My Granddad was in the 1914-18 war as a machine gunner.
His position was over-run and he had to bury himself under his dead mates
because the German troops came around bayoneting the bodies .
He got a dose of mustard gas which buggered his stomach up.
He survived and got a job on the ICI boats as a crewman.
The boiler emergency steam valve stuck and the boilers where going to blow,so he wrapped himself up in Hessian sacking and crawled on top and managed to break it open ,getting scalded in the process.
Now when this MAN was dying of stomach cancer and I was sat with him to give my Mum a rest,(I was 15 at the time) The poor b****r wasn't allowed enough morphine because the Doctor said he was having to much,
(they aren't as bloody strict these days,thank God.)
He lay there and cried for me to help Him.
I have NEVER EVER felt so useless then or since.
That Man was and still is my Bloody Hero.....