World War Two History

[emtmedic005]

~~~~Please make this a Sticky~~~~~

Anyone can post stories that their relatives have told them. Navy, Army or other.

[AVGWarhawk]

Sure can. When I get home I can add pictures and State Department records to boot.

[emtmedic005]

Does anyone have any files from the National Archive Fires? I know this is a lost cause cause i have asked my State's Senators to look into the matter and they both sent me letters saying that 80% of the files were destroyed and the rest are sealed.

[Morts]

hey this thread was my idea:stare:
could atleast give me credit:stare:


hahahaha
just joking m8:rotfl: :rotfl:

[emtmedic005]

I think a lot of people had an idea for a WW2 history sticky thread.
But since i was the first to propose it i get the rights to it, Patent pending...Patent Pending...Patent Pending, whos that guy...o he's one of the excons from the rodeo,, Marge how can you bring an excon here with my patent pending... hahaha I love the Simpsons:rock::rock::rock::rock:

But i think that anyone that posts a WW2 story will be a founder of this thread.

[Morts]

someone should start a thread with war histories:) (WW2)
told by their grandparents/other:up:
that would be really intresting
what do i spot there ?
i suggested it before you !
haha:rotfl:

[Morts]

and here http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=415265&postcount=6


you just got served :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
j/k

[Boris]

Well he made the thread didn't he...

So let's stop talking about the thread itself and start posting some cool stories...

- if this gets stickied, it should proabaly go to the general topics too.

[bigboywooly]

Nooooooo not the general section
Thats depressing in there
:/\\chop

[Jimbuna]

I could post a few from my father who served in the merchant navy in both the Spanish Civil War and WW2...he's 84 and still alive :yep: :up:....and yes...I'm extremely proud of him :rock:

[Paajtor]

...he's 84 and still alive :yep: :up:.... that's great!:()1::D



Anyone can post stories that their relatives have told them. Navy, Army or other. I know my grandfather (father's side) and his oldest sons had to hide in the garden - in thick bushes - when the Germans where in town looking for men to send into slavery work in Nazi Germany. We live in the most southern tip of the Netherlands, only 35km from the German border.

My grandmother - mother's side - kept an English pilot hidden for quite some time...she hated the Nazi's with every nerve of her body.

Fortunately, this part of Holland was the 1st to be liberated, late '44...the biggest part of my country would have to suffer the horrible hunger-winter 44-45 first.


This image is from my hometown Meerssen, taken in Sept. '44. The town was only just liberated, and people were walking outside and celebrating, national flags everywhere.
What makes this image special, is the fact that it's taken by a German soldier, just before he quickly left the town...he was found dead several days later.

http://www.61shap.org/pilots/Paajtor/roots_history/meerssen_sept44.jpg

[AVGWarhawk]

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/94-klo-kayhebertcrewusnarp.jpg


This is the B-17 my Uncle was shot down in bombing Kiel. June 13 1943. He was going after the sub pens.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/KielJune13X.jpg

Captain Rawlinson. The only survivor from the Klo-Kay. He visited all the families of the crewmen after the war to let them know what happend to their boys. He was the only survivor of the Klo-Kay. Became a POW. Please read his account below.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/scan0005.jpg

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/scan0006.jpg

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/scan0002.jpg


http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/scan0003.jpg


What you have just read is the account of Capt Rawlinson from June 13 1943. My Uncle shown underlined above, Charles E Schultheis, was tailgunner this day. He was a pilot as noted in the text. The lead ship must have rated officers at all posts. My uncle got the tail position. Granted I could not speak with him I was able to get this information after years of searching. My mother was a great source as she had his wings and a locket he had sent to her when he arrived in Europe.

My other uncle. Edward Schultheis fought the war in the PTO. He is still alive but does not talk about the war. Only once did he describe working on the planes that used the carriers. He was also a torpedo mechanic. He has never flown in a plane since WW2 because he said all pilots are hotdogs and crazy.

Rawlinson claims the enemy fighter fire probably killed my uncle before the explosion. Rawlinson said he could feel the shells hitting his armor plate behind his seat.

