[philled]

My grandfather never talked about the war. When asked what/where he was in Europe he'd just reply "we weren't sightseeing."

After the 50th anniversary visit, he began to talk- a little. He described himself as "one of the lucky ones" who landed the afternoon of D-Day. His first step into another country was a step into hell. Two weeks later he said he never saw what hit him. He said someone propped up against a fence post (which indicated that he might live) for an undetermined amount of time- he said it could have been hours or days- and then spent the rest of the war in hospitals.

Thirty years later, he bought a diesel VW Rabbit. He absolutely loved that car and commented that "they must have left some smart ones live."

[Le Chien Rouge]

When I was young,my grandfather took me to Europe several times and showed me many of the Battle of the Bulge sites and I got a first hand history lesson.

What I did not know till much later was that his wife, my grandmother, spent a couple of years in a concentration camp...she was in the French Resistance.

Their generation was rather quiet about the hell on earth that took place from 1939-1945.