12-01-14, 02:47 PM
Interesting thread.
My grandfathers are at opposite ends of the scale. As a kid my maternal grandad used to amaze my cousins and I with his war stories, how he served in Russia, Burma, Africa, France and Germany. The two I remember are about the helicopter (are you smelling a rat yet?) he flew chasing Hitler's rear guard to Berlin, and the time he killed a Japanese Captain in Burma, then stole his sword and killed the rest of the squad, with the bodies piling up on the sword 'like a big Jap kebab.' Turned out he was really a mechanic and never left the air base (I think he was based on the Isle of Man). He did meet my grandmother there though, probably the only thing he didn't bullshit about from the war.
My paternal grandad on the other hand, refused to say a word about his service until about 5 years ago, when he told his story to his two sons. They made notes, but he asked them not to tell anyone what he was going to say until after his death. I don't know what he did, but he died in Sept 2012 and my dad & uncle have kept the notes locked away, saying it was more to get things off his chest and that no-one should ever have to read things like that. I get the impression he did some morally questionable things during D-Day and the following period.
What I do know though, as I found out at his & my nan's funeral, is that he was born & raised in Castle Bromwich near the Spitfire factory (now Jaguar) which is where he met my grandmother, while sheltering under a bus during an air raid. He was home on leave and she was working at the factory as a quality inspector, ironically my job today at the same factory. They met and married in 1940, and after the war they never spent a night apart until my nan's death on the 15th September 1012 and his 6 days later, both aged 97.
My grandfathers are at opposite ends of the scale. As a kid my maternal grandad used to amaze my cousins and I with his war stories, how he served in Russia, Burma, Africa, France and Germany. The two I remember are about the helicopter (are you smelling a rat yet?) he flew chasing Hitler's rear guard to Berlin, and the time he killed a Japanese Captain in Burma, then stole his sword and killed the rest of the squad, with the bodies piling up on the sword 'like a big Jap kebab.' Turned out he was really a mechanic and never left the air base (I think he was based on the Isle of Man). He did meet my grandmother there though, probably the only thing he didn't bullshit about from the war.
My paternal grandad on the other hand, refused to say a word about his service until about 5 years ago, when he told his story to his two sons. They made notes, but he asked them not to tell anyone what he was going to say until after his death. I don't know what he did, but he died in Sept 2012 and my dad & uncle have kept the notes locked away, saying it was more to get things off his chest and that no-one should ever have to read things like that. I get the impression he did some morally questionable things during D-Day and the following period.
What I do know though, as I found out at his & my nan's funeral, is that he was born & raised in Castle Bromwich near the Spitfire factory (now Jaguar) which is where he met my grandmother, while sheltering under a bus during an air raid. He was home on leave and she was working at the factory as a quality inspector, ironically my job today at the same factory. They met and married in 1940, and after the war they never spent a night apart until my nan's death on the 15th September 1012 and his 6 days later, both aged 97.
Broken, bruised, forgotten, sore,
too fucked up to care any more.
too fucked up to care any more.