Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="the blacksmith, post: 9486751, member: 20148"]Many of them were. And many even lied about their ages too to enlist! Girls too, not just boys! My own father was just four days short of his 22nd birthday when he found himself on Sword beach on D-Day! He went ashore with a handful of other drivers to see if the armour could go ashore, though his regiment wouldn't actually land for another three weeks as a regiment. He was amongst those chosen because although just short of 22 years of age, he was already a veteran, having seen action at the Battle of El Alamein when he was just 20, then the Italian campaign at 21, and then Normandy. He'd go on to see action at Arnhem, when he was 22, then the Battle of the Bulge, and later would be amongst the first into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, when he was still only 22 years old. We really cannot imagine the horrors that he and all those of his generation who were there, must have witnessed at that young age. What were we doing when we were 21 .............?? I certainly, thankfully, wasn't robbed of my young years like so many of our forbears were.... LEST WE FORGET! [ATTACH]444781[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]