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What did Grandad do during the war?

During the war

Share the stories that your grandparents or even great-grandparents have passed down to you. The heroics of being a pilot in the air-force or remembering those long evenings, huddled underground during the Blitz.

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The wireless operator
Reg Best, a wireless operator on Lancaster bombers, tells us about his experiences during the Second World War.

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During WWI
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Find out what it was like in the trenches during WWI.

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The Polish Lancer Regiment

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Added: 14 October 2008 15:13
G.H.Briggs says:
My father[John Briggs-sargent] was in the Royal Dragoon Gaurds during WW2 as forward scout in Montgomeries 8th Army.He told me of the time his scout group[one scout car in front,one armourd car with 2lb gun and one brengun carrier at the rear]came to be at the gates of Belson concentration camp.
This is his story.We had been orderd forward to check the high ground,we set off on a nice sunny day the birds singing and the trees and grass was green and as we started to drive up the incline of the hill[keeping a lookout for German soldiers throwing stick granades,powerfull enough to knock an armourd car over,may have been on the high embankment.]about half way up I noticed that the birds had stoped singing,we made ready in case of ambush and proceeded, as we neared the top of the hill the trees were turning black, they had sticky soot like deposites on the leaves and at the top we could see the whole area with hundreds of long huts spread out in a basin of hills surrounding the camp.The air smelled of burnt roast beef and the whole area was black for miles around,[my father believed the Germans had been burning food stocks,they had not been pre-warned what they may have been.]The group set off down the hill on the opposite side and drove along the camp roads perimeter fence to the entrance gate,as they approached an American jeep came out of the undergrouth and stopped at the gate, some soldiers had already opened the gate and were braking into the huts.
What thay found was huts 2/3 full of dead people where those that survived had piled them up to make room.The American troops jumped onto their jeep and told my father that they were going to round up the local people and force them to see what they had done,at the same time my father had been in touch with his command H.Q. and he was orderd to stop the American at all costs until an Officer arrived,this he did by putting a 2lb armour piercing shell into the breach and pointing it straight into the jeep,he then told the U.S.sargent Shapero that if he made a move for the servillians his orders are to stop him until an Officer arrives.
They all waited and most of what happend after is documented and filmed.
Added: 20 August 2008 16:13
Christopher%20Robin says:
This poem was indeed a hard challenge to myself, my Father used to tell us he was one of the first British Soldiers to enter Belsen Concentration Camp at the end of the war, what he saw that day and days onwards, he found difficult and painful to talk about even many years onwards.

This following poem perhaps reflects what it must have been like to him seeing this as a soldier entering the camp, and also remembering myself from a very old war film based on similar lines


Concentration Camps

Faces were sunken as if into the skull
Heart strings ached, tugged with a pull
Bodies were lying every where around
Silence was deafening hardly a sound

Many asked for food we%u2019d none to give
Surviving only through sheer will to live
The stench of carrion burned at my nose
Some walked about as if the dead arose

Imagine the worst nightmare ever seen
Horrific sights turning stomachs green
Zombies the dead walking right there
Pitiful looks of such torturous despair

We were quite lean fed and watered
Walking amidst near dead or slaughtered
As long as I live this will ever haunt me
Every day passing clear in mind to see

The pains of world war the true evil of man
Tortured souls endless a woman and man
Only with time would these souls yet tell
The very real truth, their sheer living h**l

Poet Christopher Robin 2008

Today we can only begint to imagine what that war was really like
Added: 24 June 2008 16:51
Lynn says:
My dad was 14 years old when he went into the Polish army,He had an awful time for such a young lad,He was in the dessert fighting the Germans,he fought the Russians,and helped fight with the British. I always felt so proud of my Dad,but it wasnt untill I had 2 sons of my own that the feeling of what my Dad went through hit home.At 14 my boys where having fun with there friends,my Dad was in the war with his.
Added: 15 June 2008 15:58
Hilary Kitchin says:
Lord Acton wrote in 1887:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
Cassy writes: "Wars are made by small men trying to be big men with very few brain cells between them".
The latter is not exactly true, but I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment that wars are wrong. I have done quite a bit of research on this topic and I am highly convinced that wars have been created by rich and powerful bankers and corporate elites wishing to consolidate their power even further by their ownership and control of the armaments industry-(note:there is a term used to describe these powerful elite and it is referred to as 'the Illuminati'). It is not widely known that both world wars and many others have been funded and supplied by the same finance and armaments companies, which in turn are run by the powerful elite(big bankers,Illuminati). This is why there is so much confusion about why those wars are perpetuated when all along nationalism is blamed. Firstly, let me tell you that the Federal Reserve (which is neither Federal, nor a reserve)was formed in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act. The Federal Reserve was formed by a coterie of powerful merchant and commercial bankers (who were likely members of the Illuminati) that thought up the idea of gaining greater power than ever before. They wanted to dominate the world. Some say this is when the term "New World Order" was devised. Their private meetings were held at Jeckyll Island, near New York and with their fingers in powerful pies, which helped to fund and support Woodrow Wilson's rise to power they were able to coerce the naive Wilson into signing the Federal Reserve Act. This meant that the money-making machines were now owned by this group who took advantage of their position by making money from nothing. Instead of the Dollar being based on the gold standard it became reliant on the profits which their new lending ability granted them...in other words the interest made on loans and inflation which is the inflation of the currency to more than it's worth. Now you may ask-what has all of this to do with war?
Well, note that several months after the Federal Reserve Act we have the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand which historians say is likely to be the crucial point where the escalation of WWI began. In fact, although they are in part correct, it is not exactly known in history how much the little coterie of power hungry bankers had conspired to use the weaker elements of nationalist sentiment to arrange for his assassination. In fact, these bankers are very clever and know how to take advantage of the state, its citizens and national sovereignty. How else could we all be so confused as to why war exists and is perpetuated at all. The elite do not care for other humans, but call us "useless eaters" as we are seen to be taking up valuable resources from the earth which they feel is theirs. I could not make all of this up my friends.
As an ex-Forces soldier myself (six years) I have tremendous admiration for the military and the high standard of discipline and regimentalism which has existed for years. Sadly it is exploited by the elite for their own profiteering and imperialism. This is very much the case today too.
I do hope this has enlightened some readers, but if you have any doubts about my facts just type "Federal Reserve" into YouTube
Use your own ability to watch,read and decide about this corrupt system which runs our world...this includes GB.
Enjoy the research.

