True WWII story

[Cribtop]

Now I'll chime in with a family WWI story.

My grandfather was an infantry Captain in WWI and fought at some of the famous battles, including Belleau Wood. They were pulled off the line for 48 hours R&R one day when they passed a staff car broken down on the side of the road. My grandfather stopped the trucks and fixed the engine (he was a great mechanic and worked after the war for some of the first air conditioning companies in Florida).

The back window rolls down and a voice says: "Son, how would you like to command my motor pool?" The voice belonged to Black Jack Pershing.

And that's how my granddad lived through WWI, and why I am here today. [&o]

PS - I still have the following souvenirs from the Western Front: 1) Helmets: French, US, British, German spike, German 1918; 2) Springfield rifle; 3) US bayonet for same; 4) German trench knife, a nasty weapon composed of a 12 inch triangular spike with a strong guard sporting 4 smaller spikes. The latter were used if the owner chose to punch someone while holding the trench knife. Ouch.

[tocaff]

A friend's father was in a recon unit in France that was driving down the road when they spotted what turn out to be an 88mm gun.  The gun fired, shell went through the motor block of the 1st jeep, struck the driver in the head of the 2nd jeep and exploded when it hit the 3rd vehicle in the line.  My friend's father was in the passenger seat of the 2nd jeep.

Same friend had an uncle who was manning a MG position in Normandy and one night they heard noise to their front.  When the challenge to halt was ignored he cut loose with the MG.  Once he stopped the noise was gone.  The next morning they discovered that a cow was cut in 1/2.

Same friend, another uncle working in a shipyard in the New York City area, possibly Hoboken, NJ.  They were installing new engines in a merchantman and had to cut the hull to get the machinery in place.  They were never given time to repair the hull so they stretched canvas across the hole in the hull and painted it gray.  The ship sailed and they got away with the charade as nobody ever questioned them.  Why they did what they did could never be explained as a simple not ready to go yet would have been the way to do it.

[ilovestrategy]

When I was working at an old folks home years ago I met this gentleman that told me a story of during an island invasion in the Pacifc he raced out of his landing craft when it opened to avoid the machine gun fire and when he looked back the LC was filled with dead Marines. As he looked a grenade landed near him and tore up his legs. After he told me that story he lifted up his pants legs showed me the scars.

Man, my biggest adventure was making it back from Olongapo to Subic Bay drunk!

[Gunner98]

Not nearly as dramatic as some of the stories but:

My father turned 17 in 42 and went to enlist at Winnipeg, fortunately for the family he had three strikes against him: 1) The main reason but least interesting - he had high arches and was unfit for infantry duty; 2) He couldn't speak English - he was a from a French Canadian family in a village NW of Winnipeg and never learned - and the recruiting centre was focused on re-building the Winnipeg Grenadiers (English unit) after Hong Kong; 3) He had important skills that were needed - he could drive a truck and tractor, run a team of horses and operate a chain saw! In his family, 3 of his 5 brothers and 1 of his 7 sisters (Catholics![:D]) served overseas but I don't know their stories.

He spent the next three years working in a logging camp in NW Ontario where there were actually two camps - one full of French Canadian Lumber Jacks and one full of German POWs! They shared the same cook-house, and the barracks were right next to each other with a single strand of barbed wire around the German huts. They took the same trucks out to the cut lines where the Canadians did the cutting and the Germans did the limbing and hauling. I'm not sure of the numbers but I got the impression that there were several hundred of each. The POWs were guarded by a squad of about 20 reserve soldiers with a Sergeant in charge, they had weapons but my dad said the only thing they shot were bear and moose. Some of the lumber Jacks had hunting rifles as well and they had shooting contests between the Germans, the guards and the Lumber-Jacks! [X(] They went hunting together as well! He said that by the end of the war he could speak a lot more German than English! In May 45, they got the message that there would be a big VE day celebration in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) on the following Saturday and everyone headed South to the rail line to catch the train into town (I think it took them three or four days to get there). They weren't supposed to bring the Germans but many were smuggled out and none of the guards stayed behind![:D]

The VE day party started the next chapter in his life as he met my mother there! She had also been working in a logging camp as a cook. Anyway, she couldn't speak French, dad's English was still pretty bad - but they got married that week and my oldest brother just turned 65! [:-] My mother won the argument and we all grew up speaking English![8D]

The only other family connection that I have is an Uncle on my mothers side who was a truck driver on the 'Maple-Leaf express', our version of the 'Red-Ball express' running supplies up to the front from Normandy. Who knows how many miles he drove in NW Europe but he got back home in Feb 46 and was killed in a car accident in Wainwright Alberta two weeks after he got home! Irony or what? That place couldn't have had a population of more than a 1000 in 46![:(]

Keep up the stories.

[Cap Mandrake]

My mom's oldest brother was killed in the midair collision of two B-17G's in poor visibility on Dec 15, 1944 near Greenham Common after a raid over Germany. He was a gunner, not sure what station. Two of the crew of his plane bailed out but otherwise all aboard the two planes were lost. His plane belonged to 423rd Squadron.

