Remembrance parades today.
Always gets me thinking of the 'old soldier' in my life, my Dad!
When World War 2 erupted he very quickly volunteered, as did so many others, and joined the Norfolk Yeomanry which was, in time, absorbed into the Royal Artillery.
As a member of a mobile gun crew he was sent to north Africa, joining the 8th. Army in time for the Battle of El Alamein.
After pushing Rommel out of the desert he and his crew moved on to Italy and Monti Casino, where he could remember fighting, but he must have suffered traumatically because he has no memory of being repatriated back to the United Kingdom, but he did recall being a part of the D-Day +3 assault on Europe, and his travels continued all the way into Germany.
Dad survived all that. He had his memories, he had his tales to tell, but, for the next sixty odd years, preferred not to tell them!
He would tell us of his youth, sing music hall ditties, in fact he was the life and soul of any party, just as long as nobody talked of WAR!
He must have held so many horrors to himself, just as so many others must have done, and as so many are doing so today!
Many have paid...so many are still paying!
Let us not forget!
