wrote in message
ps.com...

(snipped valuable post)

Hear hear. For some soldiers getting up in the morning and not shooting a
hole in their foot makes qualifies them for hero status in my book.So many
men and women did their bit in your country and both of mine (UK and Oz)
without recognition and returned to a ungrateful world.

One of my grandfathers was unable to enlist as he was in a reserved
occupation. He was a coal miner. Every working day he would go down the mine
not knowing whether he would have a family to come back to when he came back
up. Twice he came up to find his home wrecked and once he arrived after they
had dug his wife out of the rubble and yet he went down again the next day.
I can't imagine how he must have felt when he went down again and again and
again.

His wife, my Grandma, was a hero too She was a midwife who "delivered babies
as the bombs were falling". On one occasion a German bomber was about to
crash land and to avoid being blown up by their own bombs they dropped the
load in a line down the main street, destroying several houses (including
hers) as it went.

The damage still shows in the house next door as a large crack running up
the wall by the stairs. The bomber crash landed and a mob was about to lynch
the crew. Grandma pushed her way through the crowd (all 5 ft 2 of her!) and
faced them all down.
"But Nurse! Look what they have done to your house! " said one of the mob.
"Its no worse than what my boys are doing over there." she replied.
And it wasn't.

She then proceded to care for their wounds.

I don't think I would have done that, I think I would have just helped kill
the Germans.

Her recognition came in the form of naming a street after her. Grandads?
Well he got a letter from the king.

Mekon