Grandfather was in the Royal Dutch Marines at Java in 48-9(?), helped take back the islands after WWII--Japanese stay-behinds creating an insurgency. His convoy got ambushed, he jumped into the burning halftrack in front of him, got the survivors out, was badly burned, but continued to fire his BAR until the attack was over. Got some medal that I neither know the name nor US equivalent of for that.
Dad was a Marine, was on USS America as a mechanic.
My great grandfather on my moms side fought for Germany on both fronts during World War One (I think he fought through the whole damn thing). He was wounded twice and got a medal for his service from 1914-1918 and has another medal which is a rifleman's medal and also a medal which looks alot like the Iron Cross but I haven't found much info on it. Later in WW2 he was drafted and fought on land at some point(I don't know where sadly as my Grandma dumped all of his stuff after he died relating to his service and there is no way in hell that I will ever find out), and then he was later put in a U-Boat which was captured by the Russians and was sent to Siberia for I don't know how many years until he was returned to Germany.
I also just found out that my great great great grandfather on my dad's side fought at the Battle of Franklin(the one with the charge that dwared Pickett's Charge at *****sburg) as a member of an artillery battery that fired inflading fire into the mass of Confederates. At some point they were shooting directly over the heads of their own lines as the Confederats penetrated the line at some farm where there was massive hand-to-hand fighting. Here is a very good description of the action at Franklin with some history leading up to the actual battle: http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com.../franklin.aspx
I also know a guy who lives up the street from my grandpa(mom's side) who flew bombing missions over the Pacific in the B-25 I belive. Really cool guy.
I have an uncle served in the special forces but I don't really know any details as he told them to my parents and my grandpa. I'll ask 'em when I get the chance.
And my Grandpa on my mom's side attempted to get into the Marines when he was under age(during WWII) but didn't know how to lie and was rejected 'cuz he told them the truth lol. He was also rejected from the airborne for what I can't remember and he was finally drafted into the army and would later serve occupation duty in Wiesbaden Germany after the war ended.
Family history is such an important part of 'knowing who you are' as a person. Where you come from, and what you stand for i reckon. Our family was delighted to tell old Reggy's story which was featured on local ABC radio awhile back.
The following is an excerpt from the diary of Reg Telfer, Australian Medical Corps, 27th Battalion. He was in Broken Hill at the time and present during the only enemy attack on Australian soil when, on 1 January 1915—only 4 months before the Anzacs fought the Turks at Gallipoli—two Turkish sympathisers shot at a trainload of picnickers. They took refuge in a cottage on the northern edge of town, where they were eventually shot by police.
My dad's father was the last of four children born to a wealthy land-owning family in the Hubei province of China. The eldest child was his only brothr and rose to the rank of an officer in the fight against the communists. However, one day, people from the nearby village that had served with him came back bearing news: while leading a charge, he took a bullet straight through the head. To this day, nobody knows where he died exactly. However, after the Nationalists had fled to Taiwan, my grandfather's brother was officially recognized as a hero of the fighting and benefits were passed down to my grandfather.
My grandfather himself went to Whampoa Military Academy and he said of his class of 20,000 or so, only 5000 would survive the war, or maybe it was those first few years. He fought against the Japanese and then the communists again rising from second lieutenant up to colonel by his retirement years later. Miraculously, he was never hit, though during one engagement, his unit was virtually wiped out and to avoid being bayoneted while pretending to be dead, he had to crawl under the body of one of his dead comrades.
Eventually, with defeat imminent on the mainland, he fled to Taiwan with his new wife. Years later, he would find out that one of his older sisters had made it out to Taiwan as well. However, the fate of the other sister and his mother would not be known until China reopened the doors to those who fled in the 1980's. His sister had survived though lived very poorly. His mother had been stoned to death by peasants for the crime of having owned land. Before my grandfather died, one of his only regrets was not having been able to get his mother out.
my grandmother was the first free member of our family of african americans who belonged to an english family in the south. my true last name is baker from my dads side and brown on my moms. nowadays they just call it american. they escaped to west virginia on my moms side, my dads side they stayed in georgia. i was raised in pennsylvania where due to the chaos of pop culture, my family moved to arizona so i could stay out of trouble. while in PA, i became best friends with a very traditional family whose dad was a hunter and his mom was a housewife, whose family taught me how to play chess and from that point on i studied the military. growing up black in pennsylvania, i have some animosity towards white people, but they were always willing to share what they know with me and in return i helped them. the major thing i notice in america is alot of economic warfare.
My grandfatherfrom mother side serviced in WW2. He was just cadet (they called it Levente). He worked at enginers.They built camps in Hungary in 1944.
One day they had to build a small camp for judes. From there wanted the germans take them to Oswiecim. He helped for three prisons to escape.
His officers didn't know it so he didn't punished. Even he got later a medal "For the excellent service cross".
I know an old man who was enginer too. He injuredon his eyes here next to my village. After a counter attack they had to clean a Soviet minefield.
A guy didn't had enough experience and he explosed with the half of the platoon.
My grandfather survived the war without injure.He had big luck.
^^^ I have distant family in Budapest. A cousin of my grandmother flew Bf110s for the Axis on the Eastern Front at the same time my grandfather was flying B26s out of England.
