What did you do in the war Daddy...?

[Two Types]

My father had a workmate who I knew had served in the Polish Army during WW2, then settled in England. Some time after he died my father told me the man's story: He was serving in the Polish Army in 1939 and was captured by the Germans. They considered him to be a German rather than a Pole and he was forced to join the Wehrmacht. However, he was then captured by the Soviets and, being a Pole, was sent to join the Polish forces under Red Army command. He was later released and travelled via Iran to the Middle East where he joined the Polish Army again, fighting through Italy etc under British command. So in one war, he fought in four different uniforms!
If only I had heard this story when he was alive! I am actually a military historian and always on the look-out for good stories. But of course I missed one that was right under my nose.

 

[BigFitz]

When I would come home on leave, I'd meet with Dad and we'd go to his favorite bar. One of the regulars was a man everyone called "Horse". Nice grandfather type, very quiet and pleasant. After we left the first time I met Horse, Dad told me that he had been a Marine at Guadalcanal and some other island campaigns in the Pacific during WWII. Apparently he saw a lot of action. I never looked at him the same way again. In a good way.

 

[esteban68]

My grandfather was a Bevin boy and after a 14 hour shift down the pit(mine) he was on Home Guard duty,his uncles were both killed during the Great War in November 1915 two weeks apart, the wifes grandfather was in the Airborne/paratroopers during WW2, he was a radio operator, he was at Arnhem we believe also was in Norway and after the war in Palestine until 1948.
My great uncle was in the RAF based in the desert we believe as a navigator but at some point as the story goes got left behind during moving bases and ended up fighting with the ground troops...incidentally my grandfather the Bevin boy had to get him from our local trainstation on 6th June 1944 as he was returning back to active service from leave to get him in a 'shotgun' wedding with my great aunt whom he had "got in the family way"

 

[Jeff M]

My father was an army medic in the European Theater during WWII.
My uncle an army artilleryman in the Pacific Theater.
My aunt an army nurse in the Pacific Theater.

A neighbor of mine back in the early 1980's was a survivor of the Bataan Death March.

 

[PaidInFull24]

As a nurse I have the great privilege of taking care of some of our vets when they really need help. My favorite patients are the WW2 vets. They are such a humble group, kind, courteous, and respectful. The things some of them have seen in life cannot be put into words. I took care of a man the other day who had been on the USS California at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. He said it was the scariest day of his life. He had to abandon ship because the ship had been torpedoed and was sinking from under him. He swam to shore and attempted to find a gun to shoot at the japanese who were flying overhead. He went on to serve extensively with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific theatre for the rest of the war. I also took care of a man whose wife had told me that he was I thinking the navy in ww2 but didn't see combat. One evening when his wife left he told me some of his stories... he was in North Africa at one point during combat and was in charge of working on planes and equipment. He told me later in the war, after the D-Day invasions he was on a flight crew in charge of ferrying damaged aircraft from various areas (possibly a part of the air transport command system?). He told a story of how he was returning to England on a plane when one of the engines went out. The pilot radioed the base in England saying that he had engine trouble. The controller on the other end told him to shut the engine off and restart it to see if it would come back on. The pilot radioed back "No! The problem I have is I don't HAVE an engine!" Needless to say, the pilot was able to land the plane safely. It was later discovered that the engine had been hit with a large piece of shrapnel and mostly destroyed. Taking care of vets is my favorite part of my job. I regard it as an HONOR to give back to those who gave so much to protect our freedom...

 

[scotrace]

Another perspective, from the German side:

What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?

(out of print)

 

[jaymag_87]

I couldn't help myself. When I read the thread title, the first thing that popped into my head was from the opening scene of "Patton". "You won't have to say, well...I shoveled sh.... in Louisiana."

My dad was an Army Chaplain during Vietnam. About a year ago he shared some things he had never shared before. I need to sit him down with a recorder and get his experiences on tape.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

My uncle (my dad's brother) went through OCS and served in the 18th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division during WWII eventually ending the war as a 1st Lieutenant company commander and my dad was a radio operator (CW) in the 40th Infantry Division during the Korean War. And on the other side, when I was growing up, one of my neighbors, an irascible old Berliner, was in the Wehrmacht (machinegunner, Heer) and had fought in Russia.

