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Post subject: A story to make you go ahhhhh
 Posted: Sep 21, 2008 - 10:45 PM
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Joined: Apr 14, 2004
Posts: 8413
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A veteran of Dunkirk lost his medals overboard in the Thames while getting onto a boat to take him to a veterans' reunion. A local diving club heard about his plight and came to the rescue. Nobody thought they had much chance of finding them....
Read the story here and listen to the old chap talking abut how much they mean to him and I defy you to keep a stiff upper lip!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7626564.stm |
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Yes we can!
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 21, 2008 - 10:50 PM
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Joined: Aug 30, 2005
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Dunkirk reminds me of Apollo 13.
A successful failure  |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 21, 2008 - 11:56 PM
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Joined: Feb 12, 2005
Posts: 9897
Location: I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.--Abraham Lincoln
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| We don't honor our veterans enough. It would be great if at every public event, the veterans could be honored in some way. I know that at every Pow Wow Bob and I attend, the veterans always go first in line and a special flag ceremony and dance is done in their honor (and this is for ALL veterans of every race, nationality, and religion). |
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Let's do it as a memorial to Joyce Mason
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 02:31 AM
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Joined: Sep 19, 2005
Posts: 3327
Status: Offline
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| ahhhhh. |
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Bill`s day is coming!
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 05:39 AM
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Site Admin
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| Gornman wrote: | Dunkirk reminds me of Apollo 13.
A successful failure |
As someone who has had the benefit of living both here and in the UK; Dunkirk is certainly not something to be trifled with from the British POV, Gornman. The analogy you offered is very insulting considering how brave the citizens of coastal Britain were to help get their boys off the beaches of Dunkirk. The "spirit of Dunkirk" is what kept the UK together in a very difficult time.
If it was meant to be an insult; then you really need to adjust your views and if not and just a misinformed comment and a bad analogy, then I think you owe an apology to the veterans of Dunkirk. |
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Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 05:52 AM
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It never occurred to me that would be taken as an insult by anyone...
Dunkirk was an evacuation, so I called it a successful failure.
The Allies lost the battle of Arras.
The Allies, to their great credit, pulled off a retreat, in order
to fight another day.
I think this scolding of yours has to be about something else altogether
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 01:40 PM
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Joined: Mar 25, 2003
Posts: 7576
Location: 221B Baker Street London
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My Grandfather was part of the B.E.F. and was a soldier stranded at Dunkirk. He helped dozens of men on to the small craft which came from the U.K to perform the rescue.He had chance time after time to get on to one of the boats and be rescued himself,but he gave up his place for others, who were in a very bad condition.He was only 20 years old at the time.
He was shot by the German planes that were firing on the beaches,but he still refused to,give up until as many people as possible were helped.He was one of the last to get away, but alot didn't make it.
1,212,000 Dutch, Belgian, French and British prisoners taken
30,000 British died
34,000 British captured
338,226 men saved in the evacuation
He never really spoke much about the things that had happened to him during WW2.And it was only when he passed a way we found all his medals including.
The Dunkirk Veterans Medal.
I don't know if i could have done what he and so many others did during those years. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 02:00 PM
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Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Posts: 10561
Location: Never you mind where I'm at! You don't need to be knowing! Snoops!
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| Kudos to your grandfather, Brit. My grampa was in the Pacific campaign and never talked about it much, neither. Guys like our grandfathers went through hell and never needed to brag or cry about it. They were tough people back then. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 02:17 PM
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Joined: Mar 25, 2003
Posts: 7576
Location: 221B Baker Street London
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| angel wrote: | | Kudos to your grandfather, Brit. My grampa was in the Pacific campaign and never talked about it much, neither. Guys like our grandfathers went through hell and never needed to brag or cry about it. They were tough people back then. |
I guess anyone who fights during a time of war, must experience some pretty horrible things that can change them.It's very difficult to get some people to talk about what experiences they had.Some of those things never leave them, and people must still relive the horrors in their minds, a lot of people never fully recover, ( in the cases of many who were in Japanese POW camps), and have a lot of mental health and physical,problems, even to this day.
