You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Your comrades in arms, Your parents /grandparents who served, your aunts or uncles?
Give us a mame, doesn't have to be their avtual name amd a few lines about what they did or where. Doesnt have to WW2 could be Bosnia, Falklands, Afgan, Kuwait etc
Keep it real and play nicely.
My Uncle Tommy, who was actually a great uncle. Shot down in a Hurricane in the B of B. Survived but paralysed and confined to a wheelchair. Lived for years mind, only member of my family to have served in 100 years.
I'm not privileged to know my forebears so I can't call on a name.
I'm in debt to them all. Watching this phenomenal hour long programme on Amazon prime. Colour footage of a Lancaster crew and a night bombing raid. All barely adults, can't recommend this enough, it's terrifying, fascinating and humbling.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B07PPYF53H/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
I wear a poppy and take a bit of time to reflect.
But it's not for an individual - it's to fulfil my side of the bargain.
And the bargain, in my mind, is this: if I were to be called up to go to war, my attitude would be "OK, I'm prepared to lay down my life. But the least you lot who survive can do is once a year, stop what you're doing and remember us who weren't so lucky".
Geoff Barkway a pilot in the GPR, Was one of the crews that landed the Ox & Bucks on Pegasus Bridge. Got to spend time with him over the years, a great man and a great source if inspiration for me.
Then there's Dave, Bungle, Paddy, Fruity, George and Smit-dog. Some never made it home, some were taken by tragic accidents and others by the demons that came home with them. All Herrick/Telic vintage.
Quite a few I served with but one in particular stands out Roy died by my side aged 18, still upsets me now 29 years later that I couldn't do anything I was 18 too
RIP fellas
My dad who served through the NI troubles among other places (32 years in total).
Great uncle who was shot down flying sneaky missions over Germany. Wasn't until the 90s (50 years on) that we found out what he was doing as it was kept quiet.
My dad who did 22 years in the RAF, served in Cyprus during the EOKA troubles and has the Aden medal.
Not strictly military, but my grandad who was in the Merchant Navy on Atlantic convoys through WW2, and my grandpa who was an ARP in Leeds.
My great uncle Charles MacManus. Killed at Gallipoli 1915, aged 20.
My uncle John Lithgow McFarland, extract from a WW2 blog below:
TLDR: shot down over enemy territory and interned in (the Great escape) POW camp. He didn't talk of his experiences for decades
John’s story began when he came to Belfast in 1940 to sit a Latin exam for a pharmacist’s apprenticeship he’d secured in Derry. “I’d always found the Latin a chore and a friend had told me about the great time he was having in the RAF so when I was in Belfast I went to the RAF recruiting office and joined up,”.
In June 1941 John was formally called up and began training as a navigator. After graduating, he should have gone to an Operational Training Unit where the air crews were put together, though they were infamous for their 20% loss of life. “But then word came through that I was to by-pass this, I never knew why, and join a crew before going onto 75 New Zealand Squadron as a replacement navigator – and you never asked who you were replacing,” said John.
John and the rest of the Murray crew were posted to Mepal in late January of 1944, flying their first Op on the 11<sup>th</sup> February, and after conversion to Lancasters took part in the first 75(NZ) Squadron Operation with Lancasters, bombing mashalling yards in Paris on 9<sup>th</sup> April. A series of aborted Ops perhaps had got the crew nervy about completing their tour and when an ‘easy’ Gardening Op came up in a now aged Stirling, the crew volunteered.
“We flew from a remote base near Ely in East Anglia and were engaged mainly in sea and French railway yard mining operations as well as drops to the French Resistance. It was during one of these we were shot down. The Germans had the capability to fire vertically upwards. We were over Denmark and it was around midnight when my navigator’s table shattered and I knew we’d been hit from below. Everything happened so fast. We had to bail out and use our parachutes. The parachute wrappers used to put little notes in with the silk saying things like ‘all the best’! Only three of us survived that night – the rear gunner’s parachute failed to open. That could have been any one of us for you just grabbed a parachute on your way out to board the aircraft…”
Four of the crew were buried at Gram, Denmark – James Murray RNZAF (Pilot), Haymen Kahler RAFVR (Flight Engineer) Jack Mulligan RCAF and Peter Woolham RAFVR (Air Gunners).
Gordon Irwin RNZAF (Wireless Operator), John and Douglas Hill RNZAF (Air Bomber) became Prisoners or War.
John landed in a ploughed field and was rescued by the farmer’s son whose family sheltered him for three days before the Germans found him. “I was sent to the same prison camp which featured in The Great Escape,” he explained. “Life there wasn’t great but some of the lads had built a radio and brought us news every day so we heard about D-Day and thought we’d be home by Christmas. Of course we weren’t.”
