VJ Day

[RailGooner]

Respectfully remembering all those who sacrificed and suffered. Thinking too, of those who continue to suffer today.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[StufromEGDL]

hi Gang;

Off out this afternoon for a bit of a hike, some fresh air and view the Reds as they pass through Wiltshire later...
Not a massive act of Remembrance, but a small nod in these difficult times to commemorate the sacrifices of many!

EDIT: The Reds cancelled due to poor weather!

Later;
Stu from EGDL

[geoffc]

Probably more appropriate on this day the epitaph at Kohima War Cemetery:

When you go home, tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today


Geoff
Son of a Chindit one of the forgotten Army.

[The Q]

My dads father,  and 3 of his 5 sons  fought in WW2, One of the uncles  was fighting in Burma at the time of the surrender. .

The words from the Kohima memorial will be below the war memorial on my layout.  As well as "They shall not grow old.. "

[joe cassidy]

My Dad was in Burma during the war.

He was a mechanic, maintaining the Royal Marines amphibious vehicles.

As kids he told us a lot of stories about his younger days but he never, ever, mentioned what happened to him during the war.

[javlinfaw7]

My wife's uncle was in Burma, but never mentioned it , however to his dying day refused to buy any product he thought was Japanese.

[MinZaPint]

An uncle of mine was out there and by all accounts was a very mild and friendly character, totally different when he came back, never a violent man he became a compulsive hoarder their home became cluttered with stuff that he wouldn't throw away, he kept chickens and hoarded eggs in case of food shortages.
      A an old snooker pal of mine was very proud of being a Burma Star veteran and would not by anything Japanese. A great character, wherever we played snooker he new where the nearest and best chippie  was also a very skilled engineer with a 4 garage unit crammed with Lathes Milling machines etc. Yesterday brought back some very pleasant and some sad memories. I thought the tribute on the Beeb was well done, didn't compensate for the licence fee though 

[geoffc]

Its suprising how many never spoke about their wartime experiences, were they that horrific that they tried to wipe them from their memory?

My father was in North Africa  in Tobruk during the seige, all I gleaned about that from him was that they lived on Bully Beef that they poured out
of the cans as it was so hot and dried biscuits. After the war he would never eat Corned Beef.

He then went to South Africa for R&R and then he was posted to Burma and the Chindits. He said that it was so hot and humid clothes rotted on their backs and they use cigarettes to burn off the leaches, he contracted Malaria, which he suffered from for the rest of his life, in early 1945 he was sent home via America after 6 years abroad. During this time my mother never knew if she was a wife or a widow, when a letter arrived from father it could be up to a year old.

My knowledge of my fathers 6 years of service for King and Country, like so many others, can be summed up in two short paragraphs therefore do we really know what they went through and the the true debt we owe them

Geoff