Oddly enough, here I am playing a German u-boat game stationed in Kiel Germany.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q62/avgwarhawk/UncleChip2.jpg


The gentleman in the middle is my Uncle Charles or Chippie as my mother called him. I believe this B-17, Rainier, was his command but I have not gotten postive proof of this.

[Finback]

Great story Warhawk! Thank You for sharing!

Salute!

[flintlock]

Good story indeed. It's great to have such sentimental documents/items from the past.

:|\\

[Boris]

Cool story!

I guess I'll tell you about my Grandfather (father's side). He's still alive, 87 I think, and he only told me his stories a couple of years ago.

Picture:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f152/Boris117/Image8small.jpg

He (Peter Kessler) was born in Volga Germany, a German Colony within Russia, on the banks of the Volga river, that was created by the German Tsarina Catherine the Great, back in the later 1700s.
Before the war, he worked for Aeroflot at his local airfield as an engine mechanic, where it was customary for mechanics to take the planes for test flights. He said it was fairly boring, since time was mostly spent waiting for the mail plane. He spent most of his in the movie theatre in town, an old woman would come running and get him when he was needed.
When the war broke out, all the men had to go and fight. Being Volga German, they refused his application for pilot, and he was drafted into the regular Red Army as a soldier. His uncle was a high ranking General, but he had the bad luck of being executed due to Stalin's paranoia.
The Civilian Volga German population was driven to the gulags in Siberia or Kazachstan.
My Grandfather went to fight on the front. As a russian soldier you were the lowest of the low. The officers treated them like dirt and there was a very clear segregation of the ranks. Often the soldiers would go without food because the officers had first pick. The conditions were appaling, the hospitals didn't have enough room, public buildings were used, often the injured were laid out on the floor to die.

Now, I can't remeber where or when, but at some point his unit was encircled and captured by the Germans. He, and any other Volga Germans defected there and then. The Germans weren't surprised, they'd already picked up numerous other Germans.
He was processed, and was first scheduled to join the Luftwaffe, but was ordered to stay on the eastern front instead. Because of his fluent Russian he was made section leader of about 10 native Russian defectors, and an Austrian signaller. Wearing russian uniforms, they had to make patrols behind enemy lines gathering intelligence. This was not without it's dangers of course. They talked and joked with the Russian soldiers as if they were their own, often gathering intelligence in this way. Complications often arose when crossing the battle lines, first shoot-outs with the KGB border guards, and then friendly fire from the Germans.
He told me of one incident where one of his men was blown up by a mine right next to him. His scouts and then himself had walked over the very same spot, only to have the guy behind him blow up.
At one point he was injured by grenade shrapnel in his back during a skirmish. He was operated on and sent back to Germany, where his wounds got infected. He was operated on again to remove the remaining shrapnel. He got a couple of months leave to recover, but he ran out of food vouchers in something like 2 weeks. He went to his CO and requested to go back to the front. His CO laughed and told him he must be crazy, and sent him to a foster family in the Austrian Alps for the rest of his leave. On the train there he somehow managed to start flirting with three girls independantly, all of whom found out in the end and got himself more than a slap in the face.
I need to get him to tell me his story in detail again. He met my Grandmother near the front I believe, who was a Russian forced labour worker under the Germans. During the closing stages of the War, it was imperative for all the Germans to head west as quickly as possible. No one wanted to have the war end by being captured by the Russians, so everyone high-tailed it to the Americans instead.

Many were not so lucky. My Grandfather on my mothers side was an artilleryman, who was captured by the Russians, and was lucky to have survived to be released a human skeleton in 1949.

Well, my Russian Grandfather made it to the opposite front, and managed to be captured by the Americans. After being processed fairly quickly, they (with my grandmother) went to luxembourg as refugees and lived with a local family. Two of my Aunts were born during this time. Finally they decided to leave Europe to begin a new life. Since they missed the ship to America and didn't feel like waiting another week, they decided on South America instead. They had initially decided on Brazil, but my Grandfather had made friends on the ship who were going to Argentina. When they arrived in Buenos Aires, their papers didn't check out, because they should have gotten off in Brazil. As a result they were denied the aid that all the other regugees were getting (I think my Grnadmother hasn't forgiven him till this day). They started in relative poverty, and had to build up thier lives from scratch, starting with a house built by my Grandfather's bare hands. My father was born in Argentina during this time, along with a handful more aunts and an uncle. The family moved to Germany in the mid/late 60s I think.

