OT: War Stories

[Roy_Faulker]

Hi guys - Hope everyone is healthy during the quarantine.

I have wanted to post this thread for a long time - but needed to get to my computer (not phone).

I have a book with some of my grandfather's memories from WW2, and always talk to my kids about their great-grandparents' sacrifices during the war. I would always get glimpses of their lives and their experiences when I was a kid, but it wasn't until much later that I appreciated the superhuman feats these men accomplished in the face of a relentless enemy.

There is a lot of knowledge and generational history on this board - think it would a great and fun way to record some of your family/neighbors' stories - things you learned from another family member, something shared at the kitchen table, or even something you just picked up along the way. The goal isn't to flame but share - you can be as detailed or vague as you want. Would love to know what your family member lived through. What War/Military Action. What theatre. What branch of the service etc.

I'll start - I have lots of amazing stories from my family and will add periodically throughout the thread - but one of my all-time favorites is actually from my wife's grandfather.

Was sitting at her grandfather's kitchen table with his whole family - they never talked a lot about his service as he had three daughters and he kept this time to himself largely. His wife had passed and his own health was beginning to fail - I think he knew his time was short and he was starting to open up about his childhood etc. He was an engineer on a B-24 in the latter half of the European war. He started as an Army Ranger and then opted for the Air Corps to try something new.

Being the family outsider - I started asking him questions about his service. Everyone looked at me like I stepped on a hornets' nest - but he was willing to engage. We learned a lot that night - like he was in the mission that firebombed Dresden and was escorted by the Tuskeegee Airmen over Italy - I also asked if he ever went up against a ME262 while over Germany. He stopped dead in his tracks, paused, and stepped away from the table walking into his room...came back with a small and very weathered notebook opening it to a marked page. He kept notes from every engagement and listed the types of fighters he shot at and shot down. Low and behold - during one mission his squadron confronted several ME262s and he recorded shooting one down (have no way to confirm). Was amazing to listen to him describe how terrifying it was to watch those planes speed through the sky and how hard it was to hit them as they made their runs on the bombers. Everyone at the table was floored - definitely a night I will never forget. He's gone now - but this is one way to keep his memory alive.

How about you guys?

 

[hoquat63]

Not a war story, but my dad wrote a long piece about his experiences during the depression traveling around the country, mostly by hitchhiking, but also some by bus and some hopping freight trains. Hitched from New Brunswick to Chicago to the Worlds Fair and back to NB. Attended RU, but had to leave due to lack of money. Hitched and bus to California where elder half brother who worked for Robling got him a job working on Golden Gate Bridge - using crane to move coils in a warehouse. Traveled back to NJ and back to California, to Arkansas where he attended O of A fit a semester, back California attended UCLA and back to NJ. Wound up spending WWII working in a mental hospital in CT, so no war stories to tell.

 

[yesrutgers01]

