VE Day

[The Year Of The Fox]

8 minutes ago, Parafox said:

My late father, born in Romania, was conscripted into the army aged 20 and sent off to fight the Russians who were the enemy as at that time Romania were German allies having been neutral before the war.

 

Anyway, long story short.

 

He was assigned to a platoon to move into Russian controlled territory. Bearing in mind the conscripts were very poorly trained, basically given a rifle and some kit and told to fujk off and fight.

 

At some point during the days of conflict and confusion, my dad got separated from his platoon and found himself alone. He managed somehow, by various means, to make his way to northern France/Belgium. In his memoirs he says he obtained shelter and food by working in various roles, in a bakery, sometimes posing as a mechanic and doing work for farmers and a general handyman, as he made his way across northern Europe.

 

Eventually he made it and was considered a war refugee and was given two options. Evacuation and patriation to either the UK or Australia.

 

He chose the UK.

 

He was sent to work as a gardener/farmhand at Ingarsby Hall where the owner was very generous and helped my dad to learn English and provided him with free accommodation and later getting him references for work in Leicester.

 

He finished up working as a toolmaker at Wadkins for many years.

 

And here I am.

 

Incredible 

[Parafox]

1 hour ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

Incredible 

I know. He wrote his memoirs for us because of his experiences which he couldn't easily articulate. 

As a 17 year old he was arrested by the Romanian secret police (Stasi) after being caught in a disused government building and accused of spying. He and 3 other youths were just messing about in the offices which still had some maps and documents in them.

He was sent to prison as a "politica", someone who was acting against the Romanian state and as such had it slightly easier time than a true criminal. After his initial arrest he was imprisoned in the very basic prison with several men incarcerated in a dark cell with no sanitation other than a bucket to use as a toilet. Food was scarce and if he left the bit of floor where he slept to use the bucket, someone else would be in his space.

He would  later moved to a "better" prison where he was able to train as an engineer/toolmaker.

After 3 years he was given the choice by the prison government to either continue the indeterminate term or be conscripted.

Hence his choice to be a conscript and face going to war rather than be imprisoned for as long as the government chose.

His parents, my grandparents, weren't told of his arrest for years  as far as they were aware he'd become a missing person and my dad maintains my grandmother went blind because of the anxiety about his fate.

 

In later years he was terrified of going back to Romania to find his family because he was scared he would be arrested by the Stasi and put on trial as a deserter.

It wasn't until Ceaucescu was overthrown that he went back and found his childhood home and the graves of my grandmother and grandad. 

 

Wild and I would say unique, but all true.

Edited 8 May 2025 by Parafox

[The Year Of The Fox]

6 minutes ago, Parafox said:

I know. He wrote his memoirs for us because of his experiences which he couldn't easily articulate. 

As a 17 year old he was arrested by the Romanian police after being caught in a disused government building and accused of spying. He and 3 other youths were just messing about in the offices which still had some maps and documents in them.

He was sent to prison as a "politica", someone who was acting against the Romanian state and as such had it slightly easier time than a true criminal. After his initial arrest he was imprisoned in the very basic prison with several men incarcerated in a dark cell with no sanitation other than a bucket to use as a toilet. Food was scarce and if he left the bit of floor where he slept to use the bucket, someone else would be in his space.

He would  later moved to a "better" prison where he was able to train as an engineer/toolmaker.

After 3 years he was given the choice by the prison government to either continue the indeterminate term or be conscripted.

Hence his choice to be a conscript and face going to war rather than be imprisoned for as long as the government chose.

His parents, my grandparents, weren't told of his arrest for years  as far as they were aware he'd become a missing person and my dad maintains my grandmother went blind because of the anxiety about his fate.

 

In later years he was terrified of going back to Romania to find his family because he was scared he would be arrested by the Stasi and put on trial as a deserter.

It wasn't until Ceaucescu was overthrown that he went back and found his childhood home and the graves of my grandmother and grandad. 

 

Wild and I would say unique, but all true.

Yeah, that’s incredible 

[Guest Lako42]

Hell of a thread. 

 

Nothing to contribute other than to say Whitwick always puts on an amazing show for ve day / remembrance. 

 

Tonight was excellent 

[westernpark]

My grandpa who would have been 110, was in Egypt and Italy during the Second World War. He would have been 30 on VE Day and I celebrate my 30th birthday, today on VE Day. He was an amazing man, who drank with George Orwell and friends with many other literary giants. 

