Lunester Lounge 2017.... for ANY topic you wish to discuss

[Physicsman]

Sorry to interrupt the name suggestions, but I thought it well to point to the fact that today, May 8th, 2015, is the 70th Anniversary of VE Day, May 8th, 1945. 

 

May we never forget the service and sacrifice of those who fought for peace and freedom for the world in WWII and other times.

 

~ William

 

No need to apologise. It's an important anniversary which will be totally overshadowed in the UK by the fall-out from yesterday's election.

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

Andy, despite my efforts to avoid the election coverage, I spent half of the night staring at the changing statistics on a set of internet sites.

 

Irrespective of the result, it's been fascinating to watch the data coming in re-making the British political landscape. A lot of trouble ahead, methinks!

 

Thanks for the name suggestions. I'll give you all a few days to suggest a few more alternatives.

 

In the meantime, as a fallback, how about the weather as a topic? Very British? Apparently, April was the sunniest on record in the UK with the sunniest place (surprisingly) in the north of England: Boulmer, Northumberland. 265 hours in April, or nearly 9h/day - which is quite impressive!

 

Jeff

[Andrew P]

Morning Jeff, finally went to bed at 03.45 and got up at 06.30, certainly a really fascinating night and with some big scalp's to show for it. Now it will be all about Leader elections for the next few Months.
 
Re the Weather, well we had a cracking few days in Wales at the beginning of April, and we really wanted to go at the end of the Month to coincide with my Birthday, but really glad we could only get the accommodation we wanted early in the Month. Its still been fairly good all around here so far this Month.
 
May not do a Lot in the Potting Shed today Whoops sorry, shouldn't mention the MR words in here, hhahahhheeee.

Edited May 8, 2015 by Andrew P

[HeeleyBridge]

As  there is no talk of <deleted> here, I suggest Doctor Beeching's Parlour. 

 

Hat, coat, bicycle clips ...

[AireValley1962]

No need to apologise. It's an important anniversary which will be totally overshadowed in the UK by the fall-out from yesterday's election.

 

Jeff

 

Thanks, Jeff.

 

I did hear that BBC One will be covering the memorial service today, and a concert tomorrow.

[emt_911]

Sorry to interrupt the name suggestions, but I thought it well to point to the fact that today, May 8th, 2015, is the 70th Anniversary of VE Day, May 8th, 1945. 

 

May we never forget the service and sacrifice of those who fought for peace and freedom for the world in WWII and other times.

 

~ William

This should be a time to remember and thanks all of those who served in any capacity not only during the two World Wars but in all wars and conflicts since. I include civilians in this as many thousands endured hardship and danger without recognition.

 

My only concern, and this has been born out of speaking to some youngsters, is that if the 2 World Wars and their anniversaries are not explained properly, they get confused. This is especially true with the start of WW1 last year and VE Day, VJ Day later on in the year being so close together.

[Sasquatch]

Weather here in Oregon Sunny, and probably right through until mid October. We had less than 2" of rain during April, there's some snow on the higher mountains but not enough to maintain full reservoirs. We have tans and the grass is starting to look a bit burnt already. We have Pacific weather so are affected by El Nino and La Nina, as well as the gulf stream.  

 

It would be great to here any war stories anyone would like to share from parents and grandparents, in their memory and honor.

 

 

 

My grand father would have been 17 when he went along to the recruitment office (this almost wants to make me cry) . The chaps at his interview asked all the usual questions and asked to see the crystal set wireless he'd built. His call up papers advised he would be enrolled into the RAF as a radio operator.

He was sent to the Isle of Mann for training where he travelled on the LMS and had fun dating lots of WAFFs. After a weeks leave he got posted to Northern Australia. He travelled on a ship through the Suez Canal to Sydney and across Aus. Where he spent the next 6-7 years on a farm with two other air force men. On his return  I believe he flew in a Catalina to Melbourne and went the other way home through the Panama Canal. He married my Gran in 1947.

His hobby had taken him around the world! He lived the most peaceful life of any one I've ever known.

 

My gran was dating the captain of Brighton & Hove Albion football club. Who went missing in action in Crete. He showed up in the seventies on my grans door step. He had been shot down and captured then marched to Germany where he spent the rest of the war in a prison camp. My gran made submarine parts during the day and watched for fires at night besides helping to bring up her younger siblings. She also got chased up Islingwood road by an enemy  fighter!  Kids today don't know there born.

