Seventy years ago today World War II officially began. Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on Germany. Neville Chamberlains iconic statement, "Peace in our time," would not be realized. A little over twenty years since the end of the "war to end all wars" another world war breaks out that would ultimately claim the lives of over 60 million people.
My grandfather, WC Kendrick, served in the Royal Navy during this war. For a while the ships he served on were part of the protection for the Atlantic convoys that ferried supplies from the United States and Canada to Britain. He witnessed the sinking of many ships but survived to tell the story.
Not so lucky was a young man by the name of Thomas Holmes. Thomas, my dads cousin, was in the Royal Air Force and served as a bomber pilot. Early in the war his plane was shot down over enemy occupied territory. For the duration of the war there was no word as to whether he had survived the crash or died. While the Red Cross were generally good at getting information on POW's back to Britain it was an imperfect system. With no good information at hand Kathleen, Tom's mum, sat out the duration of the war wondering about the fate of her son. After the war's end she learned that Tom, like so many, had been killed when his plane went down.
Ray Davey, a family friend, headed for North Africa in November of 1940. He was a chaplain with the YMCA. He would soon find himself captured and spend most of the war as a POW making his way from Tobruk to Dresden. His full story can be read in his book, "The War Diaries."
Ray walked the streets of Dresden shortly after the allied bombings and records in his diary onm March 12, 1945... "saw the ruins of that city in daylight... I walked for about an hour and a half... and saw what modern bombing does. It looked as if some supernatural giant had taken up the town and shaken it and then set it on fire. I walked for a very long time without seeing a house fit for habitation. I've never seen such absolute devastation on such a wide scale... Casualty figures now range from 80,000 to 300,000, and I don't think we wull ever know correctly.
We finally arrived at the station and found that only a shell remained... The synchronized clocks bore mute witness to the fact that the destruction had descended at 3 minutes to 11 o'clock. It is reckoned that 16,000 perished in the station... It was a terrible fact to realise that many thousands of bodies were still entombed under the debris. I did realise then what total war means."
Ray would later found the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland and devote his life to work for peace.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" Matthew 5:9
