Family in WWII

[chequita guevara]

What did your family members do in the greatest war ever? I had four close family members (that I know of) in the war, both grandfathers and at least two great uncles in the war.

My mother's father was a Lt. during the war. He trained soldiers going overseas.

My father's father was a mechanic. He worked on B-24 Liberators stationed in Italy (after we took Southern Italy). Apparently he named one of the bombers after Theben and mine's father, Little Eddie.

My mother's two uncles (grandmother's brothers) both fought in the war. Jack, the baby of the family, piloted a B-24 Liberator. He was staioned in England. Over Germany his plane was shot down. He and his crew all parachutted to saftey, but they were caught by a German mob, and Jack was beaten to death before the authorities could arrested the others.

Uncle Dudly (who passed away this February) was stationed with Merril's Maruaders. This unit was dropped behind enemy lines in Japanese held Burma, and they spent the war fighting a guerilla war against the Japanese, helping to keep them from invading India. He told me he was the only man in his unit who didn't get malaria. No one else would take their vitimin pills that got dropped with their supplies, so he took everyone else's himself.

Another time he told us how they camped near an enemy unit that had been looking for them. They were gonna fight the next day most likely. In the night, however, they heard screams and a lot of shooting from the Japanese camp. When they investigated in the morning, it turns out that they had been attacked by crocodiles during the night and the unit had been destroyed.

In another story, he told us how the unit had split up to cross a river. Well, one of the men in the unit upstream apparently looked like my uncle, and he drowned and got carried downstream, where he was found by the others. He was then declared dead. When he showed up later, his CO looked at him and said, "Snead! You're dead." He says, "No, sir, I don't think so." Where upon his CO replies, "I gotta a report here that says you're dead, so you're dead."

I had several other uncles, but we weren't very close, so I don't know if they were in the war or any stories they may have had.

[Ming]

Both of my Grandfathers were in WWI... fighting for different sides. Both won medals for valor.

[Asher]

My grandfather on my dad's side was a Combat Engineer for the Canadian Army, spent most of the war overseas.

My grandfather on my mom's side was in the US Navy. Forget exactly what he did, he died before I was born.

My dad (this is after WWII) was just in the militia, since the military won't let him in since he has a heart murmur.

I'm the first generation not to do any kind of military service that anyone can remember.

Others were in the war (ie, their relatives) but I don't know anything about what they did. I never see my grandparents.

[chequita guevara]

Got any stories?

[Az]

My mother's father was a tank commander in the Red Army . my mother's mother , I've got no clue.
My father's father was running away , since he was too old to fight . My father's mother ran away with her two sons, luckily for me. My great grandmother , my father's mother's mother , was killed in a hospital in Nalchik , in the northen Caucasus, when the Nazis captured the city.

[chequita guevara]

What battles did your grandfather fight in? Was your great-grandmother killed because she was Jewish or Russian or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

[lightblue]

Grandfather mother's side was interned in a forced labor camp where he had to make Panzer ammunition, as a lot of Dutch men were during WW2. He hated Germans till the day he died.

Grandfather father's side was an "essential worker" (smith/electrician) so he was allowed to stay in Holland. He suggested that he was active in the resistance and once mentioned that he had killed germans in the war. He never talked about it much, not even to my father, but when he died we found a whole box of medals.

One of my mother's aunts was part of a chain of safe houses that smuggled Jews, crashed Allied pilots and Dutch men to the coast and from there on to Britain. Her name is on the large list of people who helped jews in the holocaust museum in DC.

[Provost Harrison]

Well the ovum from which I came existed at the end of WWII

[red_jon]

I'm not 100% sure of what my grandparents did, I do know that my great-great-uncle was wounded somewhere in the pacific in a makeshift hospital. The Japanese captured it and slaughtered them all, the wounded, the nurses, etc. My older relatives hate the Japanese because of it.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by lightblue
He hated Germans till the day he died.

