World War 2 and Nobby Elmer

I was born in 1950 5 years after World War 2 my father was English and my mother was German and I have a great deal of pride in both Countries
It is only when you get older do you realise how close you were to historical events, most of my mates fathers had served in the war as did my father in law, most rarely spoke of that time of their lives. My next door neighbour served on MTB Boats, two doors down was a POW for most of the war, two doors up was ex Sergent Major, several of our school teachers ex military and so on.One of my best friends fathers Nobby Elmer was also a POW and a few years just before he died I visited him and we talked about his experiences, I had known him for 50 and this was the first time he spoke to me about that time as he POW. He even had a photo album which he showed me and which he explained in great detail, hopefully that has been kept it was a great piece of History. What was the most inspiring thing I heard from him was that he held no malice to the German Soldier, he said they were fighting for their country like he was fighting for his. I had spoken to some old soldiers in Germany and they said the same, I can still remember as a young boy some of the ex German Officers clicking their heels when they were introduced to my mother and father.When I joking said to Mr Elmer if you had been a POW for all them years you must have had some back pay he laughed and said no back pay no counselling just Family the same as thousands of others.
It is only now that I realised how privileged I was to have known such men from both sides, sorry to say as a rule they do make them like that any more well there are a few and they serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan and I am honoured and privileged to know just a few of them

Any way I love stirring music The Bagpipes, songs like Rule Britannia, Men of Harlech on the German side they had some great Marches and I have included a clip from the "Battle of the Bulge" and the Universal Soldiers song Lilli Marlene. This song was made famous recording was by Marlene Deitrich but most German Soldiers and German people consider her a traitor, my mother included so have shown another recording