My grandfather served in the 2.(F)/122.Originally Posted by Raiden
Platoon Sergeant of the 5th or 6th Marines.... Damn, with all that places, where he was, he's a real hero... (don't want to say, that the others aren'tThis is my maternal grandfather. He fought at Guadalcanal, New Britain, Peleliu and Okinawa and also through the Korean War. This picture was taken after Guadalcanal. Any guesses as to who that is in the foreground? Should be an easy one.
) Is he still alive?
Ill call my grandfather today and see if hes got any photos that he can send to me.
Post what you like it would be good to see them...I understand about the frame but if you are careful you may save them from being destroyed by time and the light. By transplanting the awards and scanned images into a new sealed frame.
So here are the pics, i had to decrease the resolution because otherwise they would have them too big to upload.
Every picture has such a card on the back:
On some pics there is one half missing, this why they are all overseized pictures and i had only a normal scanner, i uploaded the more interesting part
Last edited by Karo; 10-06-2006 at 01:37 PM.
Karo, do you know what unit your grandfather flew with? I'm wondering if your grandfather and my grandfather ever crossed paths.
My grandfather flew with 3.(F)/22 in France in 1940, then with 1.(F)/22 in Russia and Norway/Finland. He wrapped up the war with FAGr.5 flying Ju 290s out of France until D-Day, after that it's not entirely clear what exactly he did. There's hard evidence he was involved with flight testing a captured B-24 at Rechlin, but for what purpose exactly, nobody knows. My grandmother maintained that they wanted to use the B-24 in Allied markings to drop commandos behind enemy lines, which would have been a war crime. Anyhow here he is (on the right) with a wartime friend of his at Stavanger, Norway, 1942/43 sometime:
May 4th, 1943, he crash-landed Ju 88 4N+JH at Bardufoss after being shot up by Allied shipping. Supposedly one of the crew had to hold an oil line together with his fingers to keep the plane flying. My grandfather is on the far left.
He had three other brothers in the war also, I know that one of them was tortured to death by partisans on the Eastern Front. Then there was his youngest brother Bernhard who was just old enough to start flying fighters when the war was getting hot. Great-Uncle Bernhard is in the middle. This is a scan of a picture postcard. I gather it was popular at the time to get postcards made out of your own photos.
Here's him hamming it up with a friend on Sicily, probably 1942 sometime.
He was shot down and killed on October 29th, 1944, in southeastern Germany while flying a Bf 109G-14 with IV./JG 53. He's listed in the big multi-volume history of JG 53 (I've forgotten the author's name), from the sound of it he was a newbie pilot and his flight leader was less than competent. His group of planes was last seen flying straight and level through a melee that erupted when the squadron was ambushed by P-47s from the 5th AF. I understand that he crashed near a village and lived for half a day or so before succumbing to his injuries. He wasn't even of legal U.S. drinking age yet, a classic case of the new kids being thrown up against the Allied meat-grinder at the end of the war.
I don't know how to feel about all this stuff, on the one hand to my knowledge the people in my family served honorably, but... They were still on the wrong side. My grandfather took to working odd jobs and drinking after the war (trying to survive in German in 1946-56 or so was not easy) and died long before I was born, so I couldn't really ask him for details about his experiences. Most of what I know is from independent research, and talking to my grandmother (now deceased).
Interesting thread, hope we see some more cool stuff...
Awesome pics from Norway mate, I always like to see war-time pics from Norway. Got any more?
Amazing how our grandfathers were fighting and trying to kill each other, then 60 years later we are sharing their pictures and stories with one another.
Cheers
I almost said "no" because the photos are all 1500 miles away at my family's home right now, but then I checked my old archive folder and found that there were some in JPG from back when I was researching all this stuff.
Here's another from the crash-landing. I never noticed the bigass hole in the front greenhouse. I think it's from the gondola crushing the framework during the belly landing, not enemy fire, but it's hard to be sure.
I've gone to Airliners.net and looked through all the photos of Bardufoss in the present day. I know it's currently a helicopter station, and there are occasional airshows there. I've also seen pictures of RAF Jaguars in winter camo at Bardufoss. It doesn't look like much has changed except the runway. I've read that a new runway was added, and the old Luftwaffe runway is now the ramp. It's really cool to see it in color in the 21st century, it makes my grandfather's photos more real.
1.(F)/22 aircraft at Banak:
The rest are from a "squadron scrapbook" of Norway. I think only a couple of these were taken by my grandfather - it was a reconnaisance unit after all, they didn't lack for cameras. I've heard that all the pilots had hand-held Leicas, supposedly my grandfather's is still around somewhere. I'm certainly not posting the entire album, but I'll put up the landscape photos.
Unknown airfield
Nice coastal scene from the gunner's bubble
Cold!
I'm pretty sure my grandfather took this one. He liked to take walks and photograph nature.
Bardufoss ramp, definitely. The mountain is distinctive.
Ships in harbor, Axis from the look of the camo
Islands, I have no idea where
Rough northern coast, I want to say near Spitzbergen?
Go down here and they'll never find you again. My grandfather's logs record at least one search operation in a Fieseler Storch for a squadron aircraft that went down in terrain like this.
Desolate rivermouth, might be Finland?
Look at this and keep in mind that life expectancy for downed crews in the water was 20 min. according to the commander of KG 30 (who's name escapes me at the moment). Convoy duty was ugly business for everybody involved, on both sides. There's a whole lot of loss records for the reconnaisance units that show an aircraft taking off, and then just... Never coming back. At least when your ship went down, somebody probably knew about it.
Oddly picturesque note to end with
By the way the aircraft currently being restored by the Norwegian Aviation Museum, 4N+EH #1203, was flown by my grandfather on one flight, according to his logbooks. It was in Russia somewhere in late 1942 and it wasn't an operational mission, just a ferry flight from one base to another, but it's definitely #1203 because he flew the first 4N+EH. The second 4N+EH was a replacement for the one that crashed later in Norway.
Here is a photo of my great, great..........
I'm just messing with ya all, I don't have any photos of WWII relatives.
Don't take this offensive anyone, I realize that this is Adolf Hitler and he was a very sick and evil man.
Awesome stuff Raiden, incredible pictures. There's a site called www.nuav.net , it's a Norwegian run site about Norway during WW2. If you'd like to get some of those pics and storys out there, and maybe get some more info you should contact them.
You ever been to Norway?
Oh, and the Norwegian coastline is the longest in the world, it's generally rugged and has thousands of islands. Most of those scenery pics could be from anywhere between Lindesnes and Nordkapp
Holy c*ap...Those sure are history. RIP to the fallen.
My grandpa fought for the germans in WW2. He got shot in the chest in russia. I have a lot of pictures, but most of them are family ones. On a couple of them, he and his buddies are posing for the camera.
Its quite moving for me to look at all that stuff he left behind. I have a couple of documents. Older ones show how he passed school, and what he learned. Then the enlistment, and finally the handwritten letter of his commander when he died, and the official copy by the militar as well as the death certificate.
Its like holding the whole life of a person in one hand...
I also found a small book where his friends wrote their adress, and some parts are like a diary.
Maybe I'll scan the pictures if I am in the mood.
CLASSIC WINTER SHOT
Cold!
THAT IS ONE ANGRY RIVER...NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT
GREAT PHOTOS
get in the mood, join the party
Suppose thats what makes this a good site to be on...Wonder if our sons/daughters will be doing the same in 50 years with the sons/daughters of Iraq
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