D-Day 74th Anniversary- Family History

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I usually like to post on social media every time this date rolls around, and thought I would share here what I posted on FB. My Grandma kept a scrapbook of clippings and letters during the war and gave them as a birthday gift to my Grandad after the war. This isn’t the entirety of the scrapbook by any means, but just some things that had to deal with the Invasion and the months after that I thought some might find interesting. Usually most people get into this specific hobby after hearing stories of relatives who served, and I’m no different. 🙂

Grandpa’s Scrapbook

 

Also feel free to post any of your stories of Family members involved in the Invasion or the War in general. I always like hearing those things.

 

 

 

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That is impressive and an awesome piece of history.

 

“Come out quietly an’ I won’t shoot” … lol

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What a wonderful family heirloom 🙂

I don’t really have anything related to either of my Grandfather’s time during world war II except for a letter by my Mums Father, Roddy, entitled ‘One night over Essen’ and a copy of the roster of his 460 squadron. My Grandfather on Dad’s side, Fred, spent the majority of the war with the RAF training or being trained on different aircraft, from Canada to the UK, Africa to Italy. I know Roddy flew two tours of 24(?) missions as a navigator in medium and heavy bombers and lost a lot of close friends as a result. Fred’s closest encounter (fortunately) with the “enemy” was a night training mission in Egypt where the Yanks opened up on them upon their return to the airfield.

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My paternal Grandfather was invalided out of the army after Dunkirk… he was building submarines in June 1944. His twin brother however took part in the fighting in Normandy (having not long returned from escaping a POW camp in Italy after capture in North Africa).

My maternal Grandfather was just going into basic training in June 1944 and didn’t reach the front till much later in the year.

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My maternal grandfather was too young to serve during the war, doing National Service in 1950, my paternal grandfather however, served in the Merchant Navy through both wars, sailing the north Atlantic and Arctic convoys that I know off. He survived until the late  70’s

One step removed however, is a different story, my paternal grandmothers first husband was KiA in Normandy in Sept 44 while serving as an infantry corporal, 5th Dorsets, 43rd Infantry Division. In March 45, her little brother was shot down and killed while serving as Flt Sgt with 203 Sqn RAF SEAC, over northern Sumatra.

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Not specific to D-Day but my paternal grandfather worked for a telephone company and set up phone exchanges throughout Texas at all the newly built airfields. My paternal grandmother volunteered in the army hospitals treating wounded servicemen.

My maternal grandmother was a rivet inspector in a plant that built B-24 Liberators. My maternal grandfather was a gunners mate on the USS Zellars, a destroyer, and fought in the South Pacific.

I have a letter he wrote my mother on the most amazingly thin piece of paper, specifically made to save weight for the war effort. It’s from a March of 1945 and the dateline is only Somewhere in the Soouth Pacific, because of wartime security measures. It describes his shore leave on an unnamed Pacific island and the little shells he found to send to my mother.

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Great thread, sorry I didn’t get to it sooner.  Had a great uncle who landed with 4th US Infantry at Utah.  Also, went to Normandy a few years back for the 70th Anniversary.

Here’s one of my photos from our visit to the American Cemetery at Omaha, overlooking Easy Red assault beach.

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