So he became a Miner? Would he still have kept his military rank/position, or would he have become a civilian in the employment of the government?
He got a medical discharge so no military rank.
That sucks for him, I guess… But what did he have that disqualifies him as a soldier but allows him to go into mining, if you don’t mind me asking?
His eyes were buggered, everytime he went to sea he got blisters in them - nice eh?
That sounds extremely painful and annoying for a Brit, but no hindrance for a pilot or a simple ground soldier…
Hence the conscription bit, wasn’t exactly popular. While all your mates are off being soldiers, seeing the world etc, you’re digging coal in some dark, damp mine. Not exactly the most exciting way to see out the war.
Worst of all, it wasn’t even the safest 
Bevan Boys were also, rightly or wrongly seen as Marxists, and puppets of Moscow.
(And certainly, unionist personnel who were Moscow-leaning did infiltrate Bevan Boy workplaces.)
The attitudes of many Bevan conscripts was later to overflow into the work stoppages at places like British Leyland, which eventually destroyed that conglomerate, (though arguably, no bad thing, since it was essentially producing oversized steel Trabants: both quality and build of the products was shoddy in the extreme.)
In NZ, similar happened, with similar result, and I’m reasonably sure the same with Aussie.
All in all, labour conscription was viewed as being “as bad as the buggers we’re supposed to be fighting against” and basically forced or slave labour, since wages were at best, criminally minimal.
Regards, Uyraell.
So would they have guards watching the labourers or how would they make sure the boys didn’t run off and sign up, possibly under a different name?
Oberfeldwebel would be effectively MasterSergeant. Feldwebel would be effectively Sergeant.
Gefreiter is rough = to LanceCorporal,and Obergefreiter rough = to Corporal.
In the SS it’s slightly different, but I’ve given my understanding of that mentioned level of rank in the Wehrmacht, here.
Regards, Uyraell.
Um, did I miss something or did you post that in the wrong thread, Uryaell?
Well, therein lies the irony. In NZ and Australia, the idea of an Armed Policeforce was anathema to the Governments of the day. At least officially such was the case. In fact they did arm certain policemen, but preserved the “unarmed police” fiction by designation of the armed types as “Special Constables” (and yes, irony, the Gestapo began much the same way, originally, which was why the “Specials” were nicknamed the “Gestapo”, and if they heard you use the term as referring to them you were eligible for about 12 weeks jailtime). Other, and later units of “Special Constables” took to carrying (in addition to pistols and shotguns) baseball bats for breaking heads if needed, which seems on average to have been about every 5th week when the Bevan Boys went yet again out on strike.
Regards, Uyraell.
My last post here was regarding your question about the Bevan Boys being guarded (by the “Special Constables”) so they didn’t “desert” or run off to enlist in the armed forces under another name.
Regards, Uyraell.
I was actually referring to you explaining German military ranks in your last post on the previous page…
Hello Schuultz,
With the ranks details I was actually replying to your post, listed as #56 on this thread.
I’m sorry if I failed to make that sufficiently clear.:oops:
Regards, Uyraell.
The ‘Quote’ function is your friend
Jawohl, Herr Stabstgefreiter! Zu Befehl!
You’re right of course, though I was under the impression I had in fact employed the “Quote” function, so again, My apologies.
Regards, Uyraell.
Haha, even if my plans work out, I probably won’t be more than an Obergefreiter by next summer
Nice to get some discipline in here, though :mrgreen:
My Grandfather had fought at Passchendael (yes, I’m using the old spelling) in Oct of 1917. In WW2 he was a Machinist/Crane Operator at an Engineering factory in My city. The Govt. refused to take him into military service because he had been gassed with mustard gas in WW1 but survived same. The gassing was sufficient to disqualify him from military service because by then it had been determined that it would affect him for the rest of his life (it did, he died in 1953). However, because he was a projectionist, he was drafted to the engineering works to drive the cranes.
His wife, my Grandmother worked as a clerk in an insurance company. (Those details deal with the paternal side of my family, almost: more, later).
My mother’s parents were both exempt, by virtue of her dad not only having lung cancer but being a father of 5 children (law had it that a father of three or more children was exempt because if he died, the government did not want to have to support the widow and children).
At this point, the narrative moves out of my immediate family to near relatives, and so is beyond the scope of this thread.
However, 2 WW2 incidents do come to mind. Neither directly relates to combat, but each shows part of what “the war, at Home” was like.
A: Two men cooked to death during the pressure testing of a boiler at the engineering works. My dad’s father was present at that event (heard the boiler door slammed and locked, and the subsequent agonised screams), and he was a witness at the subsequent Court of Enquiry (Finding: “Accidental Death”).
B: In May of 1942, and again in May of 1943, a Japanese high-altitude reconnaiscance plane (in each case a Seiun, launched from an I1400 Class submarine, because Japan had no land base nor carrier this far South) flew over My city, in daylight, and every high-angle gun the city had fired at it, including people on rooftops, with shotguns and rifles.
As the aircraft was cruising blythely at some 28,000 feet, it was relatively undisturbed by the numerous projectiles hurled towards it. Not so, various panes of glass around the city, which promptly departed this mortal earth in a shattered condition. There was also a substantial rain of various metals shortly thereafter, witnessed by Grandfather from atop the factory roof.
I can add more stuff about relatives who did serve offshore, and may well do so on another thread.
Regards, Uyraell.
Well, as long as nobody was hit by the returning bullets, they’re lucky. I have always been wondering why nobody ever seems to think of this (pretty simple) law of physics… They just shoot in the air, acting as if the bullet would fly forever.