Matrix Games Forums

 Forums  Register  Login  Photo Gallery  Member List  Search  Calendars  FAQ 

My Profile  Inbox  Address Book  My Subscription  My Forums  Log Out

RE: True WWII story

 
View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest
Users viewing this topic: none
  Printable Version
All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> RE: True WWII story Page: <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
RE: True WWII story - 9/9/2011 3:19:45 PM   
mc3744


Posts: 1957
Joined: 3/9/2004
From: Italy
Status: offline 		I have to say that I'm really enjoying this thread. Really very, very interesting.

I guess I'll contribute with another one.

As I posted initially my grandfather was not a big fan of Germans.
In '43 he was in Italy commanding a fort’s garrison (as far as I understood anywhere between 50 to 150 people).
At the time he must have been a major as he was a retired Lt. Col. when I was born.
Since his unit was horse drawn AA Artillery he used to go around on a horse!
One day during an Allied bombing a bomb exploded very close to him and the horse got crazy.
He fell off the horse but the foot got stuck in the stirrup and he was throuwn around by the animal gone crazy with the explosions.
Needless to say he was not in good conditions and the leg was shattered in several points (he limped his whole life after that), he was therefore taken to a nearby civil hospital.
A couple of days later the armistice between Italy and the Allies took place and - as we often do - we switched side!
At that point there were basically three kinds of Italians: a) those who still believed fascisms -> Repubblica di Salò, b) the monarchic ones (my grandfather), happy to switch to the Allied side and c) those who just wanted it over with or couldn’t afford to choose.
As it happens the entire garrison (and wartime friends) of my grandfather was made up of monarchists. Unfortunately they were in Lazio, above the Gothic line, in Axis territory.
The Germans came and asked for their surrender. They refused and they all died!
My grandfather was spared by a bomb and a horse, just two days before! But he lost all his comrades.
He was subsequently hidden by the locals and managed to stay hidden till the American liberation. He finished the war as an interpreter for the American forces in Rome.
After that he never managed to really like the Germans - despite my beautiful wife! – but he was civil enough.


_____________________________

Nec recisa recedit

(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 31
RE: True WWII story - 9/9/2011 8:08:26 PM   
James Fennell


Posts: 135
Joined: 12/25/2010
From: Gloucestershire
Status: offline 		A bit more on our family story. This thread got a family debate going! My 84 years old ma corrected me - it was 9th May '43 - presumed shot down my granny was told.

This is the official RAAF record of the loss of FK155...

"Marauder FK 155 of 14 Sqn RAF, British North African Forces, took off from Bone at
0510 hours on 9 May 1943, to carry out a shipping reconnaissance. Repeated requests for
weather reports were not answered by FK 155, and the aircraft did not return to base after
the mission.

Crew:
RAAF 400940 Flt Sgt Russell, T G Captain (Pilot)
RAF Flt Sgt Fennell, P (2nd Pilot)
RAAF 401007 WO Dyson, F V (Navigator)
RAAF 401529 Flt Sgt Nicholas, W G (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
RAF Sgt Armstrong, J W (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)
RAF Sgt Ayton, W H (Wireless Operator Air Gunner)

Following post war enquiries and investigations, it as recorded in 1948 that the missing
crew had lost their lives at sea."

I tried to find pic of 155 on the 14 Sqn website with no luck - nice pic of FK 144 though and one of a torp all loaded up... I always liked those B-26A's AE - and this is why...




Attachment (1)

_____________________________

....gone to the dark side

(in reply to mc3744)
Post #: 32
RE: True WWII story - 9/9/2011 8:11:57 PM   
mdiehl

 

Posts: 5998
Joined: 10/21/2000
Status: offline 		A.C. lost over water. Too many of these stories end that way.

Reminds me of Glenn Miller's fate. Who'd think a fellow could go missing over the English Channel in late 1944?

_____________________________

Show me a fellow who rejects statistical analysis a priori and I'll show you a fellow who has no knowledge of statistics.

