Keira Knightley is moved to tears as she hears the WWII love story of her sonar operator grandfather and volunteer grandmother while filming Channel 4’s My Grandparents’ War
Keira Knightley was moved to tears as she heard the wartime love story of her sonar operator grandfather and volunteer grandmother while filming Channel 4’s My Grandparents’ War.
The actress, 37, was also saddened when she heard her great uncle Andrew, an RAF bombardier, was shot down while flying over Germany and was held as a prisoner of war for 18 months during World War II.
Screen star Keira revealed in the documentary that her grandmother Jan never spoke of her difficult wartime experiences, including the time in 1943 when Jan and the rest of her family believed Jan’s younger brother Andrew Williams was dead after he was reported missing in action.
Touching: Keira Knightley, 37, was moved to tears as she heard the wartime love story of her sonar operator grandfather and volunteer grandmother in My Grandparents’ War
They feared he’d been shot down over the city of Essen in western Germany during a bombing raid.
While the pilot had in fact perished, the rest of the crew ejected but were held in a prison camp for 18 months.
Documenting the realisation he had survived, Andrew wrote: ‘I remember staggering to a wall, sliding down to the ground and crying.’
History: The actress was also saddened when she heard her great uncle Andrew was shot down over Germany and was held as a prisoner of war for 18 months during World War II
Reading out his note, Keira continued: ‘We’d finally been released.
‘I was only about seven stone by this time and I’d thought we were all going to die.’
Learning her grandmother ran excitedly ran towards the taxi to greet him when he finally made it home, Keira added: ‘I bet she did. Oh God, it gets you, doesn’t it?’
Keira’s grandfather Joseph ‘Mac’ MacDonald served in the Royal Navy for 12 years from 1934.
In love: The star learned that her grandfather crawled flat on his stomach during a Blitz air raid to get to her grandmother while they were dating in Glasgow, Scotland
He listened for U-boats as a sonar operator and helped rescue 700 Irish Guards from the MS Chrobry within 20 minutes while the vessel was under attack.
Her grandmother volunteered as clerk, working at a military hospital in the western Highlands, before organising troop movements ‘of a secret nature’, with Keira saying she was part of an ‘unseen’ workforce.
The star learned that her grandfather crawled flat on his stomach during a Blitz air raid to get to her grandmother while they were dating in Glasgow, Scotland.
My Grandparents’ War began on Thursday 17 September on Channel 4, with episodes from the four-part series airing each Thursday.
On screen: My Grandparents’ War began on Thursday 17 September on Channel 4, with episodes from the four-part series airing each Thursday (Keira pictured in 2019)
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