An obituary for an unassuming hero

[BadFish]

Some years ago an older colleague from work died and a few of us went to his funeral. The guy in question was often the object of banter and treated as a bit of an oddball who had weird interests like building boats with matches. A nice guy but who had seemingly led a fairly mundane life and enjoyed a pint.
Funeral was going along as planned when one of his colleagues from the war stood up and presented an obituary which revealed he had been a gunner in a Lancaster bomber in WW2. His plane was hit and he parachuted out over France with two surviving colleagues. All three had varying injuries but stuck together, hiding from Germans and getting themselves back to the UK via the
Pyranees and Spain over the course of several weeks. Once back and recovered he went off again. He had won the DFC.
Nobody had a clue!

Just goes to show, we never know the stories people carry with them.

 

[BadFish]

All you drips sh*tting yourselves at last night's draw take note.

All you drips sh*tting yourselves at last night's draw

Couldn't agree more.

Using a thread about the death of a war hero to score points against people worried about football.

Classy.

 

[Emily's Mum]

Sometimes, the more you hear about ordinary men and women who served during both world wars, you wonder if this country ever did enough to say thank you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Collingburnian]

A man I am proud to know, 93 next week, did 53 missions as a rear gunner on Lancasters in WW11 and was twice decorated. Very modest man and I doubt that 90% of people who know him are aware of his war record

 

[Fignon's Ponytail]

Great tribute & epitaph....And I thought my Grandfather had an eventful war at sea on the Merchant Navy convoys & on the Subs!

Unfortunately I never got to hear any stories when I was growing up as he died in 1983 when I was 9, but Im now in possession of all his log books and photo albums from 1938 - 46.

My brother started documenting the whole war timeline that "Pops" was involved in - but sadly he passed away in 2012 too. Im looking forward to finishing his work so the rest of the family can read all about Pops' exploits around the world.

My 14 year old wants to go into the Navy now to do his degree & pursue a career on the waves - I hope he never has to go through what that amazing generation did.

 

[Brovion]

At D-Day my father was in command of a landing craft taking amphibious tanks to Gold beach. Unlike others mentioned on here he told everybody about it! He started off as a Snotty (Midshipman) patrolling the North Sea, then moved on to Atlantic convoys. He obviously had loads of stories from the war years,some funny, some not-so-funny.

 

[whitelion]

At my wedding I got talking to a relative of my wife's family who were all from Portsmouth. This old fella was a veteran of the Royal Navy who served during WWII.

I found him really engaging and bought him a few whiskys yet his wife was doing all she could to shut him up. I think the fella was really "pleased" to be able to talk about his experiences and maybe it was something he needed to do.

 

[Official Old Man]

And as he quietly slipped away, another cival serviceman will be knighted for services to the country pushing pens.
Let us never forget.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

At D-Day my father was in command of a landing craft taking amphibious tanks to Gold beach. Unlike others mentioned on here he told everybody about it! He started off as a Snotty (Midshipman) patrolling the North Sea, then moved on to Atlantic convoys. He obviously had loads of stories from the war years,some funny, some not-so-funny.

My Dad said the worst thing, for him, on the convoys, happened when a ship was hit. They abandoned them and any survivors, because the main object was to get as many merchant ships to the UK as possible. If they stopped to rescue anyone, the loitering Uboat would pick them off.
They once saw a Uboat surface to machine gun the men in the water.

He had spells ashore between convoys, but had to assist in digging out bodies from bombed houses in Portsmouth. He said he preferred being at sea.

 

[pearl]

My Dad said the worst thing, for him, on the convoys, happened when a ship was hit. They abandoned them and any survivors, because the main object was to get as many merchant ships to the UK as possible. If they stopped to rescue anyone, the loitering Uboat would pick them off.
They once saw a Uboat surface to machine gun the men in the water.

He had spells ashore between convoys, but had to assist in digging out bodies from bombed houses in Portsmouth. He said he preferred being at sea.

blimey, that makes me appreciate my lot

 

[Bognor Bystander]

Thanks for sharing and RIP John.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing.