VE Day

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Originally Posted by Pearcey3

There was an episode on The World at War which focused on Monte Cassino. It was gripping.

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Not seen it recently but recall the episode. Bombing the monastery wasn't a good idea. Indeed, it wasn't occupied by the Germans until after the Americans bombed it providing cover for the occupants amongst the ruins. The model I had at work shows how difficult the terrain was. The monastery could be considered to be in the lowlands of the Appenines.

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Originally Posted by goats

Plenty of oldies gathering out the front of houses around the Heath I see today.....

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Yup, ****ers by me are getting pissed and having a street party. I'm really tempted to phone the Law :hehe:

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

He was a driver, RASC. He spent most of his war driving a 5 tonner for A Echlon of a tank regiment resupplying ammo. He said all the way through the desert campaign he had a tommy gun strapped behind his seat on the cab bulkhead. He only ever took it down to clean it and then put it back again. Oh and it was so hot in the day that you could fry eggs on the bonnet of the lorry, (if you had an egg) but at night it could get so cold that the petrol would start to freeze. (It freezes like hoeizontal needles and buggers up the Carburettar apparently.
The used to get a flimsy cut in hlaf fill it will sand and put petrol in it then light it and stick it under the engine to get the engine warm enough and clear enough to start. lol
flimsy was the name given to the one-time-use petrol cans that they were suppliede with made of very thin cheap tin. He said the first thing they looked for if they found and abandoned german vehicle was jerrycans.

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Not the same bloke I knew then. Still, one hell of a war. You don't think of deserts being cold. Bloody freezing at night. Literally. Quite possible to have a 100F diurnal temperature range.
The guy I knew was after doors after DDay. To stay alive a) keep away from tanks b) dig a shallow hole and put a door on top to protect yourself. Germans got wise and booby trapped doors.

Last year we visited a few war memorials around europe, this evening my youngest chatted about the Royal Welsh bridge at Den Bosch ( Netherlands ) she got her phone out and we looked at the pictures and remembered them fallen :frown:

if anyone does go, you can walk over the cycle bridge and look at the plaque, but then walk back to the housing estate and to the bottom of the bridge that has the names of the fallen engraved all around the supports of the bridge

My father was in the Royal Artillery. He was a bombardier on a 25 lb field gun.
He was sent to Greece then evacuated to Crete then taken off there to North Africa. He fought in the 8th Army from Alamein to Tripoli. Anzio and the Italian campaign followed and he was demobbed from Italy.

The only time he ever spoke of the war was when he met a guy called Murrell Chatwin who was RSM in the Welsh Guards and who won the Military Cross at Anzio.

Aside from that Not a word. The things these guys must have bottled up inside all those years. Makes me shed a tear

I remember Petula Clark coming to our village to visit the old lady that had taken her in when she was evacuated. I was in the infants and she sang downtown to us.

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

He was a driver, RASC. He spent most of his war driving a 5 tonner for A Echlon of a tank regiment resupplying ammo. He said all the way through the desert campaign he had a tommy gun strapped behind his seat on the cab bulkhead. He only ever took it down to clean it and then put it back again. Oh and it was so hot in the day that you could fry eggs on the bonnet of the lorry, (if you had an egg) but at night it could get so cold that the petrol would start to freeze. (It freezes like hoeizontal needles and buggers up the Carburettar apparently.
The used to get a flimsy cut in hlaf fill it will sand and put petrol in it then light it and stick it under the engine to get the engine warm enough and clear enough to start. lol
flimsy was the name given to the one-time-use petrol cans that they were suppliede with made of very thin cheap tin. He said the first thing they looked for if they found and abandoned german vehicle was jerrycans.

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Correction, vertical needles!!

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Ditto re: vacuous celebrations when deep reflection would be more germane.

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:thumbup:

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Originally Posted by Tuerto

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I dont think any of the people on my street were remembering the fallen yesterday , they were too busy getting pissed and using VE day as an excuse to talk to the neighbours

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

I dont think any of the people on my street were remembering the fallen yesterday , they were too busy getting pissed and using VE day as an excuse to talk to the neighbours

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I always wonder why these events get made Bank Holidays and thus get turned into a ‘Bank holiday piss up’? It misses the point of the sacrifices made.

Another groan I have is the way both British and Welsh nationalists hijack them to promote either jingoistic, Brexit like bollocks or decry everyone commemorating a British imperialist and then moaning about the past wrongs of the British Empire.

Can’t they just remember it was a fight against Nazism?

