Lest we forget

[billybunter]

The Germans tried to bomb Belfast's shipyard and aircraft factory but missed wiping out a few streets. War has nothing to do with kings or queens. It is people putting their life on the line for their family and friends.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by fleetwood77

Damn right -my father was on night shift in the shipyard the night the Luftwaffe attacked Clydebank - he didn't get a wink of sleep and had to walk 10 miles home the next morning - which nearly killed him.

In one way the war would have made Fleetwood's dad as safe as he had ever been, all that rationing would have made it harder to eat those lethal fry ups for which Clydeside is renowned. But Glasgow was quite a target and being close to the sea next to a major river estuary made it much easier to find than an inland city such as Leeds.

What people sometimes forget is that, while nothing like as perilous as front line service, being in a reserved occupation wasn't as safe as peacetime. The war was hard on civilians too. Air raids brought the very real possibilty of death in battle without the chance to shoot back. Most men and women did a lot more hours than they would have done in peacetime and in most cases they had voluntary work to do also, such as ARP, Home Guard, special constabulary; then they were also Digging for Victory (you can't keep a decent allotment or sizable vegetable garden on less than 15 hours a week). Sometimes they had to drop everything and queue to get rationed supplies which would run out if they didn't seize the moment. Losing a month's coal ration in February when you were thirty minutes too late to claim it was not funny. On top of that, whenever they got a chance to go to bed and sleep, the bloody sirens might go off at any time. People aged fast in the war because it was a really hard grind just to get by; and they were ones with the so called "cushy number."

These are the petty burdens, which amount to nothing compared with the risk of being killed or maimed in battle, yet they were still burdens. The people who carried them were the weight of the sword behind its cutting edge, and they also served. I was very glad to see it when the Bevin Boys were finally permitted to march in the Remembrance Sunday parade. Their contribution was unglamorous but hard and far from safe. They are the perfect example of those who also served, but Fleetwood's father in his reserved occupation was just such another. One of my grandfather's repaired railway carraiges and the other was an electrician, unfit for military service, but they did what they could, as did millions like them.

[rotobott]

All my Uncles and Aunts were in the armed forces except one. My Uncle Eddie, he was the only one killed, died in one of the first bombing raids on London.

[sweatyhat]

My father was a small boy in WWII.
There was an American anti-aircraft battery on one of the hills above his village and he'd visit them with his friends because the gunners often gave them treats.
They were stationed there because it put them under the flight path of the German bombers who regularly attacked the Royal Ordnance factory in Bridgend. I'm told that place took a real hiding, you wouldn't want to have worked there.