Honour and Valour

[mole catcher 1]

My Grandfather was in the fire brigade in Coventry during the blitz, his team were on a call out one night during a fire storm when one of his team members(?) was caught in a collapsing building. Grandad went in to rescue him when the building collapsed around them and was engulfed by fire. They thought he was dead due to the massive fire going on around him. It wasnt till 5 days later they uncovered the body of his team member with grandad laying over him. Sadly his mate was dead but grandad was alive but burnt on his back and legs along with a broken leg. His mate was alive allthough very badly injured when he reached him but due to being trapped he was to die from his injuries 3 days later with my grandad holding his hand.

Whilst in hospital grandad was visted by the now queen of England, as were many of the injured fire fighters of that time and given a galentry medal (escapes me now which one). The truly sad thing of this story was my grandfather never told any of us grand kids, nor did my dad know about it untill the day of my grandfathers funeral back in the 90s, when during the service it was read out by the Reverand. The real twist of this episode was that not only was the reverand a life long friend of my grandfathers but also a serving member of the same team as my grandfather at the same time of this event.

 

One story my grand father did tell me was again whilst on duty in London. Thay had to be on watch over an unexploded bomb where the bloke from the ordanance corps (bomb disposal at the time) was in the crater and froze with fear. Forgetting all protacol he simply climed down and offered the chap a ciggy and chatted to him. whilst this was going on his boss was livid as was the other chaps boss. 20 mins later he simply offerd the guy his hand and walked him out of the crater. no medals for this one, just a huge bolliking

[anton 0]

my grandad guarded rudolph hess at spandau prison.He says he was off his rocker.

 

done that while i was in as well..... lights were on but, nobody home

found out recently that i am a decendent of this chap link

honour and valour there me thinks ;)

also goes a long way to explain the success of my brother in that sport

[Aled 534]

The bloke i called Grandad (its a long story but he wasnt my biological Grandad but he'll always be my "Grancha") was in the DDay landings and got wounded 2 during WW2. One of my biggest regrets of my life to date is that i did not take him down the club, buy him a pint and ask him to tell me about his War, i think i would of learnt a lot about whats important in life! Some of these stories are very interesting.

Cheers

Aled

[FJager 0]

All great stuff lads, Mole Catcher your story is about a true hero, obviously a great man.

Edited July 17, 2008 by FJager

[shepp 2,285]

Those old guys it seems rarely talk about what happened to them during the war, it is unfortunate really because it would do us good to know the old feller in the street that is invisable to most, may just be one of the reasons why we are British.

I guess the horrors of war are not glamorous like the films, they are bloody terrifying and those old guys could do little other than block them out and get on with life, who knows what went on inside though.