My grandad must have been a very brave man, as he had quite a few medals. He never spoke much about what acts of bravery he had achieved to be awarded them, he certainly was not a ' glory hunter'.
One thing he would talk about, was when he went to London,to be awarded his medals.How proud he was the times he went to Buckingham Palace and met.
The King.
Grandad always used to say that meeting him was,one of the best days of his life,as well as having a medal. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 02:36 PM
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Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Posts: 10561
Location: Never you mind where I'm at! You don't need to be knowing! Snoops!
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| How wonderful of a moment for your grampa! That would live in his heart forever and surely in yours. Yes, people can be scarred for life when it comes to those battles. I always worry and wonder what Grampa must have suffered. He had nightmares for years. Grampa earned a silver star for bravery being in the med vac unit of the Marines, but he hid his medals, too. I didn't even know they existed until after his death. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 06:40 PM
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What a wonderful story....the bravest ones are always the quietest ones, aren't they!
Strange thing, Dunkirk. Obviously it was the result of a failure but the operation itself wasn't a failure as it saved such huge numbers of soldiers from becoming prisoners of war. The fact that an appeal was launched and so many individuals sailed away from the coast of England into a war zone with no thought for their own safety to rescue the stranded soldiers came to symbolise an aspect of the British character that refuses to give up and is best under adversity. Of course, it is resorted to much too often now! |
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Yes we can!
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 07:52 PM
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Joined: Oct 24, 2002
Posts: 8173
Location: CA
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My Respects to your Grandfather, Britstarfan...
and ALL the others who served this World, this Planet, in times of strife....
I would have liked to meet the King...he has always intrigued me.... |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2008 - 11:24 PM
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Joined: Mar 25, 2003
Posts: 7576
Location: 221B Baker Street London
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Voices of Dunkirk
Listen to eight survivors of the Dunkirk evacuation, recount their stories in this audio gallery.Including the story of.
18 year old,James Bradley who saw refugees machine-gunned as they fled to escape danger, and thought the world had gone mad. On reaching the the coast, he could see Dunkirk was a blazing mass of burning oil.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/ ... udio.shtml |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 25, 2008 - 06:39 AM
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Joined: Feb 12, 2005
Posts: 9897
Location: I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.--Abraham Lincoln
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| britstarfan wrote: | He never really spoke much about the things that had happened to him during WW2.And it was only when he passed a way we found all his medals including.
The Dunkirk Veterans Medal.
I don't know if i could have done what he and so many others did during those years. |
All of my uncles who fought in the war never talked to much about what happened either. It wasn't until Ken Burn's PBS special about WWII that it impacted me what our men and women endured. |
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Let's do it as a memorial to Joyce Mason
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 25, 2008 - 06:48 AM
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Joined: Feb 12, 2005
Posts: 9897
Location: I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend.--Abraham Lincoln
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| greenchick wrote: | What a wonderful story....the bravest ones are always the quietest ones, aren't they!
Strange thing, Dunkirk. Obviously it was the result of a failure but the operation itself wasn't a failure as it saved such huge numbers of soldiers from becoming prisoners of war. The fact that an appeal was launched and so many individuals sailed away from the coast of England into a war zone with no thought for their own safety to rescue the stranded soldiers came to symbolise an aspect of the British character that refuses to give up and is best under adversity. Of course, it is resorted to much too often now! |
I am not sure who called it a failure. Perhaps things didn't go as planned, but the fact is, level heads, quick thinking, and a whole lot of courage and fortitude turned a bad situation into a chance for survival. I would venture to guess that any of those soldiers whose lives were saved from death or capture, would certainly not call the incident at Dunkirk a failure. |
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Let's do it as a memorial to Joyce Mason
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