Great Thread...My Dad was in WWII...Almost never spoke of it but in the few times he did, it was mesmerizing and what he did and experienced has stayed with me for a lifetime. He was right in the heart of it under Gen Patton and he was there just outside of Berlin as we let the Russians go in and claim the victory.
The way he lived life after the war was very telling of what he experienced. PArt of his way of life was good but some not really the best for raising kids either. He lived a very "let it slide off your back if it isn't going to kill you"
As for his experience...He lived in Brooklyn(Flatbush), enlisted at 18 and sent to Europe. Kind of tough as he had many relatives there and they used to visit each summer. But, here is what he faced before the age of 20. Three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star, missing in action for 45 days (with my Grand Parents notified)and a field promotion to Sargent. All of this before 20...when I look back at that now- holy crap. My Dad, funny, unassuming, Sometimes just let us deal with our own situations too much on our own.
He told us about his first experience going into a German occupied town with Patton.Unaware it was occupied so they thought it friendly but came under heavy attack and many losses. The 2nd time they went into a town, they load speaker notified the town they were coming and if they face any opposition, they would be leveled. They went in and again, German forces there opened fire- my Dad said they were ready for it and Patton ordered full force no mercy no survivors. That is what they did and had no further town oppose them.
His Bronze Star came while MIA. About 20 of them got separated for almost two months on their own. One town they came to and holed down in had a few snipers taking them out. Dad happened into a building and as he went upstairs, he happened to come around a coner and face to face with the sniper who happened to also be very young. Sniper had his gun on Dad and for some reason, he froze and dropped his weapon for Dad to grab and bring him in as a prisoner. He should have been the one dead but instead, a hero. And here he was laughing as he told the story. He also had a good friend that was North American Indian. First thing he taught Dad during battle was to always run to the mortar crater crated two shots prior. Not the one just created as a mortar team could have had two of them trained on that spot but you never see an older mortar hole hit again.
One purple heart was when they were holed up in a church. He and his Indian friend were smart enough to sleep in an arched doorway. The church was hit hard and they lost about 80% of the men in there. he and his friend survived but Dad was hit with shrapnel and throughout his life, you could always feel about a 4 inch piece of metal in his leg that they couldn't remove.
Shot one in the arm another time and don't remember the third one.
Before he became 20!!!
After the war, he was assigned to Alaska as a cook. For a short time, they we in the Giness Book of Records for largest Cake ever baked. LOL
He met up with another guy who he became life long friends with. His buddy ended up joining the CIA when it was formed. But this buddy had aracket going up there. He managed 5 bowling alleys. He was getting .08 a game for racking pins and he paid other GI's .04 per game to actually rack them. Dad was doing this for him until his buddy discharged but he handed over control to Dad. So he had 2 years of sitting back and collecting a good amount of cash for his little racket.
Upon discharge, they were offered to stay on a land act that they could claim acreage free if they stayed 5 years. His soon to be CIA friend did this and had claimed 100 acres. Dad just wanted to get back home so he did not do so. A damn shame as the land they were all claiming was later acquired by Juneau...or I believe that is what they said...but it was profitable and one of Alaska's main cities. His CIA buddy got in the million range back around 1970 when he sold.
Nothing ever bothered Dad and he would often say "don't worry, you survived so it couldn't have been bad" I wish I could have much of our time back with what I know now but even then, I knew he went through something that could not be described in words. But I never realized back then what a hero he actually was and the fear he must have faced and conquered. My Hero Always

 

[charliem24]

One of m brothers was a navy pilot with just short of 1000 carrier landings. When Desert Storm happened he was assigned to The Black Hole, in Riyad along with senior officers from the other allied countries. It had a small write up in News Week after the war. Their job was to select targets, ordinances to be used, and do bomb damage assessment. After the bombing of the bunker that was thought to be Hussein’s hideout, but which turned out to house civilians, they could only select targets that were on the Pentagon’s approved list.
After awhile, every approved target was destroyed and there was nothing left to attack. They knew that Hussein got his intel from watching CNN,you may recall Peter Arnett was broadcasting continuously from his hotel room. Outside the hotel were vacant lots as a result of previous bombings. So, they bombed the empty lots non stop and Arnett unwittingly reported that round the clock bombing continued 24/7, giving Hussein false information.

 

[krup]

When I was a little kid, we were visiting relatives and my mother tried to get my uncle (her brother) to talk to us about he did in WWII.

He got mad because she brought it up, and he went into the woods (we were at a farm) and wouldn’t come out until we left.

He passed several years later and my cousin showed me some of his stuff and explained to me that he had landed at Normandy a few days after DDay and served through the end of the war, which included his unit liberating a camp the Germans had recently left.

He had demons for the rest of his life, but that wasn’t something they helped people with back then.

 

[yesrutgers01]

When I was a little kid, we were visiting relatives and my mother tried to get my uncle (her brother) to talk to us about he did in WWII.

He got mad because she brought it up, and he went into the woods (we were at a farm) and wouldn’t come out until we left.

He passed several years later and my cousin showed me some of his stuff and explained to me that he had landed at Normandy a few days after DDay and served through the end of the war, which included his unit liberating a camp the Germans had recently left.

He had demons for the rest of his life, but that wasn’t something they helped people with back then.

Many of these men just didn't want to talk about it. The horrors of what they faced and honestly, what they had to do to survive, were beyond imaginable.

 

[Roy_Faulker]

Many of these men just didn't want to talk about it. The horrors of what they faced and honestly, what they had to do to survive, were beyond imaginable.

No joke - I will never forget my grandfather at my grandmother’s funeral (his wife), share that day was harder than the day he had to wash his best friend out of the plane they were flying - he was on a PBM in the Pacific.

 

[yesrutgers01]

No joke - I will never forget my grandfather at my grandmother’s funeral (his wife), share that day was harder than the day he had to wash his best friend out of the plane they were flying - he was on a PBM in the Pacific.

