I'm surprised and gratified that this old Thread of mine has been resurrected from the dead and given a new lease of life. Thank you, rlh19190 (#95), and oldpax (#96) - [yes, Amble is only 64 mi. up the coast from us and so likely to be even more cold and miserable on a day like today !]
Sadly, many of the Dads have gone to their rewards by now (and the rest are not far off), but among all the nostalgia, please spare a moment to read my #1 again, and consider the point I was making. Is it valid ? (any survivors of WWII alive, did you think along these lines - or is it just me ?)
oldpax:
...Dad only ever spoke about this when the "man from the Pru"came with his superintendant who had been inthe Cheshire regt and dad and he had been virtually next to each other all the way through the war!!!!...
Reminds me of the time when I joined Customs & Excise after retiring from RAF. My district manager ("Surveyor" in Customs parlance), one Jack Reddy, turned out to have been a sergeant in 81st (West African) Divn. in the Arakan (Burma) in '43-'45 !
All the old names came tumbling out - Maungdaw, Buthidong, the Tunnels, the "Okeydoke" (Ngakyedouk) Pass etc. He was very appreciative of our efforts with the "Vengeance". Not much Government work got done that morning !
Danny.