大象传媒

My Stepdad, Geg, is a veteran of the Second World War. Now in his late seventies, like so many others his memories of those days are clear. Also like so many other veterans and survivors, soldier and civilian alike, his experiences are defined not so much in words or stories, they are etched in every line of his face... written clear in his eyes, rarely spoken.
It would be simple enough to write here an account of one of his experiences, to recount, if you will another 'war story', but each story is part of an experience that changed forever his life and the lives of millions of others.
At the age of just eighteen he was part of a Sherman tank crew, on a Bren gun carrier. He landed on Gold beach in Normandy June 6th 1944. From that day until the end of the war in late '45 he had just two weeks leave, his unit being one of many that were constantly fighting and being called to reinforce other front-line positions. As well as the D-Day landings he saw service in Operation Market Garden, the brave, mostly successful attempt to capture the Dutch bridges leading over the Rhine into Germany. These events are famously remembered in the novel and film 'A Bridge Too Far', another 'war story'...
In the icy winter of 1944-45 he was in the Ardennes forest, a frozen hell around and within which Allied forces fought to overcome a savage German counter-offensive... a fight which became known as The Battle of the Bulge, yet more 'war stories'...
Today, Geg is a hard working if hard of hearing (Gunner's Ear...) man of 70 something (78 i believe)who sits and talks with me about the war. He remembers lost comrades, i look at a photo of a clean, white headstone with that Gunners name on it... "old Tom, Jerry sniper got him while he was 'aving a wee." Another picture, another pristine Dutch war cemetary... we speak now of Jack, burned to death in another Sherman just yards from Gerald's own. Two minutes later and we laugh as he recounts entering one Dutch village to streams of orange bunting, red, white and blue flags and cheers of "Tommy...Tommy" only to return just minutes later with Germans hot on their heels while Duch villagers run frantically to tear down the celebrations only recently assembled.
The Truth (if there is one) is so very much more than a war story. The truth is all of that and so much more, because the truth is also a man who wakes today with nightmares of what he saw during the war. Mostly it is not the brothers he lost, he sheds a tear and bears the NVA standard for them. It is more than the hell of battle, blood and death in places like Normandy, Nijmegan, Arnham, the Ardennes... for my stepfather a large part of his war stories must remain unspoken because they are the stories that wake him in sweat all too often. Part of his story takes place in Bergen-Belsen. He was part of XXX Corps elements who helped liberate the camp. What they saw there remains with them forever...
There is far more left unsaid by many veterans than has or ever will be put into words. The story of war is never ending.
Lest we forget that every story is vital, but every story is part of an experience which shapes the lives of so many people today...
Lest we forget not only those who rest in Dutch cemetaries, but the quiet heroes who are still with us...
Lest we forget that if we do not learn from them we are doomed to wage war and continue the never ending cycle...
We will not forget... we will remember them.

This article is dedicated to Geg and all the old Gunners who served with him, especially the men who fought on the beaches and throughout Holland.
I would also like to remember all the other men, women and children who fought, lived and lost throughout World War Two. My thanks and gratitude for all that you did. I live in the hope that one day no more children will ever have to learn the terrible lessons of war.

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