Why you are interested in the war...
I'm interested in the war at this far removed only insofar as I believe that our personal reflections will give history the flavour of often mundane day-to-day activities and thoughts that put the reader back into those times and lets them live those personal moments with us.
Our joys, hopes and sadnesses , especially as children, were very seldom centered on the large terrifying issues of the time, well mine never were, but I do think that our memories will give insight into the big issues obliquely.
how your family was involved...
My family had its fair share of people at the front. It also had its losses. One on the Normandy landing. another killed in his prisoner of war repatriation plane in India that crashed on take-off, another a wounded POW in Germany. the rest pulled through.
... and what information you are looking for.
Those small moments that tell so much. I'm always affected by the account of my grandfathers death, as related by his mates to my grandmother, who saw him die in the first world war at the battle of the Somme 1916 - "Meggy hinny, divent bring him back, th'r willna be anything of him to bring back. He were blown to pieces a-front of us." He lies in Bapaume military cemetary just outside La Bouselle near Albert, France.
How the lad five or six doors down in Aspenlea Rd, with death and destruction all aroud him, died because his mother put money in the gas meter and forgot his gas mantle was on. That was immediate to us kids, whereas the collapsed and burnt out buildings where "Five dead in that one" was a thing of passing interest.
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