The Scars War Leaves Behind…

[Flying10uk]

Both my parents lived through WW2, as children, and both endured air raids. I have described some of father's wartime experiences in detail on this forum previously and so I won't repeat it all again here. At the war's end he had serious damage to both ears caused by being dive bombed in which 4 people died and suffered from PTSD caused by the experiences he had witnessed in the war, such as seeing a Spitfire pilot burn to death after crash landing and not being able to get out of the cockpit before it was consumed by fire. The recurring nightmares lasted into the 1970's and he received no medical help until after the end of the war and never had any help for the PTSD.

When my father's "call-up" papers landed on the doormat in 1952 from the army, during the Korean War, he was quite willing and fully expected to serve his country and if necessary fight in Korea. There was no "trying to get out of it" because of what of happened to him in WW2 and no trying to think up "excuses" why he shouldn't do National Service. When my father reported to the army base for his medical the result from the army doctors was that he was unfit for any military service due to injuries received in WW2. He was told to report back again in 6 months time to repeat the process, which he did with the same result.

Growing up in the 1970's WW2 was constantly discussed and talked about and all the war films watched. Another, less obvious way, that the war affected my father was that nothing was thrown away and there always had to be several "spares" of an item in case it became "in short supply". As an example after my father passed away I found more than 20 "spare" kettles, at least 10 televisions and around 6 vacuum cleaners in the house.