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A WWII veteran's story

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Posts

  • ShogunShogun Hair long; money long; me and broke wizards we don't get along Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandfather was a navigator on a B-17. I know very little about his exploits in war other than he didn't care for it. I have a lot of pictures of him during the war and I must say he looks quite dashing in uniform.

    OP I'd love to read that story.

    Shogun on
  • nukanuka What are circles? Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    All I know from my maternal grandfather is that he fought in the Korean War, and left with 2 purple hearts and 2 silver stars.
    I don't know what he did to earn them, but they must have been special. He doesn't like to talk about his experience unfortunately.
    He does have a hole in his leg, like a dent you could poke your finger into.

    I haven't seen or spoken to him in years.

    nuka on
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  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Cristo wrote: »
    Aldo wrote: »
    My grandpa on father's side was forced to work in Germany when Speer couldn't find enough workers to fuel the war industry. My grandma from mother's side didn't have to do much, but she did loose a brother who did some smuggling or something.

    It's kinda scary, none of my grandparents talked about the war, only in the broadest of terms, even my parents don't know any concrete stories. I think it means that everyone kinda lived on without doing much. After all, for normal white Christian citizens here in the Netherlands shit didn't start hitting the fan until the hungerwinter of '44 and even that was mostly a problem for the urban areas.

    Sometimes I wonder what I would do if a war would hit western Europe again, I know my dad literally fainted the moment he fired a gun at the shooting range (and had to do the rest of his conscription as an administrative dork making sure everyone got their knickers on time)... I think I would just book a few tickets to Aruba or Curacao and invite friends and family to get out of dodge for the time being.

    I would rise up and defend my country and people for what we stand for and believe in.

    I consider the division of this planet in nation states a weird and ad hoc construction and I do not identify with my country unless there's a football match.

    Most wars humanity has fought weren't over idealism either, WW1 was a political clusterfuck between countries whose populations were convinced by decades of propaganda that there was more at stake than a quarrel between equally wrong leaders.

    WW2 started out the same way, we didn't even know Hitler was this morally corrupt until years into the war. Hell, the letters written by Jews being deported sent to their families didn't even hint at the idea that they might be murdered. Hitler was mostly considered an aggressive leader with some slightly racist ideas (but no that racist by the standards of that time that Chamberlain or other leaders went "that's racist! stop it!") who had his ideas of Lebensraum.

    A new war will be the same, it will be fought over fresh water and the ideological realm will only consist of "does a human being have the right to get his own fresh water no matter what?" Chances are no one will even be interested in taking over another country for as far as I am concerned.

    /tangent

    Aldo on
  • theSquidtheSquid Sydney, AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandparents were Polish and I'd like to ask my parents a lot of questions about our family's role in the world wars because no matter what it'd probably be insane.

    I do know one of my grandfathers was captured by the Nazis and escaped en route to a Nazi prison camp, then spent three days walking through the woods before he managed to find a village.

    theSquid on
  • JaramrJaramr Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My great grandfather was a British soldier on the African Front of WW2. He won several medals, but I don't know much about him.

    My grandfather seems like a awesome and very intelligent guy, he died of cancer when I was a few months old, and my grandmother never stops talking about him :(

    Jaramr on
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  • SanderJKSanderJK Crocodylus Pontifex Sinterklasicus Madrid, 3000 ADRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My paternal grandfather lived in Rotterdam during the war, and his parents lost their housing during the bombing that force the Netherlands to capitulate. He ended up in the German factories, much like Aldo's dad, though he has never spoken about it in detail. It did take him nearly 3 months to return to Rotterdam after the war had ended though.

    My maternal grandfather, still a minor when the war started, was involved in spreading around the resistance newspapers. Because he has a very jewish name, and "jewish" features (large nose / ears), he was arrested twice pretty much on suspicions of being a jew, and once more for breaking curfew after housesitting. He too was slated to work in Germany, but he got a friend to give him a (superfluous) job at the railway maintenance, something that was apparently quite common.

    My maternal grandmother was born and lived in the Dutch Indies, the daughter of a banker. (so they were colonials, not natives). She was the oldest of 6 siblings. They were interned in the japanese starvation camps for 2.5 years, and both their parents perished in the spring of 1945. All but one of the siblings suffered serious physical and/or mental problems due to the camps. After the war, the Indonesian revolutionaries claimed their property (which had housed japanese during the war), and my grandmother, 17 at the time, was playing mother over her 5 brother, and were all sent to live with family in the Netherlands, with nothing but a few pieces of jewelry and about 5 photographs.

    SanderJK on
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  • Nova_CNova_C I have the need The need for speedRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My maternal grandfather was a mechanic in the Canadian army, don't think he ever saw any action at all, but he did manage to 'collect' some nazi memorabilia (Pins, money, maybe some medals) that my mom keeps. He wasn't a good person, though, an abuser and wife beater so I never really knew him.

    My paternal grandfather died of a brain tumor when my dad was 12 so I never met him, but he served in the war. My grandmother is a British war bride. She's told me a few stories about the air raids on London. She's probably the most amazing person I know.

    Nova_C on
  • TK-42-1TK-42-1 Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandpa was a gunner on B-17s. He said he shot from every gun except ball and that those fuckers were insane. He was in the 8th Airforce and was in the first american bombing of berlin. He got shot down over germany and was place in POW camp that sat in a concentration camp. According to my mom everyone there called him Tex. We still have a texas flag he made in the camp framed up on the wall along with his medals and everything. The only story I can remember him telling me about it was how on his birthday everyone saved up their chocolate bars and made him a cake or something like that. He died when I was too young to understand the awesomeness of what he had done and I'm still sad that I never got to sit down with him and a bottle of scotch and listen to war stories.

    TK-42-1 on
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  • ueanuean Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandfather was a sniper for England in WWII. He told me all the stories but it's been so long I forget most of it. Says it still haunts him though and he won't touch a gun to this day. I think you really need a stomach for that kind of work... it's very personal watching someone's brains puff out of their heads through a scope.

    uean on
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  • electricitylikesmeelectricitylikesme Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    uean wrote: »
    My grandfather was a sniper for England in WWII. He told me all the stories but it's been so long I forget most of it. Says it still haunts him though and he won't touch a gun to this day. I think you really need a stomach for that kind of work... it's very personal watching someone's brains puff out of their heads through a scope.

    I've heard this before actually - it was an interview of a WWII sniper that was published and essentially the guy was discussing how much the whole thing still gave him nightmares - like, the one night he just kept shooting guys sent to replace this one guard post, and during the day they took the position and found something like 17 helmets where that position was.

    electricitylikesme on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My maternal grandfather was in the Navy during WWII. I honestly don't know much about what he did... I was 6 when he died, my grandmother passed away seven years ago, and I've never asked my mother.

    :(

    Shadowfire on
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  • aaronsedgeaaronsedge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2010
    Oh, I got one.

    My grandpa was a guard for prison camps and it got to a point where when the train doors would open, POWs would bolt out and escape. He said they were getting pretty tired of this and they were ordered to make examples of the next guys that tried it. They issued anyone doing train duty thompsons and one day the doors opened and a couple of guys bolted out the doors and and everyone just lit them up. He said they were dead before they hit the ground and that they just kept firing until there wasn't anything left to shoot. He always adds that there were far less escapees after that.

    When I was 13, I was like..that's freakin cool! Now, it's like...man..that is freakin horrifying.

    aaronsedge on
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  • Kipling217Kipling217 Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My maternal Grandad and his brothers where conscripted by the German Occupation to serve as labour for one of their insane building projects here in Norway. How insane? My hometown was going to be replaced by a gigant U-boat Base called Drondheim serving the Kriegsmarine. The original city of Trondheim was going to be turned into an R & R area surrounded by this giant base.

    A couple of the remants of this insane project was a giant U-boat bunker Called Dora 1 built with Russian Slave labour that is to massive to demolish. Seriously a MOAB wouldn't dent the place. Another was a housing project for NCO called Sjoveien today. I used to live there for about 10 years. My room was in the basement wich the Germans built as an air raid shelter. Half a meter thick reinforced concrete walls. I could play music at max volume and the person in the next room wouldn't hear a thing. Whole house built to high standards insane even by today's reckoning.

    But back to grandad. He and one of his brothers decided to make a run for the border and try to join the goverment in exile army. They made it and spent the rest of the war doing what I think was scut work for the allies instead. What was awfull is that one of their friends was going to join them, but backed out at the last moment. He stayed behind to take care of his mother. He was Jewish. 300 jews lived in Trondheim, only 3 returned. He wasn't one of them.

    Kipling217 on
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  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2010
    One of my grandfathers was an infantryman in the Winter War before suffering tbc, and his brother ran guns and kept a stockpile of weapons at his farm.

    Honk on
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  • CristoCristo Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Honk wrote: »
    One of my grandfathers was an infantryman in the Winter War before suffering tbc, and his brother ran guns and kept a stockpile of weapons at his farm.

    Awesome.

    Did he ever meet Simo Heyha?

    Cristo on
  • [Michael][Michael] Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I really should try to find out more about my grandfather as now that I think of it, he was a total badass. He played football for Alabama (and I don't even know what position) and was a bomber pilot in WWII (and I don't even know where he went or if he even saw combat), but I'm not sure which one came first. There's a ton of pictures hanging in my grandmother's house along with a bunch of books about it all, so at least it's well-documented.

    [Michael] on
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited January 2010
    Cristo wrote: »
    Honk wrote: »
    One of my grandfathers was an infantryman in the Winter War before suffering tbc, and his brother ran guns and kept a stockpile of weapons at his farm.

    Awesome.

    Did he ever meet Simo Heyha?

    While not impossible, I would doubt it. There were a lot of people fighting there, and from what I gather my grandfather had a relatively calm time during his time in the war. They might've been kept as reserves most of the time. I think the worst part for his unit was the weather and lack of supplies, I'm guessing he wasn't the only one of them to get tbc.

    What's unfortunate is that I don't know a lot more than I've said here now, they're both deceased since years ago, and my mother was the first to tell me about this. She doesn't know a lot about it either, so I don't think they talked much about it.

    Honk on
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  • UseskaforevilUseskaforevil Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My great grandparents on one side came over to america when family was caught smuggling weapons in the ukraine. The other family from finland has some who served in the luftwaffe, and I share a name with a finnish ace, although, our name means something like " middle farm" so it's probably coincidence.

    My grandfather on one side got a deferment because he worked for the astatic company that worked on improving sonar and such. The other served in the south pacific on a yaught, after lieing about knowing how to use an adding machine, spoting mines and checking supplies for smaller posts. He has medals for participating in a couple navel battles but he says all they did was spot targets and run. He did have one intersting story about everyone stopping at a strangely completely flat island and starting an impromtu football game, then later learning it was a nuclear test site.

    Useskaforevil on
  • GrombarGrombar Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My paternal grandfather joined the U.S. Army during WWII, aced all their academic tests, and so they...made him a cook for some reason.

    I don't know much about my maternal grandfather, but my grandmother's first boyfriend, who she would've married after he got back, died at the Battle of the Bulge. He was assigned to a lieutenant who panicked and got everyone killed.

    Grombar on
  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I used to know a guy who was related to Gen. Leslie R. Groves.

    I don't know if my family had anyone involved in WWII though.

    SmokeStacks on
  • GrisloGrislo Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My paternal grandfather was a member of the resistance in Denmark, on the west coast. Did some railway sabotage, picked up some weapon drops from England and that sort of thing.

    I have a few of his old things from back then, which is rather cool. The most amusing is a Russian officer's parade saber, which a german soldier had somehow gotten his hands on. He decided that it was too cumbersome to carry back to Germany after they surrendered, so he left it by the side of the road where my granddad picked it up.

    Grislo on
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  • Anarchy Rules!Anarchy Rules! Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My paternal great-uncle was in the Royal Navy on HMS Cossack, whilst my great-grandfather was a captain on a merchant navy ship. During a convoy from Gibraltar to the UK, HMS Cossack was protecting the convoy my great grandfather was on when HMS Cossack was hit by a torpedo and sunk. My great grandfather had to continue sailing without stopping, otherwise he'd put his own ship and crew at risk. He essentially had to watch his own son die, and there was nothing he could do.

    My maternal grandfather was on an aircraft carrier during the Suez Canal crisis. Apparently he almost died when a pilot accidently fired a torpedo whilst taxiing on the deck, luckily it flew of the end, but could have hit an obstruction a few metres away.

    Anarchy Rules! on
  • GarthorGarthor Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandfather was a Navigator aboard a bomber. I think I've only heard one story, and it goes something like this:
    The bomber to the right of them (their right wing) gets shot down.
    "Our right wing is on fire..."
    "I know. Sad, isn't it?"
    "No, I mean, our right wing is on fire."

    He spent the rest of the war as a POW in Italy.


    Later, he became Attorney General of the United States and beat the crap out of segregationists and whatnot.

    Garthor on
  • CristoCristo Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Garthor wrote: »
    My grandfather was a Navigator aboard a bomber. I think I've only heard one story, and it goes something like this:
    The bomber to the right of them (their right wing) gets shot down.
    "Our right wing is on fire..."
    "I know. Sad, isn't it?"
    "No, I mean, our right wing is on fire."

    He spent the rest of the war as a POW in Italy.



    Later, he became Attorney General of the United States and beat the crap out of segregationists and whatnot.

    Hahaha that is fucking awesome

    What a story to tell.

