Family in WWII

[Boris Godunov]

My mom's father was an artillery officer...or perhaps artillery communications officer, I forget which. Anyway, he came in the 2nd wave of the Normandy Invasion and was there during the Battle of the Bulge. The only specific stories I can remember were him aren't too exciting. He told us that his unit would actually be happy to come across a group of German prisoners, as they tended to be rather fun to shoot the sh*t with. A lot of them were familiar with American movies.

Another story was that my grandfather was in a French village freshly liberated from the Germans (like, just that morning, or something), and he was asking one of the French townspeople, a man who was acting as spokesman I suppose, to help get some supplies for his men and set up sleeping arrangements. The French guy absolutely refused to help, started cussing out my grnadfather and told him and his men to get out, they wanted nothing to so with soldiers at all. Well, my grandfather snapped and started beating the holy crap out of this guy. Three of his men had to pull him off. My grandfather is one of the most mild-mannered, kind and intellectual men I know, so this story was kind of a shock to us!

The only other thing he mentioned that I remember is his being happy to sail back to the US on the Queen Mary.

My dad's father did not serve in WWII, as he had a congenital heart condition that eventually killed him in 1954. My dad's stepfather, whom now I consider my grandfather, served as an infantry man in Europe. I can't recall specific stories, but whenever he and my mom's father are together, the only thing they talk about is the war. It certainly left its mark on their generation.

[Goingonit]

Originally posted by markusf
Who knows what really happened there is soo much propaganda..

*sniff* do I smell...holocaust denial? You should be ashamed of yourself.

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My grandparents were luckily all in North America; my mother's father had flat feet and thus couldn't fight; my father's father was exempt because he was a rabbi I think.

The village of Dorbyan, Lithuania was home to 3 of my 8 great-grandparents; it was burnt to the ground by the Nazis in 1944.

[Dr. Nick]

6 of my kin went to the war:

My great uncle was on board a British destroyer in North Sea.

Another great uncle was attached to Communications with the 8th British Army in North Africa.

Two cousins of my grandmother were on Sword and Utah, one as a tanker and the other as a GI.

Another cousin flew with the USAAF over Europe as well as a fighter pilot.

[Dr. Nick]

And if we're going with homefront stories here we are:

My grandmother knitted balaclavas and socks to send to the soldiers which she sent through the British embassy in Buenos Aires.

She also used to tell me about how polarised the society here was, the southern suburbs were inhabited by a lot of Anglos at the time and she'd see a lot of people wearing little Union Jack's and pins on their lapels. In town, she used to see a lot of people wearing swastikas and armbands over their overcoats, particularly in the train station. The different 'sides' would often refuse to share train coaches and you'd have all 'pro-allied' or 'pro-nazi' coaches. On the platform they'd just give each other dirty looks fortunately.

[TCO]

Wow! Sounds like a prelude to the conflict between you and Gia.

[Dr. Nick]

*stares at GP*

Who? Me?

[TCO]

Yes, I heard that you and he were not riding the same trains.

[orange]

my one grandfather was stationed in Texas, Airforce.

The other was already in the airforce, stationed in Alaska...

neither saw combat action, both were married to their sweethearts on the base 'just incase' they would be shipped out. Thankfully that didn't happen.

[Dr. Nick]

I could whip out a wonderful witticism to that remark GP, but this is a nice thread I don't want to derail with Gia-pet cussing and bantering.

[TCO]

Rats. My evil plan is foiled. Harumph!

[Dr. Nick]

[Alexander's Horse]

World War II caused a lot of problems in my family because some of the men were in protected industries and others had to go and fight. The ones who stayed at home did better financially and in terms of their long term health but missed out on all the glory and privileges of war veterans. They felt they played their part but the war vets saw it differently so that niggled away.

Also, on one side of my family half the brothers, 3 of 6, were Stalinist communists whilst the other half went off to fight. The Communists opposed the war and did their best to sabotage the war effort through strikes until Hitler invaded Russia. There were always arguments after the war about all that and they couldn't even go to a funeral fifty years later without the bitter argument starting again. The richest men of that generation of my family ended up being the communists.

The ones who fought were mainly in New Guinea and the Island campaigns. We had family in the army, navy and air force. My Grandfater brought back a captured samurai sword and a lot other Jap gear including a defused grenade.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by markusf



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.

Yes, but over a much longer period of time. No one matched the Nazis for sheer speed of slaughter.

[OldWarrior_42]

My father was a corporal in the Army ... servd in Italy and moved to Southern France and then eventually Germany.

He had always wondered if he had ever killed any of his relatives. My Dad is of total German descent His father... my grandpa.... seved in the German Army during WWI.

Grandpa, on my moms side served in the English army during WWI.

As far as other relatives in WWII.... 4 uncles, and my father in law. He just passed away this past December.

Actually the only living relatives left , thet served in WWII are my Dad and my one uncle.

And they don't like to talk very much about it. My dad came close to being killed too many times for comfort.

Glad he made it. :-O

[Alexander's Horse]

I think one way you know people were in some serious fighting is if they won't talk about it. A lot of my relatives are like that - the Japanese were a viscious enemy.