Grandfather's medals

[Claymore]

Hi,

As part of an ongoing 'family-tree' project, my wife's grandfather (on fathers side) was awarded the following four medals....which I guess are all 'I was there' type of medals....(and I sincerely don't mean that in a negative way)....

...he was a supply driver, or something along those lines, came of the beach at Dunkirk, remembers being ordered to drive his truck off the cliffs to wreck them, saw his best friend from childhood die next to him, killed by the straffing Luftwaffe...

'Grandfather' passed away many years ago, so we're trying to piece together history...

The first two I sort of recognise...purely from having read Commando comics years ago....they always had a little bit of history printed on the inside cover...descriptions of weapons, medals, uniforms, etc....come on, I'm sure we've all read them !

Please, just a quick explanation for each would be most helpful so we can use that information in the 'family-tree' research...

Many thanks...

Edited December 9, 2007 by Claymore

[Claymore]

...front side...

[Claymore]

...reverse side...

[Herr General]

Nice project!

Here's more info about these two campaign stars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_and_Germany_Star

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939-1945_Star

Your father most likely also received these two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Medal_1939%E2%80%931945

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_Medal

[Claymore]

...now that was bloody quick!

...many thanks for your help Herr General...most appreciated...

Regards!

[leigh kitchen]

The 1939-45 Star encompases in this case, Dunkirk service, which adds another dimension to what a lot of people view as a common & uninteresting Star. The Star's very much underappreciated considering the requirements to qualify, & like most unnamed awards what "makes" it is the provenance, the photos, documents etc of the man who earned it, which lift it from an unimpressive lump of cheap metal to something unique.

Can you post more about grandad please?

[Claymore]

...one story that was often repeated was about his time stationed on Iceland during WW2....

...as a supply driver, he faced many rough going roads, none more so as found on Iceland......the Army worked hard to repair and improve many of the deep pot-holes in the roads....first filling up the deep holes with any old rubbish that could be used....which included a huge stock-pile of old unopened corn-beef tins....'Grandad' hated the stuff....and was quite glad to see the tins buried under tarmac...

...one day, a food parcel arrived from home (Scotland)...a rare thing indeed, due to the high number of shipping that was sunk, many parcels and letters never arrived at their destination.......in amongst the 'luxuries' was a tin of corn-beef.....disgusted with this apparent lack of understanding from his far-off family, he discarded the unopened tin into the first pot-hole he could find....which was duly covered over with tarmac...

...a week later a letter arrived from home....the letter had been sent out at the same time as the parcel but had became separated and gone to another Army base...

...the letter contained the usual comments and well-wishes from home....and also asked how 'Grandad' had enjoyed the small bottle of whiskey which had been secreted away within a tin of corn-beef.....

...needless to say, his request to dig up the tarmac was turned down by his superiors...

...and so instead, he spent many a day driving along the tarmaced road...weeping at the loss of the 'amber nectar' that lay so close, but so very difficult to get hold of....

...there's probably a moral to the story, but I'm buggered if I know what it is ?!?

[leigh kitchen]

Any idea which unit he was in? 49th (West Riding) Div is the division which immediately springs to mind when thinking of service in Iceland, they were first in action in Norway in 1940, back to UK, Iceland in 1940, staying for about 2 years, back to UK then Normandy June 1944, on through Belgium, Holland.

Edited February 11, 2008 by leigh kitchen