[Guest Electric Yetis]

For anyone interested, you can purchase your relatives war records from the National Archive.

 

I did it earlier this year in relation to my Grandad as a surprise for my dad.

 

Found out a few things we didn't know. We knew he had served in North Africa but found out he also served in Italy and Austria.

 

Also found out he had a severe bout of diarrhea in Italy so that was nice. It was 21 pages long and very interesting.

 

As several people have already said, he would never speak about it so we had no real idea about what he did.

 

On a slightly different note there is a street named after two of my Great Uncles in Fleckney, both of whom died in WW1. One of them is buried in France not far from Lens (the other was blown to bits and never found, also in France)

 

I drove to the friendly last summer via there with my Son and paid the grave a visit. Believe we were the first members of the family ever to do so.

 

 

 

Edited 8 May 2025 by Electric Yetis

[PAULCFC]

@Electric Yetis Didn't know that mate....going to have a look now.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

Grandad on me mams side was at Dunkirk re the evacuation and helped lots of other soldiers onto boats etc

 

died an alcoholic after suffering probably what would be now called ptsd after war and drank himself to death at 38 (when me mam was 15 so I never met him) 

 

Grandad on dads side was in the merchant navy during the war apparently (died when I was under 7 I think so limited memories)

[PAULCFC]

Still have my Great Grandads medals (from the Boer war) and my grandads from ww2........been passed down......Something money can't buy!
 

[Sly]

You can search the National Archive here:

 

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-soldiers-in-service-after-1918/#2-how-to-get-started-and-whats-online

 

 

You can search the commonwealth database here for people that sadly passed away:

 

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/

 

 

[Guest worth_the_wait]

Something that I found time and time again was this ...

 

If you'd had "a good war", and by that I typically mean: joining the forces, doing your duty, serving your Country, but being lucky enough to have avoided seeing the horrors of war at close quarters - you were usually happy to talk about it.   Places you'd been, people you'd met, funny incidents, etc.

 

But if you were at the sharp end, and witnessed things that no one should have to see, you typically never spoke about it.  Or only to old colleagues who were actually there with you, and understood what it meant.    

 

My parents were both in the forces, as were many of their friends.  And that split held true for everyone I met.   Those fighting in the far East, and prisoners of war out there never spoke about it.  Same as for another relative in a tank regiment.    I would have loved to learn more about their experiences, but always respected their wishes and never pushed. 

 

One old family friend who swore he would never talk about his experiences in the far East sometimes was reminded of something and would start saying  "oh yeah, I remember when we were in Burma one time ...." and then remember, and stop himself mid sentence.     They were an amazing generation, who just got on and did what they had to do to, without fuss.   I don't think we'll see their like again.   

[Foxdiamond]

4 hours ago, Sly said:

You can search the National Archive here:

 

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-soldiers-in-service-after-1918/#2-how-to-get-started-and-whats-online

 

 

You can search the commonwealth database here for people that sadly passed away:

 

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/

 

 

I traced the cwgc for the uncle I mentioned died as a pow of the Japanese. He lies in the Ambon cemetery in Indonesia. 

[Free Falling Foxes]

The memories and family stories in this thread remind us, though no such reminder is necessary, what a great debt we owe those who serve and, indeed, that we should never forget.

 

For your tomorrow, we gave our today'

 

 

[STEVIE B]

What a great thread. Some amazing stories. Thanks so much. 

[Stuntman_Mike]

14 hours ago, Parafox said:

I know. He wrote his memoirs for us because of his experiences which he couldn't easily articulate. 

As a 17 year old he was arrested by the Romanian secret police (Stasi) after being caught in a disused government building and accused of spying. He and 3 other youths were just messing about in the offices which still had some maps and documents in them.

He was sent to prison as a "politica", someone who was acting against the Romanian state and as such had it slightly easier time than a true criminal. After his initial arrest he was imprisoned in the very basic prison with several men incarcerated in a dark cell with no sanitation other than a bucket to use as a toilet. Food was scarce and if he left the bit of floor where he slept to use the bucket, someone else would be in his space.

He would  later moved to a "better" prison where he was able to train as an engineer/toolmaker.

After 3 years he was given the choice by the prison government to either continue the indeterminate term or be conscripted.

Hence his choice to be a conscript and face going to war rather than be imprisoned for as long as the government chose.

His parents, my grandparents, weren't told of his arrest for years  as far as they were aware he'd become a missing person and my dad maintains my grandmother went blind because of the anxiety about his fate.