Yeah- the only time I recall seeing my Dad cry was when we lost our mother at a very young age 40) and he had 6 boys between 5-18 to care for. She was his soul mate and they were such a great team together. He sent us to live with our Aunt for the summer and took those 3 months for himself. He never discussed that time with us. Bigger secret than his time in the war. He never really recovered and where he and Mom used to be very much involved in everything we did, from that time on, he worked, came home, went out to his garden and went to bed. He was still pleasant and laughed, made us dinner and made sure we had what we needed, but we had to figure it all out. And later on when we were all grown and out of the house, his only thing to say, "It worked out ok, you guys all made it out alive".

 

[RU Diesel07110]

My old man was in the army during WWll, on several pacific islands. He was on tinian where the atomic bomb was secretly kept. He never had a problem talking about it, not in a bragging way just very matter of fact, telling us abt the 1st guy he killed chasing over a hill and after that they all seemed the same like target practice. And how disgusting the japs were. He said the japs would put the heads of American soldiers on bamboo sticks so he would do the same and make necklaces of their ears. Crazy stuff. Big drinker but whole family was even before the war (1st generation Irish). He worked at Ballantine brewery in Newark and we still have a letter promising same job and pay when war was over. Pretty cool
Truly was the greatest generation, bar none.

 

[RU4Real]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian, to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent.

They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's kinda like ol' squares in a battle like you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark would go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up... bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again.

So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway... we delivered the bomb.

 

[Goku]

My story is my dad's as well. It is a war refugee story. My dad was born in Russia in 1931. He was the youngest of 4 kids. He had two older sister and an older brother. His mom died when he was young. His dad remarried a Jewish woman shortly afterwards. My dad never got a formal education, and his stepmother taught him to read and write.

When Operation Barbarossa started, my grandfather Tim was called to fight for Stalin's army. When the war was over and my dad felt it was safe to go back to the USSR, he caught up with Tim (my dad felt for sure his dad died in the war). Tim survived because before the war, he ran a tailor shop. Whenever dangerous missions came up, the officers always pulled Tim out of the mission to patch up their uniforms. They probably saved his life. When my dad reunited with his dad, he also found out that the Einsatzgruppen (A subdivision of the SS...a mobile killing unit that went through Russia to kill Jews) killed his stepmother.

So with Tim going off to war, his 4 kids were left in Southern Russia to fend for themselves. My uncle went off to Northern Russia to stay with grandparents. He survived the war. My dad's older sisters felt it was safest to marry soldiers. It turned out they married two Russian men who were anti-Communist Axis soldiers. My dad's oldest sister, Zina, felt it would be safest for my dad if they told people he was 2 years younger and Zina's son. My dad felt this saved his life and kept him from dying in an orphanage.

So the war turns in the favor of the Russians throughout 1942, and now from 42 to 45, the Axis powers are retreating, these 2 Russian soldiers are retreating through Eastern Europe, and so is Zina, Clava (his other sister) and my dad. My dad says he survived all those years because he kept his mouth shut and offered to wash the soldiers dishes to get some extra food.

When the war was over, my dad was in a refugee camp in Austria. Zina's husband eventually left them (he wasn't a good fella). Zina and my dad were now alone, and they bounced around refugee camps for awhile. They stayed in Brescia Italy for awhile. The mayor of the town adopted my dad for a year when Zina couldn't take care of him on her own. It is still a dream of mine to go to the city and find the home where my dad lived for that year.

To finish off the story, a few years pass and my dad and Zina take a boat out of Germany to Argentina. My dad became an auto mechanic there, and then eventually immigrated to the USA. On a visit back to Argentina, Zina (she remarried a nice man who was a WW2 veteran from the Polish Army....he had a good story of escaping a POV camp) sets him up with my mom. And eventually I'm here.

I did a video interview of my dad a few years ago to get as much of his story documented to share with my son one day. I taped hours of our conversation. I think it is an amazing tale of survival and luck. My dad mentions the many times he slept on floors at POW camps with people who were coughing from respiratory diseases, and he feared dying from their illness. In our interview, he said there are memories he wishes he could forget and stories he never wants to share. I think about the number of miles he walked, and the pain and death he saw as a boy. He's my hero as well. He's still doing well. He's retired in South Jersey and still goes to the park to shoot hoops.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

https://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/interviews

If you are interested in war stories of people affiliated with Rutgers or have one you would like recorded for posterity, consider looking into the Rutgers oral history archives.

They recorded the history of someone close to me a few years back and did a great job. If you like living history like this, consider donating too.

 

[R1766U_rivals]

Apologies for the lengthy post, but this stuff really interests me...

I have a lot of cool military history in my family. I tend to really be interested in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. I think because not much is known in my family about these men and I have taken it upon myself to try and uncover as much as possible about their lives and service.

