My great-grandfather on my mothers side served at the front in the First World War, although my great-granduncle on my fathers side I believe was hit by a sniper at Verdun and killed. My great-grandfather and grand-uncle both served in World War Two. My grand-uncle was in the Royal Navy on different ships (he nearly wound up on the Barham on her last voyage but missed his boarding by a stroke of luck so I've been told) and my Great-Grandfather was in the MP I believe, I was evacuated at Dunkirk then sent to Africa, where his troop ship was torpedoed, but he made it out alright and lived up until the 1980s IIRC. I did a big old post in an old thread about Grandfathers in the war :) Pics and all

Here we are:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...62&postcount=8

:)

EDIT: Reading Kapitans post suddenly made me realise and hang my head in shame, I'd forgotten completely about my Nan, she was in the land army as well, after the war she was sent out to Belgium where apparently somewhere there there's a big statue that all the army men and girls engraved their names into and a soldier lifted her up so she could engrave hers there too. She throughly loved her time in the land girls, and it was when she was out in Singapore working as a telephone exchange operator that she met my grandfather who was stationed out there with 45 Commando. Apparently he used to dial the operator just to talk to her :P Thanks for jogging my memory there Kap!!

Grandad on mums side was a sapper in WW2
Grandad on dads side was a royal engineer was at dunkirk
Nan on dads side was in the land army

great grandad served in submarines in WW1 never saw combat he died on HMS K13 1917

nans brother on mums side served on submarines in WW2 he died unknown submarine know little about him

Stepdad served in soviet navy joined just after the 1962 cuban missile crisis left in 1977 to work on ULCC's left 1989 began lorry driving 1989 till 2004 however this was part time he lectured at St petersburg naval institue since 1990 and sometimes still goes to sea despite his age.

I once watched a documentary about D-Day. There some people from different nations described how they experienced the battle at the beaches. One American walked up the beach on which he landed 60 years ago and finally met one of the German MG-gunners who had taken them under fire back then.

They had a long talk and the American eventually said: "You're the best enemy I've ever met." (or something similar to this). It is always nice to see that the wounds of that war are healing.:D

I read about the same kinda thing happening during WW1, one christmas day both sides cease fire and celebrated Christmas - shook hands, traded cigarettes celebrated Christmas together then they ran back to their trenches and started firing at each other again.

I read about a similar kind of thing happening in France in 1944 to a British airborne sniper.

IIRC, as he was going out for his watch he turned a corner and almost walked into his German equivalent doing the same thing! Both of them were standing there stunned, in a kind of stand off, niether with his weapon ready to shoot; so the Brit whipped out his packet of cigarettes and offered the German one. So for the next 5 minutes or so they had a smoke together and then went on their separate ways.

Was the kind incident that demonstrates the futility of war.

Both grandfathers were in the Winter war fighting for Finland against the Soviets and the Continuation war fighting the Soviets and subsequently driving the Germans out, one as artillery NCO and the other as a message carrier, very demanding task. I guess their brothers were in the war too, haven't really found out if they had any brothers. Maybe I should perform some geneology research.

My father-in-law was in the Battle of the Bulge. He said he got to see some
King Tigers up much closer than he would have liked. He spent nearly 30 days
outside (hard winter) going to Bastogne on foot....

JIM

King Tigers a very impressive. I saw one in a museum and it is much larger than all the other WWII tanks they had there (Panzer III/IV, Sherman, T34).:o

-Thanks for posting guys, to the Veterans who survived, tell them I said thank you for what they have done for ours and their country.
-To the men who didn't, I am sorry for your losses, and thanks to them for what they have done as well.

My father was a US Navy personelman assigned to the Commador in the war against Japan in Alaska. Got some letters my mother had in her keep sake box when she died. They were from him talking about having a knife in case the Japs were to attack in the middle of the night.

Both are dead now ... that's what happens when you get old.

My dad frequents a British Legion club near here, and I went down with him once. That place is brilliant for listening to old war stories and sharing a pint with the people who fought for this country.

My Father served and got trapped behind the lines in Ukraine durring Barbarossa.

