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"During the war..."

Do any of you know what your parents/grandparents did during World War 2, or any war for that matter, or were you in a war? I know that my Grandad on my Father's side was a pilot in Africa during WW2, but I don't know what my other Grandad did - will have to ask my Grandma (she's the only one still with us, so it'll be a bit tricky to ask the others).

I have quite a big interest in war, inherited from my Dad. I swear there's a syndrome amongst middle-aged men that causes them to become obsessive about war because of our grandparents and what they did.

My Great Grandad went to India for some reason and his wife, my Great Granny, had a small shop.

My grandad on my mum's side fought in Africa, that's about all I know - he died when I was 8 and I never got around to asking my nan
On my dad's side, I think he just hid in a shed and pretended to be a woman when the MPs came looking.

My maternal grandad was a corporal in the African Medics. He got caught in 1940/41 trying to escape one of the African Mediterranean cities by attempting to swim the harbour after it was invaded by the Italians. Then he got transferred to one of the Stalags, and spent the war there. Said it truly was as awful as people and TV say. He actually lost the majority of his teeth there, had false teeth nearly all his life now. Learnt how to play chess there, interestingly, and then taught me on the same chessboard, which they let him keep, for some reason.

I always wondered why they put him in a PoW camp when he was a non-combatant.

Do any of you know what your parents/grandparents did during World War 2, or any war for that matter, or were you in a war? I know that my Grandad on my Father's side was a pilot in Africa during WW2, but I don't know what my other Grandad did - will have to ask my Grandma (she's the only one still with us, so it'll be a bit tricky to ask the others).

I have quite a big interest in war, inherited from my Dad. I swear there's a syndrome amongst middle-aged men that causes them to become obsessive about war because of our grandparents and what they did.