My Maternal Grandfather fought at El Alamein and in Italy - my paternal grandfather stayed civvy through the whole war due to being employed in a reserved occupation.

Of my 4 Great Grandfathers - all of them served in the Great War - 2 in The Royal Irish Rifles (one survived the war, the other was killed at the Somme on 1st July 1916 attacking Thiepval). One was a farrier who never actually saw any front line service (I'm guessing he wasn't too far away to be shelled though (don't really know for sure, he died before I was born). The last of the four was an old comtempible with the Cheshires - he served through the whole war and was never even wounded, not once!

NOW THEN....most of you here on ARRSE will be thinking - why the feck are you telling us this, my Grandad / Great Grandad did his bit in the wars too.......
Well - I'm trying to start a pissing contest - I reckon my forefathers aquitted themselves very admirably - no galllantry medals but one mention in dispatches....So let's hear your stories....was your grandad / great-grandad bigger and braver than mine were??

P.S. I'm not just taking the piss, I'm genuinely interested in hearing about what your people did in the wars - I'm actually a bit of a military history geek and the First World War especially is my particular period of interest....

Not my grand fathers but worthy of mention. A friend of mines grand father and great uncles all joined the Somerset light Infantry at the start of WW1. All four of them served on the front line. The local village war memorial has many names but not theirs, all four made it through and survived the war. Looking at the names (including brothers) who are on that memorial it seems a bit of a miracle.

It certainly sounds like it - the war took so many men from the towns and villages of the UK - spare a thought for a lady called Annie Souls - she lost five sons in the Great War -

Lost Souls

"Annie Souls would never stand for God Save the King after that..." - I'm a loyalist and a staunch monarchist, but I don't blame the poor woman for taking this attitude, it doesn't bear thingking how terrible it must have been for her..

My great Grandfathers fought in the 1st WW and came home, one was Navy. Three of my Great Uncles also, one is buried near Ypes, the other two returned.

Wish I knew more.

My maternal grandfather served in the crabs, as a wireless operator in Lancasters. He did his missions over Deutschland with nary a scratch. He spent the final two years (1944-1946) in the 'Honduras' as he called them. He said his hairiest moment was whilst flying over the Bermuda Triangle one of the engines unaccountably stopped and wouldn't restart. Once they'd landed the mechanics tested the failed engine and found nothing wrong with it.

My maternal greatgrandfather was with the Belgian Commandos in WWII (funnily enough he was Belgian), he was captured by ze Germans and killed whilst trying to escape from internment.

My paternal grandfather was too young for the second world war, however his father was shot in the throat at the Somme but survived.

My dad was a crabfat pilot and enjoyed some 'interesting times', his words not mine.

My two brothers and I were all on the same Ops, (same capbadge, different units) at the same time, twice in the last ten years.

On my dad's side, other than my Grandad who was too young for WWII, my family has fought (and in one case died) for the crown since before the peninsular war.

What do I win?

Don't know about Great Grandfathers (don't even know their names) but one Grandfather served in Africa, & Europe and then later in the Far East, the latter as a career soldier post WWII - I guess being born in Whitechapel around the beginning of the 20th Century meant that even staying in the Army was better than any other prospects he had. He was MiD for stuff in Africa. Rose to RSM but refused a further commission as, in his own words, 'wanted to stay with the lads'. Awesome bloke and I wish I'd been able to talk to him as an adult. He died 3 weeks before I got confirmation that I'd been accepted to join the Army - I hope he'd have been proud.

The other Grandfather also served but I doubt he saw anything at the pointy end as he was Pay Corp, or whatever they had then.

As above, I wish I knew more what Grandfather 1 did - he was always reluctant to talk in depth about it. Perhaps had we been able to talk later when I was in, he would have spoken more.

Also had one Uncle and his missus both in the Army and another Uncle RAF (but we don't talk about that...)

