Memories of War - My Grandads Stories of WWII

rlee

rlee

Member
Hey NS,

My Grandad has written a book about his experience in WWII. What makes it more special is that he's only just started to talk about his experience so myself and even my dad haven't heard his stories only until the past 5 or so years. He's also written a book for the family and I thought it would be nice to document down 3 of the more significant memories of his war (although he has hundreds).

Below are the first 2 memories. The first being when he was fighting in Afica and ended up being captured by the germans. The second being his time in hospital which involves learning to speak Italian, red cross parcels saving his life, a barber and a brothel. Learning Italian help him to move Prisoner of War camps and get into the Italian farms where he eventually managed to escape and run away to switzerland. His escape will be the third video which I havent made yet and need to film some more.

I hope you guys enjoy and feel free to criticise the videos as I'm always looking to improve. The whole thing was shot in a day as I live overseas and only get to visit once a year (if that).

Memories of War - The Capture from Robin Lee on Vimeo.

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Memories of War - Hospital from Robin Lee on Vimeo.

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fucking love it man, my grampa was also in WWII and this really just motivated me to share his story. great work
 
Thanks man, I'm glad you enjoyed them. You should defiantly try and tell your Grandads story, they are all one of a kind and something that should be remembered. Post the stories up if you do, I would love to see/ hear them
 
That was very interesting, I like the concept and you did a good job sharing his stories. My only gripe is that his voice is soft and sometimes the music starts to overpower his voice, I'd say take the volume down a bit in some parts. Other than that very nice.
 
Looks like what goodie pocket did. But imo it would be cool if you got some stock footage from WWII or pics or something and panned across them to bring us more into his story
 
Thanks man. Hmm thats interesting, I havent noticed that. I thought the music was too quiet in places that you couldn't hear it, but il have a look again.

@MLeone I defiantly thought about scanning some photos, war memorial stuff to put in but I had no time to do any of this on my short visit. Maybe next time im over I can do so. I thought adding stock photos wouldn't fit as I wanted the video to be more ''homely'' - like the stories he tells are so interesting but then theres just this very calming video of my grandad now, doing everyday things, living his life. I thought using stock photos would look out of place... maybe thats just me.
 
Sounds really cool. I don't have time to watch it right now but threads for later. I'm excited to see it.
 
I've been thinking of doing this same thing with my grandfather. He escaped Hungary in the 50's during the revolution and he has some pretty insane stories of tearing down statues and hiding in hay bales.
 
nice work! really interesting stories. that first one is very similar to the piece I did of my grandpa haha I like how you made it into a sort of series though.

Couple general critiques- maybe a bit long for each and the music in the second one didn't seem to fit some of the time for me...it picks up at one point and gets faster paced and it seems like you just lowered the levels more...I would just cut that piece out of the song.

Nice work though! I am sure it will get the same overwhelming appreciation from your family as I did mine for creating something that they will always have to remember him by.

I would definitely encourage everybody to do this...not only for personal reasons, but it's also a great way to practice a sort of mini-doc/storytelling type of work.
 
Thanks bud, I really appreciate your comments! Your edit on your grampa was for sure where I got some artistic inspiration, I thought it was fantastic. Hope you didn't mind too much haha.

I hear you on the length of the vids. I wanted them to be around the 5 min mark, so not too long. However when going through all the stories I found it quite hard to hit that mark. I ran it by quite a few people and they all said that if anything they wanted them to be longer as the stories are so interesting. These weren't family members I asked haha, I know for them they would want it to be a full length film. Hopefully when I can do the final one I can make it shorter.

Went over the 2nd song again, I think I can see what you mean about the song changing, but it didn't seem like a big issue to me. What do you mean by cutting ''that piece out''? Is there a certain section which needs to go or you talking about changing the whole song?

Thanks again for your critique!
 