[AVGWarhawk]

Man, was he busy or what during the war? Great story! I like the three girl flirting. Maybe your grandmother is not forgiving him for that LOL

[Jimbuna]

What a fantastic thread tis turning out to be :rock: We should all be so very proud of these people :yep: :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Great story Warhawk! Thank You for sharing!

Salute!

I got more on this Finback, but I did not want to take up the whole thread. I have the German recorded records of the bombings the day prior and after the 13th. I have pictures of the German pilots that had flown this day. I have the German claims of downed aircraft for the 13th. Also, this action is in a book called 'Contrails of the Big Square A". The book just sold on Ebay for $300.00. The information I was able to provide the 94th found that one of the pictures in the book is labeled incorrectly. Anyway, this book is hard to comeby and when found cost big bucks:nope:. I'm always looking to score the book at a reasonable price!

[Boris]

bump, no-one else got any?

[Slick Rick]

Great thread......thanx for sharing these great stories with us....Keep em coming...:up: :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Bumb. Come on guys....all you have to do is ask your relatives. They just might surprise you! I know my mom did when I asked. Pulled out a drawer full of information on her brother:up:

[Mooncatt]

my great great grandad was also in the RAF that flew in a Lancaster bomber but since my Greatgran died all the stories died with her and we dont know what happened to him :cry: my dad was in the RN but he didnt serve in WW11 obviously he did fight the cod war and some others but thats it.

[AVGWarhawk]

my great great grandad was also in the RAF that flew in a Lancaster bomber but since my Greatgran died all the stories died with her and we dont know what happened to him :cry: my dad was in the RN but he didnt serve in WW11 obviously he did fight the cod war and some others but thats it.

Any records kept from the war depts? Sometimes you can get field he flew from etc. Find out the squad from the records. Got to dig sometimes.

[Mooncatt]

lol might be a little hard i dont even know his name :rotfl: does it have to be about WW11? my dad has some cracking stories about his service time:D

[Jimbuna]

lol might be a little hard i dont even know his name :rotfl: does it have to be about WW11? my dad has some cracking stories about his service time:D

C'mon lets hear them :yep:

[CNemo]

My dad was the eldest son in an Iowa farm family. A couple of years before the war, his dad was killed in a tractor accident on the farm. Money being tight, my dad and one of his buddies left home and "rode the rails (ie: hoboed)" around the country looking for work. Eventually he joined the navy.

While attending a naval school in Chicago he met and married my mom. When he shipped out to the Pacific, she took the train across the country to stay with his sister in Los Angeles.

Fortunately his ship was delayed getting back to Pearl, they were scheduled to be there on 12/07.... He was on the "Lady Lex" - carrier Lexington. When he was first on the Lex they still had bi-planes and their IIRC 5 inch guns. The guns were removed and the planes upgraded. He ended up as a CPO and was a petty officer in the boiler rooms on the Lex.

And then came May and the first battle between 2 naval forces that did not directly spot each other - carrier warfare. During the battle the Lex took four aerial torps in 5-10 minutes. He never talked about what it was like in the boiler rooms during that.... His favorite story was about losing $200 in his locker when the ship went down, yet stopping to help polish off the ship's ice cream supply before going over the side. Sigh (hey, be careful, I'm not conceived yet!). We eventually finished sinking the Lex ourselves, as she was a brightly burning pyre. He was picked up by a tin can, and spent the rest of the war on "wooden-hull subchasers" stationed in the Tonga Islands.

Many years later I had a stepfather who flew air cover for the Army Air Corps out of Australia for the Coral Sea battle - the war touched a whole generation.

A great book on the Lady Lex is called "Queen of the Flattops." The US NAvy site has many photos of the battle (no subs). This is part of why I will go to the Pac in SH4....

