My great grandfather on my mother’s side was a soldier in the 6. Armee of the Wehrmacht, which was part of the Heeresgruppe B and therefor assigned to take Salingrad and the Volga. He was drafted already in 1940 and send to East Prussia so I guess he also took part in Operation Barbarossa. But nevertheless he never reached Stalingrad because in 1942 he luckily got a russian grenade fragment right thru his left knee. Otherwise I guess he would have joint the the fate of his comrades and buddy’s, except the 5000 that survived the russian imprisonment.
My grandfather on my mother's side of the family served with the American Expeditionary Force in France in World War I. He was an engineer of the railroad variety, driving trains in France. After the war he emigrated to Canada, married my grandmother and continued to work for the railroads in western Canada. We found a box with all his service documents that he kept from his time in the Army, also a German Iron Cross medal that he brought home as a souvenir. I have another of his souvenirs at home, a letter opener made out of an old 30-06 round with the enscription "Verdun".
My grandfather on my father's side was a career soldier with the Royal Canadian Engineers, an engineer in the classic military sense. He fought in both World War Two and Korea, eventually retiring after the war as a senior non-commissioned officer. He was stationed in England for a time where his work included defusing unexploded German bombs. He landed at Juno Beach but I suspect this was after the beachheads had been secured.
One of the few wartime stories of this grandfather that I know is from his time in Korea. As the story goes, he and his troops were building a bridge when they were mistakenly attacked by an American fighter aircraft. As the American aircraft returned for a second pass my grandfather ordered his troops to fire on the airplane, and succeeded in shooting it down, for which he was reduced in rank, later on regaining his rank.
I have 2 souvenirs of this grandfather's wartime service. The first is a field dressing dated June 1944. The second is a cigarette case which he brought home from Korea, although from the artwork on it I think he must have purchased it in Japan either on his way to or on his way home from Korea.
at a "no guns for anti gun people" rally...armed...eating a krispy kreme donut...burping...
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My father and his older brother were both in the USMC during WW2. My dad got sent to the Pacific as infantry, but never saw combat, never heard a good explanation of why, but he got out of the service before the war ended. I belive my uncle did fight though. Both joined the Boston Police Department in the early 50's, my dad retired as a Lieutenant in 73, my uncle made it to sargeant and retired in the early 80s. Their father was in the USN sometime around WW1, but don't know anything more about his service. My maternal grandfather was in the Army in WW2 and was in Italy for part of it, my mom thinks the only thing he did was get into trouble. He claimed that he saw Mussolini's body hanging when he was killed, but the family thinks that half the soldiers in Italy at the time claim that and doubt it's true.
Don't have any good military service stories about them, but do have one from when my dad was a cop: when he died, in his house we found a starter pistol and some paperwork. Apparently sometime in the 60's, he and his partner answered a call one night and a guy confronted them and pointed this gun at them - they talked him into dropping it. They didn't know it was a starter pistol until after they had him cuffed. My dad somehow was able to get the gun once it wasn't needed as evidence after the guy was convicted.
My great grandfather was an artillery officer in the Ottoman Army, he died during the Balkans War. My grandfather was a submarine admiral. He helped create Turkey's modern submarine fleet. My father almost went to Cyprus during his military service. I had a very quiet and peaceful military service myself in Armor School.
A (distant) cousin of mine got a silver star (methinks) in WW2 for capturing 3 German Officers or something like that.
His brother was an artillery commander in Nam and now works for whoever designed/made the patriot missile system
Both my grandfathers were members of Polish Army in september 1939.
My grandfather on my father's side served as an aimer of an AA gun (probably one of the rare in Polish army 40 mm Bofors AAs). First time he saw combat defending a bridge agains stukas, that abandoned the target after a barrage was fired. He was also hunting soviet tanks from ambush, but i didn't hear about kills.
After the september campaign he was forcefully drafted into soviet army. In june 1941 he found himself exactly on the way of main german assault, next to Brzest IIRC. He was a crewmen of some hopeless 20 mm AA gun mounted on a truck. They were standing next to a road whole crowded with withdrawing soviet soldiers. German tanks were coming. Commander ordered to my grandfather "fire at the tanks as they appear" and he fleed. My grandfather stated that he don't give a sh*t about Soviet Union and soviet army, he demanded civilian clothes in some nearby shack and went home.
War history of my grandfather on my mother's side is unclean to me, becouse he hated to talk about war, veiled some facts and its hard to me to get informations together. Surely he was a communication squad commander in 55 Poznan Infantry Regiment in september 1939. Surely his squad was harrased when it was attacked by a pair of Me 109 in open field. They didn't have any machineguns an they could just lie and pretend dead.
Later history is unclean to me. Once i heared he ended the september campaign heavy wounded by a mortar shell and few days later saved by a german patrol just becouse he speaked german. But i also heared he escaped form a column of POWs. This is the part that he was veiling. Surely he was during winter in the POWs camp and then he escaped from a rail transport.
During occupation he was once questioned about 24 hours with a barrel at his head. German patrol was also fireing at him while he was trying to get to my grandma's house after a police hour.
