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Legacy Member
Originally Posted by
Gil Boyd
GeeRam,
Our 38/44 Pattern kit was crap compared to the U.S Paratrooper. We were a formation in part made up of Lions but led by Donkeys. Noone really cared except when changes were made to the helmet and the smock, everything else was issued to ALL units.
Why ankle supports were never a priority, especially when most injuries were indured by ankle breaks, who knows???
I know, I've got everything they've were issued with in the loft - and you forgot the Trouser, Parachutist which was unique issued airborne kit.
The 1st and 6th AB vets I knew 20 years ago are all gone now, they were all still spritely late 70 somethings last time I had a beer with them in Normandy and Arnhem for the 55th Anniversary events back in 1999
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06-05-2019 03:30 PM
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Tonight I will hoist a pint or two and maybe a few drams of whiskey in remembrance of my father, uncles and mother. Truly the greatest generation.
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Legacy Member
[QUOTE=Gil Boyd;453618]Many men in fact on returning from war, either threw their medals away in disgust in the way they had found their country on their return, with noone really caring about what they had seen or did during the time away, or never were issued any to start with. That was my Uncle Raymond S Holsti he was not too happy getting a medal for all the men he had to kill just to survive and protect his unit. His DSC ended up in the Missouri River. He was a man that lived every moment of his life fuller than any man I have ever met though. He used to say he lived through Hell and Had nothing to worry about in the hearafter. Attachment 100828
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Thank You to M1 C FAN For This Useful Post:
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Contributing Member
Ref: post 9 I believe that one of the reasons, in this instance, that the soldier's wife decided to claim the medals to which the late soldier would have been entitled had he lived, was for something tangible, albeit small and of little financial value, to remember him by. The soldier couldn't decide, for himself, whether or not he wished to claim the medals to which he later became entitled because he had been killed in action in 1944 during the Normandy Campaign before the medals in question had been cast and before they had been issued to anyone.
I don't believe it unusual for a family to claim a late soldiers medals when he died in action so they have something to remember him by, especially when there is no grave in the UK or no known grave at all.
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Thank You to Flying10uk For This Useful Post:
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Contributing Member
John I agree with that totally. A families choice and often through loss they feel the need to apply for medals that were never claimed.
In 2016 though I remember a metal detectorist going over the banks at Southwark I think at low tide on the River Thames in London and finding an authentic Victoria Cross.
It was later determined, that the Cross was won by a Private Byrnes in the Crimian War at Inkerman in 1854.
Mystery of tragic Victoria Cross found in the Thames solved - AOL
A very interesting find......................but why oh why did he throw away his medal unless it was through disgust on the way he and thousands of others were treated on their return.
I can't find any newspaper articles covering any interviews after the war, but I am sure the story will turn up one day.....................very sad!!
'Tonight my men and I have been through hell and back again, but the look on your faces when we let you out of the hall - we'd do it all again tomorrow.' Major Chris Keeble's words to Goose Green villagers on 29th May 1982 - 2 PARA
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