My favorite story/family member is John H. Cooper, born in 1758. He served in the American military under George Washington for six years during the revolution. At the end of his service, he received the Badge of Merit from General Washington. This would later become the Purple Heart. Unfortunately, my family does not have the original, but we do have a copy of his discharge papers noting the award!

Some other American Revolution soldiers in my tree:


John Penny 2nd Regiment NY Artillery

Thomas Prince Conkling (1753-1834)- 3rd Regiment Minutemen. Colonel Thomas Terry Company Southold NY. Served 7 years as a private. Served under Captain Daniel Griffing (Ticonderoga) (June 75) and under Captain Jonathan Bailey (June 76). Fought in the Battle of Long Island on August 27th, 1776 (White Plains).

Captain William Hallock (1722-1782) - From Stony Brook to Greenwich and all along the Sound to New London, he was in command of picket boats and suffered much. He signed the association in 1775 (from Refugees of Long Island)
William Hallock (1750-1824)- 1st Minute Men under Colonel Josiah Smith
George Sexton (1723-1820)- March 25th, 1777- September 28th, 1778 under Colonel Seth Warner Vermont--Lieutenant Sept 28th 1778-Aug 1 1780--- Captain Aug 20th, 1781 under Colonel Ebenezer Walbridge Vermont-- Captain April 1st, 1782 under Major Gideon Bronson and participated in the Battle of Bennington

Charles Sexton (1720-1812)- While living in Virginia Charles joined the Virginia militia.. upon word of revolution from the crown Charles returned to New Jersey. He joined the NJ Militia and became a well-respected soldier and fought in several battles against the British rising in rank to an officer. His registry can be found in the official New Jersey registration of officers from the revolutionary war on page 749. Charles Sexton was also an honorary member of the NJ militia until the time of his death. He returned to VA for a short period then moved to Penn where he later was laid to rest.


Civil War:
Samuel S. Stewart (1835-1902)- 139th New York Company F (Wounded at Drurys Bluff VA).

John Augustus Conklin (1842-1913)- 127th New York

William Dayton (1844-1923)- Private Company I 8th New York Heavy Artillery Company I (Wounded at Cold Harbor) witnessed Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.


I have a bunch more, mostly from WWII and the Korean War.I have a distant cousin who witnessed the testing of the atomic bomb out in the desert. He was told at the time that the explosion was an accident. Only to find out weeks later what it actually was.

I have three great uncles (brothers) that served in WWII. One was wounded in Italy and never was the same when he returned home. The other never left the states and the third served in the Pacific, most notably at Iowa Jima.

I have another great uncle, Captain Victor Doroski who was shot down while piloting a night photo mission. Assigned to 654BS, 25BG, 8AF USAAF. Completed 25 x missions as a co-pilot. KIA 8 February 1945. While flying a Joker night-photo mission, he and his navigator Capt. Jacob Hochman was killed. A photoflash bomb failed to release and ignited in the bomb bay, destroying the aircraft. He was the first to pilot an OSS 'Joan Eleanor' mission. He piloted at least 3 OSS missions before going MIA on the 8 February 1945 mission.

 

[RU4Real]

Apologies for the lengthy post, but this stuff really interests me...

I have a lot of cool military history in my family. I tend to really be interested in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. I think because not much is known in my family about these men and I have taken it upon myself to try and uncover as much as possible about their lives and service.

My favorite story/family member is John H. Cooper, born in 1758. He served in the American military under George Washington for six years during the revolution. At the end of his service, he received the Badge of Merit from General Washington. This would later become the Purple Heart. Unfortunately, my family does not have the original, but we do have a copy of his discharge papers noting the award!

Some other American Revolution soldiers in my tree:


John Penny 2nd Regiment NY Artillery

Thomas Prince Conkling (1753-1834)- 3rd Regiment Minutemen. Colonel Thomas Terry Company Southold NY. Served 7 years as a private. Served under Captain Daniel Griffing (Ticonderoga) (June 75) and under Captain Jonathan Bailey (June 76). Fought in the Battle of Long Island on August 27th, 1776 (White Plains).