 

Both my grandparents are sorely missed.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this, regards Shaun. 

[Physicsman]

Great recollections, Shaun.

 

I only remember 2 stories from relatives in the war. My grandad was on a ship sunk in an Atlantic convoy. He was rescued by a British destroyer. If he hadn't been then I wouldn't be here. Makes you think!

 

One of my uncles was at Dunkirk. Made it back to England but had been shot and was invalided out of the rest of the war.

 

These people gave so much. They had so little, material-wise but had a sense of pride and community. Things weren't done because of money.

 

Jeff

[AireValley1962]

It would be great to here any war stories anyone would like to share from parents and grandparents, in their memory and honor.

 

My grandfather, who just died in February of this year, at the age of 94, was an officer in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.  He went to England from Canada in 1942, aged 23, and oversaw the work done to install flamethrowers on tanks and modifications to other vehicles.  He landed at Normandy a month after D-Day, and traveled all the way to Germany where he was when VE Day was declared.  He finished the war as a Captain, looking after a large group of 25 Pndr. field guns.  Last November the French Government honoured him when he was made Knight of the French Order of the Legion of Honour.  I so wish he could have made it to the 70th anniversary of VE Day. . . . . .

[Clive Mortimore]

My family has quite a long military history. Great Granddad George was in the Hampshire Regiment and served in India. He took part in the 1887 to 1889 Burma campaign.

 

 

Granddad Charlie was also in the Hampshire’s in WW1, he transferred to the then new Royal Flying Corps. In 1918 he found himself in the RAF. He was a life time serviceman spending quite a bit of the time between the wars working on flying boats in Gosport. Later he was transferred to Farnborough. I know he was overseas for part of the war as he and my dad were able to spend a night together in Cairo while my dad was on route to Ceylon. Having served in two world wars without an injury my Nan was none too pleased with him when he broke his leg riding his bike into a hanger wall; he was too busy watching the WAAF band. My Granddad continued to work at RAE Farnborough after the war.

 

WW1 medals

 

WW2 medals

 

My dad was too young to join up when WW2 started but as soon as he was old enough he got his call up papers for the army. He didn't want to be in the army, he was working as a storeman at the time and had visions of being a storeman in the army. He went to the RAF recruiting office and even with my Granddad being a regular which would normally be a yes the RAF was not recruiting at that point in the war. So he cycled from Farnborough to Reading to a Royal Navy recruiting office. Even then he ended up in the Royal Naval Patrol Service also known as 'Harry Tate's Navy' or 'Churchill's Pirates'. He served on armed trawlers undertaking minesweeping duties to start with. He did tell me about crossing the channel were they would meet with midget submarines just before he was sent to Ceylon in 1944. I later asked him where they meeting with the midget submarines that took the very brave men to the Normandy coast where they collected samples of sand from the beaches. He did say there were men on board who they were instructed not to talk to who did exchange boxes with the submarine crews. Ceylon was only a short posting before his minesweeper a BYMS, was in action along the Burma coast and the river estuaries. In one action his ship ran aground, the chaps who could swim tried to swim to the shore. He was not a good swimmer so continued to give covering fire from his 20mm Oerlikon gun. This he found upsetting as those who stayed on board were soon rescued, none of those who took to the water survived, they either drowned or were killed when they reached the beach. With the Japanese surrender his ship went to Singapore and he was a guard of a POW camp. Not for too long as he was off to Saigon, where British officers and NCOs were patrolling the city with armed Japanese soldiers. The various factions within the Vietnamese were fighting each other and the British were trying to keep order before the French returned. That was another sad story, his minesweeper had cleared a lane for the French troop ships, and one wandered off course and hit a mine. The British were ordered not to go to rescue French, many died. Following the war he joined my Granddad at RAE Farnborough. In later years my dad was a very active member of the Burma Star Association.

 

 

My service was with the REME as a Fitter-Gun. I was really lucky that while I was in the army we had no wars. I did do my time in Northern Ireland.

