11-11

[Digit]

Attended the memorial service in town this morning. The largest group of people in one place at one time that I have seen since I moved to Wales.
I find it a strange experience on occasion. One chap there, and old customer of mine, nothing to distinguish him from thousands of others, you'd think, yet sporting a DSO!

Roy.

 

[pren]

I've partcipated in a few rememberance parades in the past through the Air Cadets. I noticed that the ones who keep themselves to themselves on a day-to-day basis are usually the ones with a chest full of top end medals!

I remember reading a story about this flash young RAF pilot at Buckingham palace, going to recieve a DFC. He was seen giving some stick to this old boy in a scruffy suit.

pilot: 'Hey, Pops! Didn't fancy dressing up for the Queen?'
Old boy: 'ha ha. No'. (Pilot keeps ribbing him.)

Old Boy: 'so what are you here for then, young man?
Pilot: 'I'm getting a DFC for skillful flying in Iraq!'
Old Boy: 'That's nice (takes off overcoat revealing 3 DFC's as well as numerous other gongs) I'm here to pick up my Knight hood, myself. Cheerio.

:lol:

 

[Digit]

How true!

Roy.

 

[andycktm]

One word Digit "Afganistan"
Whats the death toll one a day?

 

[Digit]

Your point please?

Roy.

 

[TrimTheKing]

One word Digit "Afganistan"
Whats the death toll one a day?

??? Relevance to the original post?

 

[Gower]

I was visiting an friend, who is unwell, in Bournemouth last week. We met when my wife and I were on honeymoon 47 years ago. We have remained good friends with he and his wife ever since. The point is, that my pal. who is now 90, has never mentioned his war service like many of his era. It transpired that he had been shot in the head outside Calais with the BEF. He was treated by a local French woman. When he regained consciousness, he was a POW. He was marched off and eventually reached Poland where he spent the rest of the war in pretty grim conditions. His lasting regret is that the Germans took away his helmet with the bullet holes in it.
To get this information from him, was like getting blood from a stone. Whatever your thoughts on war, the quiet, unassuming bravery of these folk leaves me in awe. God bless them.
Cheers,
Jim

 

[Digit]

the quiet, unassuming bravery of these folk leaves me in awe.

Indeed!

Roy.

 

[big soft moose]

One word Digit "Afganistan"
Whats the death toll one a day?

??? Relevance to the original post?

talking of current conflicts and rememberance days , i live just up the road from wooton basset , and its inspiring to see how the town reacts when the war dead (from afganistan and iraq) convoys come through from RAF lyneham - literally everything stops for them and people line the streets to pay their last respects to the fallen.

 

[Digit]

Indeed BSM, whether a flawed cause or not, courage is courage!

Roy.

 

[big soft moose]

I was visiting an friend, who is unwell, in Bournemouth last week. We met when my wife and I were on honeymoon 47 years ago. We have remained good friends with he and his wife ever since. The point is, that my pal. who is now 90, has never mentioned his war service like many of his era. It transpired that he had been shot in the head outside Calais with the BEF. He was treated by a local French woman. When he regained consciousness, he was a POW. He was marched off and eventually reached Poland where he spent the rest of the war in pretty grim conditions. His lasting regret is that the Germans took away his helmet with the bullet holes in it.
To get this information from him, was like getting blood from a stone. Whatever your thoughts on war, the quiet, unassuming bravery of these folk leaves me in awe. God bless them.
Cheers,
Jim

too true - in my last job we had an old boy as one of the draughtsmen and again he was a quiet unassuming old geezer who never spoke about his war service, - then i clocked him one remeberance day with his medals on - DFC and bar - DSO and two bars.

turns out that he'd been a navigator on the lancs in the war and had recived his second bar to the DSO for extinguishing an electrical fire after they were hit by flak - using his bare hands to smother the flames

 

[Digit]

DSO and two bars.

And you don't get them in a Cornflake packet!

Roy.

 

[head clansman]

hi

well said gower , were i use to live on the opposite corner lived and old boy and his wife he was a retired bank Manager from the local bank.