Captain William Hallock (1722-1782) - From Stony Brook to Greenwich and all along the Sound to New London, he was in command of picket boats and suffered much. He signed the association in 1775 (from Refugees of Long Island)
William Hallock (1750-1824)- 1st Minute Men under Colonel Josiah Smith
George Sexton (1723-1820)- March 25th, 1777- September 28th, 1778 under Colonel Seth Warner Vermont--Lieutenant Sept 28th 1778-Aug 1 1780--- Captain Aug 20th, 1781 under Colonel Ebenezer Walbridge Vermont-- Captain April 1st, 1782 under Major Gideon Bronson and participated in the Battle of Bennington

Charles Sexton (1720-1812)- While living in Virginia Charles joined the Virginia militia.. upon word of revolution from the crown Charles returned to New Jersey. He joined the NJ Militia and became a well-respected soldier and fought in several battles against the British rising in rank to an officer. His registry can be found in the official New Jersey registration of officers from the revolutionary war on page 749. Charles Sexton was also an honorary member of the NJ militia until the time of his death. He returned to VA for a short period then moved to Penn where he later was laid to rest.


Civil War:
Samuel S. Stewart (1835-1902)- 139th New York Company F (Wounded at Drurys Bluff VA).

John Augustus Conklin (1842-1913)- 127th New York

William Dayton (1844-1923)- Private Company I 8th New York Heavy Artillery Company I (Wounded at Cold Harbor) witnessed Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.


I have a bunch more, mostly from WWII and the Korean War.I have a distant cousin who witnessed the testing of the atomic bomb out in the desert. He was told at the time that the explosion was an accident. Only to find out weeks later what it actually was.

I have three great uncles (brothers) that served in WWII. One was wounded in Italy and never was the same when he returned home. The other never left the states and the third served in the Pacific, most notably at Iowa Jima.

I have another great uncle, Captain Victor Doroski who was shot down while piloting a night photo mission. Assigned to 654BS, 25BG, 8AF USAAF. Completed 25 x missions as a co-pilot. KIA 8 February 1945. While flying a Joker night-photo mission, he and his navigator Capt. Jacob Hochman was killed. A photoflash bomb failed to release and ignited in the bomb bay, destroying the aircraft. He was the first to pilot an OSS 'Joan Eleanor' mission. He piloted at least 3 OSS missions before going MIA on the 8 February 1945 mission.

Good stuff.

Going back through history, I have two ancestors who were Jamestown colonists, no fewer than four Revolutionary War vets (all North Carolina), at least one War of 1812 vet and three Civil War vets - one on the Union side, two on the Confederate side (Georgia). There's also a WWI vet and a great uncle who was an orderly on a hospital ship in WWII.

 

[Southern Gentleman]

Amazing stories all. Thank you very much for sharing!

 

[RU4Real]

For those who have never seen one, this is a Reconstruction Oath, as executed by my Great-great Grandfather.. Its intent is self-explanatory.

 

[RU206]

I don’t have a specific war story, but through ancestry.com my wife traced her family history.
She knew that her grandfather and grandmother were in the Army for WW II.
But she learned her Great Grandfather was in the Army for WWI.
The more she went back and more information she found, she had family members participate in just about every US war including the Civil and Revolutionary.

 

[MadRU]

Happy V-E Day!!!

 

[fischy5000]

cool stuff.

I unfortunately could never get many details about this stuff for my family. I know my maternal grandfather was in the army and fought in WW2. At one point he was one of the court stenographers in the Nuremberg trials. In researching myself it seems there might have been a lot of stenographers but still found it interesting.

 

[mdk02]

All that generation served except 1 uncle who was 10 years old at the time of Pearl Harbor. He was West Point '54 and ended up in the Air Force.

None of them spoke about what they did, but they all spoke about what the others did. In particular they spoke about the one buried in the cemetery you see in "Private Ryan". Landed shortly after D-Day and was nominated for a Congressional Medal of Honor for some action in Normandy which could have been another scene in the movie. Was downgraded to a Distinguish Service Cross, which was awarded posthumously.

The other uncle who they spoke about, though never in his presence piloted a B-17 that flew 56 missions out of North Africa in '43. Won a Distinguished Flying Cross for one mission. The citation reads:

" On the approach to Marsala, Italy, his B-17 was attacked and badly damaged by 10 enemy fighters. While his gunners destroyed one ME-109, probably destroyed another, and damaged several, and despite one engine feathered, enabled his bombardier to register directly on the target. Through utmost determination and endurance, he returned his plane to it's base."

Anyone who tells you there was no PTSD after WWII is wrong.

 

[rudad02]

My Father was 28 or so when he was drafted into the Navy during WW2. I was almost 2 at the time. He served on the destroyer the USS Gwin in the Pacific Theater. The Gwin was both a mine sweeper as well as a mine layer. In addition to other action, it was deployed as a radar picket ship during the battle of Okinawa. The Gwin downed 20 Kamikaze's in that action. It was hit, made it back to dry dock, was patched up & went back out. I have pictures of the Gwin with it's hull painted with white stripes for every Kamikaze they downed. It is also painted with a Japanese rising sun for the Japanese sub that surrendered to them. I have pictures of the Japanese officers boarding the Gwin carrying the mine field charts.

