World War Ii

[naomi24]

I watched a documentary tonight about Malta during World War II. Every time I see something like this I wonder how people coped. The bombs, the shortages, the fear .... it must have been horrendous!!

Do any ABers have experience of World War II, and if so would you care to share them? No arguments please - I'm just interested in hearing personal experiences.

[shoota]

I can remember my father refusing to talk or answer questions about it and what he did in it.

[stewey]

My father was in the RN during the war, and I have some interesting photos of Malta which he took, including the underground tunnels within the Rock.

[Zacs-Master]

My paternal grandfather had a flattened thumb where a depth charge rolled over it when he was on the Atlantic convoy escort.

[stewey]

Sorry, I was thinking of Gibraltar; however, it still adds to the thread.

[EDDIE51]

I dought there are many left who can remember WWII , anyone who can would have to have been born in the 1920s or early 30s so will be at least 80 now . I remember my dad telling me about being sent to Australia with the Fleet Air Arm in WWII , they were expecting the Japanese to invade but it never happened so he had an easy time . My FIL was a 'Beven Boy' and spent WWII working down a coal mine . Not an easy option.

[stewey]

When I was a kid going to school in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, there were still bomb-shelters on the playground. I don't think Newcastle ever got bombed though.

[naomi24]

Did it not, Stewey? I've listened to many stories, but I just can't imagine having to live through that. How did people remain sane in such a nightmare existence?

[237SJ]

My mum lived in London throughout the war. She`s got a million stories. When she starts, she doesn`t stop. It`s something that is always with her. She`s been out on her bike and had to run for cover. She was on a train when a bomb fell at Clapham Junction and blew all the windows out. She had to dash outside and bring her baby sister (in her pram) indoors because two planes were having a dog fight overhead and bullet shells were flying everywhere. A bomb landed in her mother`s chicken run and blew the lot sky high. There would be empty chairs in class in the morning because the kids were killed during the night time bombing. Then the school was bombed and her education was interrupted. She was evacuated but didn`t like it and went home.

[tamborine]

My mum made me frocks from parachutes we found in Bulford woods. I remember playing in a crashed small plane and peeling glass from its windscreen. Ration foods were yummy.

[naomi24]

237SJ, Was it by any chance Frederick Road School in Custom House?

[stewey]

What I was referring to, naomi24, was after the war. It's easy to say, but I guess people adjusted to the "situation" because there was no other choice, and I'm sure that some people did not cope with it...A tragic era for all involved.

[Hopkirk]

I know my father was on one of the first ships into Malta when it was liberated.

Like so many, he didn't talk about his experiences.

[237SJ]

It was in Hounslow naomi. She said there was quite a big railway siding in Feltham and the Germans (she still calls them the "J" word)! were always trying to bomb it and they got Hounslow when they missed.

[tamborine]

My dad was serving in Singapore at the time & shot lots of enemies (not gonna say who - incriminations ?)

[237SJ]

Sorry, I meant Fulwell, not Feltham.

[naomi24]

237SJ, oh right. I thought it might have been one in the East End.

[owdhamer]

I just hope it never happens again,but!!!!

[sunny-dave]

My Dad was in the Royal Signals and landed on the D-Day beaches on D+1 - he would never, ever talk about any of his experiences ... but it affected his mental health in later life.

[DaisyNonna]

My mother met my soldier father at a dance in the north east when he was recovering from a broken shoulder from playing rugby. Ward sister was not amused. Had 5 patients, all sports injuries.
Father sent abroad (Egypt) She was 17, he was 25. He sent her a postal order to buy an engagement ring. I still wear it. She gave up nursing and moved down to the Midlands to live with her future in-laws and worked in a munitions factory.
He eventually got home, having been stranded on a troop ship outside Liverpool on VJ day. They married by special licence. I arrived 9 months later.

[stewey]

I still remember, as a callow eighteen year old wanting to go to university, asking my dad to take a gamble and borrow some money to do so. My mother responded with: "(stewey), when your father was just a couple of years older than you are, he took a gamble, joined the RN, and later spent hours floating in the English Channel during the Dunkirk Evacuation."...That shut me up!