Anecdotes

[Bankinista]

My mother tells me one story from an air-raid on Dundee, near the docks. Her father was with the 8th Army and so not present. When she and her mother heard a series of nearby explosions, despite there having been do siren, she was ushered into a cupboard under the stairs where they both huddled down under a table, put there for that purpose, and covered their heads. Eventually all went quiet and they cautiously emerged to find the kitchen soaked and covered in broken glass from my grandfather's home-brew which he was hoping would be complete for after the war. The time it had been left was a tad longer than expected.

My grandfather never spoke of the war at all. It was only after his death, when I was given his campaign medals, that I learnt he'd been with this formation. He'd fought in North Africa and Italy as a gunner.

Derek

[Wardy64]

Ben is now the custodian of grandfathers, fathers, Hilary and my medals, all of which sit safely in two secure Quality Street tins in his bedroom.

D&B

[hammurabi70]

My Father served in North Africa and Italy; his 21st birthday party was rowing in a leaky boat from Kos to Turkey, evading the invading Germans.  At 21, my mother was on the top level of a bus at the station when a passing doodlebug finished its run and tipped down; it was heading directly for the bus and my mother resigned herself to dying when the eggcup of fuel that would have been thrown forward as the nose tipped down kicked the engine into life, raising the nose so it flew over the railway station and exploded on the far side of the station.