Despite all of the above, my Father told me that the only time he thought he wasn't coming home was during the 2 typhoons that they sailed in. Lost several Destroyers.

My Uncle, mother's brother, fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Had his leg badly shot up. He was captured & as his name was Krause the German nuns/nurses told him not to say anything as the German soldiers had better medical care. He was found out & put in with the allied prisoners. The nuns/nurses & my Grandmother somehow exchanged letters. A Brit surgeon had him on the table working on him with explosions going on around & lights flickering. The Brit told him "Yank first thing they're going to want to do when you get home is to take this leg off. Don't let them do it". When he got home he was first in the Philly VA, where they wanted to amputate his leg. He refused & told his Mother & 8 siblings not to consent. He later was moved to the VA in St Albens, Queens. Same story. He wouldn't consent. He kept his leg & used to travel from Brooklyn to my other Grandparents, father's parents, little farm house way up in the country in upstate NY Columbia County. They gave him a big black Oldsmobile that didn't have a clutch so that he didn't have to use the bad leg. Guess it was one of the early fluid drive's. He & I & Bonnie the dog used to go down to the very active brook & the swimming hole where he would try to rehab it. It was really a mess. Looked like an open wound all the way down his leg. I was afraid of it & reluctant to go near him. Always felt guilty about that. He kept the leg & it got better over time, though he always moved with a pronounced limp. Worked on the Brooklyn docks as a checker & member of the ILA until he retired. A week after he retired he came out of a bowling alley after bowling, had a massive heart attack & died on the sidewalk. I thought after all of that, this is the way he had to go.

My direct descendents fought in the Revolution, Massachusetts Regiment. Another fought in the War of 1812. My uncle in WW1.

 

[RobertG]

My father was 4 years old in Italy in 1943 when the Germans shelled his town thinking the Americans were there. My father was playing outside in the street when the shells hit the buildings near by, close to him an Italian soldier was sitting who was hit and killed. In the apartment where my father lived a shell hit the building and a piece of shrapnel hit my father's older brother in the head and my great grandmother in the legs (both survived.)

My God Father was a tank commander in North Africa, he told the story that his tank came over a rise and and once they crested they saw and Italian anti-tank gun, he thought he was dead, but apparently the gun crew was having lunch and didn't bother manning the gun. They drove the tank up to them and captured the crew. My God Father being 1st generation Italian began speaking with the gun crew and they showed him how the gun worked and seemed be be content with being captured.

 

[knightfan7]

Great sharing above.

2 ancestors that I know of fought in the Civil War. They were father and son.

Nelson Gardipe (1818 - 1888) Canadian immigrant. From the 71st NY Volunteer Regiment Roster ((Don't know who spelled his 1st name lol)

GẦRDIPE, HELSOX.— Age, 42 years. Enlisted, May 15, 1861, at Camp Seott, X. Y., to serve three years; mustered in as corporal, Co. c, June 20, IStíl; returned to ranks, June 30, 1861; discharged for disability, June IS, 1862, at Budda Perry, McL

Herman Gardipe (1842 -1884) Private, Company E, 3rd US Artillery.

My Dad was a Sgt in an 88th Division Infantry Unit in North Africa and Italy during WWII. Was there for the liberation of Rome. I have a really neat pic of he and a couple others being served spaghetti by an Italian lady after the city was liberated. I understand it was in many newspapers at the time.

My Mom's Dad, who was a cop in civilian life, served in the CID in England, France, and Germany. Spoke fluent German and could converse in French.

 

[Scarletnut]

My dad was an immigrant, living in Cairo, Egypt at the time with my mom and his brothers and sisters. Cairo was a desirable location before the king was overthrown in 1955-56. My dad joined the British army at the time, Rommel was 50 miles outside Cairo, and if Rommel captured the city, all British soldiers and their families would be evacuated. He worked as a "wireless operator" for the Brits, many 24 hour shifts, which resulted in becoming a chronic insomniac since that time. Fortunately, the Germans were held back and didn't capture Cairo.

 

[superfan01]

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian, to Leyte, just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. Thirteen-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water? You tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know... was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent.

