Thanks jsp77. Being born in '43 put me at an advantage when as a 10/11 year old I travelled around the country with Dad (who was a commercial traveller) during school holidays. By this time the bombed city centres had been properly cleaned up - plenty of bombed buildings left standing, but no streets blocked off. So you could wander the streets and have a good look see. From this developed an interest in modern history and from Dad's Army and RAF friends an interest in Shooting, Photo Recon and learning about all the Concrete Structures we could play in when we visited any coastal area. In those days, people did talk about their war time experiences when they were amongst friends and acquaintances who had gone through the same, it was their common bond - the secret was to listen and remember. Some years back I was strolling around RAF Wickenby deep in thought - (As I have mentioned before my wife's would be Uncle took off from here on the 30th mission of their 'Tour' with 12 Sqd, only to go MIA. Four days before that they had written off a fully fuelled and bombed Lanc when it ground looped during an aborted take off to to multiple engine failure.) and I met a young woman who was doing a college project on RAF bombing campaigns and airfields. She was very anti bombing and could not understand how a relative of hers, who survived the war, could have been a radio operator flying from Wickenby. When I explained what he and his six friends must have gone through to complete those 30 missions and perhaps a number of aborted ones also, she was very silent and just said 'I never realised'. We remain good friends to this day. It is so easy to look things up today, but one cannot beat first hand experience and people of my generation heard many war time 'experiences', especially in my case about big houses and estates being visited by relatives doing training etc, first hand - if one listened! I did, I was a nosey little bugger and thus developed a lifelong interest in all types of buildings, fortifications and such like, which due to this wonderful Forum sometimes I can sometimes pass on to others.