 

[robmcg]

My partner Jan's father was a Flight Commander in RAF Bomber Command 22 missions 1943-45, a close lifelong friend's father was a Squadron Commander in Bomber Command, 24 missions, 2 as 'lead' and in both those cases the second planes 'caught it', Jan's father lost his entire crew on a night when he was stood down with a heavy cold and they were hit .. 

 

I knew a few seamen in various visits to hospitals from car and bike things and one or two liked a drink and would only talk then of their experiences, one man in particular on oil tankers in the Med and Gulf.

 

I mentioned the Malta Convoy in 1942, there were I think only six operational fighters left there, they got a crippled tanker in strapped to two minesweepers.  Our NZ forces a bit later were part of El Alamein, the first ever land defeat for Germany unless you count being stopped by a Russian winter and 'Uncle February'...

 

Have read assiduously about both world wars, could recommend 'First Day on the Somme', or the late-60's Muggeridge TV program on the Great War, I guess we all have our perspectives.

 

My father worked running our railways in the 2nd war, we were home to Americans who saved us from invasion by Japan in 1942. Just near here are the remains of a large camp (MacKay's) and as children there were large numbers of jeeps and tracked personnel carriers next to huge stores at Gracefield near Wellington.

 

but ultimately Rick Mayall as fighter pilot  in Blackadder's WW1says it all, certainly we who rode motorbikes fast took a view not too far from the kind of attitude many had in the war. Didn't even wear helmets at first.

 

All very sad, actually.

[emt_911]

The only bit of military history was my mums cousin who served in the Royal Navy during both World Wars, He was based on shore defence batteries during both of them due to being sea sick on a boating pond.

 

I served 17 years in REME and saw service in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. I also saw a lot of other places but nothing was going on at the time

[Allegheny1600]

Nice collections of medals, Clive!

I'm afraid my family's recent history is much less impressive.

 

I don't know how my Granddad on my dads side managed this but he said that he was too young for the first world war and too old for the second??? He was born around 1899, I'm pretty sure so would surely have become of age during the course of the war! Although he would have been around 40 by the start of WW2 and was always a civvy.

Anyway, I remember him telling me that as a youngster he remembered seeing a Zeppelin over Derby one day, casually dropping bombs on/around Rolls Royce and he said it was still there the next day as our guns were ineffective against it and it was too high for our fighters.

Between the wars, he was a moderately successful businessman and had a workshop in Derby that during WW2 churned out mortars for the army.

He also got heavily into yachting and spent a lot of time on the south coast, being in a position to help with the Dunkirk evacuation, in one of Churchill's "little boats". I don't know if he made more than one trip, I gather it was rather scary!

My dad did his two years National service in the RAF in N. Ireland then signed on for another year doing mountain rescue until he left to marry my mum in 1952.

I started with the TA in Derby (Woofers!) at 19 then my dad had a bad stroke and lived in France, so I went to help care for him. I always wanted to go back and become a tankie, started this process prior to turning 25 then started a relationship that stopped such adventures, D'oh!

Our service personnel past & present mean so much more to me than those we voted for on Thursday.

John.

[ChrisN]

One statistic you do not hear very often.  1969 was the only year since the end of WW2 that no active service personnel have been killed. 

 

My step- grand dad was a professional soldier when WW1 broke out, and as he told me, he was an 'Old Contemptible'.  Fought all the way through.  Here is a painting of him.  He married my Nan when he was 80 and she was 82.  His old regiment made a fuss of them and allowed her into the Officers Mess to see the painting with him.  She was then the only woman to have been allowed into the Mess.

 

My dad had one leg 1/2" shorter than the other but annoyed the recruiting sergeant so he was put in the army.  He was on searchlights and AA guns.  They sent him off to the Driver Training Regiment where he did all sorts of stuff but when they realised his leg would never let him drive they moved him elsewhere, six weeks before the regiment was sent to Crete.  This was one of about 5 times he could have been killed, but obviously was not, which is why you are reading this.  He also brought down a Messerschmitt using a searchlight, but I will not go on as I could be here all day.

[southern42]

Very few wartime memories were passed down but I managed to pick up bits and pieces related to some of those family stories through the Web.  For instance, I learnt of family members killed in the war when I was still quite young though a few stories from the family experience didn't quite tally with recorded information so it was a case of putting bits of info together and reworking them a little (e.g. for WWII, "end of the war" seemed to equate with the end of a particular battle).  What did become apparent was that, when a member of the family was killed a member of the next generation was immediately named after him or her.  My Dad, for instance, b.1915, was given both names of his father's brother who was killed in action in 1914, the first name,alongside that of his other grandfather, passed on to one of ours . Dad died shortly before our he was born.

