Thread: Beneath Hill 60

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

I meant he never spoke about tunnelling. He did have a lot to say about gas which he reckoned was a totally unacceptable method of warfare that caused much prolonged pain and suffering and kept on killing for years and years after being gassed. He said his old comrades died off like flies in the 1920'-30's from the afteraffects of gas.

I never met my grandfather, he died from chronic respiratory illness when my father was 15, a respiratory illness he didn't have when he went to war.

What is interesting is that his war record doesn't mention being gassed, but prior to the Messines Ridge attack he and other sappers were sent into no mans land to prepare communication and jumping off trenches for the comming attack. It is likely therefore the cause of the damaged lungs was crawling through bomb craters and working in trenches filled with gas from an earlier attack.

When WWII came he didn't want any of his sons to join the Army, one was a chemist and unable to be released from important war work and the other two too young.

It must have been terrible for veterans of WWI seeing their sons going off to war barely 20 years after the war to end all wars.

thanks for the link, i did find one relo.
I think that the reason some soldiers/veterans from WW1 went to WW2 even though they saw the true horrors of war was that, they saw the true horrors of war and did not want their sons/nephews to go so they themselves listed. ( just my theory)