This was, to me, of professional standard. The ONLY thing which goes against that was the slight mismatch of the volume in the second part, as mentioned above, it was (at times) slightly too loud and made it difficult to hear his story.

I have no idea how you filmed all of this in one day, what an incredible work of art, joined together with such intense stories. Can't wait to hear the last part, and you should be proud of what you've made. Also, your grandpa (British, yay!) is really doing well for a 93-year-old, in the sense of how he expresses himself and the emotions he displays - I could almost feel the young soldier in him talking directly to me.
 
Wow, thanks! I really appreciate those kinds words, professional maybe a bit generous but thats were I'm striving to go. Looks like I will have to go back and try sort out this audio.

Shooting in only one day was pretty tough, I would have loved to have a couple more days there to get some more variety for sure! May be a while till I'm back next to get enough for the last story, but hopefully not too long.

Again, Im glad you liked it so much.
 
you my friend are a steller person, you are extremly lucky to have this oppertunity, it is an amazing thing to film and create. what are you shooting on? everything looks so crisp and proper K+ to you man, you did a stellar job.
 
what did you family think about this?

also, could you give us the book title (if it's been published), because i'd like to check this out. thanks.
 
I don't usually browse M and A but I'm really glad I did after watching those videos- they had a really good vibe about them and an inspiring story.

Would just like to share with how my great great uncle died in WW2. Your grandpa may have know of him (not personally) as he used to play cricket for England before the war. His name was Hedley Verity.

He was Commander of B company, Green Howards; the Yorkshire regiment who were taking part in the invasion of Sicily where they were involved with some resistance from the Germans. They undertook a night attack on the germans on a plain covered in corn fields, and their objective was to reach a farmhouse across a field. The Germans had set the corn alight and were prepared as they unleashed fire from both sides using machine guns. As they crawled along the floor he was hit in the chest and commanded his troops to leave him and 'keep going'.

He was then captured by the Germans and taken to a field hospital where he underwent an operation. Following this he was transferred back onto mainland Italy and initially brought to a German hospital in Naples but as it was full moved into an Italian hospital in Caserta. He underwent another operation to relieve pressure from his rib onto his lung which was successful but then soon after his condition rapidly deteriorated and died 12 days after being wounded.

One thing about the war is that there are so many different and interesting stories and I feel that so many have already been lost so documenting them for future generations is really important. There wont be another war like that ever, especially between us and the germans.

I'm sure there are some Germans on NS and it would be really cool to hear about the war from your point of view.

Jon

 
Thanks man! Really appreciate the compliments and glad that it helped inspire you a bit! It's one of my favorites.

I mean, I think the length of the videos is important depending on who you are appealing to. Anyone within your family is going to wish they were even longer than they are now haha I think they are a very average length as is. That 5 min limit is a good goal to set it to....I understand how hard it is to cut this stuff down!

As for the song, I just mean, cut out that section that picks up and seems a bit out of place and stitch together the second half of the song. You can have that second part play twice...it's just music that is underneath the VO (which is what people will be focusing on) so nobody will even notice.

Looking forward to the last piece.

 
Very well done enjoyed it allot. There some beyond beautiful shots. Cant say anything bad about really.
 
Love the idea behind this!

This will be a very powerful video to show to your future children in remembering what seems to be a great man!
 
i really enjoyed this. put together super well, and his stories were amazing. i always love hearing world war 2 stories they are just so fascinating to me. Well done and i can wait for the 3rd story.
 
Thanks a lot bud, I'm glad you enjoyed them.

I was shooting primarily with a Canon 5D III with a few shots on a 7D.

@captain_cockneck my family loved them. We all live so far away (different countries) that it was nice to have something that we all could feel involved in. The book is appropriately named "Memories of war" but is not published (yet). He's actually still remembering more of the small details and keeps adding to the book.

@jon-tee what a amazing story you have. Its a shame he never managed to pull through. When I have the chance I will ask my grandad if he knew him... you never know right?