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Originally Posted by SLUDGE FACTORY

I dont think any of the people on my street were remembering the fallen yesterday , they were too busy getting pissed and using VE day as an excuse to talk to the neighbours

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the gathering i went to was very respectful, alot of elderly sat around ( 2 M apart ) under gazebos or sun shades drinking tea out of china cups, kids sat around trying to look interested but i suspect they were bored but kept that to themselves

i must admit i didnt see a drop of alcohol, someone might have gone and got a bottle of sherry after we left, it was that type of thing

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Ditto re: vacuous celebrations when deep reflection would be more germane.

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Slightly harsh because VE Day is primarily a day to celebrate the end of war in Europe, though that doesn't mean our thoughts shouldn't be more reflective. Even those people still alive who remember VE day itself consider it to be one of the happiest days of their lives, so why not re-enact those feelings of joy on their behalf.

However Remembrance Day is the exact opposite, being a time to think of those that have fallen in combat on all sides. This is indeed a more sombre affair as it should be and certainly not a day for celebration.

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Originally Posted by Moodybluebird

Slightly harsh because VE Day is primarily a day to celebrate the end of war in Europe, though that doesn't mean our thoughts shouldn't be more reflective. Even those people still alive who remember VE day itself consider it to be one of the happiest days of their lives, so why not re-enact those feelings of joy on their behalf.

However Remembrance Day is the exact opposite, being a time to think of those that have fallen in combat on all sides. This is indeed a more sombre affair as it should be and certainly not a day for celebration.

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I didn't mean that all the VE celebrations were vacuous but some some celebrations certainly were, in my humble opinion.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Ditto re: vacuous celebrations when deep reflection would be more germane.

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Do you mean that all VE celebrations are vacuous or are you generalising ?

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Originally Posted by trampie09

Do you mean that all VE celebrations are vacuous or are you generalising ?

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No, I don't generalise like you do. There have been some very respectful celebrations but others less so.

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Originally Posted by blue matt

the gathering i went to was very respectful, alot of elderly sat around ( 2 M apart ) under gazebos or sun shades drinking tea out of china cups, kids sat around trying to look interested but i suspect they were bored but kept that to themselves

i must admit i didnt see a drop of alcohol, someone might have gone and got a bottle of sherry after we left, it was that type of thing

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Were back to responsibility and discipline, some have it , some don't, then you end up with lockdowns and police orders, as vulnerable are at risk ,you can't win really as its always someone else's fault.

Before the war broke out my father in law was in the territorials so was immediately called up in 1939. He spent a large part of the war behind enemy lines in France with the signals operating for much of the time on his own with only his motorbike, gun and radio. He finally made it home in 1945 only to find two weeks later he was required to go to Burma. There he was involved with his platoon in a raid on a Japanese camp and we now have the flag from their encampment with the names of the Jap members (or families) written on it. Came back in 1947 weighing 6 stone with the modern day equivalent of PTSD. That is all we know because he would never talk about it. The odd thing is that he was the only person we have ever heard about who fought the war at the sharp end.

Thus VE Day had special significance for my wife. It also puts into perspective how we all moan about being in lockdown when our fathers and grandfathers were forced to go to war.

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Originally Posted by blue matt

Last year we visited a few war memorials around europe, this evening my youngest chatted about the Royal Welsh bridge at Den Bosch ( Netherlands ) she got her phone out and we looked at the pictures and remembered them fallen :frown:

if anyone does go, you can walk over the cycle bridge and look at the plaque, but then walk back to the housing estate and to the bottom of the bridge that has the names of the fallen engraved all around the supports of the bridge

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Very interesting, I wasn't aware of that. I was waiting at Den Bosch station for around half an hour in March, I probably could've caught a taxi out to see the bridge.

Here's a short video about it.
https://youtu.be/EIyYBzMn7sg

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Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee

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I get what she's saying, but what a sanctimonious ****.

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

No, I don't generalise like you do. There have been some very respectful celebrations but others less so.

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Seems like you do hence why you are now trying to explain yourself.

There is a fear that the VE celebrations might lead to a bit of an upturn in the spread of the virus compared to the current trend.

I have a picture of my mum she is 5, it is a VE street party picture.
There must be 50 people in it and only 1 of them is a man and he is an elderly gentleman.
The majority of all the men in her street had either made the ultimate sacrifice or were still overseas.

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Originally Posted by Tuerto

I get what she's saying, but what a sanctimonious ****.

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Why?

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Originally Posted by trampie09

Seems like you do hence why you are now trying to explain yourself.

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Nah. Not at all. I can see that my comment could be read in two different ways and I apologise for any ambiguity and I realise that it could have been grammatically structured better for the purposes of clarity - but I don't stereotype people across the board like you do. If I ever do come over like that please pipe up as I would hate to think that I harbour ludicrous prejudices like you do.