Did Anyone Of Your Relatives Fight on WWII?

[PlainSimpleJoel]

My maternal grandfather served in patrol boats that were protecting the Australian north.

Not sure about my real paternal grandfather, as he died before I was born, and don't really speak to my father much anymore, nor am I sure what my step-dad's father did when he was living in England. He has also passed away.

 

[RandyS]

My grandfather on my mom's side fought in Burma.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

I had an uncle who served in England and France.

My Father was in the Army prior to WW2 (early thirties) and was exempt from service during the war as a skilled defense worker.

My mothers boyfriend during the war years was a ball turret gunner on a B24. He was killed while over Europe.

 

[Davros]

Some great uncles did. Both grandfathers were 4f, but one was an engineer on the Hoover Dam, and another helped put in some of the security system for the Manhatten Project. We still have his security pass.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

My relatives were all French, so they surrendered immediately.

*BOO!! BOO!*

Okay...the only one I recall who left the states during the second World War 2 was a great uncle who was a SeaBiscut...or SeaBass or CB radio or something. 20 somthing years later he was later killed by his young wife's lover. ('Fo I was born) And great aunt who was a nurse or in red cross or some shit.

Gramps got stateside duty due to a bad back, not quite 4H,...I mean F4...or 4F or Room 222.

Other gramps was a WW1 vet, never left the colonies (as we called them back then). I recall something about a great uncle who was in Europe and got the mustard gas...from eating a bratwurst...and also that poison stuff the Huns unleashed, but survived.

So no, nobody fought. But those who wait also serve, and live to wait another day.

 

[Cicero]

My great-uncle fought aboard the Enterprise in the Pacific. Several others of my relatives served, but I don't know where (another great uncle was in the infantry somewhere in Europe).

 

[M'Sharak]

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

Thanks...yeah those are a couple of good examples. I wonder what the name for that kind of moustache was/is (we all call it The Hitler Moustache now I guess)

It's called a toothbrush mustache, I believe.

It is indeed.


No relatives of mine fought in WWII, that I'm aware. One grandfather and a great-uncle served in the US Army during WWI (grandfather was an Army medic) and my father and one uncle were in the National Guard during Korea but were never on active duty. I did have a friend when I was little whose father had been a Navy diver (UDT) during WWII -- lost both legs, but I'm not sure that it happened during that war.

No stories, I'm afraid.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

a great uncle who was a SeaBiscut...or SeaBass or CB radio or something.

Come again?

 

[Captain Ice]

My maternal grandfather served in the Air Corps. He never really talked about it though, and all I've really gotten out of my mother is that he "flew a desk" and was stationed various places, including somewhere in Oklahoma and Northern California.

 

[Iasius]

My paternal grandfather served in the Heer, first in Hungary, then in Russia. He was captured sometime in 1944 and released in late 1946. My maternal grandfather served on the island of Sylt in an anti-aircraft role. I don't really know any specifics about either one. My paternal grandfather died when I was five years old and my maternal grandfather before I was born, so I couldn't ask them about that and they didn't talk much about that time with my parents either (seems pretty common).
I do have a (huge) book detailing the events from 1918-1953 relating to the people living in the village where I grew up and my grandparents lived.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I had a couple of great uncles (one by marriage) that served in the Pacific theater. One was in the Navy and tells about shooting a Zero down with a deck anti-aircraft gun.

The other one served in the Army and had a few colorful tales to tell. I wish I could remember them all, but he's been dead awhile. I remember him telling a story about the Japanese using wooden bullets if you can imagine that. He also talked about a story of drinking from a stream only to go upstream and finding a dead Japanese soldier in the water. Seems like he may have told a tale about fishing with hand grenades but I may be confusing that with some story somewhere.

One thing I do remember him saying is that he was so thankful that Truman dropped the bomb on Japan because he was slated for the invasion of Japan and figures he wouldn't have made it.

 

[cultcross]

My paternal grandfather is the chap on the right. If memory serves this was taken in 1946, about 6 months after the end of the war.

 

[Theodore Jay Miller]

My uncle Max was in the OSS. My mother's family came to the US from Austria, my mother was born here, but her two older brothers grew up in Vienna and spoke German. So Max was involved in some kind of undercover work during the war. I haven't really heard stories about it though.

 

[Shaytan]

My relatives were all French, so they surrendered immediately.

WWII happened during a gap of generation in my direct family. But one of my grandfather resisted STO and he hide in the forest until the birth of my mother (no STO when you have 4 kids). He died in August 1944 from a disease. My grandmother remarried a few years later to a man who was deported in a work camp because he was a communist.

My other grandfather was a fugitive during the last months of the war because he (and his brother) killed 2 German soldiers who caught them stealing coal from the German army (that's maybe not the only reasons, my grandfather was a weird guy).

So, no, they didn't fight but they resisted in their own way and they survived.

 

[RevDMV]

WWII was in the gap as far as ages in my family as well.

There is a family story about a great uncle who fought as a mercenary on both side during WWI. He was 6'7" and died from pneumonia during that war.

At a flight club that I used to belong to here in the Bay Area there was a guy who was a B-17 pilot in WWII. He had some really interesting stories.