<sorry this got so long>

[f16falcon]

Fantastic stuff!...I have a friend who has a German Flag which was taken off a U-Boat during the war by his father, he still has it to this day..and the flag is blood stained, i saw it and it just blew me away, if only it could talk....wow!

[AVGWarhawk]

Great history there CNEMO:up:

[CNemo]

ok AVG, BUMP!

[AVGWarhawk]

@CNEMO


Do you have an pics or anything tucked away in box somewhere from him?

[CNemo]

Yes, I do. They are not all scanned in yet.

[AVGWarhawk]

Yes, I do. They are not all scanned in yet.
Please share man!!! I'm interested to see what you have!!!:up: Books seem to have the same pictures over and over. Maybe you have a new undiscovered picture!!!!

[Jimbuna]

That was very interesting CNemo :rock:

[CNemo]

OK AVG, and give me some time, as in a couple of weeks - I have to find the shots, scan, then post. And don't hold your breath for undiscovered battle shots, more like normal guys hanging out at Pearl.

[XXi]

My father`s late friend, Mr Grabowski, was a Silesian - he was Polish but lived in Silesia and after Poland had been defeated he was forced to serve in Wehrmacht. He didn`t have much choice, it was after the battle of Moscow and was told it was a way for him and his family to carry on despite of beeing Polish - consider this, and a camp as an alternative.
He has never ever told anything special about the war - he was forced into service and all I know for sure is that he`s been evacuated from Stalingrad as WIA after the city had been encircled by the Soviet troops and ended the service shortly after due to the wounds. But he didn`t want to say anything about it, never. Guess it must have been terrible.

My Grandfather served in the Polish military when Poland has been invaded in September 1939. He was a pilot of a reconeissance aircraft and his plane has been destroyed on the airfield on September 1939. Most Polish planes were moved to the field airports shortly before that and managed to operate until the Soviet invasion on September 17th but most reconeissance and transport planes didn`t make it.
Grandfather`s unit was organised as an infantry battalion and saw combat in the battle of Bzura and then in the defense of Warsaw - my Grandfather shot a German during the battle of Bzura and has been wounded in leg.


He passed away in 2002, aged 89.

[Jimbuna]

May he RIP....salute :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

My father`s late friend, Mr Grabowski, was a Silesian - he was Polish but lived in Silesia and after Poland had been defeated he was forced to serve in Wehrmacht. He didn`t have much choice, it was after the battle of Moscow and was told it was a way for him and his family to carry on despite of beeing Polish - consider this, and a camp as an alternative.
He has never ever told anything special about the war - he was forced into service and all I know for sure is that he`s been evacuated from Stalingrad as WIA after the city had been encircled by the Soviet troops and ended the service shortly after due to the wounds. But he didn`t want to say anything about it, never. Guess it must have been terrible.

My Grandfather served in the Polish military when Poland has been invaded in September 1939. He was a pilot of a reconeissance aircraft and his plane has been destroyed on the airfield on September 1939. Most Polish planes were moved to the field airports shortly before that and managed to operate until the Soviet invasion on September 17th but most reconeissance and transport planes didn`t make it.
Grandfather`s unit was organised as an infantry battalion and saw combat in the battle of Bzura and then in the defense of Warsaw - my Grandfather shot a German during the battle of Bzura and has been wounded in leg.


He passed away in 2002, aged 89.

Salute to your Grandfather and family friend. :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

OK AVG, and give me some time, as in a couple of weeks - I have to find the shots, scan, then post. And don't hold your breath for undiscovered battle shots, more like normal guys hanging out at Pearl.

These are the pictures that make us all human brother! Might consider getting them framed for display. I have my uncle in dress uniform/formal picture displayed. I have my other uncle and my aunt( aunt was a WAVE in the PTO) on their wedding day both in uniform. Framed and displayed! Once you start digging it is interesting. There might be a website for the crew of the Lex. I found a lot of info on the 94th website based in Seattle WA. Mr. Hopkins who collect the information for the 94th sent me a boat load of pics and information.:up: Big help in my search for answers to the Klo-Kay. Load them up I want to see!!!!!!!!!