 

In later years he was terrified of going back to Romania to find his family because he was scared he would be arrested by the Stasi and put on trial as a deserter.

It wasn't until Ceaucescu was overthrown that he went back and found his childhood home and the graves of my grandmother and grandad. 

 

Wild and I would say unique, but all true.

That's a truly fascinating story, thanks for sharing!

 

[Bellend Sebastian]

It may be have been mentioned or on everyone's radar already but if you like a deep dive into all things World War II you can't go far wrong with Al Murray (yes, that one) and James Holland's We Have Ways of Making You Talk podcast. 

 

They do occasional runs of what they call 'Family Stories' which is basically them just reading out submissions from their audience of literally that, a lot of which is along the lines of what's being shared on here

[spacemunky]

Wasn't too many kids here when I was growing up that could say that their father was in WW2. That was partly due to the fact that he was 50 when I was born.

 

He, like many others, hardly ever spoke about that time in his life. Actually he didn't talk to me about much and if it wasn't for sports, we wouldn't have talked at all.

 

My mom always told me not to talk to him about the war. Occasionally after some Glenfiddich he'd tell me a story and it was always a reminder that my dad had experienced things that I only saw in movies.

 

Most of my dad's stories though made it sound like he fought the Yanks 

[ramboacdc]

My great grandad on my mums side was in the royal navy and served on the HMS Glenroy on D-Day, which I was able to see delivered soldiers to Gold Beach for sure on the day. My grandma says she remembers him telling stories of having the yanks onboard and them turning their hammocks inside out. He recalled everything from his navy days even after his mind started to go, even to the point of remembering that on D-Day they had to be towed back to Portsmouth as they hit a mine. I did some digging and found out that apparently a torpedo may have missed the front of the ship by a few feet and could have changed our family history entirely. My grandma was born 4 days after VE day. My mum said apparently my great grandma was slightly annoyed at that as she would have got a free pram if it was on VE day itself. I believe I have the telegram that was sent to my great grandad letting him know his first child had been done. I 100% have a photo of it, along with a lot more of his navy day stuff.

 

My dads side is harder to trace as my dad was the youngest of by some distance in his family. My cousins are 20 odd years older than me because of it, so they died when I was still rather young.  My dad says one of his uncles was deployed to Asia, dropped behind enemy lines in the jungle and told to just disrupt and cause havoc as much as they could. I can't remember the name for them.  

[The Year Of The Fox]

42 minutes ago, ramboacdc said:

My great grandad on my mums side was in the royal navy and served on the HMS Glenroy on D-Day, which I was able to see delivered soldiers to Gold Beach for sure on the day. My grandma says she remembers him telling stories of having the yanks onboard and them turning their hammocks inside out. He recalled everything from his navy days even after his mind started to go, even to the point of remembering that on D-Day they had to be towed back to Portsmouth as they hit a mine. I did some digging and found out that apparently a torpedo may have missed the front of the ship by a few feet and could have changed our family history entirely. My grandma was born 4 days after VE day. My mum said apparently my great grandma was slightly annoyed at that as she would have got a free pram if it was on VE day itself. I believe I have the telegram that was sent to my great grandad letting him know his first child had been done. I 100% have a photo of it, along with a lot more of his navy day stuff.

 

My dads side is harder to trace as my dad was the youngest of by some distance in his family. My cousins are 20 odd years older than me because of it, so they died when I was still rather young.  My dad says one of his uncles was deployed to Asia, dropped behind enemy lines in the jungle and told to just disrupt and cause havoc as much as they could. I can't remember the name for them.  

The Pathfinders?

[Trav Le Bleu]

I think it's just a good thing we weren't fighting in Denmark.

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, The Year Of The Fox said:

The Pathfinders?

The Pathfinders were RAF. Could be Chindits as they were dropped behind enemy lines. Orde Wingate was their commander until killed in air crash

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I think it's just a good thing we weren't fighting in Denmark.

Churchill ordered Monty to liberate Denmark before the Russians

[The Year Of The Fox]

27 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

The Pathfinders were RAF. Could be Chindits as they were dropped behind enemy lines. Orde Wingate was their commander until killed in air crash

Pathfinders were part of the army (Paras) not RAF. 
 

Maybe it was the Chindits

[Foxdiamond]

Pathfinders

 

 

 

[Foxdiamond]

Sorry. Meant to add The Pathfinders I'm thinking of were elite RAF that marked targets. Leonard Cheshire VC was a famous leader