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Where I grew up in Salford in the fifties the whole landscape was flattened by German bombs. Many of the houses were damaged by bombs but people still lived in them. My granny lived in a house with a hole in the roof caused by a bomb. The whole of the upstairs of the hovel was wet through with rain and full of pigeon shit. The stairs were out of bounds to me as they were completely rotten. My grandad got no war pension and they still had to pay rent.

lol…..you know it mate, Isombard Kingdom McHull you mean ! lol

He resolutely refused to buy a poppy as well strangely enough and when I, as a young patriotic lad, used to ask why he’d say “They shit on us and It won’t bring my pals back” I still bought one as an adult and he would buy me one when I was a boy but he never had one, ever.

Fair play lads ye should be proud and never let the people who come after ye forget the family history it’s very important

Mchull will be along shortly to put you straight on the hole project...take notice ....

I just remembered, it was a starling from a blackbird!! Still f****n unbelievable with the naked eye at 500 yards!!

I did a pork stroganoff tonight with the leftover roast pork from yesterday

You would believe me if I told you my grandad had similar. Gave their lives and sanity for a government who didn't respect them... Sound familiar?

Mine didn’t either, I had to research it myself.

Similar, not similar….because my old man was a volunteer from 1936, when he came home they wouldn’t let him out despite 5 years of deprivation in a POW camp. So he had to pretend to be mental and drove them mad until they slung him out….give him something like a fiver and demob suit and told him to f**k off ! Lol A little factoid is that because they were POW’s they wasn’t entitled to any medals, but years ago apparently they worked out they were entitled to some and some nice old duffer from the British Legion (I think ?) came round and said to my old man “You are entitled to medal

Absolutely! Without a doubt. I'm always amazed how heroes rose to the surface and showed the best qualities of mankind. Millions of acts of bravery and selflessness. Women who were parachuted in darkness to work behind enemy lines. Computer and maths geeks who worked night and day to solve enemy codes. Are those qualities still among us or are they gone forever? Lost in cynicism and I'm alright Jack?

Oh I thought that was bangers

They all were and we allowed the state to fail their sacrifices.

Top man!

I knew a bloke who managed to survive the long march. I knew his son as well. He told me his dad never uttered a word about it. Neither would he answer any questions about his experience.

He was in action I believe from the word go. I posted his war paybook a couple of weeks ago. I've loads of shit to go through of his record and service. Imagine this, the British gov denied him a war pension because he was a non-combatant. All the horror you see in Saving private Ryan and such films, times it by a 1000 and that's what these men were seeing daily. These men stormed the beaches, villages, towns etc exactly the same but to save lives of their men. My grandad was shot and given the option to end his service.... His answer was "I'm not leaving my boys out there alone" he went

He would have been around 19 in that picture mate, and likewise he hated waste. He was one of the blokes who did the Long March and was in a camp for 5 years…..they was eating cats and leftover pig swill on that long March so it’s understandable.

20k each they were getting today for 2 pub fighters and still couldn’t meet up in a field embarrassing

Christ your dad and his mate are babies mate. A good workmate of mine was mistreated by the Japanese during the war. He was starved and could not bear to see food uneaten. He would scrape all the crumbs from the whole table where we ate our dinner and scoop them in his mouth. If anybody discarded a sandwich in the bin he would fish it out and either eat it or take it home. I had some guinea pigs and rabbits. He came round one day they were begging grub at the cage wire. From then on he used to bring me loads of grass regularly for them. Couldn't bear to see them hungry. He

Zoom in and look at his eyes.. says it all!

Fair play, can’t even fathom what sights that man witnessed mate.

Good post mate, I agree.

I'm told right before his deployment for D-day. Combat medic, mum told me he had nightmares but never once spoke about it or asked for help. After the war he continued his mission to help his fellow man.

There a great line in a film it’s says ‘years ago we had the church but that’s just another way of saying we had each other’. I’ve met some great priests and have had nuns in my family on both of my parents sides and by god I met some nasty ones as well. Anyone who was involved in the mother and baby home stuff I’m sure there’s a special place in hell reserved for them well I’d hope there is anyway. I don’t want to sound like I’m defending any of that stuff because I never would. I’m just saying there was a time the church did do some good in the community and it created a far better culture i

Steak, cheddar, and mash pie Courtesy of Backworth colliery bakery