Grandfathers in the war

[Kipparikalle]

Here you tell what your grandfather did in the war.
That should explain everything, but of course. You don't need to tell if you don't want tho'


My grandfather was on the Continuation-war, on the Lagus' armor-division.
He was the gunner of 'sturm' (Stug IV G or something) Finland got the sturms from Germany.

As now he knows that his time is close (his next heartattack will be his last) he has revealed more and more what he did on the war, every time I meet him (1-4 a year)

When the Continuation-War started (1941, 3 days after Germany's attack on Russia)
His tank platoon has to cover infantry attack over a field, both sides were forest.
As their infantry attacked, the sturms shooted everything what moved on the opposite forest. The attack was succes, but soon 3 russian tank (T34 type tanks) came from the road near them. My grandfather's tank was just next to that road, so they didnt need a lot of turning to get first tank on the sight.

The first shot went straigh through the front armor of the tank, the tank started smoking and the remaining tankcrew jumped out.

The second tank spotted his tank and shot, but the shot was too high and hit a tree behind his tank.

Other sturm shot at the russian tank, wich broke the gun of the tank.
The enemy tank started retreating but my grandfather shot another shell on the tank. Wich went also through, the tank started burning and nobody came out.

The attack was succes, no own tank losses, and only couple of infantrymens died or injured.


I will tell more later

[Bill Nichols]

My grandfather was on General Winfield Scott's staff in the war with Mexico. Neal's grandfather was there, too.

[Chock]

Never knew either of my grandfathers, that's war for you. I know one was killed wading ashore during an assault and he is buried on Madagascar, beyond that, not got a lot of info on them.

That's why war (unless it is on a simulator) is crap.

Chock

[AntEater]

My paternal grandfather trained as a cavalryman but actually saw combat in the same manner as the original posters. As a StuG crewman, first driver, later gunner, from late 1943 until the end of the war. Don't know the unit, but it was some independent StuG brigade in the central sector of the eastern front.
He did shoot some T-34s as well, I suppose.
He barely managed to avoid the Warsaw uprising. He was on home leave and SS and Field Police were combing the trains at Warsaw station for "volunteers" to join the fighting in the city. As an assault artilleryman he was exempt from such press-ganging and was one of the few who didn't have to go.
He tells a lot of depressing stories about the retreat and captivity in Russia. He was a POW for about three years in Stalingrad, rebuilding the city, and had to remove a lot of corpses there.
He drove stuff his whole life, trucks, excavators, construction machinery, anything on the road, regardless if it had tracks or wheels. He still drives his BMW on the Autobahn, but always complains about not being able to tinker with it anymore as everything is computerized.

My late maternal grandfather was a Gebirgsjäger (one of the few non bavarians or austrians I suppose) serving at Poland, Norway and later the Caucasus.
He was flown into Narvik in April 1940 as reinforcement with a Ju 52.
He was later captured on Crimea and sent to work in the mines in Karaganda in Kazakhstan, for about two years. Was better than it first sounds, as the POWs who worked there were actually paid, and part of the money was even sent to his wife in west Germany.
He told a lot of stories about the war, at least when grandma wasn't around to shut his mouth. But since he liked telling stories I never knew which one was true.
Later he worked in a sausage factory


My grand uncle was the soldier in our family, he was a drill instructor before the war and served in a Luftwaffe field division near Leningrad.
He served in three armies for over 30 years (Reichswehr, Wehrmacht, Bundeswehr) but always remained a Feldwebel.

[seafarer]

My grandfather was in the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade in WWI. My father ran a K-gun crew on Canadian River class frigates during WWII (HMCS Waskesiu and HMCS Eastview). One of my uncle's was with the British Commandos, but got lent out to British Intelligence. He was killed in France in 1943, so I never got to even meet him (although I know it was not his first covert operation in occupied Axis territory - he'd been dropped in at least once prior to the operation he went missing on).

[fatty]

My grandfather was a motorcycle courier with the British army, but actually went AWOL not far into the war to marry my grandmother. I had a great-uncle who apparently was awarded the OBE but I don't know anything about that.

[Kipparikalle]

My grandfather is the last original member of his platoon, alive.
He lost all his friends, every one of them.

During the massive tank-battle of 'Tali-Ihantala' He had to be motorcycle messenger.
During that time he accidentally drived over the lines to the russian side, he drived past big russian tank, truck and soldier-convoys.

He managed to get back, russians didn't notice that he was a finn.
He just drived back, waved a hand to the quards on the road. And he was back on own side.

[Oberon]

Right, where do I start?

I'll start with my great-grandfather, Charles Edward Clack, otherwise known as Ted or Teddy Clack. After marrying his love, Madge in 1914 he joined up and served with the Wiltshire Regiment and was severely wounded at the Somme, Sulua Bay and Ypres, during the battle for Messines Ridge he acted as a runner and was giving the Military Medal for bravery and a certificate awarded to him by the General of the 25th Division.

Teddy and Madge circa 1914-1915

News of Ted receiving the Military Medal

A keen football player he was a part of the football team of the Wilts Regiment during the war, as shown below, he is the first on the left on the second row.

At the end of the First world war, he played football with Highworth Town, Hinckley United and some others. During his term with Hinckley he scored quite a few goals it would seem according to information we received the other day. Quite the Beckham of Hinckley in the 30's!

When the Second World War broke out, he joined up again as a Senior NCO in the Military Police, going to France to open up a field punishment camp. Of course, France fell before long and he was evacuated out from Dunkirk. He then went to North Africa to open another field punishment camp and was on board the 24,000 ton liner Strathallan when she was torpedoed and sunk by U-562 (on her 9th war patrol, and out of La Spezia). His comments on the sinking were recording in a local newspaper after the war:

"I went overboard from the upper deck of the liner and scrambled into a lifeboat. After drifting about for nine hours I was picked up by a destroyer and landed at a port."

At the end of the war, he did various jobs, including working for Sketchleys for several years, before dying in his sleep in April '84 aged 88.

My Great-Uncle Ted, joined the Royal Navy around 1935, and served on several ships during his service, including HMS Arrow, HMS Iron Duke, and HMS Barham (Although he had a spot of luck here, missing her final patrol!) According to the picture I have here, he was on board HMS Arrow during 1942:

Great-Uncle Ted and some of the crew of HMS Arrow 1942 (He's on the top, second from the right)

I don't know too much else about Great-Uncle Teds time in the Royal Navy, sadly communication with my mothers side of the family is rather erratic

Now, my Grandfather, Norman Clack, joined the Royal Marines in 1946/47 and served in 45 Commando in Palestine, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
I also have some pictures he took during his time in the Marines:

45 Commando disembarking from Dakota transports in Palestine 1947

A Scout Car used by 45 Commando in either Malaya or Palestine. Date not known

A Briefing for 45 Commando in Malaya, May 1950

On board the second wave of Dakotas heading to Haifa from Benghazi, May 1947

A radio operator from 45 Commando, written on the back it says
"Don't blame me for the grim look, Mam, this little set is more obstinate than a mule."

45 Commandos Bren group. "This is my Bren group, wading ankle deep up a stream mam, four grand guys who never complain, we had been out two days here."

My Grandad (on the left) and a gentleman called only 'Steve' on active service at Kowloon, 1947.

My Grandad left the Marines in the early 1950s and joined the Police force, working as Constable and then through to joining the Scenes Of Crime Officers, unfortunately in his time in SOCO the dust used in searching for fingerprints caused him to get Miners Lung and he had to retire from the service in the 1980s. He died in July this year.

So, there we are, hope I didn't kill your bandwidth with all the pics, I've been meaning to put these up for a while, thanks to my Great-Nan whose photo album these come from.
I've put higher-res copies of these pictures up here if anyone is interested.

Thanks for looking through them!

[Mike@UK]

My Grandfather, John Boow was in the 1st Airborne Division, the Border Regiment, and fought in the Oosterbeek Perimeter during Operation Market Garden, this is a photo taken during the battle, he's the one at the very back behind the man with a Cigar:



He escaped at the end of the battle and survived the war, however he died before I was born, but luckily for me, after my Mother was born! :p

We still have a Hitler Youth Dagger in the house that was his, and a photo of him in Uniform.

[Oberon]

Nice pic! Funnily enough I've also got a Hitler Youth dagger from my grandfather! It's in nice nick too.

[Sailor Steve]

My grandfather was far too old to serve in the war. My father was just too young - he joined the navy in 1945 at age 18.

[edit] I did, however, have two uncles at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately they both died before it ever occured to me to ask them about their experiences.

[blue3golf]

Don't know many details just:

Grandfather on mom's side operated landing craft in the Pacific, not sure which islands.

One great uncle was a combat engineer in Africa and Italy, was rotated home to guard a German POW compound in Minnesota or Wisconsin, I forget which. The other was Infantry in France and Germany. Both also did tours in Korea and one carried through to Vietnam as well.

[Kapitan]

My mothers dad:

Was a sapper blowing up ammunition dumps during the war not just after the allies landed in the main land but also he was sent along with other sappers to parts of germany and france to covertly destroy ammunition storage areas as well.

My real dads dad:

Was a royal engineer, he was at dunkirk during the evacuation and was one of the last people off the beechs, he went back in 1944 and helped build the mullberry harbours and other installations.

My stepdads dad:

Was in the soviet navy working alongside the british escorting convoys to and from britian to murmansk, stationed mainly on destroyers and smaller craft he had two ships go down, but died in 1997 without saying a word of what he did.
But thats all we know he did during the war.

My nan (mothers side) was an evaccuee

My nan (real dads side) was in the land army

[elite_hunter_sh3]

my grandfather on my moms side , served in World War one as a messenger/runner, he was 7 years old i believe, he died last year when he was 104 years old, he served in World War 2 as a Partisan, fighting the germans in the balkans along side, greek and soon to be (then) allied forces.. he told many stories of the wars, fortunately we got many of them on video

[Stealth Hunter]

In my family, I've had them fighting since the Ottoman Empire on my father's side.

On my mother's side, we've been able to trace our ancestry clear back to King Phillip's War.

Historical documents that we've recently discovered online that document the history of the Janissaries that the Ottoman Empire recruited for their Sultans show that we had 6 members of my family fighting for them; including 1 that stayed loyal to the Sultan after they betrayed him and tried to overthrow him.

Otherwise, his side of the family didn't break out into another war until World War I when my grandfather, Massut, joined the Ottomans to destroy the English. He served at Gallipoli and survived, living to be 86 at the time of his death.

I'm actually the last person to have served in a war on the Iranian side of my family: the Iran-Iraq War.



My mother's side of my family has a far more interesting military background, starting with John Tuthill, who moved to the Americas during King Phillip's War. He fought against the Indians, and survived until his death at 54.

From there on out, we had family in the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War (Nathaniel Tuttle; a spy for the Americans and a soldier in General George Rogers Clark's infantry unit; he stole supplies for them during the winter), War of 1812, Civil War (both Union), Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam.

My family had two members serving in it during World War I. The first was Lieutenant John Cornwell who served in the Second Division until he was wounded with gas and suffered from shellshock. He survived and became a nurse. He died in 1964 at the age of 71.

JOHN CORNWELL (Uncle)







My other relative (see ship photo BELOW) was German. We have a lot of shady details regarding him, and we aren't even sure what his first name was. From what we've discovered, his last name was "Bolken", and he was the captain of the SMS Pommern at the Battle of Jutland. He went down with his ship when it was destroyed, along with all other 839 hands.
Kapitan Bolken's Ship: SMS Pommern (Uncle)






During World War II, I had two members on my mother's side fighting for the Americans. The first one was Staff-Sergeant Byron King. He flew in a B-17 and was killed when it exploded over Germany on his 13th mission.

The second was 2nd Lieutenant Randall Tuttle. He was a P-47 Pilot in the Pacific during the war, and he shot down 6 planes. He destroyed at least a dozen ground targets before his death whilst serving on the Island of Cebu. His remains were returned to the United States in 1947, and he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.


RANDALL TUTTLE (Cousin)