Thanks every one else who enjoyed the vids

 
Thanks again. Yea I will go back and adjust the music. I know what you mean about stitching the song - I actually did so before so it shouldn't be a problem.

I do agree on the length. I don't think going over 5 mins is too much of a bad thing as there are tons of documentaries running far longer, but for me do prefer shorter vids. For the last one I will try my best to keep it down. I cant remember if I mentioned what it would be about before but its when he escapes from a prisoner of war camp in the italian fields and makes it to Switzerland. Its a good one.

There also another very quick story hes told me which isnt part of any of the 3 main ones, but about when he and his buddies were learning how to ski whilst in switzerland. Maybe il do a short version of that just for NS'ers as its pretty entertaining.

Thanks
 
sounds great, yes please! the bit about him escaping will definitely be incredible to hear about also. are you planning to make it back out there this year?
 
Yea, hopefully I can get back in the summer, so will try get much as I can done then! Glad you want to see more
 
Hi Guys,

So, I've finally managed to finish the final episode of my Grandad's WWII stories. For anyone that had seen the originals, sorry it's taken me a while primarily because we live in different countries and I only get to go back once - if that - a year. This story is my favourite by far, its hard to believe any of this actually happened and while my Grandad was telling the story it was the first time I've really seen him show emotion.

Anyway, this story picks up where the last episode left off, in hospital and trying to find a way out and eventually to escape. The story is about his escape from an Italian farm that he was working on and making his way to the Swiss boarder with many adventures along the way.

I know the idea was to keep the last video shorter, but when we went back to record the last story he spoke for about an hour, if not more and made it near impossible to get to where I am now, I had so much recording... The story had so many dimensions and sections that I couldn't cut a whole section out just to make it shorter. So it is longer but everyone who has seen it so far says it feel shorter than the other two just because the story is so engaging and emotional so I hope you guys can appreciate that. I managed to pick up some better audio equipment as well, so I feel like this edit is just a step up from the previous ones.

Well, enough talking, here is the video:

Memories of War - The Escape from Robin Lee on Vimeo.

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Man, that was incredible. I don't think words can describe how much I enjoyed watching that. Beautiful work, well done.
 
Thank you so much. As always I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the positive feedback you have given me. I'm glad you like the last story as much as I do and I hope I can keep producing work that all of NS'ers can enjoy as well.
 
These are really really cool. I've been on a WW2 kick recently, watching a 7 part 14 ish hour documentary on the war called "The War" directed by Ken Burns. Not the best doc I've watched but pretty good, and it's based on the stories of real people and their families, goes in between historical and personal stuff.

I love these stories, it's making me want to go film some stories myself at the local VA Hospital with some of the guys I've met there. Both my grandfathers served on the front lines, and I didn't ever get a chance to hear anything from them.

 
Thanks ON3P, glad you liked them! You should defiantly go film some stories as well, its a shame you could never here from your own Grandfathers, I bet they had some awesome ones. I haven't heard of that documentary before but I'm going to look it up now and see what its all about.

Thanks everyone else as well!

 
Wow. Just found these now, and they are so well done. Such great stories and the documentary itself was fantastic. Really impressive and inspiring work, I really enjoyed those.
 
Thanks man I really appreciate that.

I've actually recorded one other story which isn't part of his book but just a fun one I liked. Its about his time in Switzerland when he learnt how to ski with the other escapees. I haven't put this together as I don't have any more "filler" footage so would have to use repeat stuff (wont see him again until next year). Undecided if I should go for it or not, its a funny story about skiing NS may enjoy. Thoughts NS?

Also below is a story from my Grandmother (different side of the family) from the war and has a completely different vibe. After doing my G'dads vids, my mum wanted one of her mum so we thought why not. I know its not part of my G'dads story but its of the war so I may as well plug it in this thread as well.

Knickerbocker Glory from Robin Lee on Vimeo.

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