Spooky. So have I, although he's a great great uncle (or is it 'great granduncle?). He was already 41 when he was killed and a regular in the Manchester regiment. Prior to Flanders, he'd served in the South African campaign and on the Khyber pass.

By some quirk of fate I ended up with his war medals, which I had re-ribboned, and an Afghani Kukhri knife, which my Dad used to use for gardening.

I've seen pictures of his headstone in the cemetery in Belgium on the War Graves Commission site and must make the time to go there soon. Luckily, he wasn't one of the 'unknowns'.

My Grandma also lost both brothers in the Great War, I have a picture of one of them which appeared in the local newspaper at the time and I kid you not I thought it was a picture of me at the same age. Very spooky.:(

Well what a direction change this is now..

Well if i tell you a short Story:

Me and 3 mates went on a road trip from Portsmouth to Holland.. obviously we went to Amsterdam for 3-4 days but 1 of my mates was also on a mission..

His Great Uncle was a ww2 bomber pilot, i have the squadron details somewhere but not at hand, they had been on a Bombing mission over Germany when they got broke up after being attacked by 109's..we know this by the yellow nose story's that followed by the rest of the squadron..

They were lost, completely on their own but soon found enough landmarks over Holland to get their bearings and the route they must take to get home.

They decided to fly low to avoid being spotted by enemy fighters as they were shot up pretty bad by all accounts..this is where they met the Sh*t end of the 'good luck stick', they flew over 2 109's and their ground crews refueling in a field.

One of the 109's scrambled chased the lancaster and shot it down..

Most of the crew died apart from the Pilot (my friends great uncle) and the top gunner whos story im now quoting but he was unconscious and took a good few months before his memory came back to him..

A Women who lived near to the field they crashed in see what happened and run to the burning wreckage, the gunner was 15 meters away from the wreck but the pilot was crawling out badly burnt so she dragged him away saving his life from the explosion that was to soon take place..thats that part of the story..

So there we are driving to this area after our wild 3 nights in the 'dam' asking people/ shop owners and farmers where this field was, after 7 hours of driving and looking for this field we were there but couldnt get our bearings when suddenly one of us notices smoke coming from another field behind a hedge, it was a house..we drove to the house and a lady came out who approached us wondering what we were doing, unfortunately none of us spoke Dutch but lucky for us she spoke a little English..

Ok i cannot tell you how our quite giddy selves become very humble/sad to be honest when we find out this old lady was the daughter of the girl who pulled my friends uncle out of the wreck! after looking at various photos and when we thought this adventure had actually finished she took us to the field..

On this field was a Plaque and a small gravestone which the ladys mother laid for the crewmen she buried..my friend understandably started to cry and gave this women a hug..

Man i cannot tell you the feeling that came over me at that minute after our incredible journey to find this place to meet this women and to see this plaque..

My friends mission was over...to lay down a small necklace that his auntie had given to him..He promised her before she died that one day he will find that place and do what she was unable to do and was unable to find herself..

way off topic guys but i guess whenever we talk about or i read about these sorts of things that adventure always seems to pop up in my thoughts

~S~

That's a superb story mate. All this stuff always brings it home to me that it wasn't really all that long ago. Nice one.

Thanks for relating that Ze-Jamz, and it seems that despite our differences on the forum, we all have a bit more in common than perhaps we would like to admit.

S! Gentlemen.

Oh, and Tree, I took no offence, and actually had a good chuckle over your comment.