Did Anyone Of Your Relatives Fight on WWII?

[JRS]

I have been recently watching lots of documentaries about World War II and buying some books about the topic from Amazon.
All this made me think about my grandfather, my fathers father, who I never knew, because he sadly passed away before I was even born.
He spent few years of his life fighting and defending Finland against the Russian invasion. He saw many different engagements and was wounded twice( I can post more of where and how later).

Did any of your relatives, or someone else you know, participate to World War II, and what kind of stories did they share to you about the war?

 

[Scout101]

My Grandfather on my Dad's side was on the beach at Normandy with the Army. Obviously, he didn't ever really want to talk about that. He was part of an advance group, and spoke fluent French, so was used partly to scout out places before bigger groups went there, as well as set up houses/farms/buildings as command posts for when higher-ranking officers got there. He was never happy about being in the Army, as he'd left behind a moderately successful career in minor league baseball, and many of his friends that stayed behind became well-known or Hall of Fame players.

My Mother's father was in the Navy towards the end of WWII. His ship sank, and that was the end of the war for him (he was fine, though). Later served in Korea as well, and was career Navy, retiring after 30 years or so.

 

[Jono]

I have several relatives that fought in the war. Some in the British forces and some in the Australian forces from my mother's side. My Solomon side is not from Guadalcanal so doubt they were involved much.

My grandfather did not serve, not sure why but he died when I was young and I never asked my grandmother about the war years. However, we did the family tree a few years back and I know that one of my relatives served in the RAF and was shot down and captured. He attempted to escape, failed and was moved to Stalag Luft III. He helped work on the escape tunnels, though he did not escape.

 

[Star Wolf]

Grandparents were too old and probably would have been 4F anyway while my parents were too young. My father's best friend was on a troop ship heading to Korea when the cease fire went into effect. Two uncles did multiple tours in Vietnam and never talked about it, even after I became a soldier.

 

[backstept]

my Paternal Grandfather was a photog for the Marines, I think . . .

 

[RAMA]

My dad was in the OSS in the American Army. he died in 1988.

 

[Saturn0660]

My dads dad was in WWII He was on the Pacific Front. I have his old Army issue Machete. My dad also had a sword that my grandfather took off a Japanese Officer he killed. I havn't seen it in years. But i remember as a kid i thought it looked like a ""ninja sword"". I'll have that bad boy one day.

 

[Nardpuncher]

My grandpas on both sides.
Apparently my dad's dad sported a moustache close to Hitler's and his troops called him Sargeant Hitler! I guess at the time it wasn't a complete anathema to have that kind of moustache.
My mom's dad was in the Royal navy with the nickname "Gunboat"...that's cool.

 

[1001001]

My Grandfather was in the Navy in WWII. He was deployed to the Pacific theater in 1944 after a year of electrician's school. He doesn't talk about it much.

 

[Squiggy]

My maternal grandfather was a flag man on the USS Marcus Island in the Pacific Theater.

 

[Deckerd]

One of my Dad's brothers was in the RN during the war (he died last week, sadly). My maternal grandfather was an RSM in the army, but was too old to fight so he was a quartermaster in Glasgow. He did fight in the First World War though.

 

[SeerSGB]

A couple of uncles, a few cousins. One is/was (now deceased) a Pearl Harbor survivor.

 

[TheBrew]

My paternal GF wanted to fight but was disqualified because he had stepped on a nail when he was a kid (went all the way through).

My materal GF was a marine in the Korean war, FWIW.

 

[SmoothieX]

I honestly have no idea.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

My paternal grandfather was in the U.S. Army. Actually, my grandparents met at the USO. I never heard anything about what he did in the war though. He died when I was young, not so young that I don't remember him but young enough that I didn't know what WWII was. I believe he was in the European theater.

My maternal grandfather was too young for WWII. He was a Captain in the Army during the Korean War but his unit never left stateside.

My father was a Naval Intelligence Officer during Vietnam. He got discharged when he started pointing out dangerous inefficiencies in their bombing missions.

My grandpas on both sides.
Apparently my dad's dad sported a moustache close to Hitler's and his troops called him Sargeant Hitler! I guess at the time it wasn't a complete anathema to have that kind of moustache.

Well, it was also the mustache worn by Charlie Chaplin & Oliver Hardy.

 

[siskokid888]

My late maternal grandfather was a medic. I used to know the unit he was in, I should refresh my memory on that, but I think he was attached to the First Infantry Division - "the Big Red One". He was trapped behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge. A French family hid him in their house until he was able to get back to his unit. He would get really angry at the "French are cowards" nonsense, as the family saved his life, and he was witness to many acts of bravery by French soldiers and citizens. As a medic, he would run unarmed onto the battlefield to pull wounded soldiers to safety. Always brushed it off as just doing his duty. Hell of a guy. I miss him.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

My maternal grandfather fought in the navy. I know he was on one of the first ships to enter Tokyo Harbor. That's all I really know about his service during the second World War, though (all this is through my mom, I never really asked him about any of it). He later fought in the Korean War.

At some point, he was on the USS The Sullivans, but I can't say for sure which war that was.

My paternal grandfather went to officer school, but didn't get out by war's end.

 

[Snow]

My paternal grandfather and a great uncle (his brother) fought in WWI.
My grandfather came out of the war relatively unscathed but my great uncle suffered for the rest of his life as a result of being gassed.

My uncle (my Dad's brother) was in the Army and fought in the Canadian campaign in Italy in WWII.
My father who is younger was also in the Army during the war. He was too young to fight the war in Europe but was go to Georgia (in the US) for special training to fight in the Pacific but the war ended the day he was to be shipped out.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

My great uncle fought in WWII. He was a Tech Sergeant in the US Army.

 

[Colonel Green]

My paternal grandfather served in the Royal Navy, he mostly did hull repair work as he was a shipwright/steel fabricator by trade.