WW2 experiences with my Grandfather

[Christine O'Toole]

I'm glad I came across this site. I've been recording my 89 year old grandfather's war experiences on the different ships he was with. Ill have to show him this site and he may be able to answer some of your questions. After the war he became a captain and was at sea for 62 years before he retired in 2002. He's been all over the world with his ships. He was from Northern Ireland and was 15 when he was on the Empress of Britain when they got word that the war started. They had to quickly paint the boat grey. He was in Russia when it ended. Was on the Bronte when it was torpedoed and all kinds of fascinating stories in between. He has the best memory even and is able to tell me a great deal of his experiences. I'm glad I'm documenting this and I'm learning so much about him.

[Lou Barron]

As another ex MN with ww2 experiences welcome to this very good site .Iam sure that your Grandfather would have some very interested stories to tell lets hear from him

[John Pruden]

my father in law and my uncle were both royal navy men before during and after the war from the mediterranean fleet north Atlantic convoys to the russian convoys as they were coming to the end of their lives i used to take them out after a few rums the tailes came out my uncle was torpedoed 5 times my nan had the telegrams in small frames on the wall in the parlour on the bottom always said god save the king they both had a way of smoking keeping the lighted end in the palm of their hands although they lost many a shipmate and must have gone through the mill they never told their wives anything my father in law on the Russian convoys opened up one night how the slept in life jackets and one particular night a full moon and calm sea looking over the rail a line of bubbles right underneath were he was standing never even had time to shout and a thud it never went of he always said from that moment he knew no German would kill him. my uncle Edward as myself or one of my brother were sailing the night before we would have a few with the family Edwards arm would always go around the shoulder i wish i was going with you he would say the answer would always be the same Edward every ship you were on got the ar.e blown out of it? we seem to have learned nothing from what our forces went through we still send them to their deaths but this time we don't know why i often asked them to put their history on paper but i got a resounding no people should not go through them times both are long gone but what characters they were . just one story about them i have many more.jp

[Tony Morcom]

Hi Christine and a warm welcome to the site. Thanks for stopping by to introduce yourself and tell your Grandfather's story. I am sure that he would have many tales to tell which would be of great interest to our membership and he would be most welcome.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Christine.
Welcome to the site, we will lok forward to your granddad joining us and reminising, tall tales aplenty on this good site.
cheers Des
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[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Christine, we welcome you and your Grandad to the site, if you are tempted to peruse the other forums, then we apologise in advance for any blushes we may cause you, as we old seamen tend to forget at times that there may be young tender female eyes perusing our pages as we drift off into the past and regail each other with exploits that at sometimes should best be forgotten, well perhaps not forgotten but perhaps not published. But memories are what keeps us young, but in your grandads time and some of us oldies it was a hard life and we took our pleasures along with our risks. So bear with us.