Being Fathers Day, I thought I might write about my own dad. He has been dead for many years. I do though still miss him and love him very much, faults and all!
On the 3rd. September 1939 my father joined the RAF in Glasgow. He went on to be one of the ‘founder members’ of the Royal Air Force Regiment. Their specific job was to defend the airfields from enemy air and ground attack. He admitted after the war that he signed up the day war was declared not out of patriotic fervour but out of calculated personal survival.
It should be remembered that the slaughter of The Great War had only ended 21 years earlier. Figures today show that 135,000 of the 700,000 British dead were Scots. 14.5% of the entire losses from 8.9% of the population. It was the highest attrition rate of all the western allied nations. It was a terrible price to pay in a conflict that didn’t bring any tangible benefit to Scotland. There is not a town, city or village in the entire country that does not have a memorial to the fallen.
It was against this background that my father chose to join the RAF. He and my uncle Billy reckoned that these airfields were out in the country and always well away from the frontline. This they believed would keep them out of the trenches and out of harms way. The very real possibility of another trench warfare slaughter was on everyones mind.
They, of course, were not to know about blitzkrieg, Stuka dive bombers and total war. My father had never been outside of Glasgow in his life with the exception of a few trips doon the water as a teenager. By the time the war was over in 1945, he would see service in the BEF in France and narrowly avoid capture. Biggin Hill during the Battle of Britain. He was then shipped off to North Africa and then on to Sicily, the Italian campaign and eventually in early 1946 he was demobbed in Austria. He saw lots of action and death in his war and he carried that with him to his own grave.
When he left Scotland in 1939, he was a young innocent man that didn’t drink was a regular church goer and of an easy disposition. He married my mother in the COS at Broomhill Cross on December 26th, 1939, and two days later shipped out to France.
Many years after his death my mother told me when he returned from the war he was a very different man. Like so many of that brave generation he did not boast and brag about his exploits. Indeed, I know how reluctant he was when my brother or myself would ask him anything about his war. He only told us a few stories usually amusing ones about things that happened when the guns were not firing. He only once told a story about a young girl that worked in the NAFFI and during an air raid he found her body almost halved in two by machine gun bullets from a dive bomber. He then went into his dark place. I didn’t know back then of course. It is only with hindsight and knowledge I realised the turmoil recalling such events must have taken on him.I wish I had never asked him anything.
The man that left Scotland an innocent in 1939 died in 1965 ironically enough on May 8th armistice day. He had long since lost his innocence and religious faith.He was an alcoholic and a troubled soul by the time he died. Back then PTSD did not exist and the millions of traumatised war veterans were just expected to lift up the threads of their lifes all by themselves. If they were lucky, they would get a rail warrant and a cheap demob suit, nothing much else.
What I do recall hearing from my father was that if there was ever another conflict or war that would involve his sons he would send us off to Ireland or Sweden to keep us out of the horrors.
I think that this accounts for my opposition to wars throughout my life. I remember going to Edinburgh to demonstrate outside the American Consul about the Vietnam War. I have always spoken out against all wars. Nothing good ever comes out of war. Even the victorious side has its problems. My father and hundreds of thousands like him can espouse to that. It was only after the Vietnam War the first televised legalised murdering contest that PTSD became a ‘thing.’ Unfortunately, throughout the ages I am certain many tortured souls lived with the effects of being a combatant.
One of the major attractions for me to the cause of independence has been the YES dedication to unilateral disarmament of WMD. Their steadfast opposition to all wars as a solution to political problems. We always until recently condemned all wars, demanded immediate ceasefires and negotiated peace settlements.
I have carried on with that stance in this war in Ukraine. I refuse to refer to it as a Special Military Operation. It is an invasion and war! I condemned it from day one. I have as the Alba Party have done stuck to the principles of independinistas on war. Sadly the SNP has for the first time in its history has taken a side, it is that of the US/ UK Nato proxy war side. Even more disturbing many of my fellow independinistas have joined in the gung ho let us continue this war until the last Ukrainian dies narrative.
