his medals.
 
Grandad #1 was too old to join and worked in a munitions factory. However he was in the Home Guard and I remember him telling me he sometimes used to have to spend all night being a lookout at Harts Head Pike.
Grandad #2 was also in his 40s and an engineer at Avro building Lancaster bombers.
My father-in-law was a Medic who was involved in the Torch landings and also served in Tunisia,Sicily and Italy. He was at Monte Cassino and didn't want to talk about it much but sometimes the odd story would slip out.
 
My grandfather served in the US Army. Enlisted because he was told that if he did, he could pick his station/job. Turned out to be complete crap and he was a grunt. Was shot twice in Italy. He never talked about it at all until his last year or so. And even then, you could tell that he wasn't going to tell everything. My mother told me that once when she was young that after my uncle enlisted that he had about 2 hours where he went through a lot of the details with her and my uncle. Essentially his best army friend died in his arms while he was laying in the mud hoping that a medic would be able to come. He was shot in the leg and couldn't really move and had to wait for about 18 hours for the fighting to clear away enough that medics could make it in. He spent 3 weeks in the hospital and was put right back out to fight still with stitches in his leg. About 4 months later he was shot again in the same leg. I don't know the story, but he was sent home with an honarable discharge after that. But had nearly 6 months in transit to get back home to Oklahoma because travel was so screwed up everywhere.
 
John Sergeant made a tv documentary about Lancaster crews if you haven’t seen it. It was on bbc iPlayer just a week or two ago. Worth a look. One flew over when I was playing cricket in the potteries couple of years ago, amazing looking thing, we stopped the game to watch it.
wow must of been a great sight that flying over. My wife's brother in law bought a property in sale and whilst he was getting the extension done he came across an old ww2 service journal from the RAF. He was a polish pilot who flew small aircraft around great Britain but then ended up flying Lancasters. So in true honour to him the brother in law bought a great picture of a Lancaster bomber flying over England and mounted it on the staircase wall!
 
My grandad Tom was captured by the Japanese and forced to work on the Burma railroad , he had his little finger choped off on his left hand for not bowing low enough to an officer. They didnt chop off his hand so that he could still work when he was freed he weiged only 6 stones . He hated them with passion and would not buy anything
Japanese until he died . He was a tortured soul who cold not forgive them. And I dont blame him
 

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