In January 1945 with the Russians advancing the POWs were put to march, sleeping in barns along the roadside, despite the bitter winter. “I’ve never experienced cold like it. One POW found a rat and held onto it just to keep his hands warm!” recalled John.
“I remember one morning though, two British fighter planes were circling overhead, making to attack because they thought we were Germans. We tried to spell out ‘POWs’ with towels on the ground but they came in, all guns blazing. Twenty men died – friendly fire I think they would call it today. Just days later we were freed by the British…”
Despite his stoicism in recounting the story, the tragic irony of that loss of life still sat heavily on John McFarland’s heart. “Back in the UK we were de-loused, de-briefed and told we could go home – so home it was,” he said. “That’s when I understood what it must’ve been like for our families. Our Commanding Officer, a wonderful man, had sent a personal letter to them when our plane hadn’t come back that night…”.
No one in particular and everyone in general. Somewhat remarkably, given that my grandparents and great uncles all served in the second world war, not a single member of my family was a casualty. For which I, and they, are/were deeply thankful.
No one specifically but I think it’s important that we do remember the sacrifices made on our behalf
Quite a few I served with but one in particular stands out Roy died by my side aged 18, still upsets me now 29 years later that I couldn’t do anything I was 18 too
Well that’s sobering.
As my family backgrounds is mining and farming links there has been no serving members in either WW. I just pay my respects who laid down there lives in such unnecessary wars.
When I was little, it was my grandad - although as I grew up and found out more, he was invalided out and lived out his days, although with god knows what mental trauma.
These days I remember what war means.
We are supposed to remember the horror and futility of war in an attempt to avoid it at all costs.
“those who forget the past are doomed to relive it.”
Unfortunately this seems to be a message that has slipped by the wayside somewhat of late.
Our local council didn’t even deem it worthwhile to close the road next to our war memorial today and although the local fire brigade took it upon themselves to try blocking the road, there were still people who forced past them.
had a uncle who served in Aden in the RAF and his brother was in Ireland with the army in the 70's.
neither ever spoke about their time in the forces.
but i remember all the men and women who die in pointless wars. and i think all war is pointless.
Everyone, but mainly my Grandad. My Dad was only about 6 months old when his Dad was killed on the Somme on Dec 19th 1915 whilst serving as a Serjeant with The Durham Light infantry. He's buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery in Belgium. I haven't been but I will go.
He's in the book of remembrance in Durham Cathedral which has a wee corner dedicated to the DLI.
https://flic.kr/p/2mJKY7y
https://flic.kr/p/2mJKVZN
My mate Flt Lt Chris Gover, who crashed in a Puma at Basra Airbase in front of me. Fireball killed all on board.
Flt Lt Greg Noble, died when his Jaguar caught the take-off barrier at RAF Coltishall.
My Colleagues on the C130 shot down by Iraqi insurgents flying between Baghdad and Balad.
Any other colleagues, past and present who have died or suffered, doing their job for their country.
Per Ardua ad Astra.
I think of the horror of all wars and count my blessings that I was born at a time where if you didn't join the forces you had no chance of having to fight in a one . I remember my father who was a bomb aimer and survived WW2 . A thoroughly decent man who probably killed hundreds of German civilians and soldiers but felt totally justified and proud to have been in the RAF where everybody was a volunteer . I remember my Grandfather who was in the infantry during WW1 and was a champion runner when he went to the front . He lost 1 leg and had a huge hole in his remaining leg from when he was tangled in barbed wire for 2 days . 2 German soldiers found him and took everything he had of any value and left him to die . His lungs were damaged by gas and he came home with nothing left but a burning hatred of Germans , Germany and all things German . Most of all I remember the futility of it all and reflect that our enemies one day can be our friends the next .
My dad, who served with the RAF as ground crew, and who was captured by the Japanese when they over-ran Singapore, and suffered the rest of the war in Changi. He died when I was 13, from a heart attack and carried the scars from his internment on his back until he died. He never spoke about it.
Also a cousin, Dicky, who was killed at Arras on the 9th of April 1917. He was 20.
Dad - Trooper George in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. Captured in Greece along with virtually the whole regiment, spent 4 years as a PoW in Austria.
Mum - Lisa, civilian telephonist with the German army on the Eastern front. Evacuated from Riga in cattle trucks as the Russian army advanced.
Both had tales to tell.
My Grandfather he was a Quaker and a pacifist but served as a medic in the WW1 trenches suffered for rest of his life from being gassed but had the rest of his life
For a few years was a Beaver Scout leader and will never forget a mum telling me her young man wouldn't be sitting in church with the other Beavers etc because he would be laying a wreath for his Dad who had died in Iraq 7year old