[CNemo]

OK, OK, and thanks for the encouragement!!!

[CCIP]

Soviet side here!

My parents and grandparents didn't fight in the war, although two of my grandparents survived the siege of Leningrad as children, and another was seriously wounded by a mine left by Germans in his village after they retreated (his friend was killed in the same incident; they were about 15 at the time). The latter grandfather's brother was taken away by the Germans to a labour camp and never returned. One of my great-great-grandfathers (then an old man) died of starvation in Leningrad. Not sure of any other casualties.

Of the fighters - one great-grandfather was permanently crippled by a Finnish sniper near Leningrad in 1943; one was a field surgeon (lieutenant in rank) and survived a shrapnel wound in the head to continue his service; one commanded a rifle regiment and later a division (somewhere in the south of the front from what I know).

When I was in Russia this summer, I had a chance to see one of my great-grandfathers' (the field surgeon's) Order of the Red Banner, and a couple of other medals. Fascinating stuff.

[AVGWarhawk]

Soviet side here!

My parents and grandparents didn't fight in the war, although two of my grandparents survived the siege of Leningrad as children, and another was seriously wounded by a mine left by Germans in his village after they retreated (his friend was killed in the same incident; they were about 15 at the time). The latter grandfather's brother was taken away by the Germans to a labour camp and never returned. One of my great-great-grandfathers (then an old man) died of starvation in Leningrad. Not sure of any other casualties.

Of the fighters - one great-grandfather was permanently crippled by a Finnish sniper near Leningrad in 1943; one was a field surgeon (lieutenant in rank) and survived a shrapnel wound in the head to continue his service; one commanded a rifle regiment and later a division (somewhere in the south of the front from what I know).

When I was in Russia this summer, I had a chance to see one of my great-grandfathers' (the field surgeon's) Order of the Red Banner, and a couple of other medals. Fascinating stuff.



The Russian's fought hard...no doubt. I watched a piece on Stalingrad on the History Channel. Talk about cold, no food plus a few looking to take them out. I was just getting cold watching these poor people out in that weather. Salute to your Grandfathers:up:

[AVGWarhawk]

OK, OK, and thanks for the encouragement!!!

Watch this spot!

[Happy Times]

Of my grandparents both grandmothers participated the war in the ranks of, Lotta Svärd, the largest voluntary auxiliary organisation in the world. It was banned as "fascist" organisation by the Soviets, after the peace agreement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotta_Sv%C3%A4rd

Both my grandfathers were members of Suojeluskunnat, the Finnish National Guard. It was banned as a "Fascist" organisation by the Soviets, after the peace agreement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Guard_%28Finland%29

My other grandfather was too young and participated only in local defence in the home front. Guarding different locations etc..

The other grandfather was also too young during Winter War 1939-1940 during he was a guard in a POW camp. He came good friends with some of the prisoners and still has small souvenirs they changed with each other. He remembers how scared they were after the war about going back to Russia. Most of them got camps or the bullet after return.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_War

But when Continuation war started 1941 he was with a infantry regiment that attacked through the Karelian Isthmus to the old border near Leningrad. These were fierce fights as the Russians thought the Finns would attack Leningrad but instead stopped to the old border. Trenchwar followed and he was sent to a NCO course. During this period the fighting was between small patrols in raids and recon missions. Shortly after he returned as a sergeant he was involved in stopping a Soviet raid in Finnish positions and for his role in the action got highly decorated for the first time. In 1944 when the major Soviet offensive started he was involved in these hard battles and decorated again in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala for bravery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tali-Ihantala

Have to ask for more details to write more. I remember one funny story when he was on leave in the town of Pori. The town had some Germans sodiers in it and they were popular among the girls. This of course annoyed these young Finnish guys.. One day two Germans with Finnish girls were walking past the house they were staying and they threw hot porrage from the second floor on the Germans. They were officers and they drew their pistols but these guys just laughed and threw more. They didnt get caught. :rotfl:

[prologos]

Wow... a trully remarkable thread! Those are some stories!
Here is a piece of my family history...

Both my grandfathers (both have passed away) fought in WWII.
