Did any of your family serve during WW2; if so what did they do?

My great uncle joined the Marine Corps in 1940. He eventually found a home with B/1/7 First Marine Division. He served under Chesty Puller on Guadalcanal, fought in the jungles of the Green Inferno (Cape Gloucester) and assaulted Peleliu where he lost his life on D Day from heavy mortar fire. He is buried in Manila Philippines at the American Memorial Cemetery.

Battle of Peleliu Home Page

God rest his soul

 

I'm not sure whether it can be classed as fortunate or unfortunate, but not a single member of my family went to war in WW2. It happened 'between' generations in my family. One grandfather was too ill to serve, another was in the Home Guard for barely 3 months and my father was 15 when the war ended.

I suppose when I look back I can count my family very fortunate as throughout both wars we never lost a single member, and only my Grandfather was injured whilst serving. There were at least 6 serving in WW1.

 

Early in 1939 dad (Des Bettany) and a number of friends joined the Territorial Army (Royal Artillery) and was mobilised in August of that year. He was a Lance Bombardier and fought in France and Belgium with the 88th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, manning 25 pounder field guns, and after evacuation from Dunkirk, served in various locations in southern England, in preparation for the anticipated German invasion.
He was then re-equipped and shipped to the Far East, travelling on the troopship ‘Empress of Canada’ via Freetown (West Africa), Cape Town and Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In the Malayan campaign he fought the Japanese at Ipoh and Alor Star. He was at Kuantan on the east coast, off which the ‘Prince of Wales’ and the ‘Repulse’ were sunk. In the company of the Australian 8th Division and the Indian 9th Brigade, he saw most of the major actions in Malaya until capitulation in Singapore in February 1942.
From his first camp at Towner Road, Des was among the many POWs working around Singapore to clear up and salvage damaged equipment for the Japanese war effort. Later moved to Changi gaol, Des joined working parties which among other tasks were required to clear swamp country to build an airfield, on the site of the current Changi International Airport. One work party had the task of breaking up damaged vehicles into spare parts, sometimes with totally inappropriate tools. Acts of minor sabotage were carried out at great risk, and some cheeky but risky activities undertaken which, to the benefit of the prisoners, took advantage of the perceived gullibility of poorly-educated Japanese guards, such as obtaining petrol from stores for use in a steam-powered road roller, then trading the petrol on the black market for food. They also managed to sabotage a Japanese war memorial by seeding the timber flagpole with termites.
Des had carried small sketch books with him, and recorded aspects of the voyage out, the actions in Malaya and Singapore, in various media including pencil, ink, water colour and pastel. He continued his artistic endeavours during his new life as a P.O.W. As well as documentary sketches, he kept spirits up by producing a series of cartoons, some of which satirised his captors. He also became part of a ‘production line’ producing programmes for the many theatrical and musical entertainments which were produced during the years of captivity, as well as assisting with designing and building theatrical sets for plays, Christmas revues and pantomimes. Des met Murray Griffin (Australian war artist) and Ronald Searle, who both continued to produce works of art undercover and sometimes with primitive materials. Paints were manufactured from coloured earth from various depths, sometimes as deep as 12 metres. Colours ranged from white, ochre and brown to Indian red. These were dried, ground with bottles and mixed with rice water, and worked very well. Sets for theatre productions were old tents, made into flats and backdrops. Wood was scrounged or stolen and ingenious uses were made of old army lockers and equipment. see The Changi POW Artwork of Des Bettany | Prisoner of War at Changi, Singapore
Cheers Keith Bettany

 

I believe my Grandfather served under Yugoslavia

 

In 2003 I posted the following article on to the BBC People’s War site.
BBC - WW2 People's War - One family, Five Sons, All Serving in H.M.Forces

At the time, and amongst a few comments in response to my article was the following:

Message 1 - Only FIVE ?

Posted on: 29 December 2003 by Leonard J Smith

Sorry, Ron but you have a long way to go to match my family, I come from a family of 16, 12 boys and 4 girls.and 9 of us boys ALL served in the army and saw active service and whats more incredabale we all came back, only 2 recievd war injuries from which they soon recoverd. All so my sisters where all married to service men three Army one R.A.F. Only myself and one other brother who is 90yrs.old and two sisters still remain.


(If you read the original comments you will see that Peter G & I tried unsuccessfully to get Len to claim a record )

Now to get back to today.


In my mailbag this morning was an email from my eldest daughter who is currently researching her husbands family who hailed from Manchester.

The latest document she has unearthed is a press clipping that tells of an aunt who had ten sons, seven of whom served in WW2 !


It looks like I will have to put my researching hat on again, this is too good a story to miss


Ron

 

Hello to all.

Paternal Grandfather - 17th/21st Lancers, 6th Armoured Division, RAC, 1st Army (Algeria and Tunisia). He lost a leg on the first day of Operation Strike (Battle of Tunis).
Paternal Great Uncle - Served in Palestine and Egypt but don't have much in the way of details, possibly Royal Engineers.
Paternal Great Uncle - RAF, served in Yorkshire and possibly Lincolnshire.
Maternal Grandfather - Served in France, Belgium and Germany with the Army.

All survived the War.

 

Hello to you all
Some good posts on hear and i thought i would join you as my Grandfather 'Major P.H.White', who served in the Middlesex Regt out in Burma during WWII.