 

[FraeuleinBerlin]

Don't forget - it's not just old people you have to ask! I am a student of German and Russian, and worked this summer teaching English in Russia. Guess who I taught? Only this guy's Granddaughter!

 

[WH1]

My Great Uncle passed away several years ago. When I came home from Desert Storm back in 1991 he pulled me aside and we discussed some of his war history. He was a Forward Observer with Patton during the Battle of the Bulge and until the end of the war. He was in some rather intense action including being pinned down on a hilltop during a duel between German 88's and an American battery. During the push into Germany he told me that many times he was going in the front door while the Germans we running out the back. He then went on to serve a couple of tours in Korea again as an FO. He then came home raised a family and became an educator of young people eventually retiring as a High School Principal. In a quiet way he was a great man.

My mother in law's father was drafted as a 35 year old father of 3. He became a US Army infantryman and was killed in action in the Po River Valley. My father in law's father was a B-24 tail gunner in the Pacific.

 

[renaissancemedici]

I knew my uncle had been a wireless operator on Halifax bombers during the war. It was only at his funeral oration, that the minister mentioned that he had worked for the Special Operations Executive on German occupied Crete and was submarined out to Egypt later on!!

WHAT...???? COULD YOU JUST REPEAT THAT PLEASE..?

I couldn't believe my ears guys..! Is this the same guy we are talking about, my Uncle Joe?
I'm now researching him, as often so much dies when the person passes away!! it's alot harder when someone has gone, trying to research them. And you lose a lot of the human element too. But I have learnt that he got the Military Medal (US equiv=Silver Star), Distinguished Flying Medal and the DFC (Greek). Now this was all a surprise, but many years ago this old man had been a young fella bounding across the Cretan mountains getting involved in daring do, that Indy would have been proud of (like capturing German generals! movie later made called: "Ill met by moonlight.").

Are you talking about the kidnap of general Kreipe? :eeek: I'm sorry your uncle is not alive any more, I would ask you to tell him a big thank you. We haven't forgotten the help of those brave men.

In fact there was a tv show in the seventies, where Fermor and Kreipe met as friends on the air. If it's on the internet I'll find it!

My granparents and great uncles were involved in many ways. Fought in the war (I have a lot of photos) etc. But one of my favourite stories is this: In the box of old family photos there is one of a young blond man in uniform. My grandmoter told me he was an english man they hid in their basement for a little while, untill he left. That was in the port of Piraeus. They were told later that he drowned, because he was in a submarine that was sunk.

Anyway, what a great thread!


Edit: Found the video
see 4.35 min. for Patrick Leigh Fermor and about 11.36 min. for Kreipe. I warn you: it's in greek...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1XPNzQRE9w&feature=related

 

[renaissancemedici]

Don't forget - it's not just old people you have to ask! I am a student of German and Russian, and worked this summer teaching English in Russia. Guess who I taught? Only this guy's Granddaughter!

I was told a story about this photo, but I don't know if it's true. The man who took the photo was proud of it, untill it was noticed that the soldier was wearing two watches! He was ordered by his superiors to erase one of them, as this was unacceptable of course, and so it is one of the first "photoshopped" photos of history...

Don't tell the granddaugter!

Edit: I just noticed this is the uncensored version, but the bad boy is the man under the one with the flag!

 

[Miss sofia]

My Grandad was stationed in India and then latterly in North Africa before the War. He said those were his happiest times, as he had the plum job of looking after the horses which were used to pull the heavy artillery. I have some lovely photo albums he compiled during those days and indeed all the correspondence he shared with my Grandmother. My Grandad was rather loathe to talk about the war in any great detail. Compared to some of his comrades he said he had an easy war, as he was captured in 1941 somewhere on the Eastern Front, (it escapes me, as i am befuddled with flu, apologies). He was moved around to various POW camps, his final being in Poland, where he was liberated by the Russians. The only time i ever saw him well up, was when we talked about his liberation. He used to do a work detail just outside the camp and got to know some of the local people, who worked with him. The Russians massacred everyone in the village as collaborators and razed the village to the ground. He said there was one particular family with young children, who would slip him food and tobacco and were very kind to him and it broke his heart to know they had died.

