Post by pwm437 on Aug 8, 2007 22:47:27 GMT 1
My faither was in the TA just before the war. So on Friday 1st September 1939, he got called up and taken out to a scout hall at Polmont. Two days later on Sunday 3rd, World War Two broke out.
He was in the RASC (or as he put it 'Run Away Somebody's Coming) and they formed part of the British Expiditionary Force (BEF) who were sent to France.
The auld yin was a dispatch rider on the old motorbikes, carrying orders from HQ up to the frontline, and he told me he had to dodge a few live rounds, as dispatch riders were often the target for snipers.
He was with a unit who got to the beach at Dunkirk during the retreat from Europe. We have all seen the photos of tens of thousands of men standing there waiting to be rescued.
His C.O. felt that due to the numbers waiting they had little chance of getting out, so his unit made their way further down the coast and were lucky to get on a coal boat, back to England.
He was then in London during the blitz, and eventually got posted out to Egypt, driving fuel tankers up and down between Cairo and Alexandria.
My sister was born during the war years, and she says she still remembers the day ma da came back from the war, and she was a little unsure of him, as she hardly knew him.
My family all hail from the Gorbals, and at the time my parents first house was in Moffat Street opposite Glasgow Green.
Benny Parsonage, from the Humane Society across the bridge in Glasgow Green, put on a bit of a do for ma da in one of his boathouses as a returning soldier.
Years later I recall my father having a dress blazer, on which he had the badge of his old regiment the RASC. He never elaborated, but I think he wore it with some pride.
God bless ye Da.
He was in the RASC (or as he put it 'Run Away Somebody's Coming) and they formed part of the British Expiditionary Force (BEF) who were sent to France.
The auld yin was a dispatch rider on the old motorbikes, carrying orders from HQ up to the frontline, and he told me he had to dodge a few live rounds, as dispatch riders were often the target for snipers.
He was with a unit who got to the beach at Dunkirk during the retreat from Europe. We have all seen the photos of tens of thousands of men standing there waiting to be rescued.
His C.O. felt that due to the numbers waiting they had little chance of getting out, so his unit made their way further down the coast and were lucky to get on a coal boat, back to England.
He was then in London during the blitz, and eventually got posted out to Egypt, driving fuel tankers up and down between Cairo and Alexandria.
My sister was born during the war years, and she says she still remembers the day ma da came back from the war, and she was a little unsure of him, as she hardly knew him.
My family all hail from the Gorbals, and at the time my parents first house was in Moffat Street opposite Glasgow Green.
Benny Parsonage, from the Humane Society across the bridge in Glasgow Green, put on a bit of a do for ma da in one of his boathouses as a returning soldier.
Years later I recall my father having a dress blazer, on which he had the badge of his old regiment the RASC. He never elaborated, but I think he wore it with some pride.
God bless ye Da.