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Post by roman on May 20, 2009 17:16:20 GMT -5
I've been rambling on about my grandfathers in the thread about Shadows In The Mist, and decided to put up a new thread, asking all of you about your family history and WWII. Do you have any relatives, grandfathers, etc. that were in the war? What did they do? Are they your heroes, if not then do you have any from the war?
I laid down some of my grandfathers' history on that thread, I'll do a quick recap here.
My mother's father was a doctor, and when Pearl Harbor was bombed he signed up for the army that day. He was charged with being the head medical officer of the 9th division, where he served in Africa, Sicily, and Normandy. He was the doctor that told Patton the soldier suffered from pneumonia, Patton having slapped the guy in my grandfather's medical quarters. His first cousin was a Nazi, sharing the same last name. The family fought itself in the war! Seems to be a pattern in the family, Revolutionary War, Civil War, then World War II.
My father's dad was an army sgt., served in Alaska then sent over to Germany, where he was captured and was to be executed. The POWs revolted and beat the guards to death, my grandfather escaping with a full Nazi uniform, which was burned by his father when he returned home. The Luger survived, and is now somewhere in Missouri with relatives who don't appreciate it. I only got him to talk about it once, and when I asked if he had killed anyone (I was very young) he teared up and said he had, and would never talk about it.
Alright! Now what about you all out there? Any stories to share, any interesting family history about the war? Please share! I'm a curious guy that likes to hear/read true stories and how they have affected people today.
If this is a repeat thread I appologize!
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Post by Cilionelle on May 20, 2009 18:06:33 GMT -5
In WWI, my great uncle was a fighter pilot, and was shot down by the Red Baron. He was German. Don't know many details. And my dad was mentioned in dispatches "for showing fortitude in the face of danger" during a grenade attack in the Battle of Aden. He slept through it.
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Post by roman on May 20, 2009 18:25:00 GMT -5
Whoa! The Red Baron?! Wow... Slept through the attack? I've heard stories like that, the soldiers become so use to war that something like that won't wake them.
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Post by evernevermore(john) on May 20, 2009 22:00:12 GMT -5
My Mothers father served in the ETO as a Lieutenant (dont know if he was a 1st or 2nd) and took quite a bit of pride in it. Even had some maps that were marked with the thrusts that his division took (I dont know the provenance of the maps, might have been original or post war copies he made). He never told me too much, and the biggest thing I remember were the maps and a German dress dagger be brought back. I dont even remember if he had a combat infantryman badge or not.
My Fathers Father is much harder to track down. He didnt talk about anything after boot camp except for getting pissed off when a news story covered some college kids that wanted the US to apologize for dropping nukes on Nagaskaki and Hiroshima. What little I do know is 1) he was attached to a headquarters unit as an electrician 2) his unit spent at least a little time in the Philippines where he mentioned something to his brother about driving a jeep alot 3) He received medals more than just the stock medals for service in theater and conduct - however my dad remembers that one day he just threw out the medals and everything else in that drawer. 4) Further records dont exist among my family or the government as the section of the archives his records were in suffered a fire. 5) In connection with the nuke comment he mentioned that his unit was slated for landing on the shores of Japan on the first day if they hadnt surrendered - so I wouldnt be here typing if that happened (with in any reasonable probability - the invasion was expected to have 100% casualties on the first day)
Personally I wonder if he never talked about his service because of what he saw on the Philippines, as his specialty would put him a position to clean up and repair some of the mess and atrocities that the Japanese left behind.
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Post by roman on May 20, 2009 22:26:56 GMT -5
Wow! The Philipines were so nasty... Horrible things were done to POWs over there, thank god for the Alamo Scouts! Sounds like your father's father saw some things that shouldn't be repeated. Wow... I don't want to imagine what they did, just hearing about it on the History Channel is hard enough, but to hear it first hand...
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cybogoblin
Sergeant
Monkeys + guns = awesome
Posts: 332
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Post by cybogoblin on May 21, 2009 1:28:34 GMT -5
My mum's dad was an aircraft technician in the South Pacific, specifically Espiritu Santo (sp). He talked about the war a lot, possibly because he didn't see combat. There were stories about segregation within the American forces also on the island (bewildering for a Kiwi bloke), going for a swim in a local lagoon then getting out very quickly after the locals mentioned the crocodiles, and meeting American 'farm boys' who had never seen a body of water they couldn't see the other side of. One of the most humerous was when they went on strike and held 'Joe [Stalin] for King Day'.
At the other end of the spectrum, my dad's dad was a truck driver in North Africa and Italy. He drove trucks filled with all sorts of good, including petrol, and had to contend with strafing runs from German aircraft and artillery fire at Monte Cassino. Then there were the 'dodgy Arabs' (his words). While training in Egypt they had some issues with putting their tents down on the soft sand. They had a talk to the locals and asked them to put down a layer of cement. The locals agreed and when they came back from the day's exercises they found they had done just as they asked... except the cement was inside the tent, not underneath it! He got his own back later in the war, though. He took to trading sacks of 'flour' with the locals for goods. The sacks were flour for the first few inches or so, the rest was salt.
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Post by roman on May 21, 2009 2:52:29 GMT -5
Hehehehehehehehe... That's a good one...
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Post by xeoran on May 21, 2009 4:05:33 GMT -5
My maternal grandfather was a Commando but injured himself in training and was discharged to serve in the Home Guard for the rest of the war. Probably a good thing considering his inability to follow orders or convention of any kind! His wartime claim to fame is that his leg injury was the first of its type to be treated with penicillin. Before it would have been amputation. My paternal grandfather was a regular soldier (as were most of that side of the family up until my dad) in the Indian Army. He was sent to China and either to Hawaii or the Phillipenes (various parties remember it different) before the war though nobody knows why. He ended up fighting in Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, Burma, India then Burma again before being sent home in late 1944 because he'd been overseas without any home leave for the last 5 years. He didn't speak much of his experiences but we do know he was shot once in an ambush, was captured at Singapore having got his orders to leave (in order to escape with some package- the rest of his company remained, was captured and a great many killed in POW camps) the day before but escaped and made his way to the Dutch East Indies on a boat of 10 men (most of whom died of dehydration) where he commanded a ragtag unit of Dutch, US and British soldiers. After that we only know a few individual stories. He amputated limbs (despite having no medical training) with a bayonet on the Burma Retreat, killed at least one person in hand to hand (he clammed up over that- lots of these experiences were incredibly brutal) and saw several Japanese atrocities first hand. We don't know much because he never discussed most of his experiences, it wasn't 'the done thing', but we do know he saw a lot of bad things. He never forgave the Japanese and with mock-seriousness used to suggest that Hiroshima and Nagasaki be nuked again every year. Then of course there is my 'Uncle' Max, commando, debonair rake and infrequent teller of the truth. I'd tell you stories but dear Max had a tendency to take a truthful story and then, ahem, run with it. He had a pretty hard war though, his back and head were full of metal plates after getting savaged by a Spandau in North Africa and he clearly had a very brutal war, spanning all 6 years. Of course all the real horror stories are from my relatives in WW1...
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cheif
Corporal
Posts: 115
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Post by cheif on May 21, 2009 5:03:36 GMT -5
My paternal grandfather was part of the parachute regiment and served in North Africa, he doesn't talk much about it, frankly I think he didn't care too much. He was already with my grandmother when he shipped out you see? So his war was just doing his job to going back to her. (Insert dour Yorkshireman statement here)
My other grandfather... I don't know. Things were always frosty between them and us (my mum married beneath herself) I suppose he did whatever a young Brit with some money behind him would do in the war.
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Post by roman on May 21, 2009 5:22:48 GMT -5
Some great tales in here! Xeoran, I'd love to hear your family stories about the first war, if you don't mind sharing. Excuse my ignorance, but I can only imagine what a young Brit would do with some money. Bought a rank? I'm really curious!
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Post by hermannmorr on May 21, 2009 6:59:48 GMT -5
By mother side, my grand-grandfather fought WWI in artillery. One day some austrian incursors tried to silence his battery, he beaten one to death with the ramrod. In WWII he just shot down a german straggler unfortunate enough to set foot on his terrain.
By father side, my grandfather was sergeant in the army, but he was sent to a recruits training center, so he did'nt see any fighting. He used to personally beat up undisciplined trainees instead of reporting them to the command, so their personal records would stay clean.
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Post by roman on May 21, 2009 9:46:23 GMT -5
Wow, you guys have WWI history. I have some, but don't know it, my family just kinda "oh, and he did that, and next!" for our genealogy. I have a lot of German in me, so I probably had some entrenched realtive on the German side who ate a flamethrower or something.
Keep sharing guys! This is fascinating! Thank you to have shared and thank you to the others who will share! Awesome!
Does anyone look up to someone that was in WWII? Related or not. I know Patton is a pretty big personality, and he carries quite a few fans.
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Post by evernevermore(john) on May 21, 2009 20:42:16 GMT -5
Actually most of the stories from the vets who served under Patton Ive heard pretty much roundly condemn him - he's got fans among the armchair historians but his slightly insane eagerness for combat put alot of men through misery to achieve his goals. The best quote Ive heard was "Old Blood and Guts, our blood and his guts"
I wont condemn his methods as he had good instinct, but his personnel skills left much to be desired, even excluding the slapping incidents.
As to looking up to - there are tons of people on both sides to look up to. Everything from the German generals who pointedly ignored orders to execute prisoners to that crazy British officer who served in France armed with a basket hilt claymore and a long bow. If you look you can find people to look up to, just like you can find ones to condemn, on all sides.
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Post by roman on May 21, 2009 20:48:11 GMT -5
My grandfather was against Patton in a big way. Not many liked Patton, his men and his superiors. I grew up having those thoughts of Patton not being that great drilled into my head, and I watch Patton 360 and cringe at some of it. Some of those historians practically worship him, how he couldn't do anything wrong, ever. The men they interviewed that served under Patton, you can tell they are biting their tongue, they want to curse his name to Hell and back. I wish my grandfather was still alive (for many reasons) and been interviewed for that show. He wouldn't have sugar coated it.
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Post by pikinyin on May 22, 2009 12:12:10 GMT -5
My grandfather fought during the Spanish Civil War but not in the WWII. Is valid?
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