[Sundae]

I don't intend to re-open the argument, but I feel I need to redress the complete untruth I posted.

I admit I talked more to my Grandmother (now deceased) than my Grandfather, but I didn't realise how far their opinions differed As I'm at my parents' house I've had the opportunity to speak to him directly about the war.

According to Grandad (who couldn't fight due to kidney failure – even tried to sign up using his brother's papers) the war turned on the intervention of the US. According to him, they (the US) had more men, more money, more equipment and more food. He believes they are the only reason we managed to break the stalemate of trench warfare, and saved thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives. He also believes the US lost more men on D Day than the British. Coming from a man who lived in East London – the part of London hardest hit by the Blitz because of the Docks – and who wanted to fight himself, it turns everything I thought of my Grandparents' generation on its head.

I stand by my assertion that it isn't a widespread belief in the UK that only the US saved us from speaking German, but I was wrong to suggest this was an inherited view.

Grandad salutes you.