Now ever since I was a young lad he told me his war stories and had pleasure taking me too many museums like the Imperial War Museum in London and many other military shows and events. Also he used to spend a lot of time in the pub with many of his WWII veteran friends who also enjoyed my interest for their history. This passion has only got stronger throughout the years. I’m now obsessed with WWII German armour, general WWII history and events/battles. I also collect WWII memorabilia and can be seen at many shows throughout the year. These include the War and Peace Show, Military Odyssey, Tankfest plus many fairs etc
I now have landed a job with a military genealogy web site due to my interest and passion for military history. So I will be asking a few of you for advice and help from time to time.
I have made a video presentation of my grandfathers militaty history and attached a link. i hope you enjoy.
[YOUTUBE]Military Genealogy Research, P White WWII - YouTube[/YOUTUBE]

 

to embed a you tube vid just use the last bit of code.

http ://youtu. be/ 3CgQTNbg7k8

it'll look like this in the [yt] brackets.

[YOUTUBE]3CgQTNbg7k8[you tube]


[YOUTUBE]3CgQTNbg7k8[/YOUTUBE]

thanks for letting me know.!!!! Im still an F.N.G here and finding my feet.
thanks for the help.

 

My late Father served as a second lieutenant (Reserve) in the Polish Army in September 1939, took part in the battle of Kock, was taken prisoner and spent the next five years in Oflags (GrossBorn, Arnswalde), in 1945 the prisoners were evacuated to Lubeck and there liberated by US troops. After he became attached to a British unit (within 8th Armored Group, I guess) as a liaison officer to the Polish 1 DP (Armored Division). In 1946 he was discharged and went first to Britain and then, when attempts to smuggle his wife (he was married on July 22, 1939) out of Soviet-controlled Poland failed, he decided to risk returning himself.

 

Hi all,
Have a quick or long look at The Changi POW Artwork of Des Bettany | Prisoner of War at Changi, Singapore to view over 300 pieces of art my dad did as a POW under Japanese.

 

WOW....!!!!
Toby thanks for the link to the website. Your father had a true talent for drawing and I love the humour in some of them. Amazing to see it see in such conditions of hardship he kept a sense of humour. you must be very proud of him.
I work for Forces War Records.co.uk and I hope you dont mind that I have put a link to your website on our Facebook Page and twitter. I think our members would love to see these extremely moving images.

 

With a large smile on my face.... I served with the Sappers and quickly learned how to survive, and how to keep out of trouble.The fact then, is I was not successful for they Got Me the dirty dogs...

 

Father: RAF 1939/46 613 Squadron UK, 1416 Flight UK, 140 Squadron UK, 82 Squadron India, 113 Squadron India and Burma(1942/45), Orfordness Research Unit. Major heart attack age 39 put down to damage from tropical diseases died of heart failure age 47.

Mother: 1944/45 Civilian mathematician for RAF, 89 in November still drives.

Maternal Grandfather: ARP (army 1914/19)

Maternal Grandmother: War Office Whitehall dealing with intelligence reports from Far East

Uncle: 1939/45 Royal Army Pay Corps Palestine and Egypt, died 6/1/45, on CWGC, death only very indirectly related to hostilities.

Uncle: 1939/45 Army Intelligence, North Africa, Italy, Greece. believe got from Private to Captain.

Uncle: 1943/45 Army tank driver, not much info but ended up in Northern Germany.

Uncle: 1943/45 Army Education Corps ended up in Hamburg

Aunt: Land Army

1st Wife's Father: Was British but believed to have been RSM in Indian Army, captured at Singapore, as far as we understand escaped with two Australians after knifing three Japanese guards on second day in captivity, stole boat and ended up in Sumatra, walked across Sumatra and then somehow got to Darwin. My two sons would be particularly interested/grateful for any further information on this.

Current (!!) wife's father: 1939/45. Driver Sherwood Rangers Palestine/ North Africa. Thumb shot off by Germans who then machine gunned the vehicle he was being evacuated in and he was also then shot through leg.
20 years after the war he was working as a lorry driver and got stuck in snow in an unheated lorry on the Snake Pass Derbyshire, frost bite attacked the scar on his leg, gangrene set in, leg amputated but died as a result of the gangrene.

Maybe a few others! David

 

Only recently started researching my family members in ww2 but up to now have found:-

Grandad (Fathers side): Sergeant D coy - 6th York and Lancasters & 1st London Irish Rifles
Grandad (Mothers side): ROAC - 8 Ordnance Beach Detachment & 140 Ordnance Depot
Great Uncle: 70th Border Regiment, 2/6th Lancashire Fusiliers, 2/5th Leicestershire Rgt & 14th Sherwood Foresters - killed at Anzio (body never recovered)
Great Uncle: 8th Medium Rgt RA - died of wounds in Burma
Great Uncle: 6th HAA RA - Captured at Singapore 42 & survived captivity
Great Uncle: Royal Naval Reserve (Patrol Service) - killed on H.M. Trawler Notts County when torpedoed by U-701.
Great Uncle: Merchant Navy - killed on M.V. Dunbar Castle when it struck a mine.
Great Aunt's fiance - 6th York and Lancasters - killed North Africa
Wife's Great Uncle: batman in 10th HLI

 

good post.
my grandad (dads side) royal engineer who parachuted at pegasus bridge.
my nan (dads side) served with the fire brigade.
my grandad (mothers side) served with the band in India.
my grandads had completely different wars!

 

ones in my sig are all family to me or my faincee, im trying to research them all

 

Mums dad was A/TK (still trying to decipher rest)
Mums uncle Peter Phillips died in Italy
Mums other uncle was a desert rat (Sidney Rilley)
" " Prisoner of war (Stanley Coleman)
" " RAF poste dnear sunderland I think (Albert)

Dads uncle died army died at end of war in wales
Dads dad we have a picture of him in uniform but not sure what he did.

Trying to get 1 done at a time long way to go

 

My Dad was a bombardier in PB4Y2 "Privateers", and flew out of Guam and Okinawa. His brother served with the 6th Army in the Philippines.

 

My father served with the Royal Norfolk Reg. along with his brother. His brother was KIA in France and my father was captured at St.Valery-en-Caux.