D-Day Dodgers

With all the news going on around us about the 70th celebrations of D-Day, my Littleun asked about his Grandpa and if indeed he had been at D-Day. So I started to do some research.

Granddad didn't talk much about the War, he had a few stories that he would tell but that was it. I respected his choice of not talking about it but it did mean there were gaps in my family history that we might never fill in.

Today I saw my Aunt and collected some items that were about Granddad's service history. This included his medals and a pipe that he has engraved with the names of all the towns and action he was involved in. Nowhere was there a mention of D-Day. That is until I found an article he had writen for a reply to a newspaper about D-Day Dodgers. It seems that this is what my Granddad was. He was in fact a member of the 8th Army and in Italy during the D-Day campaign. Not really knowing what that was about I read up online and am saddened to find that it is actually what Lady Astor called those not at D-Day, seemingly ignoring the service others were making across the War.

So in honour af all those who served I thought I'd leave you with my Granddads own words, the letter he wrote at the 60th Anniversary, and a link for the reply to Lady Astor, in song format, from the D-Day dodgers...

 

In a small cardboard box I have a tiny strip of orange ribbon. Attached to the ribbon there is a small shaped piece of metal, known as the African Star. These stars were awarded to those who served in the Middle East during 1942. It also has a little figure eight upon it, indicating that the wearer fought in the 8^th Army at El Alemein. It’s not very valuable but, at a time, pinned to our uniforms we were very proud to wear it. Therefore, I must say those who think the recipients were D Day Dodgers could have another thought coming to them.

Many of us joined the army in 1939, found ourselves with the B.E.F in France fighting a rearguard retreat to the beaches of Dunkirk, where eventually in mid channel, my particular rescue ship The Queen of the Channel was bombed and sunk. Nethertheless, when we were wrung out and dried it was not long before we were on our way to the Middle East to join the Western Desert Force, long before the 8^th Army was formed. After the siege of Trubruk, which we held for several months, we nroke out to join the newly created 8^th Army. Mnay battles later, and a retreat to El Alemein, we attacked and completely defeated the German Africa Korps. These were formidable German Troops, not old men or schoolboys!

Guess what? Just in case we dodgers became to idle, the Middle East forces, by sea and air, attacked the mainland of Europe through Sicily and Italy. Therefore being the first British troops to successfully set foot in Europe almost a year before the Normandy landings. D Day Dodgers? Don’t you believe it. At the end of 1943 it was thought necessary to reinforce the troops in England with battle experienced soldiers from the Middle East. Thousands from the 8^th Army were convoyed home to prepare for Normandy. Then, through Belgium, Holland and Nijmegan we eventually crossed the Rhine to victory.

 

Yes I have the African Star with its little figure of eight, and the Italian Star. Of all the other bits and pieces bestowed upon me (He actually had several other stars and campaign medals) it is the African Star I prize the most. My medals have remained on their cardboard box for the past 60 years or more. Even so I cannot remember a medal being struck for the D-Day landings…

 

May I remind those who scoff, of one particular soldier who was brought home from the Middle East. He was put in charge of all the troops that took part in the D-Day landings, British and American. He was Field Marshall Montgomery. Another D-Day Dodger?

I would have thought we had become a little wiser as the years passed us by. But now, in my wisdom, when I stroke a piece of shrapnel that has remained embedded in my face for the last 62 years, I consider myself very lucky not to have joined those of the Middle East who also missed D_Day. They remain in their silence beneath their headstones in the desert or the olive groves of Italy…

 

 

 

 

Things change

Well it finally happened. After all our years as and up and down relationship it's come to an end. My grandfather died this month after a short illness. We thought it was his usual problems but it was in fact cancer.

I never knew where I stood with him; he wasn't one for showing much affection and had a rather Victorian outlook on our lives. There were days of fun as a child, I can remember him making us mermaid princess' out of large flat seaweed we found when playing on the beach. I can remember his attempts to prove that everyone has the ability paint and draw if only they tried hard enough (really I can't paint, mine always end up looking like painting by numbers) and my efforts sit on the fire mantel, initially because my littleun liked them but now with new view to them as in clearing the house I have found a new man. One I didn't know but rather wish I had.

He didn't keep much in the way of possessions, given his age when he died you would expect a lot more than there was. But some of the things he did keep were the postcards we sent, pictures and photographs and when you look back you see a possible new meaning to the expressions on the faces in them. And it made me think. Did he really not love us or was it more a case of he had absolutely no idea how to show that he did.

I remember lecture after lecture on how we were all meant to behave in life, how some of us had been dissapointments to him and on how hot air doesn't rise, cold air sinks! Oh and prisms. With sadness I remember far more of these than of the cheerful fun.

Re-reading a lot of the emails that he sent, the ones that reading at the time felt like he was being cantankerous , I read a different plea, one that said "come visit". And now I wonder if I had whether we would have enjoyed each others company that bit better. Don't get me wrong I did visit, and often, but it felt like a chore not like fun. Strange then that when we did talk it was interesting to hear what he had to say. If you wanted to know how to maintain and strip any form of armoury or if you wanted to know about Tobruk he could tell you, he was after all in the thick of it.

I told Littleun that he had completed his Circle and I expected confusion and tantrums. Littleun is probably the only one in this family who loved him unconditionally, he can remember happy things, playing with the birds that granddad used to keep, watching tom and jerry, both laughing hard. But he didn't do that. Litteun understood and it is the matter of fact way that he has asked questions about granddad that has helped me.

Will I miss him? Yes, but not in the way that one would normally miss a grandparent who has died and certainly not with regret, that is after all pointless. But for not knowing him properly. If there is one thing that has come out of all of this it's that I will make sure that I never do that with any grandchildren I might be lucky enough to have.

My grandfather: Man of photos, magic lanterns, poems and lectures. Who might just possibly, be right about hot air. Returned to the earth, 2011.