My mother's father Giorgos Karamanakis was a farmer in Serres, Greece when the Italians invaded Greece in October 1940. Every man was called to arms at that time and he was sent in the front in the Pindos mountains on the Albanian-Greek borderline. He fought there as a GI and got real lucky to survive an artillery shell explosion which killed everybody in his foxhole. He was sent to bring food at the time of the explosion and had both his eardums pierced by the bang. He was moved to a primitive hospital (i think it was a school building or something) where he stayed until the Germans invaded Greece as well and the front collapsed. From there he started the long trip home (on foot off course), and he was lucky enough to return to my grandmother and endure the 3 years of Bulgarian occupation. (Greece was divided in three occupations zones, German Italian and Bulgarian). One other thing that he told me was that when returning from the front they came across some German detachement and allthough they expected that they would capture and/or kill them, instead the German soldiers gave them food, treated them with respect and told them that the German Army was under orders from Hitler himself not to retain any Greek soldiers because of the brave way the fought the Italians (and probably because Hitler wanted to humiliate his ally Mussolini :) ).

My father's father, Giannis Kagiantas had a much more interesting story to tell..
He was living in Alexandria Egypt at the time the war broke out and immidiately enlisted in the Greek Army and was sent to Albania to serve as an interpreter for Italian prisoners as he spoke fluent Italian. There he suffered a minor injury from a shrapnel in his left eye. After the collapse of the front he managed to get to Athens and after a while to Egypt, smuggled inside a motorboat where he again enlisted in the Greek Army of the Middle East. He fought in the battle of El Alamein ( I don't know if it was the first or the second battle), and he took part in the landing at Rimini, Italy. After that he became organized politicaly (there were at least two fractions, one left winged - in which my grand father was- and one right winged). A mutiny broke out in the Greek Army and Navy in the middle east ( they wanted the Goverment that should go to Greece after the war to be a Democratic one elected by the people rather than one appointed by the King) and there were many casualties among the Greek soldiers and sailors as the English put down the riot by force. My grand father was then captured by the the English and sent to a prison camp in Libya from where he was released by the end of the war. He tried to return to Greece to fight with ELAS (the guerilla army of the Greek Communist Party) in the civil war that had erupted in Greece but he was unable to do so and remained in Egypt until the mid 1950 where he eventually returned to Athens.

[Jimbuna]

Very interesting :yep: ...thank you for sharing :up:

[Dan D]

Here is my favourite picture from the photo album of my grandfather Helmut, who was an officer, drill instructor and boxing coach in the Wehrmacht, and later joined the Kriegsmarine.
Manoeuvre 1935/1936 near the Russian border: troops are marching past my grandfather; one guy is, well, "ruining everything".
My grandfather’s written caption, post mortem (fig.):” When eating an apple, you easily get out of lock-step”.

http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6575/hugenotten3ef8.jpg

Before he got married and before the war began, he joined the German navy, where he spent his time as a landlubber and staff officer. He was mathematician.

[HunterICX]

As far my Family has something to do with World War2

my Fathers side, they lived in Gilze Rijen (where a german Airbase was built)
as the Airfield caused bombing raids done by the allies and sometime the village was hit by a couple of bombs. as my Grandfather was a member of a group that helped the villagers in the nasty situations. sometimes the bombing was horrible that 1 whole family just was wiped out.

when I visited last time the graveyard, I saw the grave of the family..really its painfull to see. some of the family members wherent older the 5 yrs.
I also noticed a grave if I remember right of a Canadese bomber crew that have been shot down nearby.

as the war progessed and the smell in the air was like that the Allies could enter holland any minute now. my grandfather tried to sabotage things with a couple of friends on the airfield where he almost got caugh and aborted the sabotage mission.

My mothers side

my grandmother lived in germany , and the only thing I know about that is that she spit a SS Nazi soldier in the face when they passed by, very risky to do such things becaused she almost got shot for that.

[Jimbuna]

Very interesting Hunter :yep:
One of my lasting memories from when I was living in your country of birth was that of Rememberence Day when children were given the day off school and each was allocated a war grave to tend (grasscutting, flowers, cleaning the gravestone etc)...I found that very moving in an emotional sense :yep: