tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post3113695334243195235..comments2024-02-13T10:20:04.888+00:00Comments on David Hepworth's blog: Another way of looking at D-DayDavid Hepworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05973053694541321308noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-36743219426784541462014-06-07T13:32:53.284+01:002014-06-07T13:32:53.284+01:00I think one of the reasons people didn't talk ...I think one of the reasons people didn't talk about their war experiences is because it was very much a shared experience for that generation. They didn't really need to talk to each other about it. To an extent they got out of practice and then forgot to tell us.<br />Neil Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16459495994170381359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-28449263852580513982014-06-06T23:05:19.979+01:002014-06-06T23:05:19.979+01:00This is a passage from a much longer letter, avail...This is a passage from a much longer letter, available on my blog (www.wynnwheldon.com), written by my father (Huw Wheldon) to his father, towards the end of the war. He was with the 6th Airborne Division. "One thing emerges, to me, pretty clearly: and that is that despite all evil, we are all bound up in a tragedy which is to a large extent commonly shared, and that sitting back and blandly condemning Germans is as idiotic , as it is reprehensible. Raising pious thanks to God because Berlin is now just about annihilated as human habitation is ludicrously irrelevant. War, like peace, is indivisible." Wynn Wheldonhttp://www.wynnwheldon.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-44227671885506414922014-06-06T22:28:36.855+01:002014-06-06T22:28:36.855+01:00D-Day was and is certainly the turning point in WW...D-Day was and is certainly the turning point in WW2. At that time, my Dad was enduring his fifth year as a Japanese POW, having been captured when Singapore fell on 15 Feb1940, the day after he arrived, having recently recuperated from his wounds sustained at Dunkirk It was around D-Day, however, that my Dad's family found out he was still alive, thanks to the Red Cross letter he got out.<br /><br />He would continue to be a POW until 22 August 1945 when the Americans released him and his fellow surviving POWs from their hell, departing Kinkasai Copper Mine slave labour POW camp on 4th September 1945. He would not return to England for a further year after that and was eventually repatriated to England on 6 Aug 1946.<br /><br />When it came to celebrating dates, his main one was August 15 - VJ Day.<br /><br />I'm pleased some D-Day veterans are still around to celebrate 70 years - I can see why the authorities didn't wait until the 75th anniversary. Indeed today marks the end of the D-Day Veterans Association, due to dwindling numbers, as I understand it. I'll raise a glass to them today.<br /><br />But I'll also raise a glass on August 15, as I do every year, in thanks for his survival.Andy Lesliehttp://www.andyleslie.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-41036980686280489992014-06-06T22:08:23.554+01:002014-06-06T22:08:23.554+01:00My dad was in a landing craft and arrived June 7th...My dad was in a landing craft and arrived June 7th. His craft was sunk and he boarded another. He never spoke about it and I only found out after he died. He was 20 years old in 1944. I honestly can't imagine doing anything like that. Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07048954724721055296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-36307613236313129332014-06-05T22:09:40.949+01:002014-06-05T22:09:40.949+01:00my Dad was in the navy and spent the night before ...my Dad was in the navy and spent the night before the landings bombarding the French coast. As they, hardened by 3 years service, came back they saw the anxious raw recruits getting ready for the big day, and teased them...'you don't want to go over there, mate, it's blowing a storm, big guns out there'. <br />He'd told my Mum that, he never uttered a single word to me about it. He wanted to forget, not rememberPatPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13143953355937225849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38548109.post-32763331956888142302014-06-05T13:30:59.979+01:002014-06-05T13:30:59.979+01:00My great uncle (now in his late 90s but still shar...My great uncle (now in his late 90s but still sharp as a tack) participated in the D-Day landings but is completely indifferent to the anniversary celebrations.<br /><br />After the war he threw all his medals away. He says they were meaningless to him.backwards7https://www.blogger.com/profile/04902342759719621771noreply@blogger.com