This is my father in the uniform of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve. He joined in January, 1940 and was discharged in 1946, in pretty rough shape. After a stint doing convoy duty across the North Atlantic in a corvette and a brief reprieve as an ASDIC instructor, he joined a destroyer as Executive Officer and ended up in the Mediterranean. He never talked about his war to me or, I think, to my mother, but by the time my daughters were adults he could bear to tell them things. This was a great joy to him as was his love for and pride in his grandchildren.
This is my father-in-law who joined the army in, I think, 1941 and fought his way through Italy. After that he was in the Netherlands at the end of the war and the first weeks afterward. He had some very amusing stories about the Netherlands, but not about Italy. He was an artillery spotter in the Italian campaign.
Two wonderful men, gentle, thoughtful, intelligent. Both scarred by their years of fighting. Both able to carry on, look after their families, find happiness in the small pleasures of life.
Courage, and love of country, look like this.
Cuppa's dad was also in Italy and The Netherlands. He was a tank driver.
ReplyDeletelove the poppy. You've got a great family heritage.
ReplyDeletemy father in law was in the Pacific, and my husband said he would NOT talk about it, ever. The last few years he really has started telling stories. They are often hard to follow, and not usually pleasant. I was glad for the excuse to video record some of them when he came to MQs class for Veteran's day. I feel like I really should sit down with him someday and get him talking and just record, record, record.
ReplyDeleteyour father was a handsome, and kind-looking, man. and so young in that picture.
ReplyDeleteI love "Inversion"--the grey scale of the photo really makes the individual petals stand out sharply (they almost look like spikes) and gives a wonderful whitish ghost glow.
ReplyDeleteMy husband's father was in Holland and Italy--he was a sound ranger and it wasn't until he himself was into late 50s that he would talk about the war. And even then he said very little about it.
Two handsome, kind-faced men. As you know, my father-in-law was in the war, a 17-yr-old fighting for the Germans. He never talked about his experiences either, a combination of trauma and a fear of backlash, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteVery handsome men.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful post.
Maggie X
Nuts in May
just thought I'd stop by and wish you a merry Christmas :)
ReplyDelete