Last edited by vanquisher; 01-23-2006 at 05:22 PM.
hi,
my both grandfathers served the wehrmacht (the german army) in ww2.
the one fought in normandy but was captured soon after the invasion.
the other one was 17 when he had to go to the front in 1944. He was surrendering with some mates to the american army. my one grandma was very active in the party (i am ashamed for that) the other one was a volentuere medic on the eastern front, what was really hard for her.
Last edited by guest; 01-26-2006 at 04:59 AM.
Reason: spelling mistake
My dad and Uncles fought the Pathet Lao in Laos during the Vietnam War. One of my uncles got shot down near the Plane of Jars, Body was never found. One was killed in Northern Laos, body was never found. When the Pathet Lao took over my dad had to stay low so the communist didn't know he fought them. My uncle from my mom's side died in a "reeducation" camp. People at the same camp he was at said he was put in a bamboo cage and tortured for 5 years till he died of starvation. In 1981 we sneaked across the Mekong and ending up in a refugee camp on the border. The US government gave are family political asylum and we arrived in the US in 82. Been here ever since.
My great grandfather fought with the Manchester Regiment in WW1 and was killed in the later stages of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Another great grandfather was also killed in WW1 I was told in 1917 but I don't know any more details.
My one grand father served in the Royal Artillery and served in N. Africa, Italy and N.w Europe.
My late grandfather served for a while with the SSVF(Straits Settlement Volunteer Rifles) during WW2 in Singapore.He was shot in the shin and carried fragments of that for life.He told me many tales of how the locals tried to eke out a decent living during the Kempei-tai reign of terror during the Occupation.They survived the purge out of pure chance and he witnessed many of his mates dragged away never to be seen again.Till the day he passed on, he never really forgave the Japanese for what they did.
For my dad, he served in the SAF as a Amphibious Engineer (Recce).They were part of the first few intakes of males for National Service, one notable incident in his NS life was rescuing and evacuating villages in rapidly rising floodwaters during the early 70s.Those were commonplace and they were under-equipped, often having to use alumnium recce boats and ropes to form a evacuation route.
nothing fancy, just thought I might share some history here.
my grand father was a pilot for the greek airforce in world war 2....due to failling eyesight he had the choice of going in the police force or becoming a grease monkey....he chose police. he served the rest of the war as a greek police officer. We also had alot of thoer relatives in the greek army and in the greek resistance...but i have no details.
my other grandfather on my mothers side was a african-canadian and served in the canadian medical corps as a ambulance driver.
my father was in the Grenadier Guards of canada (guys with big hats and red coats). He joined to pay for his education and for the experiance. He left due to the lack of pay (somtimes every three months!) and because he payed his dues for collage where he studyed police tech and became a police officer in laval, quebec (my father was the first greek police officer in laval's history and a celeb in the ethnic area of chomedy in laval (very large greek population). Also my father,2 months after he left the army, found out from a corporal that was in his unit, That my father was recomended for promotion to Lieutenant before they knew he left.lol
My grandfather from my mother side wad an upriser who fought against Germans in 1919-20. After that he fought against bolshevik (Russian-soviet) army in 1921-22. In 1945 as a Volunteer fought to Liberate Poznań (one of five biggest cities in Poland)
My grandfather from my faher side was very independent person. He was socialist (not communist) - before WW2. Becouse of it he was arested by Polish Police and released after few days. This time Poland was govern by right-wing government. During WW2, and ocuppation he was arested by German Police becouse he was Polish patriot. My grandpa escaped. After WW2 in 1945 or 46 he was arrested by NKVD because he was both socialist and patriot. Thanks money collected by neighbours (for bribe) he was released...
Dad retired as a brigadier general (one star) in the US Army. He was a draftsman for the Navy during and after high school in WWII, until he enlisted in the Army in 1945 (I think). He was at an American POW camp for German soldiers at the end of the war. A German woman recently contacted my sister because the German woman found papers of her father showing that my dad signed him out of the POW camp to go free. Pretty weird.
He became a lieutenant and won the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star and Purple Heart in Korea at Chipyong-Ni. He got mixed up with my mom, had my sisters in the 50's, and served in various infantry positions until Vietnam.
First time in 'Nam (now about a major), he was with MACV, mid 60's. On a show on PBS about Viet Nam (can't remember name of the special), there's a bombing by the VC at the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, my dad's quarters at the time -- my dad is in the footage helping out with the rescue efforts.
Then he was at Heidelberg (Army Europe staff), and then got promoted and moved to 3ID where he was a brigade commander. Yours truly was born in Wurzburg during this stint (1969). He ended up being the chief of staff for the 3rd Infantry Division commander before we moved back to CONUS. He was at the Pentagon working for the Army Chief of Staff but then went back to Viet Nam to serve as the advisor to the ARVN general in charge of the Saigon area.
He came back to Virginia, worked again at the Pentagon, and was promoted to BG. We moved to Fort Lewis where he was the assistant division commander for operations of the 9th ID. There for two years, he was assigned to FORSCOM in Fort McPherson. He retired in 1977, worked for a law firm in Washington, DC, and he died in 1991, buried in Arlington Cemetery.
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