I have been accused of being a Putin apologist, a Communist Nazi, (figure that one out!) a Russian sympathiser, an enemy of the Alba Party and independence for promoting Party policy, and demanding of an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated settlement. I have been shadow banned on social media and blocked from sites and by people because I prefer peace to war and death.Yet these war mongers think I am in the wrong!
I can honestly say I do not have a single regret on my position. I will till my dying day continue to oppose all wars. The only innocents in wars are the civilians caught in the middle. I prefer to be on the same side as real heroes like Tom Patch who had personal experience of the carnage and futility of war.
“War is organized murder and nothing else” “Politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder.” — Harry Patch
I will let the armchair generals and strategists side with Boris, Biden, Macron & Co and the globalists who are playing with the lives of not just ordinary Ukrainians but with all of our lives. Their reason is simple, to enrich themselves and their financial backers in the military industrial complex.They hope to see some neoliberal globalist nirvana world and that can never be. Millions though will die in their pursuit of this folly.Their continuing of this war will not make your lives any better, any safer or any way more democratic. Once you figure that bit out it all becomes easier to understand.
You don’t end wars by arming one side or other!
Happy Fathers Day!
I totally agree with you, Roddy. War solves nothing. Harry Patch had the right idea. Can you imagine BJ and his brigade offering to do personal battle with Putin and his political friends! Actually, should that situation ever arise I’ll put my money on Putin – even though he’s supposed to be very ill – he’d get the job done without blabber and bluster.
Your memories of your Dad brought back happy memories of my own father. Thank you.
You are most kind and most welcome Jan.
A fine and fitting piece for this particular day, Roddy.
Thank you Josef.
My late father was in the second world war also Roddy, and on the beach at the D Day landings. He would never ever speak of what happened through the war, but he was haunted to the day he died, by the most horrendous nightmares. He also was one of that generation who tended to try and self medicate the pain away with alcohol. He wasn’t an alcoholic but he was a heavy drinker at times. He always maintained that the conscientious objectors were the real heroes. My own feelings always are to say to these idiots who want to start a war, okay boys, after you and see if they are still so keen.
Yes a very thoughtful piece.
But why do we allow ourselves to be taken down these fields of slaughter and destruction.
It truly amazes me how we do and one only need only listen to those around us today, here in Scotland, who argue with conviction for a war against Russia.
For them the loss of a son, a daughter, a father is but a blood sacrifice they would happily pay.
Wars are about money. Big big money for the few, and loss and suffering for the rest. Even economic war is about money for the few. Klondykes today for the oil companies, gas companies, armaments, high tech avionics and many whilst the many see the destruction of their savings, wages, pensions and living standards.
Dulce et decorum est in Pro patria mori. And never a truer word spoken. We truly wouldn’t want it any other way.
But maybe today, people could think of fathers taken too soon for all of the wrong reasons and maybe resolve to do something about it.
My grandfather was in the Royal Scots and was seriously wounded in July 1917 at passchendaele having went over the top. He had shrapnel next to his lung which could not be operated on or removed.
In 1961 the shrapnel pierced his lung causing in his death. No butchers apron ,rifle volley over the grave or flower’s of the forest played for him. The war to end wars ,another establishment lie , my father to was in the RAF and fought in the middle east. His brother was in the Black watch and use to say to me how many toffs big houses got boomed, none.
War is fought by the working class for the glorification and enrichment of the British establishment. We have lived in a state of perpetual war since 1946, nothing changes ordinary people are collateral damage for Westminster game of thrones. Profit above everything ,worst wages ,worst health care ,worst pensions. How could anyone think this UK was OK. Dissolve the Union.
Year of our Lord,1911….Scottish population…..just under 5million.
Year of our Lord, 2011….Scottish population…..just over 5million…..a demographic disaster of epic proportions.
Switzerland…..1910…….3.3million.
2015…….8.3 million.
You’ve got to ask the question…….why?
Three reasons 1) warfare 2)emigration 3)Low birth rate. The 3rd can be passed over as that is not a solely Scottish phenomenon….but the first two are very Scottish.
1)Scots , sometimes in small numbers, sometimes large, have been involved, in some form or other, in warfare since before 1314 till 1945 and beyond….sadly, usually for foreign nations and religions. There were rewards in the form of booty, estates and pensions but the downside was death, maiming, slavery,( yes, Scots were slaves too), imprisonment and permanent exile….and a slow but sure, degradation in numbers and quality of Scottish manpower.
