Some memories of the Home Guard. My Dad's not mine.

@nannacroc (4049)
August 27, 2016 8:12am CST
I was reading @jabo about her father's experiences in the war and it brought to mind one or two of the memories my Dad shared with me about his time in the Home Guard. The Home Guard in our town never got issued with guns. One day a supply of rusty bayonets came for them to use. Someone asked, 'What are we supposed to do with these.' One wit piped up with, ' Scratch the enemy and wait for them to die of blood poisoning.' On another occasion the group were taken to a field where there was a large gun, they were told to dismantle it and put it together again. The dismantling was easy but each person thought another had kept the order of the parts, no-one had. They spent over two hours trying to re-assemble the gun. The leader eventually said, 'What would you do if the enemy arrived?' Most people said run but one man said, 'I'd tell him to stop wandering around here and b. help us. On a march, the leader got distracted talking to someone, he set the men off to march. After a while one man turned round and said, 'Say something, even if it's only 'goodbye.' Sadly, Dad was always reluctant to talk about his past, these memories only came out when we were watching 'Dad's Army' together.
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3 responses
@CinnamonGrl (7083)
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
27 Aug 16
Kind of funny experiences. Scratch them and let them die of blood poisoning, lol. My dad never would talk about the war. One day after he was ninety and weakened by heart failure, he burst into sobs about the first person he saw die. I am glad he let it out. He is still alive but in a nursing home. He is 97 and that was the only time he went into a war memory at all.
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• New Delhi, India
27 Aug 16
Memories which we never forget
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@jaboUK (64361)
• United Kingdom
27 Aug 16
How funny, especially about the bayonets,. That's great that 'Dad's Army' got your dad talking about his own experiences.
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