She still has his purple heart and a flag given to the family when the Air Force repatriated his remains after the war.

[Dili]

I remember being told that he was a dive bomber pilot. However Italians, as far as I know, did not have DB, hence it was either a German leased Ju-87 or the 3E Italian level bomber SIAE Marchetti SM79. After the Spanish war he returned to Italy and WWII began.

Probably Breda Ba.65 .

[tocaff]

My father was the radio operator on a B-29 and was issued artic gear at Mather Field in California and then they flew to Hawaii.  On the flight from Hawaii to Kwajalein en route to Saipan he was very busy making sure that they rode the beam.  He didn't notice they went into a steep descent to land at Kwajalein and got had his ears and nose bleeding.  He thought he might get lucky and get transferred out of the unit.  Not to happen, he ended up at Tinian's North Field as the radio operator with the most missions flown.  He was also on a Super Dumbo (observation plane) that day at Nagasaki.

[mc3744]

ORIGINAL: Dili

I remember being told that he was a dive bomber pilot. However Italians, as far as I know, did not have DB, hence it was either a German leased Ju-87 or the 3E Italian level bomber SIAE Marchetti SM79. After the Spanish war he returned to Italy and WWII began.

Probably Breda Ba.65 .

You are right. That might have been it!

[jb1144]

My dad was drafted in 42, he was an aircraft sheet metal worker, was with the 81st depot repair squadron, of the 5th air force. He went to Australia, brisbane, then. eagle farms, From Australia to Port Morsbey, then 30-days walking over the mountains to Finschhafen. he also said he flew 4-missions with Col. Paul (Pappy) Gunn.
from there they went to the Phillippines, and ended the war at Nicholes AB, outside of Manila. I flew B-52's as gunner in Vietnam including Linebacker II.

[Mynok]

The coolest thing to me is how many different nations are represented here! Wow!

[mc3744]

I'd say Americans are slightly more than all the others together [;)]

But yes, it's the beauty of modern times and technology [:)]

[ilovestrategy]

Another story from my grandfather that fought in North Africa.(The other was in the Pacific) My grand dad told me he was sleeping in the desert one night with his finger on the trigger of his rifle. He said he had a funny feeling while he was sleeping so he opened his eyes to see an Italian soldier standing over him with his rifle aimed at him, but since my grand dad already had his finger on the trigger of his rifle he got the shot off first. Damn, if it wasn't for him waking up at that moment I would not be alive today. 

[CV 2]

I have all kinds of 2nd hand stories. My father was on Leyte and Okinawa as an AT gunner in the 96th (I have an 8mm Nambu pistol he brought back as a souvenir from Okinawa complete with WWII ammo).

My doctor was a top turret gunner in a B-17 missing a foot (apparently the armored plate didnt go all the way down).

Uncles galore (mom had 7 brothers and dad had 3) all with stories.

But one of the most interesting characters I met was a guy I worked with a while back. He had a few stories of his life as a POW in WWII. He was in the 106th division. He said the first German soldier he ever saw was the one with his company commander telling them they had surrendered. Apparently they were shipped to the eastern side of Germany and spent about 5 weeks in a camp there (dont remember the name). As the Russians advanced, they were marched out - back to the west. They never spent another day inside a prison camp. They kept moving west until the war finally ended. 1 historian reports they marched 525 miles that I found in researching it. He said most of what they got to eat were given to them by German civilians or foraged as they moved. The guards allowed it because apparently, thats how THEY got their food also, the prisoners fed the guards in a lot of cases [:D]

Surprisingly he had very little bad to say about his experience, other than he lost about 40 pounds.

Ahh, have to tell this one also. I have a cousin (actually hes my 1st AND 2nd cousin - Dads 1st cousin (making him my 2nd) and he married a 1st cousin from my mothers side (making him my 1st cousin in law I guess [;)]). He was in the 1st Inf Div. Wounded on the beach at Oran, he was shipped out patched up and rejoined the division. Wounded on the beach at Omaha, he was shipped out and patched up, and sent back to the division in time for, you guessed it, the Battle of the Bulge where he was, yes, wounded and shipped out. He said he spent about a half hour in combat and has 3 purple hearts, a silver star, and a bronze star to show for it.

[Chickenboy]

My uncle on my mother's side served in the Pennsylvania "bloody bucket" Division in the Second World War. He was caught up in the frenetic early German advance and had to abandon his radio car along with two other crew / radio operators. He had to swim a small river to escape the Germans. His two buddies didn't get away.

He had another 'flashbulb' vision of firing his M1 carbine into a truck full of German soldiers. The Germans were speeding through his town in confusion. He emptied the magazine into them-the only time he fired his weapon in anger during the war. Like most of the old veterans, he really didn't talk much about it at all.

When I see him in February, I'll see if I can't get him to open up a little more. Just him and me having a nice chat.

[ChezDaJez]

ORIGINAL: ian77

Two of my uncles enlisted the day war was declared in 1939.