Didn't we have this conversation already?

(in reply to James Fennell)
Post #: 33
RE: True WWII story - 9/9/2011 8:14:36 PM   
Nemo121


Posts: 5821
Joined: 2/6/2004
Status: offline 		BossGnome,

That is one of the most crazily and brilliantly messed up stories I've ever heard. Amazing!

I think the Mongols who were kidnapped by the Russians to fight the Germans who captured them and stuck them in an Ostfront battalion which got captured in Normandy in June 1944 might have him beaten for length of travel but for TIME I think he must have most people beaten. Do you have any pictures of the medals/room? I'd be really interested to see that.

_____________________________

John Dillworth: "I had GreyJoy check my spelling and he said it was fine."
Well, that's that settled then.

(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 34
RE: True WWII story - 9/9/2011 11:17:29 PM   
Pascal_slith


Posts: 1651
Joined: 8/20/2003
From: back in Commiefornia
Status: offline 		This is a great thread. Lots of stories worth telling.

My family is from Switzerland so my grandfathers were both mobilized and spent the war sitting along the frontier looking at the Germans on the other side (they were both non-comms in the cavalry).

However, on my mother's side, my grandfather and the family lived in a farm about 500 yards from the Swiss-French border. Once in a while, either a Frenchman or Allied pilot/airman and sometimes Jewish refugees would get across and give themselves up to the Swiss border agents to be 'interned' for the military/resistance (which actually meant either a nice camp or doing voluntary work) or put up in civilian housing for the refugees. My grandfather's older sister was the canteen head at one of these internment camps, where there was a smattering of Poles, French, and Czechs (she actually had already done this in WWI).

One story I heard from them and a few from their generation was that the Allies would call up shortly before the passage over Switzerland of Allied bombers to indicate the altitude they would fly at. The Swiss AA would then fire so the shells would not go further than 3-5000 feet below the bombers.

My wife is French and Belgian so she has family with very different experiences. Her maternal grandfather was a chemical engineer and a manager at the Belgian chemical firm Solvay. He was also part of the Belgian resistance, regularly sabotaging production of the chemical plant he worked at with his fellow resistance employees. Well, someone, most likely an employee, denounced his activities sometime in 1942 and he was picked up a first time by the police. For lack of evidence he was let go, and promptly went back to sabotaging production. He was denounced again in late 42 or early 43. This time the Gestapo picked him up. He was sent to a concentration camp with 50 other Belgian resistance people (yes, resistance people were regularly treated to the concentration camps). Either the second or third camp he ended up in was Dora. Dora, which was mainly underground, was the production facility for the V-2 rocket (thus he was sent there because of his chemical engineering background though he didn't do that there). He found himself there with French, Dutch, Belgian, Polish etc. prisoners under concentration camp/slave labor conditions. He told my wife and others in the family that those that died the quickest under these conditions were either under 30 or over 40 (too young psychologically or too old physically). He was 30-something at the time. He also said the worst of the prisoners in terms of relations with other prisoners were the Poles.

Of the 50 that were sent with him to the camps, only he and two others made it home in 1945. He left weighing about 80kg (176 lbs). He returned weighing 35kg (77lbs). He did live until the late 90's but the only child born to him and his wife after the war (their fourth; the three others were born before he was picked up by the Gestapo) was deeply autistic, so you wonder if there wasn't some ongoing effect from his passage in the camps.

My wife's father, his parents and his siblings, though French were living in Brussels at the outbreak of the war. Sometime during the period 1940 to the invasion of the USSR by Germany, he and his siblings (all children at the time) got into the grounds of the Soviet embassy in Brussels and stole the big Soviet flag. Their mother used it to make clothes for the brood of children for the duration of the occupation. For those who know European comics, they lived in the same building as the creator of the Tintin series, Hergé. He would regularly show his latest pages to them to see their reaction.



