Remembrance Day....

[sumdumguy]

Our grandfather went to train as a bomber pilot at Yorkton at a ripe age of 20. He night bombed over Burma and India without instruments and had some of his crew killed, and still remembered their names when he was in his eighties. Luckily he came back alive as he was one of the few who survived. He came back to farm rented land and eventually bought land. We almost always had aircraft parked in our farmyard and the love of flying and farming is in our blood. We live a fortunate life because a lot of young men sacrificed for us. We remember.

[fjlip]

Also on one of the channels, an hour on the Iwo Jima battle between, US marines and Imperial Japanese. They have an annual joint remembrance day on the island to commemorate the 28000 killed from both sides.
Moving and comments that they are now friends. Japanese 90 year old and US 90 year old talking about their lives then and since. All of them want peace above all.

[fjlip]

Had two uncles involved in D Day, both survived, one wounded badly but kept hidden by French farm wife. Neither talked about much the war, not even to their own families. Very traumatic, they must have had a hard time to put the killing behind them and live their lives.

During the First war, both grandfathers were on the Austrian side against Canadians. Both survived, paternal grandfather was able to be friends with a Canadian Vet, and after discussing the war realized they were facing each other in the same battle. Glad they were not aiming at the other or poor shots. Same Canadian was Reeve of municipality and actually helped my immigrant grandparents monetarily to get settled in 1931.

Bet there are many stories out there.

[food4u]

I have an uncle buried in Tunisia. He was in the Air Force and on his second tour of duty. They were bombing Sicily and reloaded to make a second run. The plane exploded just after take off. It was the day after his 21st birthday. So thankful that none of our children have to experience this horror.Peace to all.

[cottonpicken]

And then the silence of the regular posters . As if it didn't pertain to them.the day of remeberance they Shirley hate.and they know tommorrow is a diffent morrow and all is forgot. Then the knew lies start and begin again tribe against tribe hate hate hate and our sons die again and again and agian until we are best friends with the Germans or japs or what ever tribe
Utter insanity

[Flatlander]

Grandfather was in second battle of Ypres. Caught a piece of shrapnel, went through his forearm. Recouped in england came back an Lt. in royal flying corps. Flew with a bunch of other Canadians and Brits, always stories of the antics during the downtime not so much of the action. His best buddies Claxton and McCall were both aces with distinguished records. Claxton was killed in action . William McCall came back to Canada and continued to be involved with air travel his whole life and the Calgary International Airport has him on a short list for naming the airport after him. Grandpa left the RFC a Captain and didn't fly again.

[farmaholic]

Cotton. What's up today? I know what your saying about the insanity of it all. Lives lost not by their own accord but by the will of the people in power, war mongers! The Military-Industrial complex needs a steady diet of conflict. It is an economy of its own. But the heaviest costs get paid in lives of civilians serving their Masters (the would like you to believe your country). While the Industrialists prosper.

As wrong and insane as it appears lets not disrespect those who did pay the ultimate price. Whether it was a true conflict to defeat tyranny or some of the more recent imaginary threats. Let's just hope that no one died in vain, that no matter which conflict, it was NEVER in vain.

The face of war/conflict has evolved with man itself, from sticks and stones, to spears and arrows, to primative guns, to high tech guns and bombs, to
high tech bombs to......

[freewheat]

Well, I am 39 years old. But my grandpa was born in 1896, in Germany. He fought in WWI. He fought FOR Germany. Kinda strange to think of it. I never met him, he died in 1974. I have a gold stop watch that is 101 years old that he received as wages when he was 18 and worked on a neighboring farm.

My dad said he did not ever talk about the war. Except once he was telling a story about how he was guarding a spot and heard sounds in the bushes and started shooting, and then he stopped talking and refused to continue with the story. He apparently saw stuff that made him swear off guns the rest of his life. Much to his chagrin my dad loved hunting, and grandpa would go to the house when he knew his son was going to take a shot at something in the yard. Hated the sound.