Over a certain age I don't know of any one of my relatives that hasn't served not just Grandfathers and Greatgrandfathers but Uncles and Greatuncles. From Zulu wars to end of Empire shitholes.
What does suprise me that not a single relative has ever been killed wounded yes, died early from being gassed and in a wheel chair etc.

Originally Posted by Krazy_Ivan

My maternal grandfather served in the crabs, as a wireless operator in Lancasters. He did his missions over Deutschland with nary a scratch. He spent the final two years (1944-1946) in the 'Honduras' as he called them. He said his hairiest moment was whilst flying over the Bermuda Triangle one of the engines unaccountably stopped and wouldn't restart. Once they'd landed the mechanics tested the failed engine and found nothing wrong with it.

My maternal greatgrandfather was with the Belgian Commandos in WWII (funnily enough he was Belgian), he was captured by ze Germans and killed whilst trying to escape from internment.

My paternal grandfather was too young for the second world war, however his father was shot in the throat at the Somme but survived.

My dad was a crabfat pilot and enjoyed some 'interesting times', his words not mine.

My two brothers and I were all on the same Ops, (same capbadge, different units) at the same time, twice in the last ten years.

On my dad's side, other than my Grandad who was too young for WWII, my family has fought (and in one case died) for the crown since before the peninsular war.

What do I win?

I think you're definitely winning so far mate - tracing your family's service back to the peninsular war is very impressive...a lot of my family have service history but the farthest back I can trace it is to the 2nd Boer War - but all I know about that is that one of my great great grandfathers was there, I have no idea what he did. My Grandfather once told me that we had an ancestor who had fought in American Revolutionary War (on the British side of course!), but I only have his story about that one, I don't even know what his name was or what relation he would be, if it is actually true that is! My grandad, god love him, was a good one for embellishing and even making up stories for us when we were kids - but he was definitely at El Alamein and from there on to the end...I have his service record and medals, including Africa Star, which I treasure more than my own medals - I only wish I had the WW1 medals from the Great Grandfathers - they have long since vanished and no-one in the family seems to know where they are....

Originally Posted by AsterixTG

. ....He died 3 weeks before I got confirmation that I'd been accepted to join the Army - I hope he'd have been proud.
....
As above, I wish I knew more what Grandfather 1 did - he was always reluctant to talk in depth about it. Perhaps had we been able to talk later when I was in, he would have spoken more.

If he didn't like talking about it then it's usually a sign that he was the real deal and didn't want to tell his family or remind himself of what he'd seen and done - and I'm sure he would have been proud of you...this post choked me up a bit and I haven't even been drinking!! My Grandad also died shortly before I joined up - I would have loved to have had the chance to visit him in uniform or have him come to my passing off parade..

With regardess to El Alamain etc

Two things my Grandad told me when I was young which I thought were a wind up and actually actually turned out to be true.

The black and white footage you see on The World at War etc of British troops in the desert in khaki shorts and shirts, rifles with bayonets fixed, getting up running forward, dropping runing forward, dropping etc.

He used to say they were fresh troops brought in just for the filming and it was all done just outside camp after the battle.
He claimed that the reason there was no sound was because of the jeering and shouts of "get some time in" etc from "a group of scruffy gets back off the line"
Read in a book that it was indeed filmed after the battle for showing in cinemas (if you look the kit is imaculate considering they were supposed to be in the field for months)

When BBC comedy Hi De Hi started he told me that his C.O. in between trying to constantly wipe out the Regiment decreed that they should shout Hi De Hi on greeting fellow members of the unit.
They would shout Ho De Ho in reply
He stated it was a laugh in the desert with a Fuck Off being the reply.
However when they returned to the UK he expected them to carry on shouting it in the street whislT saluting or greeting fellow squaddies.

One of the blokes who wrote said thaty he had met a unit who shouted it whilst in camp and he used it for the show.

If I remember they were probably the only two things he ever told me about the Army and I always took them with a pinch of salt.
He died before I could say to him I saw That thing you were on about.