06-06-2019, 09:41 AM
23
Re: 75 years since D Day
It is such a shame that over the years the veterans found themselves unable to talk about their experiences, for one reason or another. Maybe too painful for them, maybe no wishes to relive their experiences, being no therapy for them in those days.I was not around during the war years but remember my father watching the 'World at War' on a regular basis, he would never miss an episode . He never spoke about the war, but he did get really cross with me years later when I mentioned war to my own children. He told me never to talk about war to children.
Maybe that's the reason so many didn't speak amongst their families.
My friends father spent 12 hours in the water at Sword Beach before he was rescued . She never knew this until after he had passed away, but it explained the reason to her why he had such a fear of water and he had never gone into the sea or a swimming bath through the rest of his life.
We will never know how much they suffered.
06-06-2019, 10:03 AM
24
Re: 75 years since D Day
Just a thought.....If you disturb an ant's nest all the worker ants risk their lives to carry the eggs to safety.
Isn't that the same reason why these men did what they did, for the children? I believe that every child who was born after the war owes these men a debt of gratitude, and we should never forget!
06-06-2019, 12:20 PM
25
Re: 75 years since D Day
Originally Posted by Purwell
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Not made by BBC, Thames Television did.
Twink - Available on Amazon or Ebay for less than £15. All 24 episodes
06-06-2019, 02:33 PM
26
Re: 75 years since D Day
Originally Posted by Lindyloo
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Does anyone know how I can go about getting my Dad a posthumous medal for part in the war? I think he should be entitled to a medal from the French as he was French and in 1943/44 was working for MI6 in occupied France with the resistance. I have many letters and other documents - from the War Office, landing cards etc and amazingly his 1943 diary which gives a fascinating insight into his life at that time. His recruitment by MI6 has been confirmed by the Duncan Stuart, SOE Advisor of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, but of course MI6 "refuse to confirm or deny". In particular I have original letters from his French Resistance colleagues giving specific details of the liberation of their town of Roanne, Loire, Rhone-Alpes and I have also obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration in Maryland US, copies of questionnaires completed by his resistance/marquis colleagues which mention him by name as a "British Intelligence Officer" including a handwritten American order to check British Agent Robert Jones whose exact functions were "Secret mission to establish airfields near Clermont-Ferrand" which ends with orders to contact the British Embassy for further details.
Finally, I also have his French Service Record - which shows he continued to be monitored by them until at least 1961 during his post-war career in Nigeria and Cameroon, despite him apparently having no post-war military connection. I continue to research his sudden death in 1964 in Cameroon, West Africa.
The British Legion might also be able to point you towards a contact.
You could do worse than to write to the Queen. People rarely seem to realise that, even though she cannot personally mediate, she can direct your request to the appropriate department, and, I am sure, would be very sympathetic. The department concerned, knowing the request is from the palace, usually acts more quickly!
(I have had a little success with a request to Her Maj.)
Failing all that, an appeal to your local newspaper might get them writing an article about your father which could result in information coming forward.
Good Luck. It sounds fascinating.
06-06-2019, 07:59 PM
27
Re: 75 years since D Day
Watching all the events in France today..... very, very moving.I was touched to see Angela Merkel taking part yesterday.
As one of the veterans said, he won't blame the sons for the sins of the fathers.
Thinking about it, there were only 21 years between the end of the first war and the beginning of the second., yet it's now been 74 years between the end of the second and today.....without any wars between those nations, quite an achievement for a set of countries who, in the 19th century, were waging war on each other continuously all over the place.
Perhaps we have got something right at last.
06-06-2019, 08:25 PM
28
Re: 75 years since D Day
Originally Posted by Muddy
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Operation Tiger I only found out yesterday that over 700 American servicemen died in a rehearsal for the D Day landings off the coast of Devon .
This was kept secret so as not to compromise the invasion .
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_Tiger
07-06-2019, 06:45 AM
29
Re: 75 years since D Day
Thank you Primus .I would not have known but for a novel I was reading that I picked up at random from a charity book rack.
By complete chance it was about the D Day landings .
I couldn't believe that this could have happened and first thought that it was fiction .
How many other things are kept secret from the public I wonder?
07-06-2019, 09:15 AM
30
Re: 75 years since D Day
The Slapton Sands was a terrible disaster but I,m afraid it was just one among many very little is known about. Down at Studland Bay off the Dorset coast an exercise was carried out to test floating tanks. A viewing shelter was built for the VIPs to see this experiment. It was a disaster and several of the tanks were lost in the deep water along with their crews. These tanks are still lying on the sea bed and I think, though am not sure, that the area has been designated a war grave and although divers do dive there they are forbidden to take anything away.Another disaster that comes to mind was the raid on Dieppe. This was caused by ill planning. There are so many that are still close guarded secrets.
As Pyxel says 75 years has passed and we still have peace. But I wonder. Could this be due to the fact that various countries have massive weapons of mass destruction that they know what the consequences of another war would be if they were used?
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