Added: 25 May 2008 18:10
Cassy says:
My Grandad served in the 3rd Royal Hussars and he was in Tobruk when he was taken prisoner and sent to Germany for 3 years. In that time he was given jobs to do daily and one of them was with a German Coal Merchant. He delivered coal all day and at the end they fed him as one of their own family before taking him back to the camp. The Man turned to my grandad and said why are we fighting my friend? I am Saxon and you are Anglo-Saxon we are brothers so what is all this war about? Another time he was taken to a local hospital and told to stand outside a door, then when the door opened a package would be given to him and he had to deliver it to a man behind a blue door at the other end of the corridor, he was told not to open the package or look at what is inside. The first few times he didn't look but them one day he did....It was someone's leg,he had been delivering parts to the furnace room, grandad felt sick and wobbled but he never fell because he said he owed it to the poor soul whose leg it was to show a little dignity. The doctor saw how pale grandad was and he gave him a shot of schnapps half a bottle in fact. Then after working for a month at the hospital his teeth were knocked out after a German SS Officer took a dislike to him. The doctors waited till the officer had left and they made him a beautiful set of teeth that lasted him for fiftytwo years and fitted perfectly. People are the same the world over if you treat them with respect they will show you respect. Wars are made by small men trying to be big men with very few brain cells between them. My grandfather was a quietly spoken made with mild manners but a big heart. After releiving the Germans of a large quantity of bully beef he then went on to share it with some of the locals in exchange for fresh fruit.
Added: 28 April 2008 21:00
alph says:
margarita bennett hits the the nail on the head; there are no winners out of war. The Russian (not Communist, Socialist or anything else) people suffered brutally under the Nazi onslaught and it's actually difficult to get your head round the total figures of slaughter in Russia. On a more humanitarian note, my father served with the RAF during WWII, as a humble aircraftman/driver. In the latter stages (1945) he entered Germany as part of the occupying forces. He came from a less well off family and could not bear to see any child going hungry and often shared what he could out of his own rations
with desperate German children. He only told the family this shortly before his own death. I think there's a message there for all of us.
Added: 24 April 2008 17:17
Lisa says:
I think that all you lovely people who are here telling your stories should get together and write your own story and get it published for every one to read, it's time that is very much nearly forgotten and i think it's our british troops back in the first and second world wars that should be remebered, but we never here in documentaries about the war effects on the children in the country, or of how it affected the northerners.
Added: 24 April 2008 12:34
claire evans says:
my uncle was in the welsh guards 1st battalion his name was sgt g.p.hill he was a regular soldier and joined up before war broke out,he was killed by mortar fire digging out on august01 1944 aged 32 yrs he is buried at banneville-la-campagne war cemetry grave ref xv1.c.30.if anyone knew him or knows anything about him would be grateful for any info at all.
Added: 3 April 2008 18:04
anonymous says:
my grandfather daniel murray served on the iron juke under jellicoe he was born 11 11 1889 the war ended on his birthday so he had a double celebration he always said it was his best birthday pressie
Added: 12 March 2008 19:04
RM says:
My grandfather, who has sadly died, told me a story of when he arrived at Gold beach during the D Day landings. He was a dispatch rider and by the time he had disembarked from his landing craft on his motorbike, the remainder of his regiment had moved on. Just to add to his problems, he gained a puncture in his front tyre, which he then spend the next hour fixing before moving on down the road towards a town called cabourg to catch up with his regiment. After about 15 minutes of riding, he stated that 2 British Tommy's leaped out from the side of the road and waved him down, asking where the ****** he was going. After explaning to them what had happened they told him he was going the wrong way and to get out of there fast as they were laying in wait setting an ambush for a columb of German half tracks that were about half a mile down the road. My grandfather said as he was turning his bike around that he could hear them coming and off he sped. He never did find out what happened to the 2 soldiers who stopped him, but if they hadn't, then he would have rode straight into the German half tracks and probably have been killed.

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