The Night Mail

[bbishop]

My father's war ...

Called up 1 September 1939; basic training Kimmel Camp (where he met my mother 31/12/39); assigned to HAC; sent to North Africa; captured after Knightsbridge; POW in Italy; moved to Auswitz in 1943; death march winter 1944; home 1945, where he was nursed by the stores clerk at Millbrook Camp (my mother, whose only military duty was to attend pay parade).  Bill

[jamie92208]

6 hours ago, br2975 said:

.

When I retired, I left with but three items of kit

.

My first original 'pith' helmet, not the later issue 'Custodian'

.

My 'staff' (ex Glamorgan Constabulary and rock solid)  - known to the unitiated as a truncheon

.

My 'horse blanket' - best bit of kit ever issued to a Bobby, better known as a cape, and which I made a point of wearing on my last ever shift, nights walking Cardiff city centre.

.

Oh, nearly forgot

A lifetime supply of clip on black ties, which sady, get used more frequently as your retirement continues.

I also worked a night shift  as my last shift.  The only stuff I brought out was a Custodiam helmet plus my Flat hat. I also have kept a couple of clip on black ties and have my staff which saved my bacon on two occasions.

 

Jamie

Edited October 10, 2022 by jamie92208

[SM42]

My father and uncle were fortunate to be born at such a time that they missed most of the war and were only called up in late 44. 

Dad was sent to Palestine.  Uncle to Greece. 

Neither had enough service to be entitled to a WW2 medal. 

 

Dad was fortunate that he decided not to go out one day of his leave  and so was not at the King David Hotel on that fateful day. The rest of his time was spent trying not to drive off the road and into oblivion on the highways and byways of North Africa 

 

As for my uncle I have no real idea what dangers, if any he faced, but he did learn Greek and made some lifelong friends in Greece.

 

As far as WW2 weekends go, they all started quite well as an attempt to recreate the steam railway in war, within the limits what they had.

 

It all went a bit wierd after a couple of years when some alternative reality had the Germans invading mainland Britain.  

 

The war years have a strange  romanticism about them, mainly due to Hollywood I daresay

Like most things done for the tourist pound that relates to any conflict, the unsavoury is often a mere sideshow in favour of the lighter side. 

 

No-one is reminded that the fun was due to the possibility that you may not have a tomorrow and so everyone lived for and in the moment. 

 

Done well I think such weekends can be  educational as well as entertaining. 

It seems though they have lost their way in trying to be bigger and better year on year and have thus become a little embarrassing

 

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

teachers had just been demobbed in 1945,

One of my secondary teachers was an Italian and had worked training dogs for the SS. She married a Welsh chap and came to England, raised dachshunds and taught German. I think our class may have put her off teaching. 

[DaveF]

I posted most of this in Early Risers but thought it might also fit in here.

 

I've been sorting out some family bits from Mum's flat this afternoon and noticed a couple of things about my Great Uncle on my Dad's side, Lt Col Tom Ford.  He was with the 8th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters in Norway in 1940 and was taken prisoner there, he was then in prison camps for the remainder of the war.   I found  a forum with quite a lot of details about the action in which he was captured including a number of photos taken by the germans at the time he was captured.  I don't think I've seen them before.  It seems that he was paraded in front of Hitler after his capture.

 

I know I now have some of his books and I believe some paintings he did while he was a PoW but have not yet investigated the relevant boxes.

 

I wish Mum and Dad could have seen the photos I came across today.  When I was younger they talked about their wartime experiences, but rarely as they got older.  Dad was in India, the war ended before he could be sent to Burma.  He contracted amoebic dysentry at some time in India.

 

Mum was at home in the war (at school then University).  She told me about going to Coventry just after the raid which destroyed the cathedral.  She went (she was just 16 then) with her Dad who took a gang of men from the gas company he worked for to work on restoring supplies.  She went to do food etc for the men, the rest of the time she spent helping trying to rescue people from bombed houses.  She told me about being machine gunned by a german plane while she was there, but they missed her.  She also visited the bombed out cathedral and saw the wreckage, including the cross, before it was tidied up.

 

The both enjoyed seeing the WW2 reenactments, we have one at the beach most years as well as seeing railway ones - and at other places.  They usually commented on how overweight the re-enactors are and how badly they stand - slouching in their uniforms.  Mum was quite scathing about some of the women supposedly dressed in wartime style clothes.

 

I remember Mum once took some of the "Home Guard" reenactors to task over what they were doing and how they were dressed - she pointed out that her relatives had been in it and for a short time she had a boyfriend who was a very young member - like Pike in Dad's Army.

