Is anyone related to a WWII Veteran?

[Platapus]

My grandfather was a radioman on a merchant ship. Our family has been trying to find out about the ship he was torpedoed on his last mission. He survived but never talked about it to his family.

[JHuschke]

Yeah, I can imagine all the bad things he has seen and the nightmares it probably gives him..I wouldn't talk about it either, brings back bad memories.

[Morts]

im not directly related to him (uncles girlfriends grandfather), but ive met him a few times.
He's a luftwaffe vet who flew on the russian front and got shot down and afterwards captured where he survived ofcourse
i belive he's name is Edvard Stark (Edvard Lanka during the war) and sadly i dont know much about he's wartime experience.

Then we have a guy on the croatian side of my family who served on the german side too (dont know hes name, unit or anything)
he came home after the war, and proceeded to hang himself in hes dad's barn shortly after getting home as he didnt know how the people in the village would react to him fighting for the germans

[AntEater]

My paternal grandfather was an assault gun driver, later gunner on the east front, my maternal one a mountain trooper in Norway and the east Front.
One of my grand uncles was an NCO in Luftwaffe ground troops, but I am not exactly sure what he did. Some other grand uncles apparently were in the Kriegsmarine, and one was apparently killed in the fighting off Normandy. One other disappeared after the Falaise pocket and was presumed dead and turned up alive in 1980.
Also I know that in WW1 my paternal great grandfather served in the Austro-Hungarian army on the Alpine front. He often told my father about warfare in the high mountains.

But I suppose nearly every European has ancestors that fought in WW2.

[Schroeder]

My grandfather was a "Kanzelwart" (a mechanic for the fuselage if I understood him correctly:hmm for Messerschmitt BF-109 fighter aircrafts in France. He didn't see much combat (except air raids of course). He was then transferred to an area near the German/Italian boarder. While being on the train they were attacked by fighter bombers which destroyed the power line and killed several of his comrades. After being stuck somewhere without transportation his group was "volunteered" to serve as engineers and to build bridges over some river to allow the German forces to retreat from Italy... Unfortunately they were neither trained nor equipped for such tasks and therefore these bridges were never completed. After being send back to France his unit eventually surrendered to the US Army (where he almost starved being a POW).

Well the result for my family was no loss of lives but they lost there home (and all their possessions) twice to air raids. My family came from Stettin which belongs to Poland nowadays and is now called Szczecin, but after becoming a POW he claimed to be from West-Germany to avoid to be send back to Soviet occupied territory when his POW-time ended (He knew already that his family had fled to the west too).




My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.

How very sad

No matter what "side" these people were on, we can all honour their service to their native countries

[August]

My maternal grandfather was an AA gunner in the Luftwaffe stationed on the eastern front.

[AVGWarhawk]

Two Uncles and one Aunt

Edward Schultheis..PTO, torpedo mechanic and aircraft mechanic still living in NJ
Charles Schulthies..ETO, B17 pilot. Shot down Kiel Germany June 13th 1943 did not survive.
Jean Schultheis..PTO, wife of Edward Shulthieis, WAVE, nurse WWII, passed on, natural causes.

[seafarer]

My Father served 4 years in the Canadian Navy (1941-45), on River Class frigates (crewed a K-gun as his action station), mostly doing convoy runs from NewFoundLand to Britain and later, Russia. He joined up at 17 and got his mother to sign the age waiver (told her if she didn't, he'd run away and join up anyway). His last ship was even sent to the Pacific in 1945, but the Pacific war ended before they had a chance to do anything there. They were paid off and discharged in Vancouver though (the ship was sold to the Indian Navy a year or so later). My uncle was killed (father's brother) in Italy while serving in the Canadian Army (he was a tank driver). We had another very good family friend who was practically an uncle to me who served with British Intelligence and I know spent most of 1942/43/44 in Europe, but he never really liked to talk about it much at all (I do remember he said he'd flown over in a Lysander at least once - I assume that was via 161 Squandron).

They are all gone now though.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

My grandfather was a "Kanzelwart" (a mechanic for the fuselage if I understood him correctly:hmm for Messerschmitt BF-109 fighter aircrafts in France. He didn't see much combat (except air raids of course). He was then transferred to an area near the German/Italian boarder. While being on the train they were attacked by fighter bombers which destroyed the power line and killed several of his comrades. After being stuck somewhere without transportation his group was "volunteered" to serve as engineers and to build bridges over some river to allow the German forces to retreat from Italy... Unfortunately they were neither trained nor equipped for such tasks and therefore these bridges were never completed. After being send back to France his unit eventually surrendered to the US Army (where he almost starved being a POW).

Well the result for my family was no loss of lives but they lost there home (and all their possessions) twice to air raids. My family came from Stettin which belongs to Poland nowadays and is now called Szczecin, but after becoming a POW he claimed to be from West-Germany to avoid to be send back to Soviet occupied territory when his POW-time ended (He knew already that his family had fled to the west too).




My grandfather died in january 2002 and has never seen his home city again.

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

[Oberon]

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!!

[Kapitan]

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.

[Schroeder]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Phillips

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

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.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Phillips

Apologies for the double post, but I saw a television documentary a few weeks ago where veterans from the British side and the German side met. Some of them were even shooting at each other. The whole show was very emotional, and there was mutual respect. One German fighter pilot spoke before a whole village and apologised for his actions. I dont think that was appropriate, as he was doing his duty and following orders, but still, to see two veterans of the opposite sides shaking hands and hugging was a very emotional experience for me.

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.

[mrbeast]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

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.