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None of my grandfathers were in the war, but two of my other grandad's brothers were in Continuation War. They both died unfortunately. :cry: Other was shot while moving to the neighbouring trench to give the message that the war is over. And the other survived the war, but was killed in an car accident while they were moving out from the lines.
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My paternal grandfather is buried in the region of Vladimirovka in Moldova, between Romania and the Ukraine that is.
My father was 6 weeks old when my grandmother received message that her husband was KIA. She then wrote a letter to my grandfather’s military unit because she wanted to know whether her last letter had reached him before his death, where she told him about the birth of my father. A comrade “Fritz” wrote back that if my grandfather “Franz” had knowledge about the birth of his son, he had not told it to anybody. “Fritz” then told her what he knew about what had happened to “Franz”: At 6 am, April 5th 1944 the Soviet Army launched a massive tank attack. The Germans could not hold the line and so the order was given to pull-out fast. My grandfather was part of the medical service and so he had to stay back to get the evacuation of the wounded from a field hospital done or to go into captivity with them. He did not show up at the new line of defence and so he was declared MIA. About 2 weeks later the Germans launched a counter-attack and were able to retake the old positions for a while. Search deployments then found my grandfather’s body lying by a house, where he had been looking for cover when a tank shell killed him, so it seemed. He was then buried on a provisional military cemetery in Agronomovka, today: Agronomul. Part of the letter was a very precise drawing which gave valuable information that helped me to locate the about position of the cemetery on a modern road map of Moldova. I then contacted the German war graves commission to find out, whether the cemetery is already known to them. They have now written back that they are already in negotiations with the owner of the land where the cemetery once was. If they get his permission for digging, which in many cases, I was told, is basically a matter of paying compensation for the loss of crops, the remains, probably some old pairs of leather boots and some uniform buttons, if they find something, would then be moved to the Central German military cemetery in Moldova in Chisinau. I also had email contact with a guy who is searching for his father's grave in Moldova for 35 years now and so far he has exhumed the remains of 600 German soldiers but none of them was his father. He keeps on digging. It is just an idea so far, but my father and I will probably fly to Chisinau and from there we would take a car to explore the area for one or two days. |
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During WW2, my grandfather from fathers side was a captain for land-lease boat going back and forth to USA.
http://x79.xanga.com/77da375a7913257.../w38593099.jpg His relative was KIA by sniper during Fin-war while he was unloading artillery shells My grandfather from mothers side was too young for action. He talked once about his village getting bombed and he got a concussion from which. His father was MIA under St Petersburg. (no pictures) Grandmothers father was in calvary. After WW2 he was tank commander in Berlin. He is on the right. I have his medals and pipe.. http://x08.xanga.com/5f0a3b5a7063257.../b38593114.jpg His sister was during Blockade of Leningrad. She was a nurse. |
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Now let's sticky this thread please, so newcomers will notice this too and shares their grandfather's/dad's history.
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[QUOTE=Happy Times]
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Now, seriously, I like your way of thinking, but I certainly won't start digging in Moldova, nor would my father, What mattered for my father, was to get an idea, where his father went awol. For many years he thought his father is buried in Yugoslavia, Besides, that would not make a difference. He is pleased now that he can show the place on a map to his mother and i am pleased that I could help him here. That's it. |
My Gandfather didn't join up when war was decleared in Australia, instead waiting a couple of years hoping by then things would have settled down and he would avoid being thrown in at the sharp end without support. Shortly after he did join, Japan bombed pearl habour, and by the time he had finnished training his battalon was posted to New Guniea to Fight on the Kokoda track.