 

David

Edited October 10, 2022 by DaveF

[Tony_S]

I think it is fair to,say my father was quite sociable but I can’t remember him having anyone I would actually call his friend. I think he was affected by the loss of friends made during his time in the army. There were a few he had served with for ages. He did say how difficult he found it when some of them were killed after the war had officially ended. He left the army (he wasn’t a conscript) in late 1948 as his wife back in England was terminally ill. From what he said I think he would  otherwise have remained in the forces. He resumed his engineering career and met my mother. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Tony_S

[coastalview]

My Dad was in the RAF during WW2 and was invalided out after a bomb almost blew him up, he survived but always had psychiatric problems. I tend to agree with Andy about WW2 weekends they started off as a rather romantic version of  WW2 , we went to a number of them and to be honest rather enjoyed ourselves. With the introduction of Germans and as Andy says the alternative reality spoiled it for us. 

 

We have also be regular visitors to Twinwood which is a music festival at the old Twinwood airfield. It started off as a Glenn Miller festival (its where Glenn Miller took of from on his last fateful flight) and gradual expanded to cover music from the 1920's to the 1960's. Many people dress in period clothing, however I believe they have a ban on Axis insignia, Axis medals, and weapons (real or replica) . You do see lots of RAF and  USAAF pilots,  a sprinkling of  naval officers and  quite a few  army officer and various rand people including a highly polished RMP sergeant. I do have a sort of issue with the wearing of medals though maybe that is just me as many seem to.

 

Having said all of that it was great fun and if we can make the time we may go this coming year. It is on over the late August holiday weekend and if you like any music from that period I would recommend it.

[iL Dottore]

My paternal grandfather was in the Italian diplomatic service (I don't know what position he held) and from 1938 or so to 1945 he was stationed in Germany. My father, accordingly, attended school there. From 1943 or so he was required to serve as a Luftwaffe anti-aircraft gunner on the local Flak Unit and in 1945, when he was 17, some Nazi officials came to his school and told him (and his classmates) that he was now in the Volksturm, handed out panzerfausts and disappeared. Fortunately, my father was able to convince his fellow classmates that a handful of untrained (and frightened) teenage boys with a few Panzerfausts couldn't stop an American armoured unit and it was better to surrender. Which they duly did. (my father did mention in passing that there were one or two die-hard Nazis amongst the schoolboys who were "persuaded" to surrender with the rest of the class...)

 

After the German surrender in 1945, because my father was already fluent in a number of European languages and was living in the British Zone, he was conscripted by the British Military Government as a translator and interpreter.

 

My father spoke little about those days, I have little more than a recollection of a handful of "mentions in passing" when other things were being discussed....

 

Funnily enough, my maternal grandfather (who had served as a CPO in the RN in WWII) and my father got along like a house on fire...

[Sasquatch]

When my granddad volunteered @ 17 in 1940 he had built a crystal set radio (always loved electronics). The recruitment team asked to see it and thus he got called up into the R.A.F. as a radio operator. After 6 moths training on the Isle of Mann he got posted to Australia. After crossing the Atlantic and traversing the Panama canal he crossed Australia from Sydney to the North coast and 5 or more years controlling aircraft and shipping movements in and over the Timor Sea for 8 hours a day. During the day he worked on a farm/ranch. He came home the other way through the Suez and married my Gran, his childhood sweetheart. He spent the rest of his unfailing peaceful life working at Allen West as a draftsman.

 

Gran joined the women's volunteer service where she did what she called 'fire watching' at nights after working at Allen West making Submarine parts. One night she was chased by the Luftwaffa and shot at along Islingwood road in Brighton. She narrowly escaped when someone pulled her into a door way. She was a chain smoker and an agoraphobic for the rest of her life. She never moaned about me building airfix stukas and such. 

 

What gets me, is that these people who complain about swastikas and the like have nothing better to do and weren't there.

They're not old enough for a start. They should go to Saint Pauls cathedral and ask to see the "Book of American dead of world war two". It's the biggest book I've ever seen and in small print. When I need to put things into perspective I think back to that day in school when I saw it and stood there rooted to the spot all tearful in disbelief.    

[SM42]

Today has been one of those days when no progress appears to have been made, but you've been busy all day.

 

I may get the knotting solution out and get treating the new door frame in the west wing just so it looks like I've done something useful.  

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

my father did mention in passing that there were one or two die-hard Nazis amongst the schoolboys who were "persuaded" to surrender with the rest of the class...)

Dad said just before the end of hostilities they were just being opposed by  what he referred to as boys and old men. Many of the boys were more terrified of the fanatics amongst them than of the British soldiers. We met a German chap on holiday who had walked all the way back across from the Eastern Front until he found some British soldiers to surrender to. He said he and some other Luftwaffe personnel had tried to surrender to Russians and had been shot at at and pelted with grenades. The survivors decided to head west. 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

I may get the knotting solution out and get treating the new door frame in the west wing just so it looks like I've done something useful.  

Our door frames are just stained timber so my excuse is that the knots add character. 

