What did you do in the war, Grandad?
By Fleur
@Fleura (30694)
United Kingdom
April 8, 2022 4:36am CST
Over the past couple of decades, as the last generation of people who were actively involved in the two World Wars have died out, many people have discovered - too late - that their relatives had actively served.
There have been lots of descendants saying ‘They never talked about the war, I wish I had asked more about it when I had the chance!’
Everyone seems to think that their father, grandfather, brother or uncle must have had some hidden story of heroism.
But in the past, many many men never spoke about their experience of conflict, and often that wasn’t because they were so humble and modest they wanted to hide their heroic deeds. A lot of them were so traumatised by what they had experienced that they simply tried to forget - with varying degrees of success. Of course all this was long before PTSD was a ‘thing’ and they just had to get on with life as best they could.
And then there’s another possibility that’s even more horrific to contemplate. Many ordinary people will do extraordinary things in unusual circumstances. Soldiers on the battlefield may torture and murder civilians in all sorts of unspeakable ways - as we are seeing right now in Ukraine.
What if ‘your’ Grandad was one of those who gang-raped women and young girls, tortured parents in front of their children and vice versa, dismembered civilians who had just gone to try and find water, shot innocent passers-by and then ran them over with tanks?
Soldiers who did these things and survived wars undoubtedly kept their heads down and just went back to ordinary lives afterwards. And they would not have been keen to tell their stories.
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.
12 people like this
11 responses
@Fleura (30694)
• United Kingdom
8 Apr 22
Thankfully my own ancestors were not soldiers. One grandfather was a Merchant ship's engineer, the other taught English in the Indian army. My father wasn't accepted for service because he had some sort of medical issue. One uncle was in the navy and another in the air force. My great uncle looked after the horses in WWI. My great aunt was in the women's auxiliary, my aunt was a nurse. My mother was only 15 when WWII started.
1 person likes this
@xFiacre (13287)
• Ireland
8 Apr 22
@Fleura My Grandfather fought in the Boer War and was a horsey man. He was later in charge of the fleet of horses that carted kegs of Guinness around Dublin from Arthur Guinness's brewery. He lied about his age to sign up. Dear only knows what all he got up to.
2 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (48034)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
8 Apr 22
Yeah, my father didn't talk too much about his war experiences but he did say he had his horse shot out from under him (he was in the Polish cavalry even before Hitler invaded).
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (343586)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 Apr 22
This is all so true. My great uncle came back from WWI shell-shocked. It left him with an incredible stutter. He and his wife came out to see my gifts after my 21st birthday party (they were quite big occasions in those days). I will never forget him looking at the tableful of gifts and saying, 'I turned 21 in the trenches in France'.
1 person likes this
@zhangxueying (3339)
• China
8 Apr 22
No one wants to recall that cruelty.In the age of my grandparents, they were very bitter. They lacked food and clothing. In order to survive, they actually fled the famine after a major migration.My great grandfather and my grandfather's brother were caught by the Japanese to work as laborers.I think it was a sad experience. My grandmother occasionally mentioned it when I was young.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (138952)
• United States
8 Apr 22
I had two brothers in Vietnam. One was a medic and the other a sergeant. Neither one of them told stories about their lives during the war. Mom may have asked but we kids were told not to ask.
Dad never went to war. He was in construction somewhere, or that's what we were told as kids.
Some of my friends served in the Gulf War. They didn't want to talk about it.
1 person likes this
@franxav (13891)
• India
8 Apr 22
My dad worked for the British army in the eastern front, Indo- Burma border. I say "worked" because he told us about working. But I did find an army uniform and boots in an old box in our tea estate residence. I also found a souvenir ( a book in Hindi) in the box. That told me about the World War II much before I read it in my college history books.
1 person likes this
@merrybelle2021 (1393)
• Philippines
8 Apr 22
I guess in a way it's also a kind of "survivor guilt."
1 person likes this