Ken joined the Black Watch, our local infantry regiment, and David was assigned to the Scots Dragoon Guards. They had various secondments, but had not seen each other since the day they left home.

Cairo late 1945, awaiting demob, and there is a football match being played between the Army and RAF, there was a pipe band to entertain the crowd of soldiers before the game in which Ken was a piper, and just before half time, David scored for the Army. That was the first of ken spotting David, and it wasnt until after the game that David saw Ken. That was the first of the two brothers knowing for sure that they had both made it through the war.

My grandfather served with the Seaforth Highlanders and was severely injured by artillary fire and mustard gas at the Somme. He was invalided out shortly there after.

Chez

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


The coolest thing to me is how many different nations are represented here! Wow!

I dont believe the Russians have been spoken for yet.

My maternal grandfather was 16 when the war started. He "added" another year and was accepted as a volunteer. Due to his lofty academic heights of 8 full years of school, he was accepted for officer training. However, halfway through, an order came from on high that the student cadres of his infantry school were to be used to reconstitute the parachute corps which were lost during the Velikiye Luki encirclement. He finished the war as a private.

One of the funnier stories he told me stems from our mutual fascination with large weapons. While on maneuvers, his weapons squad (he was the #2 man on a Maxim machine gun, the guy that got to lug the base around) was bivouacked pretty far from the field kitchen, and on the way to get the food for himself and his buddies he would have to walk through the positions of the AT squad. Apparently, he was quite taken with the PTRD and kept bugging the AT guys to let him fire it. Finally, they did. What they did not do was tell him how big a kick it had or how hard you have to press the stock into your shoulder while firing it. After successfully dislocating his shoulder, and, understandably, in quite a bit of pain, he was miffed to realize that the AT guys were literally rolling on the ground laughing.

[mc3744]

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

ORIGINAL: Mynok


The coolest thing to me is how many different nations are represented here! Wow!

I dont believe the Russians have been spoken for yet.

My maternal grandfather was 16 when the war started. He "added" another year and was accepted as a volunteer. Due to his lofty academic heights of 8 full years of school, he was accepted for officer training. However, halfway through, an order came from on high that the student cadres of his infantry school were to be used to reconstitute the parachute corps which were lost during the Velikiye Luki encirclement. He finished the war as a private.

One of the funnier stories he told me stems from our mutual fascination with large weapons. While on maneuvers, his weapons squad (he was the #2 man on a Maxim machine gun, the guy that got to lug the base around) was bivouacked pretty far from the field kitchen, and on the way to get the food for himself and his buddies he would have to walk through the positions of the AT squad. Apparently, he was quite taken with the PTRD and kept bugging the AT guys to let him fire it. Finally, they did. What they did not do was tell him how big a kick it had or how hard you have to press the stock into your shoulder while firing it. After successfully dislocating his shoulder, and, understandably, in quite a bit of pain, he was miffed to realize that the AT guys were literally rolling on the ground laughing.

I'm guessing it's the Russian version of having fun with friends [:D][:D][:D]

[bigred]

My Filipino father in law pasted in 2002.  He spent some time living w/ wife and I in the late 80s.  He did open up telling me the stories of his participation in the surrender at bataan at the age of 18 and his escape from the death march.  Alejandro said he and two other buddies broke and ran across a rice paddy and the other two where shot in the back.  Both he and his brothers joined the guerrillas against the IJA.  father in law said Marcos was head of the guerrillas and this is how Marcos had the support of the US after the war.  To the victor goes the spoils.  Alejandro said he also had seen IJA bayonet babies.  He had a deep hatred of japan. 

[JWE]

Am interested in stories from Axis participants I know you are out there. I had a close relative on Mom's side who sang in the Hitler Youth Chorus in 1939-41. I have (had) a grandfather who fought in Spain. Neither know nor care what unit he fought with. He was shot through the left lung and left for dead. He told me his only thoughts were for his wife Frieda. He got little care for his wound and even less for the consequent pneumonia. But he lived and Frieda was in his mind.

He walked out of the hospital, and across Spain, and across France, and up to his door in Wiesbaden: knock, knock, "Frieda, Es ist ich, Otto. Ich bin hier, meine Liebe."

For them little Euro pissants that don't believe anything, his name was;
Otto Tewes
31 Blucher Strasse
Wiesbaden, GE

[AW1Steve]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

My uncle on my mother's side served in the Pennsylvania "bloody bucket" Division in the Second World War. He was caught up in the frenetic early German advance and had to abandon his radio car along with two other crew / radio operators. He had to swim a small river to escape the Germans. His two buddies didn't get away.

He had another 'flashbulb' vision of firing his M1 carbine into a truck full of German soldiers. The Germans were speeding through his town in confusion. He emptied the magazine into them-the only time he fired his weapon in anger during the war. Like most of the old veterans, he really didn't talk much about it at all.

When I see him in February, I'll see if I can't get him to open up a little more. Just him and me having a nice chat.

Bring some of your Irish friend along. Mr. Jameson is good at loosening toungues.[:D]