To this day, my Grandmother (Jack's sister) still hates Germans. She cannot forgive them for killing her baby brother. I have some of his photos around here from his air corp training. Maybe I'll scan and post them.

[General Ludd]

I believe that my grandfather on my mother's side was involved in building planes during the war.

My grandfather on my father's side was in the army and stationed in Italy - He's never talked much about it, though... the only story I can remember him telling was about how his squad's truck driver went into a farmer's field to get some food for the night and had his leg blown off by a mine.


I know that I have atleast a couple of uncles who died in the war, but I don't know anything about them.

[Az]

I don't know in which battles my grandfather fought in. he's dead , and I barely remember him . I am pretty sure that he was wounden in the palm of his hand , when a bullet pierced it, but I never talked about it with my parents. My Greatgrandmother was in a hospital , and everyone there was executed by the nazis.

[Az]

lightblue : is she alive? you can contact the Yad VaShem Museum in Jerusalem . Her closest relatives will recieve a commemoration , and money from the Israeli government.

[lightblue]

Originally posted by Dalgetti
lightblue : is she alive? you can contact the Yad VaShem Museum in Jerusalem . Her closest relatives will recieve a commemoration , and money from the Israeli government.

Isn't the list in the Washington DC Holocaust musuem the same list? Anyway she died a few years ago at the age of 104. Eitherway I think she already was recognised for her actions.

[chequita guevara]

One of my friend's grandmothers hid a man who had escaped from the ship full of Jews that no country would take. He got overboard and into Charleston, South Carolina. She hid him after that, apparently for the duration of the war.

[Darsnan]

My father was part of a C-47 transport crew based out of England, then later in the war Paris. He participated in the Invasion of Normandy, flying over the beaches and dropping supplies to the Airborne units inland, and later dropping supplies to the Bastogne defenders during the Battle of the Bulge.

[chequita guevara]

Neat.

Folks, as much as you can, try and elaborate, and give us a story or two.

[Sprayber]

Both Grandfathers were in the war. My father's father was in the Navy stationed in the Pacific fighthing the Japanese. My Mom's dad was first in the Army Air Corp as a crewman and then he ended up in the regular Army because they found out he was color blind. He was actually scheduled to get out a couple of weeks after Dec 7 but that was blown all to hell. He ended up serving in France And Holland.

As for stories. He never really talked about the war except for a few times mentioning how depressing it was when the Air Corp would drop supplies for the troops and the Germans ended up getting most of them. He was the oldest of his brothers and while they stayed home he sent money back to them. There is still conflict within the family to this day because he went and served and his slightly younger brother got off becuase of a supposed illness.

[chequita guevara]

BTW, homefront stories, if you have any, will also be accepted.

My mother's parents met during the war. My grandmother was something of a fastgirl, always going out and partying with the soldiers. My grandfather, who was stationed at Ft Knox at the time, saw her in an officer's club in '42 or '43 and told his buddy, "That's the girl I'm gonna marry." And he did.

[Dr Strangelove]

My Dad volunteered for service and was trained for the Signal Corps since he already had a year of Engineering School. After finishing training he was sent to OTS, beginning "Pre- War College" at Amherst. Before transfering to West Point they discovered his uncorrectable bad vision in his left eye, so he was disqualified from OTS, then given a bazooka and sent to France. He was wounded by a mortar shell explosion only two weeks of action.

I have an uncle who spent time in a German POW camp.

One of my great aunts was a spy during WWII. She had been a teacher at the American embassy in Brazil before the war and was fluent in Portugese. During the war she was part of a task force tracking a Portugese spy ring that was giving the Nazis information about our convoys.

[Guynemer]

My great-grandfather won the Distinguished Service Cross in WWI; he took out a Russian sniper.

Yea, that says Russian. He was a member of the Polar Bears, a group of soldiers from Michigan who were sent to Russia to fight against the Communist revolutionaries. The only Americans to ever actually wage war against the Soviets. A historical footnote that you rarely hear about.

