D Day Anniversary..

Can't let today go by without a mention...
Just watched 2 servicemen in their nineties parachute into Normandy as they did 75 years ago..My heart is full..Massive respect...

 

..All so very sad but by god how proud of them are we.Never to be forgotten.

 

My Father was part of the landings. He spent the first few weeks ferrying American soldiers across the channel. He was Navy. He made 15 trips, but only landed once.

 

One sees war films on tv and it’s all glamourised. The good guys against the bad guys, pretty straight forward. In reality, it must have been truly horrific, on both sides. One can’t imagine what they went through. It’s not surprising that many of our vets don’t want to talk about it. I was watching some of it on tv earlier, very touching.

 

One of the things which sticks in my memory (and my wife's too) from after the war, was the number of men who behaved very strangely. Talking to lamposts, seemingly drunk during the day, but not smelling of alcohol, the teacher who had panic attacks if a desk lid was slammed shut, I could go on. "Oh it's the War." was what was said. "Take no notice of them."
We were taught not to make fun of these unfortunate people. Not that there was anything humorous about them though.
My Father was on the Russian Convoys. He never ever talked about much about it, only the amusing things which happened. He only mentioned once that I can remember the destroyer he served on sailing through the bodies floating in the water off the beaches after D Day.

 

In my mind, there’s nothing glorious about war, it’s all bad. When I think about it from another angle, it’s the ‘commoner‘ fighting on behalf of the hierarchy.

 

@Palustris my father was the same. He only talked about the humorous things until one day when he was in his late seventies and he talked about a few things.

He suffered greatly from guilt over having to be as brutal as those he fought.

I had tears whilst listening to the ceremonies. Until our stupid Pm Mr Dressup opened his yap and started on about the indigenous women of which 97% were killed by their own people. Yes, the Dudley DoRight fell down kn nis jobe but this solemn occasion was no place to mouth his own platitudes.

To all of the servicemen, I give you my tears and moments of silence to say thank you.

 

Funnily enough Lori, I could have been born in Canada. My Father was stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia for a while and was offered a job there after the war. My Mother did not want to move while she was expecting so he did not take up the offer.
We hear a lot these days about post trauma stress, but there must have been many thousands of men and women who suffered from it after the war. No mention is ever made of how they coped in those days.
Freddy. My Father and his older brother did not feel they were fighting to preserve the hierarchy, they both knew the evils of fascism from the Spanish Civil war and joined up before being called up as they felt that they had to take a stand against it. One of the few times he mentioned the war was to explain why, as a very devout Christian, he felt he had to 'do his bit'.

 

My dad was in 1st Batallion Grenadier Guards as a regular before WWll. So he was in the BEF in France in 1939 and was evacuated at Dunkirk. He then went to North Africa then I think Italy.

Never spoke much about his war service, his only comment about getting out of France, was that as they were on the beach waiting to get off, as he looked down the shoreline, he said the sand was black with discarded rifles.
One of the perks of being an "old comrade" was the garden party held that he and my mother attended for many years at Buck House, after the Trooping of the Colour, the Queen being Colonel in Chief of his old regiment.

 

There was an interesting book which I think was written by one of the Huxleys in which he postulated that all warfare was nothing other than organised theft on a grand scale.

 

Hiya Palustris.
I think that maybe I wasn’t clear. When I mentioned “hierarchy”, I was referring to hierarchy in general. I have nothing but respect for those that put their lives on the line to preserve our freedom. Apologies for any misunderstanding