On the way from Sydney, the ship stoped at Cairns and all the troops did a heavy transport driving course. Half a dozen men were picked to stay behind, the rest were shiped to New Guinea, where they lost a large nuber of men. My Grandfather was on of the men who was picked to stay behind and train others. He Did end up in New Guniea, as part of the logistics and supply group there. He did tell some intresting storys about building rope bridges for tuch to cross gourges! He end the war on the island of Wewack, where he was left with other soldiers without resupply for three months. They lived off a large stock of baked beans till they were picked up. He didn't eat baked beans untill just before his death 55 years later. |
My mother's father was in the Waffen SS as a AA gunner and after that he fouht somwere else but I don't know exactly since I'm doing some research but havn't found much yet. And my father's father was in JR12 and probably fought in Ihantala but I'm not 100% sure since I have never asked him and now he's having problems with his memory but I'm doing research about him too atm.
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My grandfather on my farthers side was a 1st officer on a destoryer escorting mechants on the artic and and atlantic convoy runs during WWII he surived the war but died about 10 years after the end of the war.
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Listed some books about them, i have the matrikkeli (dont know the english word) that has them all. So if you want to, PM me his name and i can check, were he went after he came back. Mauno Jokipii: Panttipataljoona, 1968 Veikko Elo: Pantin lunastajat, 1993 Niilo Lappalainen: Panssarieverstin kuolema (The Death of an armour colonel), 1995 David Littlejohn: Foreign Legions of the Third Reich, vol 4, 1987 Peter Abbot & Nigel Thomas: Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941–45, 1989 Richard Landwehr: Siegrunen, issues #14, 34 and 43 Kari Kuusela & Olli Wikberg: Wikingin suomalaiset, 1996 Unto Parvilahti: Terekille ja takaisin, 1958 Paul Carell: Marssi Venäjälle, 1964 George H. Stein (suom. 2004) Waffen-SS. Hitlerin eliittikaarti sodassa 1939-1945. |
My Grandfather, newly emigrated to the United States, was not accepted in the US forces.. so he returned to England and joined the "Duke of Cambridge's Own 17th Lancers" in WWI
http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi...7thLancers.jpg Did you know that England had a "Deaths Head" outfit? http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi...WWI/17thB1.jpg http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi...nSnowball1.jpg As a matter of fact, two of my grandfathers brothers went back to England and joined the same outfit! http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi...geDickWWIA.jpg James, George, and Richard Bartholomew http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi.../WWI/17th1.jpg Look closely at the hat pins and collar pins.. "Death or Glory" And finally I'll leave you with this..... http://www.sfvsf.org/photos/War%20Pi...7thAnthemA.jpg |
Unfortunatly both my grandparents are dead, as is my wife's. Time will do that :dead: :cry:
However, on my father's side he put in his 20 and retired in the late 60's . . . SK2. Nothing was mentioned of him serving in any sense in WWII. However, may have been stationed aboard ships during the conflicts afterwards. He never really talked about his service. However, unlike other Filipinos he retained his US Citizenship after Independence was granted in 1947. On my mother's side, he was part of one of the guerilla cells operating on Bataan/Olongapo Area, being given the rank of CPL. After WWII, he began working a long career at NB Subic Bay. Both of his sons, my uncles, went to serve long careers in the USN. My Wife's grandfather, who died in the Philippines, before I got to meet him was a guerilla in the Anao area. Near the end of the war he joined the "new" Philippine Scouts, and served as part of the occupation force on Okinawa. He ended up joining INP, and retired after a long career. |
On Dec, 7, 1941, my father was an able seaman aboard the SS Lena Luckenback about 600 miles east-north-east of Oahu on the run out from San Francisco. About 300 miles to the nor-nor-east of them was the SS Cynthia Olson. My father told me of hearing her distress calls a few hours before the attack began.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4013/colsonui1.jpg Quote:
His brother, my Uncle Emmett was a Lieutenant Commander USNR and was port captain of Noumea, New Caledonia. My Aunt's ex-husband Glen was one of the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne" serving in the 101st Airborne from D-Day to Berlin. Bill, what was your grandfather's name? As a Scott, Winfield has been an interest of mine and was the most influential and brilliant US general of the 19th century as both the Conqueror of Mexico and Architect of the Anaconda Strategy that secured Victory for Federal forces and preserved the Union. In my hometown of Benicia, both William T. Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant were posted as young lieutenants. Sherman was adjutant to the last military governor of California, Col. Roberts Barnes Mason and was present during the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. |
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PM send. So your grandfather was on officer? He might have commanded those Finnish units i listed and was an officer in the SS also. For info on SS-Division Wiking, SS-Regiment Nordland and SS Flak Artillerie Abteilung 5 you should find help here. http://forum.axishistory.com/ Good luck.:up: |
My father was in the Army Air Corps in WWII and served as a crew chief for various aircraft during the war, first in Africa and then in Europe. His rank was a staff seargent.
