Have you any odd war stories?

[willybite]

hiya

i remember the night of the sheffield blitz i was only three at the time we, my mum, my gran, and mums sister, and me, were all on my grandma's celler steps i still remember the comments from the women like that one was close, that one was a big one,i remember my dad who was fire watching, said he saw a neighbour a billy wheatley (billy weeks)walking home from work in the steelworks he had his clogs tied by the laces around his neck, when my dad asked why he was walking in his stocking feet the answer billy gave was" i dont want them b******s up there to hear me walking in my clogs".

 

ps i remember the gas masks i only remember my mum trying to put mine on me once,it was a mickey mouse one it had a flat rubber nose, that was for a burst gas pipe on our steet

[CarolW]

I remember my dad telling me when they were bombed in the Blitz, my garndmother had made a chridtmas pudding for them and it ended up not being eaten because of flying glass being mixed up in the pudding.

 

It was the only (or the first!!) time that dad could remember seeing his mother cry...... :(

[wardlow1889]

I don't know that there's anything here that you can use but during the blitz my mother and family heard the sirens and went down into their cellar which was a communal one for all of the terrace ( somewhere in Crookes). They all had their gasmasks with them. The house was hit and it caused a crack in the gas main. They all put on their masks except for my mum's next door neighbour who had forgotten his. He collapsed across my mum (who was 8 or 9) and died. Since that they day she has hated cellars and won't go down unless she really has to.

 

I was also told by my dad that he found the finger of an airman in Cookesmoor park, from a bomber that had been shot down. I also seem to remember that he said it still had a ring on it.

[flyer]

1951 Libyan desert some of the land had been cleared of mines by the sappers but we was told not to stray more than 10 yds fm the wire this not only made it hard to go out for your night time poop but having your midday nap when it got up to 120deg the mines would start going off all around you it made you wonder just how many where still out there.

[911wasalie]

Korea 1953, the war was over and us squaddies were settling into normal camp life, putting up tents and digging latrines. The latrines were basically a trench with wooden boxes astride with large holes. Every morning a corporal and four would move the boxes aside and pour petrol into the hole and throw in a lighted match. One morning the process was running late the petrol had been pored but Naafi time came round so all work stopped.

 

The paymaster, who was laughingly call guts and gaiters because he was small and fat, placed a box back on the trench, sat down then lit a fag.

[911wasalie]

I was 11 during the Blitz and sat with my elder brother under the railway arches in Heeley bottom. A charcoaled body was hanging from the middle upright rail of a tram. I often wonder what happened.

[Bushbaby]

After the end of the first Gulf War, myself and a few colleagues remained behind in Saudi as part of the clear up party. On a rare day off, we piled into a minibus and went into Darmam for the day.It had been a busy few days and we were all hungry having missed breakfast, so went into a Fillipino pizza bar for lunch. First thing we did was ignore the “No Women” sign on the restaurant door, and as the two girls in our party were both carrying machine guns, the waiter felt it best not to argue

We leafed through the menu and then each ordered our pizza of choice

“What size would you like?”

“Large” we chorused back

I have to say at this point that for most of us, our pizza experience was” Quo Vadis”, or “The Orangerie” in Herford, where a large pizza was the size of a dinner plate

This particular restarant however worked on USA standards, where “large” is the size of a dustbin lid. Imagine our consternation then when, ladened with five pizzas which together measured approximately the same as a king size bed, the tiny Fillipino guy waddled to our table, and plonked them down in front of us

 

Needless to say, it was doggy bags a plenty, and we had pizza for the next six meals

[algy]

I like this one, from "Raiders over Sheffield" by Mary Walton, about the Sheffield Blitz.

 

A house in Myrtle Rd was the source of 2 stories. The house was hit by an unexploded bomb which eventualy exploded on Saturday morning and collapsed. Rescuers reached a 57 year old woman who refused to be rescued until everyone else was out, and she directed the rescuers in getting everyone else out. She was recommended for a gallantry award in the London Gazette.

 

The first of the people rescued from the same house was an elderly lady who was given a cup of tea and questioned by a warden. He asked if she'd noticed anything the morning after the raid. The old lady said, well, there was a hole in the roof... and a hole in the sink... and another hole in the floor under the sink. "Didn't you do anything about it?" he asked. "Oh yes," she said, "I put a board over the hole so's the cat wouldn't fall down it."