Quote:
"Most recently and feted was the moving account of the 93 year old Battle of Britain pilot who fought the Nazi bombers. I think they eventually caught up with him and shot him down over Holland or so. He's been at many ceremonies and been given many awards and which has won the praise and tears of many a hardo journalists. Truble is,someone's just done a check on this fellow and can find no trace of him in any squadron. Completely blanco. Maybe he's gone off the radar now
At the same time down in Herefordshire way the pubs are packed with SAS men telling in sotto voce voices their tales of battles and battles won. Another time we had the proud ex army Leicestershire man who marched every VE day with a chest of medals. Except on closer inspection the medals didn't add up,tho maybe the strident veteran was 120 years old!( I think there's even an 'outing site' for ex army heroes somewhere on You Tube nowadays)."
You refer to the "Walter Mitty Hunters Club". They are on farcebook. They can check out alleged false claims of military service and do a good job in many cases outing the fakers. A look at their past posts reveals a whole world of military wannabes, with some it's blatant, while with others it's just sad. The worst ones are involved in frauds and domestic violence, and more than a few have sought to enrich themselves by false representation of their past "achievements".
One example is the amount of people who claim they are or were in special forces, but none say they ever served as a cook or instrument tech.
As for medals, ebay is full of them, real and replica, and you can find awards for operations and events that never had a medal coined to cover them. These are called bling awards.
In my own experience after I left regular service I joined the ACF and obtained a commission. We had various dinners and parades where medals would be worn. One of our most stupid and ineffectual instructors would wear a gong that he stated came from his merchant navy service, but we became suspicious and had it checked, it was an award for convoy service in WW2, and our little Walt was not born until the 50s.