D day

[southman1]

Morning all ,just thinking of that great day when all the diffrent, young men gave their lives to free Europe.did you know any one who took part ,we had good family freind.went to visit him one day.he was putting up miniature comando battle plaques ,I said how did get them because you had to be in the comandos toget them . then he told me that he was in the Hampshirers but because he was a bit of bad boy his words not mine he was given the choice of going to army prison ,or make his way to Scotland to join a new outfit .he done his training passed .was put in Lord lovetes unit became NR4 comando he survived deipe . On June the 6 their mission was to relev the glider unit at Pegasus bridge .a few years ago went to visit the beaches and the bridge . We have went to the cafe to have drink and to look at the photos to look for our friend bod. When doing this a airborne veteran came up to us ,got talking to him explained why we their .he said to me do you who I am , I said airborne he then told me have you seen the longest day where the corpual kicks in the door, I said yes he said I am that corpual who kicked that door

In on d day .overd to buy him a drink said no thanks I don't buy my food or drinks they are free, shook his hand and said than you then replied ,thank you for your friend and comrades for reliveing U.S. You don't what people have done until you start talkin to them , our good friend Bob died ten years ago he was a proud man I woud not have known he was in the comandos ,until I had spoken about the plaques

[Vince Green]

My uncle Harry was in 9 para, he parachuted into the Pegasus Bridge area ahead of the gliders to secure the DZ. He died of asbestos in the 70s and we never found out about his involvement until many years after his death. His name is on the roll of honour at the Airborne museum

 

Uncle Harry taught me to shoot, I would love to have asked him about a lot of things. He was a bit of a rogue, turns out I have a couple more cousins than I knew about growing up.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Vince Green

[robbiep]

My grandfather (my mum's dad) landed on Sword beach that morning.

Sadly, he died in 1977, when I was 7 years old, and too young to understand or ask.

[secretagentmole]

My Uncle Ted never told us about his war role, turns out he as a fag lighter driver, one of the men who piloted the fuel supply vessels for the D Day landings, one of the ones that the Germans tried to get to explode and take out the other ships in their vincinity.

 

My grandfather (Polish) was bombing the **** out of the German lines behind the beaches.

 

My grandfather on my father's side was a farm worker and took part in the first world war as a horse driver for moving the guns.

[keg]

My Wife's uncle went over the day after and fought all the way to Berlin. Never speaks about it. He just saw it as part of his job.

[team tractor]

My grandad was a courier in 45/46

He never said a lot until I started racing enduros. He tried to scare me off riding

[guzzicat]

My uncle has just been awarded the Legion D,Honore,for his part, I was at Pegasus Bridge on 6th June a few years ago wonderful atmosphere, & to see the remains of the Mulberry harbours still there after all the years of waves,plus think of PLUTO!, Amazing. My wife set the metal detectors off in the airport coming home, it turned out to be a small piece of nickel bullet jacket her shoe had picked up on the beach

[kennett]

My grandad was an achilles driver and landed on d+12. They then fought all the way through France and Holland. Was the 2nd British tank through the gate at Belsen and ended up at lubeck watching over the Kiel canal.

They were a different breed and he had some cracking tales, and some interesting bits and bobs that he had liberated along the way!

[jonny thomas]

I used to work with a lovely old chap

he was a polish commando

he went over in one of those gliders

he was conscripted into the german army but escaped and came to england 15 at that time

he swears to this day he escaped the german army because he prefered the british uniform

[Archie-fox]

my granddad was a instructor who taught paras who landed on D-DAY, he landed with them..

 

he made it thru the war and ended up being a jungle search team leader to find lost pilots who crash landed during other wars in the far east..

[bullet1747]

Could listen and read all day , very brave people hats off and total respect to the fallen and survivors

[deny essex]

My uncle on my mothers side whom I never met was in the paras, he was shot while coming down on his parachute and died later in a medical unit.

A very vuneruble way to enter a war zone and not one I would fancy.

All brave men doing undoubtedly what they did not really want to do.

Respect for all of them.

[norfolk dumpling]

My dad was in One Paras but missed the end of the war (where his brother died) - he was doing needlework and knitting for nearly 2yrs recovering from a burst appendix. He said very little of his active service in India and Africa as, we believe, he felt guilty his brothers were fighting and dying and he wasn't part of it.

[clakk]

My uncle,s both refused to talk about the fighting but Rod <a sapper> reckoned my uncle Bill did more damage than the Germans as he was a "cook" in the army catering corps .They used to argue over the damage done by"Andy Caps Commandoe,s" to the fighting troops,proud men deserving of our thanks for that "Day of Days"

[rjimmer]

Lest we forget.

[Grandalf]

Old friend of mine was a Sapper. He drove a 'funny' tank that carried a large calibre gun with five 'dustbin sized' rounds only.

There job was to go ashore in the second wave, drive up a path through the sand dunes and knockout a Jerry gun position.

They were landed in the right place. They tore through the proceeding infantry. They got eyes on the target gun bunker. And it had been flattened by the RAF.

Having been given no orders as to what to do next they, in Jack's words, "...parked up and sat under an apple tree for the rest of the day". About sundown some officer thought to ask them what they were doing and ordered them forward so as to get them out of the way.

His life got somewhat more exciting when they reverted to field engineering on the front line. He was wounded twice but recovered OK and lived to old age.

He could tell some colourful stories when he had a bevy or two in him..

Edited June 7, 2016 by Grandalf

[AULD YIN]

My faither was a D Day dodger..

johnnie