They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, sharks come cruisin'. So we formed ourselves into tight groups. Y'know, it's kinda like ol' squares in a battle like you see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo, and the idea was, shark comes to the nearest man and that man, he'd start poundin' and hollerin' and screamin', and sometimes the shark would go away... sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark, he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. Y'know the thing about a shark, he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'... until he bites ya. And those black eyes roll over white, and then... oh, then you hear that terrible high-pitch screamin', the ocean turns red, and spite of all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces.

Y'know, by the end of that first dawn... lost a hundred men. I dunno how many sharks. Maybe a thousand. I dunno how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday mornin', I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player, boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep, reached over to wake him up... bobbed up and down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well... he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura saw us, he swung in low and he saw us. Young pilot. Anyway, he saw us and come in low and three hours later, a big fat PBY comes down and start to pick us up. Y'know, that was the time I was most frightened, waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a life jacket again.

So, eleven hundred men went into the water, three hundred sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway... we delivered the bomb.

I know this is the USS Indianapolis but Where was this quote/passage from?

 

[knightfan7]

I know this is the USS Indianapolis but Where was this quote/passage from?

Jaws

 

[Source]

Queen Elizabeth II made an appearance on TV today (runs 3:20) about that day in England 75 years ago. It then dawned on me.... she was there.

 

[mdk02]

Queen Elizabeth II made an appearance on TV today (runs 3:20) about that day in England 75 years ago. It then dawned on me.... she was there.

Not only there, she served.

 

[Bugibba]

Thank you to all who have posted. It was my pleasure and honor to read them. Many thanks to all your relatives and their brave actions.

 

[MadRU]

Not only there, she served.

She volunteered in the ambulance corps. Definitely saw a lot in her years.

 

[ru109]

Great stories above. I have a copy of the discharge papers for my (not sure how many great) grandfather on my father's from the Civil War. He served in the Navy on the union side from 1862-1865.

My Grandfather on my mother's side fought in WWII. First generation Italian was assigned to Patton's division. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, was caught behind enemy lines and was hidden by German nun's until the allies recaptured the town. He never really talked about it but my grandmother received a MIA presumed dead letter while he was missing.

My father was drafted and served for 2 years but he caught the sweet spot between Korea and Vietnam and never had to see action. He just hung out in Germany and came home when his tour was done.

 

[superfan01]

Jaws

Wow. Just went back and rewatched that whole part of movie. Didn’t even realize it as jaws was before my time and only watched when i was a kid.
Amazing scene.

 

[ponyfoot19]

My father was the youngest of four brothers who were all in the army during WWII. The two oldest remained stateside. The third was a tank commander who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He never talked about his service time, but developed a problem with alcohol that affected him for the rest of his life. My father landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He would occasionally talk about night patrols where they could hear German troops talking, entering St. Lo and sustaining a grazing foot wound when hit by a sniper. Mentioned being a jeep with a sergeant and an officer going along a hedgerow to try and scout enemy positions when when a German 88 shell landed blowing the jeep off the road. The blast killed one and injured my father and the other soldier.Despite his wounds he was able to drag/carry the other guy along the hedgerow with artillery shells landing behind them.Out of view from the spotter, they got back to their own lines. My father was treated and sent back to England for treatment and remained for the duration. While I knew he landed on Omaha Beach, I thought it was much later in the day since he never talked about it. Fast forward many years and I'm home recovering from a broken leg reading one of Ambrose's books. Reading about Omaha, and I just about dropped the book when I read about the 116 th Division being one of the early waves landing on Omaha. I phone my father and he tells me yes he was part of that group. Goes on to say Saving Private Ryan was the most accurate portrayal of his D-Day he had ever seen, but imagine what you saw in a minutes on the screen, being worse and lasting a seeming eternity. I tried to get him to write down his memories for me and my sister and send them to Tom Brokaw who was looking for material for his The Greatest Generation, and his reply was succinct " son, I've spent my whole life trying to forget that day".

My mother was in the WAVES during the war and worked with a group of women that became known as the Code Girls and broke the Japanese code. That was used to intercept and shoot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto, architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. To the day she passed away, she never said how they did it, nor for how long they had the information saying she had taken a secrecy oath

 

[Source]

I know this is the USS Indianapolis but Where was this quote/passage from?

From sources collected at wikipedia for the movie Jaws:
"...[playwrite Howard] Sackler came up with the backstory of Quint as a survivor of the World War II USS Indianapolis disaster. The question of who deserves the most credit for writing Quint's monologue about the Indianapolis has caused substantial controversy. Spielberg described it as a collaboration between Sackler, [writer John] Milius, and actor Robert Shaw, who was also a playwright. According to the director, Milius turned Sackler's "three-quarters of a page" speech into a monologue, and that was then rewritten by Shaw. [screenwriter/actor Carl] Gottlieb gives primary credit to Shaw, downplaying Milius's contribution..."

