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Original title 'Both Sides of the channel'.
My dad "Doug" was one of the first to enlist when war was declared, he
was born in 1919 and was just a boy really. He left his parents and 8
siblings behind and started the journey from hell.
He died suddenly at the age of 48 of a heart attack when I was just a young teenager so to my great regret I don't have all the details. I know he fought in North Africa and that he was on the beach at Dunkirk.
I remember him telling me he couldn't swim and that they had to get to
the boats with their packs on their backs. I think that the memories were
still too raw for him as he never really went in to detail except to say that he
lost a lot of good friends and comrades that day.
Having survived those ordeals he was sent back into the fray and
continued the fight for our liberty in Italy, France and Belgium.
This is where we get to the otherside of the channel when the Bristish
army liberated Belgium. Dad met a young eighteen year old Belgian girl, my Mam "Yvonne ". Mam, who was left to bring up her children on her own when he died, was a young teenager herself on awakening one morning to instructions
from the authorities that they were not allowed to leave their homes until further notice.
When they were given the all clear they emerged to find German soldiers
on every corner with machine guns.
Her Father and Brother were dispatched to work in the German factories
and my Grandmother was left to bring up the rest of her children without an income.
They lived in Antwerp and many of their jewish friends and neighbours
just disappeared!
Being in the middle, they were bombed from both sides and lost both family
and friends.
Mam died herself 12 years ago after a very hard life and although we were
all born in England , Mam returned to Belgium after Dad died as she
couldn't make ends meet and now I am living in Belgium with my own family. I still think of the North East of England as home.

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