His name was mike and his wife was margaret, mike has now long gone. anyway we had been living there a few yrs as neighbor exchanging niceties as you do , then one rememberence day he comes out with his coat on all already to go to the local cenotaph as he was waiting by the car for the wife to come out, he turned to but a berry on his head and took his coat off when he turned around, my god i have never seen so many gongs on a man chest in my life, to top it all out come his wife and she had just as many gongs on her chest as well, just a nice old couple living across the road, if i hadn't seen it that day i would never have know.

He turns out to be a captain in the army and fought all down through holland and right into germany , she was well best i could find out then ,she was all very hush hush in the army as well . when you see those old pensions now shuffling along , well you just never know. hc

 

[Dibs-h]

One word Digit "Afganistan"
Whats the death toll one a day?

I may have serious reservations about the 2 conflicts the UK forces are involved in (but that's probably another thread & nothing that hasn't already been said by someone, somewhere) - but unless I've missed the point of the OP, it's about remembering the dead and I for one, I'm most grateful for the sacrifices made and my thoughts are with their kin.

 

[dedee]

Last June I was asked by our local mayor to read the english translation of his speech to the assembled vets at the village memorial. We are only about 3 miles from Pegasus bridge so just about every crossroads and every village has a memorial to the liberators in the early weeks of June 1944

One chap I spoke to looked to be in his mid fifties so I asked him if he was accompanying a veteran. Much to my embarrassment he turned out to be well into his 80s but hadn't fought locally "where they had it easy" but at Arnhem. He then gave me a lecture on the correct way to hang the Union Jack (the one on the flagpole was upside down). I am now quite horrified at the numbers of times the flag is flown upside down. But as a mark of my improving french I at least managed to persuade the local supermarket to correct theirs.

Andy

 

[TrimTheKing]

I am now quite horrified at the numbers of times the flag is flown upside down.

Yep, thick white band should be above the red band at the flagpole side.

Easy mistake to make though if you don't know any better. I only know because I saw it on some TV show once.

 

[Shadowfax]

He then gave me a lecture on the correct way to hang the Union Jack (the one on the flagpole was upside down). I am now quite horrified at the numbers of times the flag is flown upside down. But as a mark of my improving french I at least managed to persuade the local supermarket to correct theirs.

Andy

Flying (or waving) your national flag upside down!! This is something that amazes and infuriates me in equal measure. Perhaps if the Union flag was seen more often people would know when it is upside down!

SF

 

[TrimTheKing]

Flying (or waving) your national flag upside down!! This is something that amazes and infuriates me in equal measure. Perhaps if the Union flag was seen more often people would know when it is upside down!

SF

Maybe if we were allowed to discuss anything to do with British national heritage or pride in school then more people would know! I was certainly never taught anything about which way up the UJ should fly at school, and in fairness it is a very subtle difference between the right/wrong way.

Opps, that sounded vaguely political, I better stop now...

Sorry for hijacking the OP!

 

[pren]

I was certainly never taught anything about which way up the UJ should fly at school, and in fairness it is a very subtle difference between the right/wrong way.

I'm sure I remember reading that flying the Union Flag upside down was used as a means of communicating distres at sea.

Back to topic (ish) I've more than a passing suspicion that my Granddad was part of the secret squirrel brigade in N Africa during WW2. He remained impossibly fit right up until his 90th birthday when his legs started giving out. He was appointed to a number of important positions in North Africa after the war and later became one of the leading lights in broadcast camera developement for the BBC (do a Google Image search for 'meet the Pioneers' he's the one lying down with the camera)

Is it me, or is there something about being able to run long distances in WW2 N Africa and knowing your way around a camera when you got there that smacks if SF? He's never spoken about his wartime to anyone in the family. Ever. When we went to his brother-in-law's funural some years ago, the place was heaving with ex-desert rats and old commandos who all knew him very well.


.... sorry. I tend to waffle when I'm talking about my granddad. He's a massive hero to me.

 

[Digit]

He's a massive hero to me

And why not!

Roy.