" Demobbed: Coming Home After WW2 "

[Steve G]

  Here's a book, by Alan Allport,  I'd most heartily recommend to any of ye who had a rellie serving in the forces, during WW2.

 It won't tell ye anything about what census they'll appear on. It won't give ye their unit history. Won't expand the list of names and dates an iota.

 But;If ye really want to get beyond Vera Lynn and Trafalgar Square on VE Day. Look for a sense of what Gran / Dad or Ma faced and, possibly went through ~ maybe even still are to this day? This is The Book.

 Not another pedigree list. Pure and focused Social History. A part of which has possibly never been touched on in this depth before.

 Highly Recommended? I'd say; If ye people were there, and ye give a jot for understanding ye families Social History? Required Reading! 

[kiwihalfpint]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that ..... will keep an eye out for it   Looks like a fascinating read.

My mother kept very quiet about her time in the Wrens during WW2 .... but it wasn't until at her funeral service, that I was totally gobsmacked, when all the ships that she had served on were read out       But then there were others that kept quiet about their time in the forces as well.


Cheers
KHP

[kyt]

Cheers for the headsup. Will have to grab a copy.

May I also recommend the quartet by Melvyn Bragg, starting with The Soldier's Return. Though fiction, it's a great exploration of the turmoil experienced by returning soldiers, their spouses and the children who grew up without knowing their fathers.

K

[cathaldus]

I was nine years old when this man came into our little two up and two down in  Hulme Manchester, I was having a wash in a bowl on the kitchen table.  I  did not know this man and I did not like this man,  but my brothers and I were excited when our Mam told us that he was our Dad, "just come back from the War!"  We had visions of German helmets and daggers in his kit bag,  but it didn't work out like that.   My relationship with "my Dad" was never close and my brothers both felt the same way.  He died in 1882 (72yrs old) still something of a stranger to his sons.  As I got older I realised it must have been so difficult for him and for the thousands of man like him and I do regret not trying harder but that "first reaction" never really left me.  I think of him with some affection,  tho' I cannot say that I loved him and that makes me very sad.  My relationship with my own son is so different,  but I didn't fight at El Alamein!   War has many casualties!

[cathaldus]

ERRATA -  My dad died in 1982!!     My apologies for the typo!

Bill

[Steve G]

 That's harsh, any way it's presented, Bill. And that ~ and so much more that had never even crossed my mind before ~ is exactly the sort of thing this book's about. It certainly gave me an insight to the sort of things people had to work through in those days

 This whole aspect of WW2 has always held a quiet fascination for me. I was ecstatic when I heard someone had written a book about it all.

 First book I read, cover to cover, in one day in over thirty years. Second such read in my entire life! That's how engrossed I was in it.