_____________________________

So much WitP and so little time to play.... :-(


(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 35
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 12:00:26 AM   
James Fennell


Posts: 135
Joined: 12/25/2010
From: Gloucestershire
Status: offline 		a lot of guys still go missing over the English channel, especially during the Rugby season - though they usually turn up worse for wear the following Monday morning..

_____________________________

....gone to the dark side

(in reply to mdiehl)
Post #: 36
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 12:05:52 AM   
Califvol


Posts: 135
Joined: 11/8/2002
From: The Land of Yore
Status: offline 		My Grandfather joined the 1st Cavalry Division in May of 1941, which at the time was a horse cavalry outfit. He was in division artillery and later in the year when the 153 FA Battalion was stood up he was transferred out of the division to this Army level assets. The reason he was transferred was because he was one of the few guys in the outfit that knew how to drive.

Since he did know how to drive he became part of the team to evaluate the brand new scout vehicle that had come in for evaluation. This vehicle was called.. wait for it… the Jeep. He was involved in test of three varieties, the four wheel drive, the four wheel steering (yes, four wheel steering) and an amphibious model. He related that the four wheel drive was outstanding; the four wheel steering was a disaster as every bump in the road caused the steering wheel to jerk, and the amphibious…. They got this great idea that an amphibious vehicle should have the same performance as a stone skipping across water if you got it going fast enough. So, they found a stretch of road that went down hill an on to the water where they were testing the vehicle. Well, they get in the jeep and build up a right good head of steam and are travelling like 40 MPH when they hit the water. It didn’t skip like a stone, the belly stove in and it sunk like a stone. They immediately reported the vehicle as defective in emergency maneuvers! He was always amazed they had bought off that it had failed a legitimate test when they were just goofing off with it. But, then again, maybe his horse cavalry superiors didn’t want the “mechanical horse” to be successful?

After this bit of excitement, his unit got down to business. They left Fort Bliss for Fort Sill and became one of the school battalions at the artillery school teaching soldiers to fire the 105 mm howitzer. In 1944 they were alerted and deployed to Europe in May ’44, just before deployment they were hastily equipped with the brand new M-1 8 inch gun pulled by a high speed tractor. They went into combat in July ’44 as a theater level asset in First Army. The primary means of communication between FO’s and the FDC was wire. My grandfather was in and then finally head of the 153rd’s HQ’s wire section and was stringing wire all over France, Belgium and Germany. Stringing wire between forward observers (FO) and the fire direction control center (FDC) is conducive to being in very fluid places on the battlefield, and simple wrong turns can get you on the wrong side of the line, and it did.

There are more amazing tales than can be related here. One of the more interesting items of memorabilia I have is a picture of him where he had been blown off a pole by a German artillery round and his hands are pure white as had been wearing gloves and the concussion had knocked all the blood out of them. In the picture it looks like he is wearing white gloves until you look close and realize the bare skin on his hands is snow white and he has a deep beet red face from the concussion. Then again, in this picture he’s standing there smiling in a pose while artillery is dropping in the neighborhood, there is a bit of the wild and crazy guy aspect in the picture to begin with. The Germans are dropping artillery, one lands close enough to blow you 15 feet to the ground from a wire pole and so what would you do? Pose for a picture of course!

(in reply to James Fennell)
Post #: 37
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 12:23:55 AM   
Pascal_slith


Posts: 1651
Joined: 8/20/2003
From: back in Commiefornia
Status: offline 		Oh, forgot this one.

One of my colleagues here is the grandson of General Fu Zuoyi (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu_Zuoyi) of the Nationalist Chinese Army. My colleague himself was one of the demonstrators at Tien An Men (we still joke with him that we believe he's Tank Man, the guy with the groceries standing in front of the Chinese tank).

_____________________________

So much WitP and so little time to play.... :-(


(in reply to Califvol)
Post #: 38
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 4:37:30 AM   
BossGnome

 

Posts: 658
Joined: 5/29/2004
From: Canada
Status: offline 		Nemo121:

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the room the last time I was there, which was already almost two years ago now. I would like to take some pictures, unfortunately, their house was only about 100 km away from Fukushima and well, you know what happened at Fukushima...

