Im sure we're all aware of the WW11 generation diminishing and the stories being lost, so as I had my mum visit for the day I asked her of her experiences as a child during the war. She told me of her uncle being a motorcycle despatch rider and being blown up by a land mine whilst fighting in Holland. Fortunately for him although seriously wounded, two local boys found him and took him to safety. He was returned via the hospital ships and took many months to recover, still carrying shrapnel in his body and partially deaf for the remainder of his life. He never forgot the boys and their families keeping in contact with them until he passed away. We must keep these experiences alive and passed on to future generations.

email (option): cruaser@aol.com

Has anyone Googled 'BBC people's war' ? Although I didn't stumble across any DR stories there are some cracking personal accounts from military and civilian alike. I think there's something like 40,000 first-hand stories

During the war my mom was moved from the bombing in Birmingham to stay with her Gran in Tamworth. She says she can remember seeing the clouds illuminated red from the flames when Birmingham and Coventry was bombed.

While a boy my dad stayed in Birmingham despite the bombing. While collecting shrapnel one morning he found in the street a Byzantine coin dated AD 76 which he kept and I still have.

My moms brother Clarence was killed in Tunisia the day before the Germans surrendered.
As a boy I used to stay at my Great Grans house and see photos of Clarence in his uniform, and was told of his fate. Like most boys would be I was fascinated by it, and feel sure that was a large part of what got me interested in WW2

Both my grandads fought in North Africa, but as they died while I was young I never found out much from them except my dads dad told me he was away for four years and only sent home because he had a wound to his leg which would not heal. I remember him telling me that when he left England his three children were barly more than babies but when he got home the were so much older and didnt know him.

I feel that my WM20 ties me to these stories and times, which is why I will never sell it
.

email (option): Gasboy@btinternet.com

Amazingly, none of my family died in the First war but three died in the Second (My Grandfather served the whole 4 years in France in the first one).
During WW2 my mother was in Northampton and when the troops returning from Dunkirk went through the town and the convoys got stopped in traffic jams she said the whole street turned out to give them tea and sandwiches..She said most were in a poor way, only partially clothed and very tired.
Later on in the war she used to go to dances at USAF Poddington, an American bomber base that is now 'Santa Pod' dragstrip.
She said they would watch the American bombers flying out in formation in the morning and see them coming back later, still in formation but with gaps. She knew a few Americans who were killed.
She worked in a factory making potentiometers.
My Father was in Coventry working on Aero engines..He worked twelve hour shifts, did one night a week 'Home Guard' duty and one night a week on firewatch on the factory roof..They had those long handled 'scoopers' to pick up any incendiaries that landed on the factory. Despite the Coventry blitz the factory never got a direct hit from an H.E. bomb...He said he was tired the whole time!
Later he worked on the early jet engines...
I remember my Uncle Ray from when I was younger..He had a Norton and was the only member of my family with a bike. During the war he was in the Navy and was sunk twice, once by bombers and once by a sub..The second time he spent 2 years in hospital as he got oil in his lungs and stomache, from which he never fully recovered...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

my father went through the WW1 including gallipoli he got gassed in france one of the stories he told was he was a company runner and found a stallion to ride but had to give it up as he couldnt control it as it wanted to mount any other horse it saw and thinks this is why it was left to rome on it own during WW2 he was on the local anti aircraft guns i can remember playing in the abandon gun pits after the war an uncle died in WW1 he drowned while swimming off a troop ship in the suez canal also an uncle was wounded in libya in WW2 they were checking dead body for id the chap doing the same set off a booby trap which killed him wounding my uncle in the backside and the back of his leg because he was bending over he had shrapnal in his backside for the rest of his life

email (option): roger.beck@node6.com