Here is an interesting little episode from WW11. Our cousin served in the Lancs, his father served with national service, his grandfather, from Dublin , served a life time in the Duke of Cornwall's Light infantry and the Hampshires.

However his MOTHER was a young German soldier, and when WW11 ended she took off her uniform and made her way to Belgium. That is the story as we know it.

She died a few days ago in England at 83 years of age , RIP; I believe her brother died at Monte Cassino, a German soldier of course.

Such is the nature of war. Our cousin is a fantastic guy BTW.

It never ceases to amaze me how diverse families are, the wifes family had people fighting for the US and German Army in Italy during WW2 almost all of my uncles and father fought in Italy (well except for one that some how ended up in France and another that got lost in Scotland and ended up serving out the war in the Pacific) and the most amazing thing is that not one of us lost a family member in WW2.

You know, that's right - I never thought of it that way before. Because of conscription in WW11, and having a very big family, that amounted to a lot of men serving around the world, and in the seas around our island, and my family never lost one either.

On the other hand, all of our dutch cousins were lost in the death camps, from 2 years old upwards. It is chilling now to be able to see the official lists; I was too young to know any of them, but some were here visiting in London when war about to break out and hurried home to Holland. When I visited Auschwitz on a business trip at 30 years old (1965), I had no idea of that whatsoever, but at the time I did a couple of unusual things; on entrance I threw my watch into the tray entitled 'All jewelry here' or words to that effect, and while walking around this old cavalry barracks reminiscent of ours, I plucked a little foliage and put it in my passport, where it remains , pressed. The other souvenir I brought back from there was a folded note our Polish host had put in my top pocket; It was from a much older man than me, after a hard business meeting and was one word 'Kompromise'; you have this to learn, he told me, not showing me what it read, over a drink or two.

Yes, such was the nature of WW11. It is good that the stories are told.

Rest in Peace.