Of course, when the earthquake happened phoned over there to ask if everybody was ok, and nobody seemed to be hurt (the fear of radiation, particularly for the 16 year old grandson,  is another matter). However, a wall of their house had apparently collapsed due to the earthquake. I would believe they saved the framed medals and pictures, but I dont know where they are at the moment. I will try to ask if I can take a picture of them the next time I meet the family.


_____________________________

"Hard pressed on my right; my left is in retreat. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking."
-Gen. Joffre, before the battle of the Marne

(in reply to Pascal_slith)
Post #: 39
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 4:51:46 AM   
jcjordan

 

Posts: 1900
Joined: 6/27/2001
Status: offline 		Well I've got a couple of stories -

My grandfather only told me one story before he died in the 80's - he was a Marine in Guadalcanal during the fighting there & his squad was sleeping one night in a supposedly secure area & he gets up at night to go relieve himself & then comes back later & goes back to sleep. When he awoke in the morning he found the rest of his squad dead w/ slit throats.

Growing up I used to live next door to a gentleman to was attached to Patton's 3rd Army HQ as a reporter & he used to tell some of the real stuff not in the movie & he also had some kind of day to day op report book for 3rd Army as well signed by Patton. I assume it's still in his family but I'd really like to look at that again.

I used to work w/ another man who was a B-24 pilot shot down on a Ploesti mission & spent the rest of the war as a POW. He died several years ago during heart surgery but he was an inspiration for me to get my pilots license.

(in reply to mc3744)
Post #: 40
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 4:58:30 AM   
Cribtop


Posts: 3890
Joined: 8/10/2008
From: Lone Star Nation
Status: offline 		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.

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.

< Message edited by Cribtop -- 9/10/2011 5:02:24 AM >

_____________________________


(in reply to jcjordan)
Post #: 41
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 5:55:33 PM   
tocaff


Posts: 4781
Joined: 10/12/2006
From: USA now in Brasil
Status: offline 		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.


< Message edited by tocaff -- 9/10/2011 5:59:47 PM >

_____________________________

Todd

I never thought that doing an AAR would be so time consuming and difficult.
www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2080768

(in reply to Cribtop)
Post #: 42
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 8:07:16 PM   
ilovestrategy


Posts: 3611
Joined: 6/11/2005
From: San Diego
Status: offline 		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!

_____________________________

After 16 years, Civ II still has me in it's clutches LOL!!!
Now CIV IV has me in it's evil clutches!

(in reply to tocaff)
Post #: 43
RE: True WWII story - 9/10/2011 11:12:29 PM   
Gunner98

 

Posts: 5508
Joined: 4/29/2005
From: The Great White North!
Status: offline 		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!) 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! 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!

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!

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.

(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 44
RE: True WWII story - 9/11/2011 5:36:39 AM   
Cap Mandrake


Posts: 23184
Joined: 11/15/2002
From: Southern California
Status: offline 		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.

(in reply to mc3744)
Post #: 45
RE: True WWII story - 9/12/2011 1:21:22 AM   
Dili

 

Posts: 4708
Joined: 9/10/2004
Status: offline
quote:

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 .

(in reply to Cap Mandrake)
Post #: 46
RE: True WWII story - 9/12/2011 2:15:01 AM   
tocaff


Posts: 4781
Joined: 10/12/2006
From: USA now in Brasil
Status: offline 		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.




_____________________________

Todd

I never thought that doing an AAR would be so time consuming and difficult.
www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2080768

(in reply to Dili)
Post #: 47
RE: True WWII story - 9/12/2011 8:42:29 AM   
mc3744


Posts: 1957
Joined: 3/9/2004
From: Italy
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Dili

quote:

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!