 

[RU4Real]

Great stories above. I have a copy of the discharge papers for my (not sure how many great) grandfather on my father's from the Civil War. He served in the Navy on the union side from 1862-1865.

My Grandfather on my mother's side fought in WWII. First generation Italian was assigned to Patton's division. He was in the Battle of the Bulge, was caught behind enemy lines and was hidden by German nun's until the allies recaptured the town. He never really talked about it but my grandmother received a MIA presumed dead letter while he was missing.

My father was drafted and served for 2 years but he caught the sweet spot between Korea and Vietnam and never had to see action. He just hung out in Germany and came home when his tour was done.

It wasn't a great time to hang out in Germany. Neither were the early 80s.

 

[knightfan7]

My father was the youngest of four brothers who were all in the army during WWII. The two oldest remained stateside. The third was a tank commander who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He never talked about his service time, but developed a problem with alcohol that affected him for the rest of his life. My father landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He would occasionally talk about night patrols where they could hear German troops talking, entering St. Lo and sustaining a grazing foot wound when hit by a sniper. Mentioned being a jeep with a sergeant and an officer going along a hedgerow to try and scout enemy positions when when a German 88 shell landed blowing the jeep off the road. The blast killed one and injured my father and the other soldier.Despite his wounds he was able to drag/carry the other guy along the hedgerow with artillery shells landing behind them.Out of view from the spotter, they got back to their own lines. My father was treated and sent back to England for treatment and remained for the duration. While I knew he landed on Omaha Beach, I thought it was much later in the day since he never talked about it. Fast forward many years and I'm home recovering from a broken leg reading one of Ambrose's books. Reading about Omaha, and I just about dropped the book when I read about the 116 th Division being one of the early waves landing on Omaha. I phone my father and he tells me yes he was part of that group. Goes on to say Saving Private Ryan was the most accurate portrayal of his D-Day he had ever seen, but imagine what you saw in a minutes on the screen, being worse and lasting a seeming eternity. I tried to get him to write down his memories for me and my sister and send them to Tom Brokaw who was looking for material for his The Greatest Generation, and his reply was succinct " son, I've spent my whole life trying to forget that day".

My mother was in the WAVES during the war and worked with a group of women that became known as the Code Girls and broke the Japanese code. That was used to intercept and shoot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto, architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor. To the day she passed away, she never said how they did it, nor for how long they had the information saying she had taken a secrecy oath

Saving Pvt Ryan was the last movie my Dad ever went to see. For reasons best known to himself, he wanted to go alone so I offered to take him and pick him up afterwards.

He got in the car and didn't say a word. I asked him what he thought. Now, he wasn't part of D-Day but apparently saw his share of action in Italy. He said "I don't remember it being so bloody but maybe I just don't want to remember". I didn't ask him anything else.

 

[Nowucme]

I knew a gentleman (not a family member) who was with the 9th armored division in WWll. He was in the battle of the bulge and told me he thought if the artillery didn’t kill him then the cold would. As the allies advanced it was his division that came upon the bridge at Remagen - the last bridge standing over the Rhine. It was March of 1945 and his platoon was given the order to be the first to cross over which had to be done on foot. He was one of the first 10 men to cross over under heavy fire and miraculously survived the crossing as did all the others. He was wounded in the crossing however. I asked him, “How do you function in war”? and he said you relied on your training to get you through and then you were either going to be lucky or unlucky. He was a big Rutgers football fan.

 

[yesrutgers01]

I can't remember the famous air raid over Germany but my Dad had told me that it turned the daytime sky dark as night with the amount of planes that flew overhead. I am sure it is how he remembered but may have been a little bit of an exaggeration that was actually believed by the men that were there, if that makes sense. "How they remembered it"

 

[mdk02]

I can't remember the famous air raid over Germany but my Dad had told me that it turned the daytime sky dark as night with the amount of planes that flew overhead. I am sure it is how he remembered but may have been a little bit of an exaggeration that was actually believed by the men that were there, if that makes sense. "How they remembered it"

There were a number of 1000 bomber raids both by the 8th Air Force and the Brits, who bombed at night.

 

[yesrutgers01]

There were a number of 1000 bomber raids both by the 8th Air Force and the Brits, who bombed at night.

Whoever and wherever he was, they happened over him during the day. Said it seemed like hours