Thetownend.com

Folks,

I'm in the process of beginning to start research my grandad's military service in WW2.

He died back in 1983 and I'm told that he rarely spoke of his active service. All I know is that he was in the Royal Marines and operated landing craft during the D-Day Landings.

Any tips on how to learn more?

http://www.ww2talk.com/

Hi bud.....this forum is what you want....you will get help on here.
Dont use it much because i researched my grandads brother who died during WW2  so i use the Great War Forum rather than this one as your relly fought in WW2.

Good luck with it and if you have no luck let me know and i will redirect you to the forum i used...even though it it is WW1 i know the members will help you.

Register on the above and leave a messege try and put his full name on as a middle name may help...they will help you if they can....and remember unlike the TEF they are a little more serious on there but dont take it personal :D

Cheers leefer.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=652340

This is my grandads brother my great uncle who died so so close to the end of WW1...he survived nearly the whole war to be killed a few weeks before its end.
His regiment the Hampshires was decimated so the last few hundred of them were placed with the Wiltshire Regiment.....he lays a long way from home in Israel in Ramleh which can be seen by clicking on it on the certificate...like me,my dad and his family he was a Southampton man.
It left a terrible void in the family made even worse by the fact he was so close to surviving it.
I will remember him on Sunday and will be proud.. :)

Just to say Constanza the info may not be much on your grandad given he survived.....but hopefully i am wrong and you can get some details.

Good luck :D

You can look this up on ancestry.co.uk I think

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2450518

This is my great great uncle. He was wounded pretty much literally right at the end of WW2. The story is he was covering a shift for a drunk colleague. He didn't die until 1947, but is classified of having died from his wounds. His name is on the Chippenham war memorial.

My great great aunty Doris, his wife, died in April this year one week shy of her 99th birthday, and had never remarried. She lived in Chippenham most of her life, and was Arkela of first Chippenham cubs for many years. In fact there is a chance some of the less young Chippenham based fans may have known her (if they went to cubs).

Make you realise what 'tough times' really are.

My great Uncle, died in WWI on the first day he set foot in France at the Somme 13th November 1914, we still have his Soldiers Penny, his name is on the Menin Gate at Ypres.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1611175

[url width=800 height=600]http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g171/jjedmunds/PICT2870.jpg[/url]

That's nice JJ. Well not that he died but that he's remembered. Someone else in the 'other' half of the family has the dead mans penny that belonged to my great great aunts Doris'  dad.

No I understand Batch, there must be many thousand out there but not many people have even heard of the Penny, its a fair old size too, about 4 inches across, we have the covering letter from the King too and cuttings from the local papers in the Forest of Dean.

Does make you think what these (often very young) ancestors did to protect our country from those that threatened us and our way of life.

With the 11/11/11 coming up.......

    They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
    Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
    They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
    They fell with their faces to the foe.

    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.

Neither of my grandfathers fought in WW2. One was in the coal industry and I have never heard anything about what he did or where, and the other was a building site supervisor who was involved in pulling down bombed houses in London during the blitz. He was very badly affected by his experience - pulling mangled bodies out of houses day after day gave him psychological problems for the rest of his life.

I will remember them.

Thanks for posting up those connections.

Cheers for that link leefer, just managed to find my Great Great Grandfather.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4019683

I knew he was killed in WW1 because his name is on the cenotaph in Purton, but I never knew where he was buried.

A quick google even shows a discussion about him on a WW1 forum.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=148294

Turns out he died of tetanus from his wounds. The son, Stanley, listed on that link is my Great Grandfather.

God bless the internet.

A terrible experience but there is a medal for the lads who got stuck down a mine at the time, perhaps look into that?

Mining was a valued job though many poor souls thought joining up would get them away from there dark dangerous work...many miners with explosive experience were drafted in as tunnellers.


http://www.ww1battlefields.co.uk/flanders/hooge.html

The link above shows the magnitude of this explosion which in fact killed very few of the enemy.


The Hooge explosion in Belgium where tunnelers blew up land above them was heard in Kent....to this day it is still one of the biggest man made explsions ever.
As i say mining and other jobs meant many men who wanted to fight were not allowed to because there jobs were invaluable.

Ref Samdy........The Great War Forum is a great forum if you need any other info on your G/G Grandfather....pleased that you found him......in fact the posts are exellent and we all should be proud and humble.

Batch....Arnos Vale cemetery is amazing,all the rich and famous of Bristol are buried there from bygone days....it is like Highgate in London....suprised me he was buried there i have been there and the Memorials are incredible....it is currently being renovated.

http://www.arnosvalefriends.org.uk/pictures.htm


Samdy you may be aware but where your relly was buried was not likely where he was wounded...Le Havre was the main place where the badly wounded were taken after nearby fighting.

This is true Lee, many of those who were in the mines before the war, saw it as an escape, only to be replaced by many young lads who signed up but didn't actually know what would there destiny would ultimately be.

I would like to see the the lads who were in the Arctic convoy's finally get their campaingn medals this year. I was lucky enought to drink with them in the Sherlock a few years ago and as well as being top Gents, they fucking deserve it.

Thanks for the info Leefer,never knew that.

Yes, I realise that. I'd be interested to find out more about him, that forum looks useful. There seems to be one particular member over there who is tracing all of the Purton men so might see if I can contact him to see if he has any further info on him.

My father in law(who died years back)went to Murmansk...he got medals and promptly binned them on his return....he wasn't in the merchant or navy but a marine(red beret) and my bro in law still has his beret.
He went on a few missions but travelled with the ships...like many he never talked much about it and he didn't feel proud of his actions but it disgusted him so much of the mens suffering(from both sides) he threw his medals away...of course this was WW2.

Sam, Grantowi on the forum is a Swindon lad and he tends to stick to local men of his research.....there is a good thread on there somewhere of all the football players who died.....Spurs being hardest hit during WW1.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=529200

Harvey Warren is my great grandfather on my mothers side.

Obviously he died very close to armistice, which is all my family really knew about his war involvement. As it transpires, I now live a few minutes walk from the house my grandfather was born in 1917. Not sure if he ever met his father. Nobody in the family realised my great grandfather lived in Kenilworth nor the fact my grandfather - who died when I was only 4 - was born here until I noticed the name on the war memorial.

That's a bit different dude. There's a shit load of lads (who I was lucky enought to meet a couple of years ago), that basically got told (as you do when you sign up) that the were on the convoys.

Many of our lads died on them and I just think, having met many of the survivors, their sacrifice deserves the same level of recognigtion.

They were well up for a sing-song too :-)

Yes Sonic....he died in probably the last hurrah by the Germans....that battle(see cemetery details)was one of the last major battles of WW1.

Chaps

Cheers for this - made interesting reading. Anyone who has any relatives that fought should be justifiably proud of them.

My gramps was in Egypt and my great uncle was in a jap POW camp - we still have his letters home. As with most he never really spoke about it but the little that I was told about the way he was treated was horrific.

As JJ said - we will remember them. I hope this sentiment isnt lost on the youth of today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MwXniOD44

Great record.
And the words are very apt.......11 am tomorow in the eleventh month.
Two mins is the least they deserve :nod:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day

And not forgetting our past players like Freddy Wheatcroft who gave the ultimate.