The most terrifying sound in WW2.....

[byron13]

Voting on what has been presented:

1. Any of the clicks present prior to detonation: a click when you place your foot on the ground, the click of the depth charge before detonation,etc. Of course, most of these are just "AW SH1Ts", with no time for real fear. I think the most awful sound over a period would be the entire sonar ping, swish swish, spash splash, swish swish, click bang sequence in a sub.

2. And the knock on the door is a close second and certainly the best for the homefront.

[Ron Saueracker]

Nobody thinks my vote for scariest sound rates a comment...[:(][8D]

[bradfordkay]

A very LOUD series of knocks on the door (for those living under German occupation).

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: Ron Saueracker

Nobody thinks my vote for scariest sound rates a comment...[:(][8D]

I think Eleanore wanted Frankie to find other outlets[;)]

[Milman]

Sound (or silence)on submarine when all waiting for depth charges to explode .

[Gen.Hoepner]

I guess that being under the arty fire, sitting in a ground hole, was something that could really transform a man in a crazy horse

[Admiral Scott]

What about an A-Bomb?

[2ndACR]

Nope, the A-bomb is just another weapon to me. During GW1, we had just arrived into SA from Germany and downloaded our vehicles off the ship. We had about 5 hours of sleep in a hanger, about 4:30am some guy had a nightmare and woke up screaming GAS!GAS!GAS!. Needless to say 12 guys went to the hospital after shooting them selves with the Antropine injectors. ALL THREE SETS, before we figured out what had happened.

GAS is the most frightening thing as a soldier you can hear. You have little to no warning you are even in a chemical enviroment until the 1st guy keels over and then you are only seconds from joining him.

You can shoot at me, try and blow me up, even nuke me, but do not Gas me.

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: moonraker

Would I be alone in thinking that the Stuka's Sirens when in a dive was the most terrifying sound in WW2 ? . Just wondered what other people think on this one.

I think that the most terrifying sound of WWII were air raid sirens (UK 1940/1941/1942, Germany 1942/1943/1944/1945)...


Leo "Apollo11"

[String]

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

Nope, the A-bomb is just another weapon to me. During GW1, we had just arrived into SA from Germany and downloaded our vehicles off the ship. We had about 5 hours of sleep in a hanger, about 4:30am some guy had a nightmare and woke up screaming GAS!GAS!GAS!. Needless to say 12 guys went to the hospital after shooting them selves with the Antropine injectors. ALL THREE SETS, before we figured out what had happened.

GAS is the most frightening thing as a soldier you can hear. You have little to no warning you are even in a chemical enviroment until the 1st guy keels over and then you are only seconds from joining him.

You can shoot at me, try and blow me up, even nuke me, but do not Gas me.

indeed, heck even in training when someone yells GAS!!! you flinch as it means that you're gonna have to wear your gas masks for a long while. I don't know about western ones but here in estonia we still use old soviet masks which really restrict your breething.

[2ndACR]

All gas masks suck to wear. But I will say that when it is cold outside, it is no problem getting guys to wear their MOPP gear (chemical suits).

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: 2ndACR

All gas masks suck to wear. But I will say that when it is cold outside, it is no problem getting guys to wear their MOPP gear (chemical suits).

I tested a whack of them years ago. Regretted it but hey, extra cash (beer) on the JR's mess chit.

[BlackVoid]

Nebelwerfer (german 300mm rocket launcher) sound.
Allied soldiers called it the wailing death. (Hope my spelling is right).

[Strv103C]

I have read about that russian stringbag "Rata" I think, it had a special sound. Must have been terryfying... for those inside the plane.[;)]

[RevRick]

One of my parishioners was a very gentle, tall, older man who was quiet of voice, and impeccable in demeanor. At one of our Men's Group suppers, someone asked me about a trip my best friend and I had taken my son on to see the Yorktown. I told them about the carrier and the sub. This very tall, stately gentlemen said he was on one of those old diesel boats once. Looking at his age, and wondering, I asked him when. He told me about being in the Marines, and being transported by sub to scout the beaches and camps prior to the invasion of Bouganville. To him, the clanking of the Japanese troops mess kits were frightening, because they told him how close they were to get the proper counts for the camps. A couple of days later they rowed off the beach at night, but had enough of a wind problem to miss their pickup by the sub. They rowed as far out to sea as they could, and the next day were spotted by a Jap aircraft. They played dead, but didn't know what would happen. Later, they spotted a periscope looking right at them, but didn't know whose it was. It turned out to be their sub, finding them after a days search (which was incaculably lucky). But, to him, he said he hates to wash dishes because when the flatware clanks together, it makes that same kind of sound.

BTW, this is not a "sea story." We shared some of those when he was in the hospital. This was an old vet telling me things he hadn't told anyone in the church. Since my Dad was a Marine in the same area, I felt specially privileged that he would share that with me, as his pastor.

[freeboy]

the click before the bang of the detonator in a depth charge, the thud before the bang of the granade just out of reach in your trench, anything ron says, hundreds of Russian tanks rumbling toward your depleted lines when you realize your orders to hold to the last man means you..
sorry ron![:-]

[Mike Scholl]

I think you can leave out most infantry weapons. Yes they were deadly..., but at least
a soldier could shoot back at those using them. You could DO SOMETHING. Artillery-
type ordnance is another thing altogether. All you can do is look for the best cover
available and pray you weren't on the recieving end of a direct hit. Gas makes this
scarier because it can seek you out---but it wasn't actually used in the Second World
War.

The reason I suggestted being on the recieving end of an Allied Carpet Bombing assult
as the absolute worst is because you could see and hear it coming, but there was abso-
lutely nothing you could do but wait for it to happen. It's the "whistle" of an incoming
shell..., but it lasts for several minutes. Then you can see the bombbay doors opening
and watch the bombs start to fall, but again there was nothing you could do about it.
Finally the destruction begins, and it goes on and on and on, tossing 60 ton Tigers on
their sides and rippling the ground like an unending earthquake. And even if you do
survive the bombing, you know you are going to be directly in the path of an major
assult. Small wonder so many of the recipients are described as "dazed, incoherant,
or totally insane". While it didn't happen often, it's hard to imagine a more horrifying
experiance.

[Cap Mandrake]

Good story Rev.

Wait a minute....should you really be playing war games [X(] [:-]


[;)]

[dday]

"click" of the yellow wire (oop! should be the blue one)

UXB

[dtravel]

Well, there was that story from an episode of M.A.S.H. A writer friend of Hawkeye stops by and explains that he's going to call his book "You don't hear the ricochet" (or something like that), because in the movies just before the good guy gets hit you always hear the sound of a ricochet. He goes off to the front and comes back to the hospital as a casualty with a gunshot wound. His last words to Hawkeye are, "I heard the ricochet."