Mine enemy

My granddad on my dad’s side was at the start of WW2 in a reserved occupation. He lived in Liverpool and was in the AFS (a fireman) when the Pool and Birkenhead were being bombed. He wanted to do more so as he was an engineer by trade he joined the merchant navy. He did the Russian and Canadian convoys. He then signed up to the Royal Navy and served with the leech that is Prince Philip.

After a while on RN ships in the Pacific and Atlantic he was seconded as a engineering officer serving as Navy Personnel on Merchant vessels again on the Russia Convoys. His medals tell the story.
He never learnt to swim as being in the engine room he believed if they were torpedoed being able to swim might mean a harsher panic filled death.
Spike as he was known to his mates put his life at risk in many ways to end the cruel murderous offensive oppression fascism was bringing to the world. He was not a royalist or flag waver, just a honest moral bloke who saw the need to stand and fight against the evil that is the fascist way.
After the war he emigrated to Australia with my aunt, gran and my dad. They then moved to Port Mausby and Rabaul in New Guinea. They ran plantations there for many years before retiring back to Australia. My dad worked his ticket home to the UK on merchant ships when he was 17.
I only knew Spike from the few phone calls we could afford to OZ in the 60’s and 70’s. He died in 1979, only in his late 60’s. My gran came back here to live with us but after a very long deterioration due to Alzhiemers she too died in the 1990’s.
From what I do know of my Grandad, I am sure even if he was half the man my dad is he would be more than angry at the rise of hate here in the UK. He would see it not just as disrespect to those he served with on the most dangerous fronts of the war but truly defileing the memory of the friends and family he lost in that horror filled war.
So when you see tin pot Nazi’s like the Robinson Gang or NF, BNP, BF, EDL or any other pathetic mob of haters and arseholes, remember Spike, remember your own families, the service men and women that risked and lost lives. That were maimed and haunted through the service they gave. The civilians who went to bed each night not sure if there would be a tomorrow.
When these twats give that Nazi salute, when they wear swarzstickers recognise it as the banner and imagery of our enemy.
They dishonour our forebears, they dishonour us.
Fascism is not the answer to our problems, that and greed are the causes.
A skin colour, a religion, culture or even a country does not define our enemy, a Nazi salute, flag or morals truly do!
JONESY
http://www.thejonesy.com