Recollections of family and freinds.

[Thanatos]

Gday All,
Did not know where to post this so I thought here may be fitting.
I realise that to some it may be personal but others may be willing to share.
What did your Family members or freinds tell you of their experiences during WW2?
Some may have been told much,some very little.

My grandfather spoke very little of it.
Pop was a infantry Private with the 9th Division Australian 2rd AIF and saw active combat in New Guinea in 1944.
I grew up as a small child loving every thing military,toy soldiers,tanks,planes you know the stuff and would ask pop questions like "what did you do in the war" or 'Did you shoot anybody pop" silly childish requests and the response was always the same.Silence,no response at all.Over time I learned not to ask those questions anymore.
30 odd years later I was sitting with pop and out of nowhere and I mean nowhere he said this,
Quote;
They were not very good soldiers by 1944 the nips you know.They would come down the track,you would fire they would fall over.An hour later they would do it again,you would fire again and they would fall over again.Some would still be moaning when the next lot came.
That was the only time pop said anything to me about his experiances in WW2 never again did he mention it to me.
I asked nan what pop had told her and she replyed "nothing David he never talk's about it to me or anyone for that matter why do you ask"
I think pop had to tell somebody in the end ,It was bottled up for over 40 year's and he only spoke of it when he was ready.I hope it put his mind at rest.
Pop and nan have both left us now and our live's are much poorer for it.





I hope others will pass on there recollections as I have so we can all understand a little more.
Cheers and all the best
Dave

[Grimebox]

I have placed a letter/diary detailing some of my uncles' uncle war experience on the forum before. Link here hopefully!
1944 Post D-DAY (Bayeux) Description of fighting in soldiers personal letter at War relics forum

I was given a FS knife by my mothers' friend. His father was a para during the war and I believe that he landed on D-Day and was at Arnhem. He actually managed to escape from Arnhem following the withdrawel, however, when he returned home to his village he was shunned by many who saw him as a coward!!! My mothers friend asked his father what he did during the war when he was a child, the response he got was 'If you want to know what it's like to make a machine gun nest out of dead bodies I'll tell you'. Needless to say the conversation didn't go any further. He never spoke to his son about the war although his son did hear him talking with other men in the local working mens club about their war experiences. He recalled his father saying that he was in France and was walking down a lane or road when a very young German soldier came out of the hedge in front of him. Both were startled and he raised his machine gun, shook it at him and told him to 'F@*^ off', which the young German promptly did!