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.