BORN DURING SECOND WORLD WAR

Those Leaders who start a war do not know or care what harm they inflict because they are far away in a safe area.

As a very small child you do not understand the danger and just take it in your stride.

You go to bed early to get some sleep because when it gets dark the sirens started. 

Being in a colder climate we used to get dressed, instead of undressed, to go to bed. Then you get woken up. take your dolly or what great possession and go with all the family down into the cellar.

In the winter you have a struggle to get into your coat over all pullovers and cardigans to keep warm.

The grown-ups were talking about the planes approaching. After a few months they could make out if the planes are still loaded with bombs or are already empty. The engines have a deeper sound because of the weight. Sometimes they unloaded the bombs already somewhere else and where on their back home. It meant we could go back to bed earlier.
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That happened every night for a few years. It does not matter who fights whom and destroys which city. It is the people who sit there and cower and hope that it will not hit them. People who had no part in politics as such.

If the planes are still loaded with bombs you can hear their approach and dropping of bombs coming nearer and nearer.  Of course, the very young children just sat there in the cellar and waited to go back to bed. The older children knowing the danger but could not cope with it started to whimpers pegging their mother to help.

All this was forgotten when the war stopped by the very young children. 

One day, I was watching news and there was a report about Beirut being bombed. Before I realised, the sirens went off which went right through me and brought it all back. Before I could switch it off the distance drone of engines came and the thuds of the bombs being dropped also brought it all back.

These leaders who decide to start a war do not know what damage they cause for the rest of the people in their life, leave alone death and destruction.  They are far away from all danger and carry on with their good life.

As I mentioned above, when you are a very small child and do not understand you just take it in your stride. Later on, by some incident the memory comes back.

A friend of mine who was born after the war but still talks about her father coming back from the war very ill and so effected that he would not talk about it, like most of the men.  Her father died in his fifties which was too young and because of the effect from the war. Her mother died soon after.

She will carry the regret, of losing her parents far too early, till her dying days.

Then there are the young soldiers who went out into the war at the age of 20 and came back maimed or lost their lives .

During the last World War millions of young blood was shed and every year there is a Remembrance Day but none of the leaders who attend it will learn from it and stop wars altogether.

It could have been avoided. The Russians suggested sanction  and confiscating the ISIS bank accounts which would have been more effective. Also to stop some nations double dealing of bombing and supplying weapons and money at the same time.

Now again the West bombing Syria and my heart goes out to the civilians. I know what it feels like. It will not make any difference like in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Do not hold the people responsible because they had enough after two World Wars. The people would have never voted for it.

When will mankind ever learn? War does not bring anything but hurt and destruction. The weapon industry will flourish but the weapons they produce bring death and destruction.  The countries which do not get involved in wars do flourish.

A fine example is Switzerland. Why can politicians not follow their example?

TRUE STORY -- 'THE MAN THAT NEVER WAS'

EWEN MONTAGU

The true story of 'The man that never was' is all about the intriguing world of espionage. It is a new book written by Ben Macintyre called  'Operation Mincemeat'

The story as such is about a young Major William Martin of the Royal Marines who served in the Second World War. He had great courage and taking on mission in hostile territories and dying in the attempt.

Since he was of a middle rank he could be trusted with the most sensitive information about strategies of the Allies in the war. These entailed letters of the planned invasion in Italy and written by Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye, vice-chief of the Imperial General Staff to General Sir Harold Alexander, commander of the 18th Army Group in Algeria and Tunisia.

Young Bill, as Major William Martin was known, was in love and engaged to his pretty sweetheart Pam. He carried her love letters right to his end.

However, he was a young officer in London and enjoyed himself in theatres and nightclubs. In his precious days of leave and he was reckless with money and therefore overdrew his account. Lloyds' bank wrote him a letter accordingly. Another letter from his father Mr John C Morris who gave a stern advice to curb his spending. These two letters were also found on him

A story which was of a young man with a promising future and was cut short in his prime. Hollywood made a film called, 'The Man Who Never Was'.

The whole story was entirely made up by two men back at the Admiralty in London. It was a daring operation designed to deceive the enemy over the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Southern Europe.

Churchill decided to invade Europe via Italy after they defeated the Nazis in Africa. Obviously Sicily was perfect but the German were not that stupid and not realizing that was the next point of attack. Therefore they invented 'Operation Mincemeat' and William Martin to convince the enemy that the Allies would invade Sardinia and Greece.

A young flight lieutenant in the RAF Charles Cholmondely and second to MI5 and Lieutenant-Commander Ewen Montagu a brilliant barrister recruited in wartime to the head of Section 17M. This British intelligence section was so secret it was barely known within the service. However, they control the agents, double agents, espionage and counter-espionage.

Cholmondely had the idea to plant this vital information of the Allied invasion on a dead body. It would be found and handed over to the Germans. Montagu had contacts with a coroner called Bentley Purchase. He informed Montague that a 34 year old Welshman had died of rat poison and he would keep him in cold storage until Montague was ready.

Cholmondely and Montague created a life story with a fake identity which spies called it a legend. That dead man become a Marine since they were under the authority of the admiralty and be given the rank of acting major - senior enough to be trusted with such high information and junior enough to pass unnoticed among many dozens of other majors. The name Martin was chosen because it was quite common and the Germans managed to get a Navy list but only from A to L.

Martin became a Roman Catholic, born in Cardiff, a family, social habits (a smoker, theatres and dancer) and financial history. The letters from Lloyds were written by Ernest Whitley Jones, manager of Lloyds, at Montagu's request. An attractive MI5 secretary was his fiancée Pam and her boss Hester Leggett wrote Pam's passionate letters.

Cholmondely worn Major Martin's uniform for three months to make it look worn. They also got a replacement ID card to make him look reckless and an expired Combined Operations HQ pass. The sensitive documents Major Martin carried were named 'Operation Husky and the invasion of Greece from Egypt and Libya and two assault beaches. The documents were placed in a briefcase and chained to Major Martin's wrist.

They invented a further point that Major Martin died in an aircrash and they put the body with everything in a steel canister filled with dry ice. It was loaded onto a submarine at Holy Head, Scotland; HMS Seraph sailed to Spain on April 19.

The submarine arrived in Huelva, Spain and surfaced at 4.30am. They put a lifejacket on Martin and put him into the sea. Huelva was known that the Spaniards were friendly with a German intelligence officer. The body was found five hours later and the British military attaché in Spain was informed three days later.

The Germans seen the documents and believed every word of it. They reinforced Sardinia and Corsica instead Sicily.

The man behind Major Martin was Glyndwr Michael born on 4 January 1909 in Abergoed in South Wales to unmarried and illiterate Parents. His father was a miner and went mad and died when Glyndwr was 15. His mother died in 1940. He was homeless, penniless and was found in an empty warehouse in London's King's Cross on January 26, 1943. Nobody knows whether he swallowed the rat poison because he ate the food which was put down or he committed suicide.

The amazing turn of his destiny was that he was buried in Huelva on May 4, 1943 with full military honour

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