My Uncle Bill ( his name was Wilfred ) rushed off in 1939 to join the Canadian Army, unfortunately he had lost a thumb while working before the war , so he failed the medical. He tried every day for about a week to join up and they turned him down every time. Finally after a week or more they told him to get out !!He had experience as an oiler in merchant ships so he spent the war in the merchant marine. He ended up surviving 2 sinkings, one was a collision the other ship hit a mine . When you think of the tremendous amount of supplies it took to keep Britain in the war, let alone to eventually take the fight to the enemy . Consider the thousands of guys like my uncle Bill who spent the war in slow rusty merchantmen , unsung heroes all.
I remembered reading a short thread about the MM in WW2. If I'm not mistaken Clint's (brndirt1) dad was in the MM as well. Here is the thread with a link to an article as well. http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-today/32668-wwii-merchant-seamen-want-recognition.html
The guys with guns would have nothing to fight with had it not been for the MM. Everyone fought in their own particular way. What gets me, though, is that even missing a thumb, he tried every day for a week to get into the military, and when that failed, he went the next possible route by supplying the military. You don't see that level of patriotism much these days.
Hello; Thank You, He once showed me his little book from that period used when he signed on and off the various merchantmen he sailed in during the war, there were everything from tankers to old tramp steamers. Once when he was on an old Greek steamer he told me he was cleaning up what was a messy engine room when the chief engineer stopped him saying "don,t worry about it, torpedo come BOOM all clean" a bit of gallows humor...