 

 

Edit - a few typos, I'm afraid.

 

Edit - to add additional info.

Edited May 9, 2015 by southern42

[Clive Mortimore]

Nice collections of medals, Clive!

I'm afraid my family's recent history is much less impressive.

 

I don't know how my Granddad on my dads side managed this but he said that he was too young for the first world war and too old for the second??? He was born around 1899, I'm pretty sure so would surely have become of age during the course of the war! Although he would have been around 40 by the start of WW2 and was always a civvy.

Anyway, I remember him telling me that as a youngster he remembered seeing a Zeppelin over Derby one day, casually dropping bombs on/around Rolls Royce and he said it was still there the next day as our guns were ineffective against it and it was too high for our fighters.

Between the wars, he was a moderately successful businessman and had a workshop in Derby that during WW2 churned out mortars for the army.

He also got heavily into yachting and spent a lot of time on the south coast, being in a position to help with the Dunkirk evacuation, in one of Churchill's "little boats". I don't know if he made more than one trip, I gather it was rather scary!

My dad did his two years National service in the RAF in N. Ireland then signed on for another year doing mountain rescue until he left to marry my mum in 1952.

I started with the TA in Derby (Woofers!) at 19 then my dad had a bad stroke and lived in France, so I went to help care for him. I always wanted to go back and become a tankie, started this process prior to turning 25 then started a relationship that stopped such adventures, D'oh!

Our service personnel past & present mean so much more to me than those we voted for on Thursday.

John.

Hi John

 

My mother’s father was in a similar position to your Grandfather, too young for the first and on the upper age limit for the second. Because of his trade and where he lived he couldn't join up as his trade was a restricted one. He lived in the Aldershot area and was a cobbler working in his father's business. They spent most of the war repairing army boots.

 

We can all salute those who served but there were a host of others who seem to be forgotten. Recently on Woman's Hour there was a item about the women who worked in the Sheffield steelworks during the Second World War. Like the men who also were in the steel works they did not go to the shelters when the works were being bombed but carried on working because you cannot turn off a steelworks. It has taken 70 years for their service to be remembered with a statue in the centre of Sheffield.

[southern42]

Jeff, a few suggestions to help out / keep the ball rolling wheels turning.

 

You could complement Lunester Lounge with Lunester Parlour / Pullman / Open / Sleeper  ...er perhaps not that one / Trailer.

 

Or have Lunester Lounge (relating to KL) and Lunester Lounge Unclassified (BR Code "U", denoting everything else).

[HeeleyBridge]

Both my grandads were both too young for the Great War. Their older  cousins served, one died from wound received on the Somme in 1916, another died in the 2nd Manchesters assault on the canal in November 1918 in which Wilfred Owen died. Yet another was in the Royal Navy Flying Corps, he survived and later ran a Herbal(!!) Brewery in Bournemouth I believe.

 

One was a carpenter and spent WWII in the AFS/NFS and was posted to Chatham Dockyard amongst other places. Both his wife and mother-in-law worked in factories in the Attercliffe area of Sheffield. 

 

The other was a cabinet case maker and volunteered for the army in WWII. He was unfit for active service though and spent all his war officially building / repairing truck bodies. Unofficially he refurnished his CO's house  . His wife took over the local milk round, and detested horses for the rest of her life.

 

One of my Dad's uncle flew Lancasters and another was a radio operator.

 

Dad himself was in the Royal Artillery and later Military Police, served in Korea. Unfortunately I only earned of this after he died almost 20 years ago. 

 

Dave

[The Stationmaster]

In the Great war one grandfather was in the Berkshire Yeomanry and as far as I can trace his unit was converted to a Machine Gun company and served at Galliopli and later in France - I'm not at all sure if he went to Gallipoli with them but there is one piece of evidence that he might have but I know he served on the Western Front.  All he ever said about the Great War was that he'd sooner trust 10 Germans than 1 Frenchman which suggests he was definitely around during the 1918 German offensives.  The other grandfather was deferred for some reason for about 6 months after volunteering but subsequently spent the war on the Western Front  - the only odd feature of his military service was that he managed to change from one Regt (the Durhams) to another (the West Yorks) which was virtually impossible for a Private soldier - seems he did a mutual exchange, I have his original application to change Regts.  The only place I know where he definitely servedwas in the 3rd Battle of Ypres - Passchendaele - where his best friend was drowned in the mud.   I had a great uncle in the Canadian Army - he'd emigrated before the war and joined-up in Canada, he finished up with a Military Medal for capturing a German trench and ended his service as a Company Sgt Major, he returned to England when he was demobbed and lived near us when I was a child so I knew him quite well but he never mentioned the.war.

 

During WWII my father failed the Army medical due to a heart murmur but he had an eventful war for all that.  He got a job in an aircraft factory (Miles Aviation) but the Ministry of War Labour drafted him out of that to build huts at service bases - that included being machine gunned while building huts at Portsmouth as nobody bothered to tell the builders when raids were starting and it was too noisy to hear any sirens.  He also went through the war in the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) spending most of it in a mobile support unit so he got to do a lot of fire fighting in London, Portsmouth, Southampton, Birmingham and Coventry as well as some more local places which suffered minor raids - he had more than a few stories about the initial inadequacy of the fire services to work on a national basis as they all had their own hydrant sizes plus some used left hand threads while others used right hand; apparently they finished up with a load of adaptors.  So not just a war at the battle front but a sometimes serious one on the home front as well.

Edited May 9, 2015 by The Stationmaster

[trisonic]

My Grandfather served with the HAC  on the Italian front against the Austrians - I do have a photo of him in uniform in front of the Sphinx, however, because they were diverted from Gallipoli to Alexandria. He did receive a medal from the “grateful” Italian Govt that was about 6 inches in diameter!

When he wasn’t doing that he spent a lot of time at the Tower of London.

 

Best, Pete.

Edited May 9, 2015 by trisonic

[emt_911]

He also went through the war in the AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) spending most of it in a mobile support unit so he got to do a lot of fire fighting in London, Portsmouth, Southampton, Birmingham and Coventry as well as some more local places which suffered minor raids - he had more than a few stories about the initial inadequacy of the fire services to work on a national basis as they all had their own hydrant sizes plus some used left hand threads while others used right hand; apparently they finished up with a load of adaptors.  So not just a war at the battle front but a sometimes serious one on the home front as well.

This is an area that I've been researching especially the formation and history of the NFS (National Fire Service). Part of the remit for the NFS at formation, was for common compatible equipment and training to allow all areas to work together. This remains part of the national standard for the current fire services.

[HeeleyBridge]

Tracing Great War soldiers isn't easy as a lot of the records were destroyed by fire during WWII.

 

All I had to go on for my First cousin twice removed (ie Grandad's cousin) was an old photograph I found whilst clearing my grandmother's house after her death in 1985. On the back it just had his name, Jack. I later found a death penny (which has been put away safely since then and defies all attempts to find it), but I don't know if it's his or his cousin Stephen's.

 

The photo totally intrigued me as nobody had ever told me anything about him and eventually I decided I had to find out more. So began my research about five years ago. 

 

It took me almost two years to track him down, starting by identifying his uniform as that of the Duke of Wellington's West Yorkshire Regiment. When he joined the Manchesters in unclear, it took some sorting out.

 

Of course all the "Jack"'s in our family were actually "John". He died November 4th 1918 aged just 19 and is buried in Ors Communal Cemetery, Ors, Nord

 

I hope to get over there in November 2018 and pay my respects in person, which is the most fitting thing I can think of doing.

 

 

[Physicsman]

What a wonderful set of posts!

 

Puts a lot of things into perspective.

 

We MUST remember them!!

 

Jeff

[Jock67B]

I'd probably say no to both options.......

Morning Peter,

Wondered if you got the result you wanted?

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Jock67B]

Afternoon all,

I hope to feel well enough to post my bit about the war later tonight - still trying to shake off this terrible sickness etc. bug! As to the election - my non-political theory of how we in Clacton ended up with the only UKIP MP in the hose can be found in the midst of post #9202 on P3681 of Early Risers!

Kind regards,

Jock.

PS Well said Jeff - I shall be raising the night cap glass to their memory!