[SM42]

Tomorrow will be filling , sanding znd painting day. 

 

The only progress visible  apart from the now treated door frame knots, is that the pile of cuttings has gone from the garden. 

The brown bin was emptied this morning at 7 and was full again by midday. 

 

I'm beginning to look forward to getting back to some wagon brake gear construction. 

 

Tomorrow will also see some last minute tinkering with the club layout before its trip to Wombourne on Saturday. 

 

Andy

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

My father spoke little about those days, I have little more than a recollection of a handful of "mentions in passing" when other things were being discussed....

 

Funnily enough, my maternal grandfather (who had served as a CPO in the RN in WWII) and my father got along like a house on fire...

I may have mentioned on here before that when injured and captured in Tunisia, my grandfather was almost the only British casualty in a German Field Hospital.  His written memoirs (written about 40 years later, when he felt ready to talk about it) describe the Germans he met as always professional, normally courteous - one of the grumpiest was the doctor - and often quite friendly towards him, one or two wanting to practice their English (once he got his voice back after contracting diphtheria).  It seemed they expected fellow non-combatants - friend or foe - to be treated the same, he was just another Senior NCO like many of them.

On returning to England, a doctor inspecting his re-set broken arm said he would have been pleased to have done such a good job in a fully-functioning hospital; to have done so in the field was incredibly impressive.

[Happy Hippo]

25 minutes ago, SM42 said:

 

 

Tomorrow will also see some last minute tinkering with the club layout before its trip to Wombourne on Saturday. 

 

Andy

Will there be cake?

 

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Will there be cake?

 

We had what Aditi referred to as “failed cake” today. At the weekend she removed what she thought might possibly be some stuffing she had frozen. The plan was to serve it with roast chicken in Sunday. However the unlabelled box turned out to contain two large slices of the aforementioned cake. 
It was described as “failed’ as Aditi had omitted the egg that the recipe required. I couldn’t tell it was in any way inferior to previous versions. It was good because she said she had forgotten about those 2 large slices. 
Tony

[Happy Hippo]

The roofing continued today.

 

I had a slow start and ended up running out of  4 x 45 mm woodscrews.

 

I have an aversion to using Glasgow screws to hold things together, so depleted my stock of proper screws and managed to get 3/8ths of the t&g roofing boards up[ and secure.  since the weather is holding, I'll get the rest done tomorrow, and might even get some of the felt on as well, although that's probably Wednesday's task.

 

There is no doubt that the job would be much quicker with two (or three persons) putting it all together as there would be less time going up and down ladders.

 

Another problem was the rechargeable drill and impact driver are definitely giving up the ghost, and played up considerably this afternoon.  Fortunately I was able to dismount my other hand drill from the vertical stand it usually lives in, but it takes time to have to keep swapping out drill bits and screwdriver bits.  Especially with a keyed chuck.

 

If I'd not run out of screws, I suspect that even with the constraints of the failing drill/driver, I'd probably have got at to the half way point with the roof planking. 

 

The good news is, higher authority has agreed that a new set can be purchased on the household budget.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[SM42]

52 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Will there be cake?

 

 

Tomorrow or on Saturday?

 

Logistics have yet to be finalised. 

 

Cake will be shoehorned in somehow 

 

Andy

[polybear]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

.........Glasgow screws........

 

Huh?  Nails maybe?

[Happy Hippo]

19 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Huh?  Nails maybe?

Them's the ones.

 

Horrible things

[Tony_S]

39 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Huh?  Nails maybe?

Use an ommerfer.
what’s an ommerfer?
banging in screws.

use appropriate accent for best effect.

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Tony_S

[polybear]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Fortunately, my father was able to convince his fellow classmates that a handful of untrained (and frightened) teenage boys with a few Panzerfausts couldn't stop an American armoured unit and it was better to surrender.

 

A very good scheme, as it turns out - Bear is at this very moment watching a programme where Panzerfausts are being discussed - it seems that they were being sabotaged during manufacture such that they had a nasty habit of either blowing up in the users face or being inaccurate.

[PhilJ W]

Just short of fifty years ago there was a twinning arrangement between where I lived (Havering) and a German town, Ludwigshafen-am-Rhine. I went on three exchange visits in the early/mid 70's and on one occasion stayed with the local fire chief. He was 16 in 1945 and was called up into the Volksturm  He was with several of his classmates given a gun and about three bullets each and then the regulars disappeared. They agreed that as soon as the allies appeared they would drop their guns and surrender. 

[simontaylor484]

My Uncle had an exchange student Hans from Austria in the late 50s. They remained good friends being each others Best Man.

He came over in 2008 for my cousins wedding he collapsed me and my Brother tried to save him but failed

[SM42]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Huh?  Nails maybe?

 

Secured with  Brummigem screwdriver. 

 

Andy