My grandfather was a sentry/air-raid spotter on top of the Bank of Ireland, later a Vickers gun instructor. Didn't see any action, naturally. Which puts me in an interesting position, I very much dislike Ireland's WW2 neutrality, but if we participated I may not be here today :hmm:

Me too, we would have badly needed you.... oh,...err....he means siding with the other side...ok.:oops:


Sorry, couldn't resist.:p:roll:

My Grandfather on my mothers side, Kyle was in the infantry and took part in the Normady invasion. He passed away in '88 but lived on the other side of the country so I didn't see him much. But I got a few stories second hand from my parents. He never talked about combat, but said he got a major case of sea sickness waiting to hit the beaches, and that he enjoyed the french wine and grateful French women.

I'm skeptical about this one. Mom said that he hated officers, and twice he was promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant. Both times, he promptly slugged the first green 2nd Lieutenant that he could find, and was busted back down to Sergeant. According to Kyle, the CO liked him and the fact that he wouldn't leave his buddies from his unit and also got a kick out of the reactions of the shocked Lt's. A good story I like repeating, but I'm not sure about the truth of it. But he did have that type of personality.

I'll give another example of his off the wall behavior. My Dad and Mom have sworn that this is true. He lost his leg just above the knee after the War in a car accident. There was a tiny one level hospital in the town where he lived and Kyle knew the doctor that treated him, who was a vet of the war also. He talked the doctor into letting him take his leg home with him! It was kept in a freezer in the garage.

It was standard procedure that when one of his daughters had a boy come over, he would send them to the freezer to get him a beer. The girls would always warn the boys but they never took it seriously. And there in the freezer was the leg. That caused most of them to just get the hell out of there. When his time came, Dad was horrified when he saw the leg, not believing Mom's warning. Mom said Kyle rolled with laughter as Dad stumbled in pale as a ghost, before telling him that he forgot to bring the beer in.

I really wish he had visited him more in my late teens so I could have heard those stories, and probably a few more. Mom's not so sure that would have been a great idea. She's says I'm too much like him as it is. :D

:lol:

My mum recalls that my great grandpa (on mum's side) was working against the Japanese when the Japanese invaded during the 1930s and he was caught and later killed (someone betrayed him, I believe:down:). He probably saw more actions in the civil war which infested China for more than 20 years but this is something I'm not sure

My grandpa (on mother's side) was born when the war broke out, in 1937 if I'm right, so he had to escape to Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was attacked in 7 Dec. 1941, the day which Pearl Harbour was attacked, my grandpa had to escape back to mainland China and hid in the villages, and survived the war.

(I personally disliked the pro-Japanese pose which most Western countries took in 1930s)

I havn't heard of any accounts of direct actions, through.

My Grandfather served her Majesty's Royal Engineers in WWII. My great grandmother lost her best friend in England as a result of German strafing. I've heard some stories.....:o

my grandfather on my father's side drove a supply truck for the KMT in southern china during the japanese invasion. always told me about how he ate like a king during the war since he drove the truck he had first dips on stuff like shoes, chocolate, cigarettes, whiskey, etc, lol.

my other grandfather on my mother's side was an officer in the KMT during the japanese invasion and the ensuing chinese civil war. his job was to root out corrupt officals and suspected communists. one story my mother told me was when he invited a warlord over to his home to try and convince him to join the govt in the fight against the japanese. before the guy showed up, he gave my grandmother a pistol and told her to shoot herself if he should get killed lest she be raped by a gang of thugs. my mother tells me that he was given an award by the CIA for something he did against the communists, but he didnt get to keep the award and its on file somewhere in the CIA archives i guess. its be pretty cool if i get to see it.

both were wartime buddies. they actually introduced my mom and dad to each other when they moved to the US. both lived in the US for almost 20 years and died well into their old age.

My father was a merchant seaman beginning in 1939 and was 2 days out of Pearl on his way there from SF on 12/7/41. His ship was about 200 miles south of this ship, the first American casualties of the Pearl Harbor attack:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4013/colsonui1.jpg

and heard her distress calls. He pulled into Pearl on Dec. 9th to find out he had a critical job skill and a draft deferment for the entire war. His critical job skill was taking troops to invasion beaches and dropping them off. As a merchant seaman, he took part in the invasions of Attu, Kiska, North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Iwo Jima invasions as well as the Japanese occupation. He was shot at by representatives of all three AXIS powers and only used a firearm in the commission of two armed robberies which netted him a year in San Quentin from mid-43 to mid-44. After the war, he was drafted in the Army in 1946 for about 3 months before obtaining a hardship discharge.

His brother, my Uncle Emmett, was a Lt. Cdr in the Naval Reserve and was port captain in Noumea during the war.