Just lost my grandpa, just found this site...

My Grandpa died last week...proud vet of WW2. Served in Operation Overlord as an Artillery man...drove a M7 Priest, did 3 years in the European Theatre, specifically in as a Swamp rat in holland, then Belgium, then Germany...met my wee Gran in England on forlough (she was part of the balloon brigade that was protecting London).

Damned of I didn't take a recorder to my grandfathers place and pick his brains before the dementia set in. If I could do over, time machine to 5 years ago, but alas. He'll never know how much of an impact he had on me...

Shoot, have a beer on me, not to get all depressed or anything. I've already read a bunch of posts here and I've thoroughly enjoyed the interaction. Y'all do Grandpa proud!

I look forward to learning much from the cats on this forum...

Dave

 

Welcome to the forum Dave, I hope you enjoy your stay here as much as we enjoy having veterans, and relatives of veterans contribute memories and information.

 

Barrage Balloons eh, you might find this of interest then dave.. http://www.bbrclub.org/Site%20Directory.htm

 

Hello Dave, welcome! Very sorry to hear about your Grandfather. But if you are looking for information on him, this is a good place to look.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

Actually, now that I think about it, I've got an interesting mix in my family. While my grandpa was storming the beaches, my wife's uncle was a Radio officer on the Eastern Front for the Germans...and my wife's dad was in the Hitler Youth. I still have my wife's dad's copy of Mine Kampf and his Hitler Youth pin as well as my wife's uncle's Nazi medals.

At my wedding we had the bag pipes (I'm a wee Scot, y'see) and while we were off getting our pictures taken, the bagpiper and his two sons (also with bagpipes) decided to entertain the guests with a half hour set of full on bag piping. Both wonderful and horrible if you can imagine all the wedding guests in a fairly small wedding hall...and the poor German side of the family apparently sat there with scowls on their faces. My Grandpa leaned over to my dad and stated that the last time some of the Germans here heard bagpipes, there was bullets flying at them.

Anyways, I'll see what I can contribute to the forum...lots for me to read!

-Dave

 

Hi Dave welcome aboard!

Regards

Ulrich

 

Dave I feel your pain man. My ww2 father died a year ago and nearly lost my father in law this week to a virus who served proudly on a US Navy Tin-can ans support ships in the Pacific

welcome here .............

 

Welcome to the forums Dave, looking forward to your contributions.

 

Welcome to the Forum, Dave. My deepest sympathies to you on the loss of your Grandfather. You will find much information here on the Forum, and many posts about the locations in which the Canadians fought, as well as links to additional information.

My Dad was artillery with the 2nd Division, and I recently spent time in France, Belgium, and Holland with several artillery men for the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.

I hope you will want to share memories of your Grandfather and also about your Grandmother. My Mum was also an English Warbride from London and her sister-in-law (married to her brother) worked with barrage balloons.

 

Welcome to the forums!
Sorry about your Granddad.

 

Welcome Dave!

Sorry to hear of the passing of your Grandfather...God Bless him.

Phil