Who knows what memories it brought back? Kind of weird to have ancestors on the wrong side of history. I wish I could ask questions now, let me tell you. For all I know, he fought beside Hitler. Bizarre thoughts.

He came to Canada just in time in 1928. Much of his family got caught up in East Germany after WW2, and lived under the communist regime until the wall came down. I remember when my dad's uncle came to our farm in the early 80's and he saw our little D14 allis tractor hooked up to a 7 foot mower dad used to cut slough hay with. He was amazed at the size and the newness of the set up! lol

Anyway, whether on the right side, or the wrong side, I am thankful I personally never had to endure what some of these guys should not have had to endure.

I am thankful to those who to this day sign up and put themselves at risk, fighting and offering themselves in such a way.

Lest we forget....

[TOM4CWB]

Sorry CP...

I am breaking my word... but...

AS someone who is rubbed raw...

With family who died fighting in WW2...

Being Bullied and rubbed raw... I can't never forget...

ever.

Thx and SorryCP.

Over and Out.

[malleefarmer]

good thread guys.
my grandfather and his two bothers went to Gallipoli and fought and survived somehow then onto ypres battle fields as mentioned above and france two brothers never came back grandpa did.
then my father trained as a rear gunner radio operator/code breaker I think for 18 mths in Australia Canada and uk after all the training was shot down over Baltic sea on first mission had to bail out. Spent a few years in camps not quite ymca.... Strangely I didn't keep up the tradition. Any one want to google "hedykrug run up the road" or another "Baltic cruise 1942" they may not be correct title, another "the long march" all my Canadian connections before you guys was his pow mates and there families all on farms. whilst im telling stories one of his favourite pow stories he used to tell me "you never know how dumb you are until you meet a Rhodes scholar" One of his best mates in pow camp was one and they used to play chess with improvised pieces and board to pass time, any way dad used to be on bottom bunk and the Rhodes scholar on top bunk, dad or whoever was on bottom would make there move tell him were they moved it, then he would tell the bottom bunkee to move his piece and he never ever saw the board but was undefeated chees champion of stalg luft 5 6 7 cant remebr the rest chgeers guys sorry for the novel yes remember them

[malleefarmer]

good thread guys.
my grandfather and his two bothers went to Gallipoli and fought and survived somehow then onto ypres battle fields as mentioned above and france two brothers never came back grandpa did.
then my father trained as a rear gunner radio operator/code breaker I think for 18 mths in Australia Canada and uk after all the training was shot down over Baltic sea on first mission had to bail out. Spent a few years in camps not quite ymca.... Strangely I didn't keep up the tradition. Any one want to google "hedykrug run up the road" or another "Baltic cruise 1942" they may not be correct title, another "the long march" all my Canadian connections before you guys was his pow mates and there families all on farms. whilst im telling stories one of his favourite pow stories he used to tell me "you never know how dumb you are until you meet a Rhodes scholar" One of his best mates in pow camp was one and they used to play chess with improvised pieces and board to pass time, any way dad used to be on bottom bunk and the Rhodes scholar on top bunk, dad or whoever was on bottom would make there move tell him were they moved it, then he would tell the bottom bunkee to move his piece and he never ever saw the board but was undefeated chees champion of stalg luft 5 6 7 cant remebr the rest chgeers guys sorry for the novel yes remember them

[BreadWinner]

My grandfather was in the ww2 for three long years. He had the terrible job of malaria control. He trudged trough the swamps in Italy spraying DDT from backpacks just to control insects. Later he drove a 3ton truck with a sprayer on the back to spray the roadsides and camps. Flysol and DDT were the sprays of choice to control the nasty bugs. There was no rubber gloves or spray masks in those days. He kept a diary, it was quite the read. There were many nights that he wrote that the germans were shelling all around him. He helped liberate Holland. He saw allot of things good and bad, but he never talked about the war to anyone.