If the year was 1944 would you.....

Von Luck · 11 May 2006 at 16:23

Zip said:
So the British army was conscripts?

Sorry for my ignorance, i thought the were volunteers(well they chose to sign up but got paid a tiny bit of money)
I thought you lot were the same as us

Volunteers early in the war (as a huge chunk of the professional standing army had been given a pasting as the BEF), then conscription came later.

Nix · 11 May 2006 at 16:25

Zip said:
....sign up to the army and become a soldier?

Last year i know i wouldnt have but today i think i would, even though we know what the condisions were like on the battle field back then and the chance of being killed.

So would you sign up and fight for your country or what ever you have to fight for?

Edit: Or Join the airforce and navy.
And none of this behind the desk jobs. Im talking frontline stuff

Well, you'd have to join one way or another with conscriptions around the corner

EDIT:

A huge amount of our army was also from our colonial ties.
Early in the war we were completely volunteers. Towards 1946 IIRC onwards we began conscripting.

Von Luck · 11 May 2006 at 16:28

Nix said:
Towards 1946 IIRC onwards we began conscripting.

What, a year after we'd already won?

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:31

Ok, just so everyone knows, World War II started 1939 - ended 1945 with the Japanese surrender after nuclear strike.

Mr_Sukebe · 11 May 2006 at 16:33

As already said, by 44', I'm not sure that it was optional, and I think that most were "called up", pretty sure my grandfather was, and he was in Burma.

June the 6th was a pretty quiet day for most of our chaps, most of our guys stolled off the ships with little actual opposition on day 1, unlike the US, who called pasted on Omaha beach.
Got a lot more tricky after that with a lot of scrapping against the Germans until Patton broke through and the whole German front line collapsed.

As for really nasty times, here's a few:
- For us, being amongst the parachute regiments flown into Arnhem. Probably the biggest losses that the British took in Northern europe
- Being on the receiving end of the German response at the "Bulge", when the Germans attempted their last key counterattack of WW2 in the West
- Fighting almost anywhere on the Eastern front, on either side
- Being on the receiving end of the firebombing raids in Japan. Many people mention Dresden, and for good reason. Picture a similar bombing raid over Tokyo, where the houses are made of wood and not stone, and the fire defenses are completely inadequate. The result were more deaths in one night than from either of the atomic attacks. I know that the Japanese were pretty nasty to our POWs in the Far East, but at least they didn't go around systematically firebombing major cities.

Visage · 11 May 2006 at 16:34

G-MAN2004 said:
I am 110% i would sign up. I would love to infact. Iv'e probably been playing too much WW2 games. MOHAA 4tw

There are no respawns in real life.

Nix · 11 May 2006 at 16:36

Von Luck said:
What, a year after we'd already won?

I just got up, leave me alone

(Yes, I know it's past 4pm - I'm a student, sue me.)

Anyway, i'm off to enjoy the sunshine - caio.

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:38

Nix said:
I just got up, leave me alone (Yes, I know it's past 4pm - I'm a student, sue me.)

Anyway, i'm off to enjoy the sunshine - caio.

Suns almost gone now, Ciao

Le_Petit_Lapin · 11 May 2006 at 16:38

Visage said:
There are no respawns in real life.

Who needs to respawn when you activate god mode. :rolleyes:

Zip · 11 May 2006 at 16:39

Mr_Sukebe said:
I know that the Japanese were pretty nasty to our POWs in the Far East, but at least they didn't go around systematically firebombing major cities.

Sorry but you musnt have heard about darwin.
The Japanese came and bombed Darwin with quite abig force.
It wasnt a figher bomb attack but they still hit it quite hard.
Luckerly they got held off or the war could have lasted for many more years if they got into Australia.

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:41

Zip said:
Luckerly they got held off or the war could have lasted for many more years if they got into Australia.

It was all down to my Grandad in the Royal Marines

Zip · 11 May 2006 at 16:44

Zefan said:
It was all down to my Grandad in the Royal Marines

If he was a brit then he wouldnt have been here.

Churchill would even let Australia have some some of there Soldiers back from over in the middle east to help defend Australia and to push back the Japanese out of Papua new Guinea.
The Japanese were held off and pushed back by mostly Army Reserves.

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:47

I think you'll find I know where my Grandad was. He was stationed in Africa for most of the war, then was moved to the Pacific as part of the now known SBS, so SMD.

cheets64 · 11 May 2006 at 16:48

I would sign up, My grandad went to war, The stories he told me where just amazing. He was a POW in Japan after travelling around the world with the army, the way he was treated was bad but he survived and he came back to England and worked down the mines for years, brought up my dad, he lived till 80 after, I still wish he was alive today but I am always proud of him and I have been handed his medals and his signed letter from the King for his service in the war and being a POW.

I was thinking about signing up to the army now, but I would just be sent to Iraq to fund Americas OIL funland.

1944 Army helping to save the fellow man from the Germans and its evil plan.
2006 Army helping to get America out of the **** so they can have cheap oil and still spending trillions on a pointless huge army.

Zip · 11 May 2006 at 16:49

Zefan said:
I think you'll find I know where my Grandad was. He was stationed in Africa for most of the war, then was moved to the Pacific as part of the now known SBS, so SMD.

What part of the Pacific?
We had some Brits fighting alongside Australians but not many.
Im talking about through Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

There were british in the island of the Pacific where a lot of Americans were as well

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:50

It's all the Pacific to me, not a lot there anyway

Von Luck · 11 May 2006 at 16:51

Zefan · 11 May 2006 at 16:54

Von Luck said:
Grandad or great Grandad? (Just that with you being 18 I'd have thought your Grandad would be too young to have fought in the war?)

He was born in in 1926, and recruitment officers didn't care back then - hence the phrase "Come back tomorrow son, when you're 16." Oh and he's not my blood Grandad either, in law.

cheets64 · 11 May 2006 at 16:54

I can remember my grandad saying he was stationed in Jamaica and Africa before going to the Pacific.

lemonkettaz · 11 May 2006 at 16:57

id sign up for sure.

be better than going to uni and finding a job.

at least id have a clear purpose in life.... and money would be irrelevant for a year.

like zefan said.... dying on a battlefield will be a good way to die... be a lot better than dying of some stupid disease

If the year was 1944 would you.....

Man of Honour