    That Attorney General thing is pretty cool too :P

    Cristo on
  • ArrathArrath Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My grandfather was drafted and assigned to the Army Air Force engineers as a logger (which is what he did anyway) to clear trees for the construction of forward air bases. His transport ship across the Atlantic was torpedoed, killing roughly half the men. Once the survivors healed up they were shipped out again...and torpedoed again.

    Following this he was drummed out for a medical problem and went back to cutting trees for the war effort.

    Arrath on
  • RedThornRedThorn Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I only had one family member that I'm aware of fight in WW2. My Great Uncle guarded a concentration camp and was killed by the Red Army late in the war. I don't really know anything more about it though, since it's not something that gets discussed for obvious reasons.

    For other wars, my grandfather was a Green Beret and fought in Korea. He didn't like to talk about it though and it's too late to ask him. He only really told me one story from there. One time when he was camped somewhere, he and some of his fellow soldiers had started a fire in a spot they apparently weren't supposed to. One of his superiors comes up and starts yelling at them to "Put that fucking fire out!". The illfated superior starts kicking the dirt next to it to try and put it out. He managed to kick one of the logs instead, catapulting still burning embers right onto his leg and getting some nasty burns in the process. I really have no idea as to the veracity of this story, but that's how it was told to me.

    RedThorn on
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  • Waffles or whateverWaffles or whatever Previously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen" Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My Dad's Father served with Patton as a Tanker in the Third Army. He mentioned that he was in Africa, Italy, France, and eventually made it to Germany. He claims he was one of the first to discover a Concentration Camp and that he was ordered to drive his tank over the fence/wall of the camp.He also survived an attack when his tank was hit and he successfully bailed out.

    My other grandpa was a sailor in the Navy and was on board a submarine. The only story I heard is that he would write my grandma's name on the torpedoes that were launched at Japanese ships.

    Waffles or whatever on
  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    My maternal grandfather was a civil engineer during WWII. He spent his wartime as a guard at the Philadelphia Naval Yard guarding the Brazilian Navy....

    He died when I was 14, and my grandmother died 3 years ago. I should have asked more questions.

    My paternal grandfather, however, was one of those weird lucky ones that you hear about every now and then. Too young for WWII, and too Old for Korea/Vietnam.

    But he died before my parents were even married and my grandmother never talked about him.

    Ok yeah, I contributed nothing, but the rest of you guys, your stories and your familes sound fantastic.

    lonelyahava on
  • SithDrummerSithDrummer Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Waffen wrote: »
    My Dad's Father served with Patton as a Tanker in the Third Army.
    My dad's father as well. After 50+ years, he only recently told us about taking back the town of Pilsen, Czech, and routing some sort of SS headquarters. He also told us that he still had some loot from after the attack - a Nazi bayonet, two armbands, and some other odds and ends.

    There was a website out there I found that mentioned his name and the attack, but like a moron I forgot to save it. Going back through old emails, I just found out that it was a Geocities site. D:

    SithDrummer on
  • Zilla360Zilla360 21st Century. |She/Her| Trans* Woman In Aviators Firing A Bazooka. ⚛️Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    His favorite story wasn't about himself however, it was about a hill that the british and americans were being slaughtered trying to take from the german machine guns bunkered there. Apparently a canadian base ball pitcher was there and considerably drunk as well, proceeded to boast he could take the hill all by himself. Well, he loaded up his pockets with grenades, grabbed a drink and started stumbling up the hill. It seemed like whenever the machine guns opened up on him he would fall down, weaving this way and that, so that every two steps he took forward would result in a step to the side or even back down the hill. Eventually the gunners just stopped trying to gun him down for all the good it did them with him obviously stumbling drunk with the bottle in his hand instead of rifle and after a few hours he finally got as close to them as a pitcher would be to home plate from his mound. Suddenly from being four sheets to the wind he when stone cold sober and started pitching grenades into the bunker like he was at a ball game. As the grenades detonated one after another in the bunker and the machine gun was destroyed, he passed out and rolled back down to the bottom of the hill. When they shook him awake he exclaimed,"See, that's how its done!"
    That. Is. Awesome. :lol:

    Zilla360 on
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  • GalahadGalahad Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Mother's Side: My grandfather and great-grandfather got together as much money as they could and left Austria with the goal of getting jobs in the States and getting some housing set up to bring over the rest of the family. The rest of the family was killed before they could pull it off. Zero survivors. My grandfather never got over the guilt of it.

    Father's Side: Banking family, helped finance Italy's army, grandfather fought for Mussolini. Don't know much about him other than he looked like a pretty scary dude to me. I don't have any real contact with that side of my family anymore.

    Galahad on
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