My great grand father was in Dardanelles Campaign, possibly as a sniper. My grand father says he was conscripted due to his sharp shooting skills, even though he was in his early 30's. Not much information on anything else, except what was told from those who returned back to the village, after the war. I did fair bit of a research and the other families from the same village seems to think that, their divisions were sent to Galicia in Hungary as well. No definite information on where he fell, Dardanelles or Galicia.
My grand father was a anti-tank gunner on the somewhat famous Cakmak line, defending the western borders of Turkiye with occupied Greece and Germany. It's fortunate that Germany didn't attack Turkey 'cause I don't think he'd survived it!!...
He used to talk about German officers regularly coming into the Turkish lines and in one case, demonstrating how easily they can overcome the tank-ditch they've built, by actually bringing few of their tanks accross the ditch in a very short time.
My father was a sig seargant and served along the Turkish-Soviet border, along with Canadian sig troops. He was trained and qualified by these units and after his conscription ended started working for the Canadian Telecom, in Turkiye.
My Grandad Alex Stephen Served During WW2 in Africa , Italy before looking after Italian POW's in Orkney [ those that built the now famous Chapel ]..
He never spoke much about the War in detail , just the odd occasions .
Both grandpa's served in WW2. One was a train engineer in England and the other was a fighter mechanic with the 9th and 12th air forces. He had quite a few campaign stars on his ETO medal. North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Southern France and the Po Valley to name a few. My dad and one uncle combined for 3 tours in Vietnam. Dad did radio repair on army choppers and uncle was a truck mechanic. Dad had a funny story about one of the guys in his shop. This was on his second tour and he was stationed on the USNS El Paso. This guy would go into town almost every Saturday night and get plastered then come stumbling into the bay at 2-3 AM turning on all the lights and making a racket instead of using the small light that they all had mounted on their bunks. Well one Saturday dad gets a package from my mom of cupcakes and a can of chocolate icing. They had icing left over and since the guy in question had already gone into town they figured they would get him back and procede to cover a length of TP with the icing and lay it on his pillow. Sure enough he comes stumbling in at his usual time sees this on his pillow and thinks someone dropped a duece on his stuff and curses up a storm. The guy in the bunk above him reaches down and takes a huge lick off the toilet paper which sends the hellraiser topside to puke his guts out. Dad later did a year in Korea with a Hawk ADA unit and happened to be there when those two officers were killed up in the DMZ while trimming trees. He said things got serious REAL quick.
Great Great Grandfather (Mothers side): Was in the German Army Air Service during World War I and was an ace.
Grandfather (Mothers side): Fought in World War II as a officer/pilot on the USS Enterprise, and again in Korea on the USS Princeton.
Grandfather (Fathers side): Was an Air Force loader on AC-130 gunships during Vietnam.
Two Great Uncles (Fathers side): Both fought in WWII, one in the Royal Canadian Air Force, the other in the Royal Canadian Army. My g. uncle that was in the RCAF died in combat over Europe, and has a mountain named after him in Canada. My g. uncle who was in the RCA fought at Normandy, and recently passed away.
My father: Was a US Marine officer and fought in Grenada, Desert Storm, and did a tour in Afghanistan.
When the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia, my father's uncle was attending the Royal (Serbian ?) Military Academy.
He and his class mates were deployed in defensive positions, but were given blanks. The Germans knew this because they just walked right up and captured the students. My father's uncle was then precessed in a POW camp before being sent to Italy. He found himself on an aristocrat's large estate and told to work on the grounds.
After a year or so a group of Italian anti-fascist gorillas arrived, he promptly joined the group (evidently he was not guarded, more like a house slave?).
Up in some mountainous territory they fought against both Germans and Italian fascist troops where he had many close calls. He talked about running into Hitler Youth soldiers (just boys). His group would ambush them and kill the old man in charge, then take the kid's guns away, give them a good spanking and send them home.
One day he found himself on a mountain looking down at the American Army. He went down and joined the US Army as a translator for Italian, German and French. He was soon after sent to France where he helped interrogate captured German soldiers. After the war he was given the chance to come to the US and become a citizen. He declined this and instead he chose to stay in Paris where he met a woman. He opened a small shoe repair shop and they lived together until his death in 1972. He was a good man...
When I was born (in Paris), I was named after him
Even though I don't have many memories of him, I was still very young, He has a special place in my heart.
My grandfather was also a resistance fighter, however he didn't fight in Warsaw like my great uncle, fought instead in his hometown of Łagów (in Swietokrzyskie). While demolishing his home (it was extremely small and they built a much larger one on top) they found a cache of weapons used by resistance fighters. I never got to meet him as he died well before I was born. And I guess he never told my father about being in the resistance. My uncle (who lives in the new house now with my aunt) found the weapons while taking apart tile and kept a rifle () before calling in the army to take away the rest of the weapons which are probably in a museum now or just dismantled and melted down/recycled. No pics. I don't even think there's a picture of my grandfather anywhere around here.
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and there is no way in hell that I will ever find out), and then he was later put in a U-Boat which was captured by the Russians and was sent to Siberia for I don't know how many years until he was returned to Germany.
) before calling in the army to take away the rest of the weapons which are probably in a museum now or just dismantled and melted down/recycled. No pics. I don't even think there's a picture of my grandfather anywhere around here.