My great uncle Harry survived The Somme and was a warden in WW11. He worked in and around South London. He refused to speak of The Great War and indeed didn't have much to say about WW11, after a tot or two of rum, the most he would offer up, was that if he had to choose, he would take the trenches over the Blitz anyday, as at least it was men killing men. I can only imagine the carnage he must have come across during his rounds as a warden.

My grandmother was in the land army with my great aunty Minnie. I have all the postcards from my grandad, that he sent from the camps which i will post at a later date.

My lovely Great Uncle Frank was a flight engineer in the RAF and my Great Uncle Ronald a rear gunner.

 

[FraeuleinBerlin]

I was told a story about this photo, but I don't know if it's true. The man who took the photo was proud of it, untill it was noticed that the soldier was wearing two watches! He was ordered by his superiors to erase one of them, as this was unacceptable of course, and so it is one of the first "photoshopped" photos of history...

I think they made the flag a lot bigger too? I did go to a seminar about photographs as historical sources, but it was a couple of years ago and they didnt talk about it for very long... pretty cool though! What are the chances, eh?

 

[cuthbert]

That picture had a symbolic and shouldn't be taken as "fact", it was clearly posed like the one of the Marines on Iwo Jima.

 

[Godfrey]

My grandfather was at sea in the 30's. He had come from a pretty wealthy background but when the depression hit his father had to make a choice - give up his club memberships and drinking or send one of his sons out to fend for himself. So at 14 my grandfather hit the road. During the 30's he worked as a stoker on all sorts of ships. He fell in with a guy who ran food supplies to Rupublican Spanish forces and then take out olive oil. Apparently they would load up in Cork (or was it Marseilles) and slip into a besieged port at night. Unload, loadup, and have a look about. When they left they would invariably be chased by one of Franco's gun boats. My grandfather said he never worked so hard in his entire life. However the waves were so large and boats so small that the gun boat had to wait for both ships to crest a wave before it fired on them. Safety was the HMS Hood that apparently stood outside the 5 mile mark. They would aim for the stern and then literally pull in behind the Hood and hide till the gunboat left. He said bobbing about next to the Hood was a daunting experience in itself - the ship was massive. He said he could never understand how the Bismarck sunk such a huge battleship so quickly (yes - he knew about the magazine going up)

My grandfather had a lot of tales of his time at sea and this was always one of my favorites. I know it's not quite a story of a combat but a little bit of a war we often forgot in the light of the massive conflicts in the early 20thC.

 

[thecardigankid]

That picture had a symbolic and shouldn't be taken as "fact", it was clearly posed like the one of the Marines on Iwo Jima.

The flag raising on Iwo Jima wasnt a posed photograph, the photographer happened to catch the shot at the right moment. Its not like the photographers said "hey go slowly when you raise the flag, hold it, okay perfect!"
They just took the pic while they were in the process of raising the larger flag. Not a posed shot at all.

 

[Widebrim]

The flag raising on Iwo Jima wasnt a posed photograph, the photographer happened to catch the shot at the right moment. Its not like the photographers said "hey go slowly when you raise the flag, hold it, okay perfect!"
They just took the pic while they were in the process of raising the larger flag. Not a posed shot at all.

I spoke with the photographer, Mr. Joe Rosenthal, about a year before his death (he was a resident at my mother's retirement "plaza"). What you write above is true, inasmuch that he heard that the flag was going to go up, and he was able to catch it right at the moment that has been immortalized. However, it was the second raising; the first flag that was hoisted up was soon deemed to be too small, and was subsequently replaced by the one in the iconic photo.

 

[thecardigankid]

I spoke with the photographer, Mr. Joe Rosenthal, about a year before his death (he was a resident at my mother's retirement "plaza"). What you write above is true, inasmuch that he heard that the flag was going to go up, and he was able to catch it right at the moment that has been immortalized. However, it was the second raising; the first flag that was hoisted up was soon deemed to be too small, and was subsequently replaced by the one in the iconic photo.

Oh yes I know it was the second flag raising.

 

[too much coffee]

To thecardigankid and Widebrim;

Thank you both for keeping the record straight.

Best regards,
coffee