Don't hold it against me, Che.

[markusf]

My grandparents where just outside dresden when it got fire bombed. And on the other side, my great uncles vanished when the russians came. Evidently in the land that the russians took over, they went from village to village and rounded up all males between 18 - 40 and they where never seen again. Everyone always talks about what the germans did in ww2, but it doesn't even come close to what the russians did, and what the chineese did in the 50's and 60's.

[DaShi]

My Grandfather on my father's side was a fighter pilot in North Africa.

My grandparents on my mother's side were refugees from Hungary.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Ming
Both of my Grandfathers were in WWI... fighting for different sides. Both won medals for valor.

God, you're old Ming.

[Sava]

My grandfather on my father's side was a paratrooper in a Czech division of the US Army, and before that he was a Cavalry officer.

My namesake, who was like an adopted great-grandfather fought in WWI and WWII for the Yugoslav Army, and the British Army, respectively.

My grandfather on my mom's side was a partisan in Serbia, and then in a Serbian division of the British Army with my namesake.

My grandfather on my mom's side lost 5 brothers in Kragujevac when the Nazis killed an entire village of 500. My grandfather and one other boy were the only two to survive.

Also on my mom's side, my grandmother saw 3 of her brothers bayoneted to death while they bought time for her to escape. She had to hold on to the bottom of a horse-drawn carriage watching all three die.

After WWII, my mom's family had to escape from Russian controlled areas. The Communists were even more brutal than the Nazis in some cases.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by markusf
My grandparents where just outside dresden when it got fire bombed. And on the other side, my great uncles vanished when the russians came. Evidently in the land that the russians took over, they went from village to village and rounded up all males between 18 - 40 and they where never seen again. Everyone always talks about what the germans did in ww2, but it doesn't even come close to what the russians did, and what the chineese did in the 50's and 60's.

Oh, I think you're very much underestimating what the Germans did in the war. What the Russians did may come close, particularily if you add in their treatment of their own people, but the Germans did more, and did it all over Europe, not just in the camps.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

My father's father was a mechanic. He worked on B-24 Liberators stationed in Italy (after we took Southern Italy).

Have you read Catch 22?

[markusf]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Oh, I think you're very much underestimating what the Germans did in the war. What the Russians did may come close, particularily if you add in their treatment of their own people, but the Germans did more, and did it all over Europe, not just in the camps.

Who knows what really happened there is soo much propaganda.. But from what i read and heard rommel gave prisoners food before his own troops and he is the only german general to escape ww2 with a flawless rep.

But whats even more distrubing is the russians and the chineese killed 30 million of thier own people during peace time and the rest of the world didn't do a damn thing.

[TCO]

My father was a Naval Officer in the Pacific at age 19. My uncle (one year younger) was a Naval Officer in the Atlantic and Pacific. Lots of great stories. Sort of like South Pacific. They had a jeep that was faster than any of the shore patrol jeeps and they would ride it around the islands and than run onto the LST. (The watch would threaten to shoot the SPs.) Dad was CO of a teensy little Amphib troop carrier. He did landings in lots of island assualts. And he ferried the A-bom from its ship to Tinian (Or Saipan can't remember which.) Anyways lots more cool stories and I got to hear them before he died when I was 19.

Grandfather was a private in the German Army. No big stories. He didn't like to talk about it. He died when I was 14.

[markusf]

Originally posted by GP
Grandfather was a private in the German Army. No big stories. He didn't like to talk about it. He died when I was 14.

I heard a lot of stories.. I knew someone who was in a ultra secret unit commanded by personally hitler . They where a group of engineers who'd be sent in before or after battles, to build bridges repair tanks you name it all this stuff had to be done before the sun came up. One of the most interesting things he said was the night the russians entered berlin hittler escaped in a sub to Paraguay. And when they had a reunion he says he swears hitler was there...