2)Emigration.
Well, what can one say on this huge subject, as 90% of you probably know all about this and experienced it yourselves in your own extended families. As a boy, in 50s Scotland, I remember the letters coming through the door from S Africa, Australia, USA, Canada and England, which to me, was a far-off country, away to the south over the hills.
So why go?
In my case, it was largely curiosity. What lay over those hills to the south?….but also disappointment and frustration with Scotland and Scots. So little enthusiasm for Scots language and culture, the meek submission to rapid Anglification, the torrent of English academics flooding our universities, the decline of industry with nothing or very little to replace it. If something did come along, accompanied by bowing, scraping and knee- bending, then it was foreign -owned and not indigenous…..here today, gone tomorrow at the first sign of recession.
Has much changed? I don’t think so. A Scotsman’s noblest prospect is somewhere out of Scotland.
Pessimistically, I aver we’re witnessing the death of a nation.
However there were some signs of life in Auld Scotia. Alex Salmond certainly brought the SNP to the fore. His lefty agenda seemed to appeal to a large section of the electorate…..though not to me….but I thought SNP was
a movement, not a political party, whose main goal was independence, so I dutifully held my wheesht and even made plans to return to Scotland in the event of independence.
Mr BB doesn’t like war ….period. OK. I agree with this….Not for humanitarian reasons but for practical reasons in Scotland’s case. Scotland, at present, just can’t afford a war…..any time, anywhere, for at least 200yrs.a) It cannot spare the manpower if it is to survive as a nation
b) It simply can’t afford it financially…….One of the big disadvantages of the union. England’s wars are our wars,like it or not.
Wars cost money, BIG money
One cruise missile costs £700,000 pounds each and we haven’t mentioned the cost of building, maintaining a submarine, armoured vehicles and paying the wages of the crew manning them.
Therefore, when it comes to the armed forces, then an independent Scotland would have problems….however
I maintain they are not insurmountable. For instance, why not volunteer to serve in any capacity, unpaid, at weekends?
Why not contribute funds directly to the Scottish armed services fund and receive a Scottish patriot medal…..1st, 2nd or 3rd class depending on the amount donated, and pay less in tax as a reward from a grateful nation.
This is what the Swiss do. That nation of 8 million can field 500,000 men, the largest army in Europe, if they have to.
No wonder, no-one, not forgetting nazi Germany, has attacked them for 200 years.
Another good idea from the Swiss……civil defence.
Imagine that. A government that actually cares about the survival of its own people. How strange is that? We’ve got Faslane and Coulport some thirty odd miles from Glasgow, yet not a penny spent on civil defence.
As for Ukraiine /Russia….nothing to do with us Scots…….. except to recall the rather cool attitude to Scottish independence from the ‘International Community’ in 2014. As I recall, the only other country/territory that gave visible support by flying the Scottish saltire, was Donetsk/ Lugansk.
Hear! Hear! An excellent piece.
I quite liked Mohammed Ali’s ” why should the poor people from here go over there and shoot the poor people there’ or words to that effect – he was of course described as a ‘draft dodger’ a derogatory term suggesting unpatriotic practice, in reality he used common sense and human feelings.
Many years ago I worked beside an old lad who had been a serving soldier at the outbreak of WWII. He was in North Africa when he remembered that his contracted years of service were up. Tongue in cheek, he asked his CO for his demob papers. The CO said “No problem, Tam – but you’ll understand there are some transport difficulties just now. However we can get you a bit of the way back to Scotland. We’re going to drop you at a wee place called Anzio”.
The media seem to forget that first and foremost the war in Ukraine is a civil war. Lithuania just took a frightening step to directly threaten Russia by effectively blockading Kaliningrad .
The Saxon can only steal acquire or wage war to enrich themselves they cannot build of work for their own good or anyone else’s, they are destroyers . A self appointed master race full of self entitlement , they covet jealously what other countries have then move in with there war machine to take them over. The usual pretence is for democracy, the Saxon whether English or American does not know what democracy is. Dissolve the Union.