Remembrance Day

I have been thinking about the men in my family and what they gave.  My father was in a terrible accident as a young boy and was refused when he went to volunteer.  Both of my two uncles served.  One uncle was in the navy and served on a destroyer, as a torpeoman, and they were on patrol in the English channel.  He kept a diary of this time and tells of the different adventures they had with German submarines, ships and the one time when they rescued a number of German seaman from the waters just off the French coast.  It did not read as an easy time.
My other uncle was a Sargent-major in the army and was in charge of training a unit of soldiers in Jamaica.  He became very ill the day before this unit was shipped out, was sent to hospital and did not go with his men.  He never forgave himself for not being with his men and for the rest of his life could not spend any time with other veterans.
My husband was a young boy living in Liverpool, England and remembers the bombing, the rationing and most of all going to the bomb shelters in the middle of the night.  The noise, the smells, the missing friends, and the lack of many everyday items.  Food was very scarce.
Only one of these men was in combat, but the war did terrible damage to all of them.