_____________________________

Nec recisa recedit

(in reply to Dili)
Post #: 48
RE: True WWII story - 9/12/2011 10:18:19 PM   
jb1144

 

Posts: 14
Joined: 12/4/2007
Status: offline 		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.

(in reply to mc3744)
Post #: 49
RE: True WWII story - 9/12/2011 10:46:30 PM   
Mynok


Posts: 12108
Joined: 11/30/2002
Status: offline
The coolest thing to me is how many different nations are represented here! Wow!

_____________________________

"Measure civilization by the ability of citizens to mock government with impunity" -- Unknown

(in reply to jb1144)
Post #: 50
RE: True WWII story - 9/13/2011 10:04:55 AM   
mc3744


Posts: 1957
Joined: 3/9/2004
From: Italy
Status: offline 		I'd say Americans are slightly more than all the others together

But yes, it's the beauty of modern times and technology

_____________________________

Nec recisa recedit

(in reply to Mynok)
Post #: 51
RE: True WWII story - 9/13/2011 4:04:25 PM   
ilovestrategy


Posts: 3611
Joined: 6/11/2005
From: San Diego
Status: offline 		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. 

_____________________________

After 16 years, Civ II still has me in it's clutches LOL!!!
Now CIV IV has me in it's evil clutches!

(in reply to mc3744)
Post #: 52
RE: True WWII story - 9/13/2011 6:02:01 PM   
CV 2

 

Posts: 376
Joined: 2/21/2011
Status: offline 		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

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.

< Message edited by CV 2 -- 9/13/2011 6:14:14 PM >

(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 53
RE: True WWII story - 9/14/2011 4:05:40 AM   
Chickenboy


Posts: 24520
Joined: 6/29/2002
From: San Antonio, TX
Status: offline 		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.

_____________________________


(in reply to CV 2)
Post #: 54
RE: True WWII story - 9/14/2011 5:44:26 AM   
ChezDaJez


Posts: 3436
Joined: 11/12/2004
From: Chehalis, WA
Status: offline
quote:

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

_____________________________

Ret Navy AWCS (1972-1998)
VP-5, Jacksonville, Fl 1973-78
ASW Ops Center, Rota, Spain 1978-81
VP-40, Mt View, Ca 1981-87
Patrol Wing 10, Mt View, CA 1987-90
ASW Ops Center, Adak, Ak 1990-92
NRD Seattle 1992-96
VP-46, Whidbey Isl, Wa 1996-98

(in reply to ian77)
Post #: 55
RE: True WWII story - 9/15/2011 2:46:16 AM   
Onime No Kyo


Posts: 16842
Joined: 4/28/2004
Status: offline
quote:

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.

_____________________________

"Mighty is the Thread! Great are its works and insane are its inhabitants!" -Brother Mynok

(in reply to Mynok)
Post #: 56
RE: True WWII story - 9/15/2011 3:08:41 PM   
mc3744


Posts: 1957
Joined: 3/9/2004
From: Italy
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo


quote:

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

_____________________________

Nec recisa recedit

(in reply to Onime No Kyo)
Post #: 57
RE: True WWII story - 9/15/2011 4:00:56 PM   
bigred


Posts: 3599
Joined: 12/27/2007
Status: offline 		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. 

(in reply to ilovestrategy)
Post #: 58
RE: True WWII story - 9/15/2011 7:22:03 PM   
JWE

 

Posts: 6580
Joined: 7/19/2005
Status: offline 		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

_____________________________

Home of DaBabes

(in reply to bigred)
Post #: 59
RE: True WWII story - 9/15/2011 9:25:40 PM   
AW1Steve


Posts: 14507
Joined: 3/10/2007
From: Mordor Illlinois
Status: offline
quote:

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.

_____________________________


(in reply to Chickenboy)
Post #: 60
Page:   <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> RE: True WWII story Page: <<   < prev  1 [2] 3   next >   >>
Jump to:





New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts


Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition 2.4.5 ANSI

1.422