On the passing of the years.

[old man emu]

With Anzac Day approaching, and schools closed for the end-of-term break, as well as the other viral reason, I decided to start teaching my 7 year-old grandson what ANZAC Day means. I was preparing to tell him how he was related to a man who went ashore on the morning of the 25th April 1915. And how he was related to a man who was in the capture of Tobruk and Bardia from the Italians in January 1941.

 

It dawned on me that I was going to tell him about his great-great grandfather (my grandfather) and his great-grandfather (my dad). I knew my grandfather in his old age, but it is hard to imagine how my grandson perceives the same man. All he has to relate to are his Army service records and a few photos taken long after the man was a young man.

[Yenn]

Happily that is the case with a lot of young people. When I was a kid there were a swag of close rellies who had fought in wars, or were still fighting.

We also had to look forward to being part of it ourselves.

My son didn't encounter many any war veterans. My grandson is unusual in that he is ex army, but none of the rest of the family have any connection to military life.

[pmccarthy]

I have had the same thoughts. When I tell my grandchildren about my grandfather (who I knew quite well) fighting in Flanders, they are hearing about their G-G-grandfather. Now my G-G-grandfather was a Cornishman who came to Australia as an adult in 1849 - as remote to me as Julius Caesar!

[facthunter]

You can do the research if you care to but there's probably more written about Big Julie than your GGG. I could be WRONG.. Nev

[nomadpete]

My, what a cynical, sarcastic mob we are!

I love it!

All this discourse is very illuminating.

Please keep it up.

[Bruce Tuncks]

i keep having this thought..what if somebody like Ned Kelly with a lot of George Washington in him took over Australia in 1915 and we seceded from the pommy war?.

We may have saved the world from Hitler and Stalin I reckon.

What a wonderful daydream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

t

[onetrack]

It's very difficult to relate what any ancestor actually did, or how they lived, even as little as 40 yrs on. All the Wars of the last century are merely illustrated stories to our youth.

 

I think we need to ensure more footage of the Wars of the 20th Century are made readily available. It's interesting to see how much WW1 footage was produced.

 

I look at footage of Vietnam and it doesn't always reflect what I experienced, and a lot of it is American footage of American exploits (as is common in WW2 footage, as well).

 

I like to look at the AWM film clip archives, some of the most interesting (and amusing) to me is the Christmas Greetings from Vietnam, that were made to gives families back home some "live" contact with their soldiers.

 

I wager a lot of WW1 and WW2 soldiers families would have liked the same style of greetings footage, but film was costly in both WW1 and WW2, and it couldn't be used for such a wasteful idea as film greetings to families.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=AWM+Christmas+Greeting+Vietnam&oq=AWM+Christmas+Greeting+Vietnam

 

I didn't even know my grandfathers, let alone my great-grandfathers. My Dads father died in his 80's, fully 26 years before I was born. I understand he served in the military for some considerable time, rose to Sgt., and fought in the Sudan.

But I have never ever found his military records, they are unavailable to me unless I go to the U.K. and do the research.

My mothers father never went to War, he was a coal miner and he lost a leg in a rockfall and was obviously regarded as unfit for service.

The loss of a leg didn't stop him from reaching the age of 85, but he lived in, and died in Scotland when I was 7, and I never met him, either.

Edited April 24, 2020 by onetrack

[pmccarthy]

We have 78rpm records of messages sent back from the Empire Training Scheme in Canada in 1942. It was a scheme to get messages home.

[spacesailor]

My Grandad was wounded in Threee wars, the last time, shot in the head & reported D,I,A,.

But the Russians found him barely alive, and gave him a Silver skull-cap.

Took a long time berfore being repatriated, Only to find his misses had remarried !.

Grammar was marrid Three times before my grandad marrid his Second wife.

So in all Grammar, ended up being marrid Five time, or is it Six, counting Two to Grandad. ( number five was annulled ).

spacesailor

Edited April 25, 2020 by Guest