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As regards the British army "Deaths Head" unit, the 17th Lancers: when I was living in Germany I got into a bit of trouble because of that unit's badge. Many years before I went to live in Germany, I bought a fine brass belt buckle fashioned after the 17th's regimental badge: it's very impressive. I was wearing it one day in the Fatherland when the cops stopped me. The long and the short of it is that any Nazi regalia or gestures are forbidden in Germany. They wouldn't have it that it was a British army badge until I pointed out to them the "Or Glory" slogan underneath the skull. They still weren't well pleased and told me not to wear it.
As regards my military forebears: my great-granddad volunteered for the army at the outbreak of the First World War in the UK on August 4th 1914. He was a 30-year-old coal miner and joined up, so the tale goes, to spite his overman, with whom he'd had a row over money that same week. My great-grandmother wasn't too pleased about this: she had 7 kids at the time. Anyway, my old great-grandpa was a tough old b*gger and miraculously survived the slaughter in France, where he served as an infantryman in the South Lancashire Regiment. He lived to a grand old age as well: I remember him when I was but a lad in the early 1950s and he was in his eighties. My grandfather, my above great-grandfather's son-in-law, lied about his age in WWI and volunteered when he was 17 in 1916. He served in the Coldstream Guards in France and also lived to tell the tale, only to die as the result of a mining accident in 1960. He had 13 brothers and sisters. His younger brother born in 1920 volunteered at the outbreak of WWII in 1939 and served in the Irish Guards. He was severly wounded at Anzio, 1944: he almost lost his leg and lost one kidney as a result of a mortar attack and remained a cripple for the rest of his life until his death in 1990. My father, born 1918, joined the British army in 1938 to escape unemployment. He served throughout WWII as an infantryman in the British 8th Army, seeing action in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. He took part in the battle of El Alamein and Monte Cassino. He very rarely spoke to me of his wartime experiences. He became more candid, however, as his death approached in 1970 and told me of the horrors of Cassino. He used to get infuriated when he saw war films on TV, saying to me: "Don't believe it! It's nothing like that! It's not a game!" Of course, this was long before Spielberg's "Private Ryan" Normandy reconstruction. |
I've never greated thread that would get this popular and stickied ;_;
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My Grandparents on my father's side were German jews who fled Germany to Britain in 1937. My Grandmother's brother had left some time earlier and had got himself a job as an army doctor and this made it easier for my grandparents to come to England.
They had originally thought to move on to the US, but they found Britain very pleasant and so decided to stay. My Grandmother's brother stayed in the army as a doctor throughout the war, fighting with the 7th Armoured in North Africa and France, and i imagine he was particularly pleased not to have been captured. My grandfather's younger brother on the otherhand was interned in Buchenwald, but managed to escape and made it to Britain in 1939, days before war was declared. He spent his life as a farmer in a village in the Midlands. His mastery of the local dialect was so great that he was known in the village as "the man with the german wife" My grandfather himself was a civilian doctor throughout the war and my grandmother was a dentist - i guess the civilians still needed them! on my mother's side, my grandfather left the Royal Navy (torpedoman on a destoryer) after a decade of service just a few years before the war started. He felt this was a very unfair turn of events. He was in the Home Guard and bomb disposal units during the war. His most traumatic experience, which we only discovered shortly before he died, was when he was ordered to defuse an unexploded bomb that had landed in the middle of an armaments warehouse in London. |
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