WWII Stories Anyone?

[driphoney]

I just finished up 6 weeks of blasting through later western civilization history including a lightening-speed flash through the world wars. Most here (if not all!) are too young for WWII, but I'm sure some of you were told stories of grandparents or maybe parents or uncles and aunts of what it was like.

Since we all come from many countries, I thought it might be interesting to hear the different perspectives and tales.

My own grandfather was on the older end of the draft and was married, so he avoided it. It wasn't like him to rush out and face death in the face, so he stayed home.

But my grandmother recalled to me when a German POW train rolled through and got stopped on the way-lay in our little Appalachian village. The town folk went out to stare and then, betraying the kind-hearted nature of the people of the region, went home and brought back rationed cigarettes and sweet items to hand through the windows to the Germans.

Have a story to share?

 

[TxRad]

I'm not sure if this is what you want but it shows the irony of wars.

My dad was on the light cruiser Phoenix the whole of the second world war. It was one of the few ships to escape to open sea unscathed when Pearl harbor was bombed. It was involved in every major battle and landing in the south pacific and never lost a man. Two men were swept overboard during a storm but both were rescued by destroyers and returned to the ship. The Phoenix was known as the "Lucky Lady".

It was decommissioned after the war, mothballed and later sold to the Argentine navy. At the battle of Falkland Islands it was sunk by the British Navy. It went down with all hands.

 

[Boota]

My grandfather was in the 101st Airborne that dropped into France the night before the D Day invasion. A story he always told to my mom and uncles ended up being featured in the movie The Longest Day. They always wondered whether it was based on someone telling the story of what he did or if it was a common urban legend among the soldiers. He landed outside of St. Mere Eglise in a cemetery and told his kids that he was so scared that when he heard a noise he panicked and shot up the cemetery. That scene is in the movie.

He also told of taking a German prisoner in a farmhouse in France. He was chasing the German up stairs in the house when the German heard the unmistakable zing of the clip ejecting because the rifle was empty. The German turned and began to engage but my grandfather reached into his ammo pack and slammed another clip home and pointed it at the German soldier who surrendered. He said that later he determined not to carry his cigarettes in his ammo pack because they were too hard to clean out of the weapon.

 

[driphoney]

I'm not sure if this is what you want but it shows the irony of wars.

My dad was on the light cruiser Phoenix the whole of the second world war. It was one of the few ships to escape to open sea unscathed when Pearl harbor was bombed. It was involved in every major battle and landing in the south pacific and never lost a man. Two men were swept overboard during a storm but both were rescued by destroyers and returned to the ship. The Phoenix was known as the "Lucky Lady".

It was decommissioned after the war, mothballed and later sold to the Argentine navy. At the battle of Falkland Islands it was sunk by the British Navy. It went down with all hands.

Wow. Lucky for some . . .

I'm not looking for any particular thing. For all the factoids, theories and over-arching themes that connect history, the most interesting bits for me are the interactions of everyday people.

Thanks for sharing, Tx.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I was a tail gunner on a blimp during the big one.

 

[driphoney]

My grandfather was in the 101st Airborne that dropped into France the night before the D Day invasion. A story he always told to my mom and uncles ended up being featured in the movie The Longest Day. They always wondered whether it was based on someone telling the story of what he did or if it was a common urban legend among the soldiers. He landed outside of St. Mere Eglise in a cemetery and told his kids that he was so scared that when he heard a noise he panicked and shot up the cemetery. That scene is in the movie.

He also told of taking a German prisoner in a farmhouse in France. He was chasing the German up stairs in the house when the German heard the unmistakable zing of the clip ejecting because the rifle was empty. The German turned and began to engage but my grandfather reached into his ammo pack and slammed another clip home and pointed it at the German soldier who surrendered. He said that later he determined not to carry his cigarettes in his ammo pack because they were too hard to clean out of the weapon.

Ha!

There had to be lots of shared experiences, or similar events, so who knows regarding the cemetery scene.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[driphoney]

I was a tail gunner on a blimp during the big one.

Yeah? What was her name?

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Well, on one side of the family, my great-uncle got up early to have a smoke and got thrown off the USS Arizona when it was hit. He was one of the few to survive (1,177 of ~1,400 died). He was born in Ireland*, and always cited "the luck of the Irish" for his survival.

On the other side of the family, my grandfather spent the early part of the war begging to be a paratrooper, but his position as foreman in a supply factory meant he was repeatedly denied. He was finally allowed to go, but when they learned he was fluent and literate in French (that entire side is from Quebec), he was attached to an American general. He spent the next year or so "living it up" (his words) with the general, and eventually ended up in a chateau in France. When the war in Europe ended he asked to go to the Pacific as a paratrooper, but the war in the Pacific ended when he was en route. He was still upset when he died that he didn't get to do his part (again, his words, not at all mine).

My husband's family didn't fare as well. His grandfather was taken prisoner, and the POW experience, combined with the lack of mental health services back then, led to a very screwed up family. Amazingly, no one (except the grandmother, I suppose) knew he was a POW until the 1990s when he did an interview with a local paper. My MIL found out about her father's experience on the evening news.

That said . . . those stories all pale in comparison to the kick to the gut I got the first time I sat down at a friend's Seder and saw the tattoos on various arms around the table. Those stories are at the museum in DC, but they've asked that no one listen to them until they die. I don't want to listen, but I feel like I owe it to them to do so.


*technically England, but he didn't admit that until his deathbed, so we pretend that like all of this siblings, it was Ireland.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

My father flew troop carriers at Ft. Benning doing training jumps for the airborne. Except for one trip when they were experimenting with air drops onto islands. I believe the idea was to drop paratroops on Corregedor. As the men prepared to jump, the wind shifted and the first waves began to drop into the Gulf of Mexico. Loaded as they were, everyone went straight to the bottom. My dad saw that and jammed his hand down on the "red light" button trying to abort the jump but everyone had already seen the green and they all jumped anyway . . .


He only told the story once.

 

[driphoney]

Well, on one side of the family, my great-uncle got up early to have a smoke and got thrown off the USS Arizona when it was hit. He was one of the few to survive (1,177 of ~1,400 died). He was born in Ireland*, and always cited "the luck of the Irish" for his survival.

On the other side of the family, my grandfather spent the early part of the war begging to be a paratrooper, but his position as foreman in a supply factory meant he was repeatedly denied. He was finally allowed to go, but when they learned he was fluent and literate in French (that entire side is from Quebec), he was attached to an American general. He spent the next year or so "living it up" (his words) with the general, and eventually ended up in a chateau in France. When the war in Europe ended he asked to go to the Pacific as a paratrooper, but the war in the Pacific ended when he was en route. He was still upset when he died that he didn't get to do his part (again, his words, not at all mine).

My husband's family didn't fare as well. His grandfather was taken prisoner, and the POW experience, combined with the lack of mental health services back then, led to a very screwed up family. Amazingly, no one (except the grandmother, I suppose) knew he was a POW until the 1990s when he did an interview with a local paper. My MIL found out about her father's experience on the evening news.

That said . . . those stories all pale in comparison to the kick to the gut I got the first time I sat down at a friend's Seder and saw the tattoos on various arms around the table. Those stories are at the museum in DC, but they've asked that no one listen to them until they die. I don't want to listen, but I feel like I owe it to them to do so.


*technically England, but he didn't admit that until his deathbed, so we pretend that like all of this siblings, it was Ireland.

Very sobering. When studying about war it's easy to get caught up in numbers and ideology, but those numbers are humans. They matter.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[rgraham666]

My father flew troop carriers at Ft. Benning doing training jumps for the airborne. Except for one trip when they were experimenting with air drops onto islands. I believe the idea was to drop paratroops on Corregedor. As the men prepared to jump, the wind shifted and the first waves began to drop into the Gulf of Mexico. Loaded as they were, everyone went straight to the bottom. My dad saw that and jammed his hand down on the "red light" button trying to abort the jump but everyone had already seen the green and they all jumped anyway . . .


He only told the story once.

Crap.

Only story I know is from my maternal grandfather who was a truck driver in the Canadian Army in Europe. He went to take a dump and left all weapons save a hand grenade in his truck. A German surprised him, my grandfather threw the grenade and got him. At least that's what I was told.

I learned a few years ago that grandfather had a Luger as a souvenir. One day my father asked to see it. For a laugh my grandfather thought it would be funny to point the gun at my father and pull the trigger. Either the safety was on or the ammo had degraded because when my grandfather worked the action a round popped out of the chamber. "I didn't know it was loaded," and all that.

The Luger was hacksawed to pieces the next day.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Yeah? What was her name?

"They" called her Big Brutha, but she had Goodyear scrawled across her side.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My uncle talked my dad into joining the Marines. When they came out the other side, my uncle had been turned down for service as a Marine, but my dad hadn't. To say the least my dad was pissed.

Anyway, boot camp, then infantry training. He was then sitting in a landing craft approaching the beach, the pop of gun fire, the explosion of grenades all over the place.

So what if his one amphibious landing was on the beaches of Puerto Rico.

It was a graduation landing. As they stormed the beach and took up position in the sand, a Major and several orderlies wandered down the beach giving out discharges. The war was over.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

Very sobering. When studying about war it's easy to get caught up in numbers and ideology, but those numbers are humans. They matter.

Yes, it's why I tend to get annoyed when people start talking guns and tanks.

The most moving things I've ever experienced in life (and not my weird WWII trips, of which there seem to by many thanks to my husband; I mean in all of life) might have been touring a concentration camp and a ghetto, and seeing the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honor at Westminster Abbey in London (those books are huge).

 

[TE999]

My Uncle was career Navy and Chief Machinists Mate on an LST (Landing Ship Tank or 'Large Slow Target') in the Pacific Theater 'Island Hopping' campaign during WWII. His ship saw action in the Philippines, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. They were hit repeatedly with small caliber fire, once by a 5" shell and a kamikaze struck the bow during the battle for Okinawa. The old girl shrugged it all off and both he and it lived to see the end of the war.

He recalled going ashore after the islands were secure to look for souvenirs which the men on the big ships would pay handsomely for. He brought all sorts of weapons, battle flags and samurai swords on board and collected and sent home a tidy sum to my Aunt by wars' end.

Another of my Uncles' was an Army Staff Sergeant MP that went ashore at Anzio. He directed troop traffic, kept order in conquered towns and guarded captured Italian and German soldiers. He said the Italian's were friendly and glad to be out of the war and the German's were arrogant and expected to be rescued by their comrades at any time. They never were. He was shot at repeatedly by snipers and returned fire several times, but survived the war as well.

My father was married with a child and worked in a high priority defense plant as a machinist, so was never called to serve until 1945 for the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. Two atomic bombs changed that plan and he was in service less than nine months.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Ah, yes. Two atomic bombs.

Once the Nazi's were defeated, the airborne's attention turned to the proposed invasion of Japan. Because they had been in the Zone Interior for the entire war, Dad's unit was assigned to the first wave of the invasion. Had it taken place, Pop would have been the wingman to the flight leader of the first wave. Probable life expectancy . . . zero. So should anyone start bemoaning the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki around me I take several deep breaths to avoid punching their lights out. I exist because of those bombs.

And people should remember that horrific as the loss of life in those cities was, the estimated Japanese casualties for the invasion were on the order of three million. That's on top of the estimated one million Allied. Guilty? Not this bear.

 

[ishtat]

Stringbag

One of my great uncles piloted a "stringbag," A torpedo carrying bi plane, officially a Fairy Swordfish. He would never talk about action unless, he could joke about it. At the battle of (I think) Taranto in 1940 they made numerous low level runs against surface ships. These planes had a maximum speed of about 100 MPH fully loaded and the long, slow, level approach into the teeth of heavy fire was terrifying.

The next day the pilots joked that only one of their squadron of pilots had not soiled his pants on the target run. Their commanding officer immediately demanded to know who had remained clean; "Right," he said, "next man back clean is on a charge... any man that hasn't shat himself, must have left the target too soon." Possibly it has grown in the telling, but if true, that CO knew what he was about.

The only other thing we know about uncle is that he lost two Stringbags when he crash landed in the sea, at different times, but he survived the war, and his experience in these unlikely but effective planes.

Sadly, the Japanese closely observed the Fleet Air Arms Swordfish tactics at Taranto, and substantially copied them at Pearl Harbour.

 

[rgraham666]

Oh yes. The Stringbag was a lovely plane. It helped sink the Bismark as well by sticking a torpedo in its rudder.

The atomic bombs were horrible but we did worse at Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo. 125,000 in a single night at Tokyo.

 

[TE999]

One of my great uncles piloted a "stringbag," A torpedo carrying bi plane, officially a Fairy Swordfish. He would never talk about action unless, he could joke about it. At the battle of (I think) Taranto in 1940 they made numerous low level runs against surface ships. These planes had a maximum speed of about 100 MPH fully loaded and the long, slow, level approach into the teeth of heavy fire was terrifying.

The next day the pilots joked that only one of their squadron of pilots had not soiled his pants on the target run. Their commanding officer immediately demanded to know who had remained clean; "Right," he said, "next man back clean is on a charge... any man that hasn't shat himself, must have left the target too soon." Possibly it has grown in the telling, but if true, that CO knew what he was about.

The only other thing we know about uncle is that he lost two Stringbags when he crash landed in the sea, at different times, but he survived the war, and his experience in these unlikely but effective planes.

Sadly, the Japanese closely observed the Fleet Air Arms Swordfish tactics at Taranto, and substantially copied them at Pearl Harbour.

You would enjoy reading a book entitled 'To War In A Stringbag' by Commander Charles Lamb. My copy is copyrighted 1977, but there may be later editions. Lamb was in on the attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto, so I'm sure your great-uncle knew him (or of him). It makes for some excellent reading. Lamb later crash landed on a mission, was captured by the Italians and freed later in a prisoner exchange program.

 

[kromen]

I feel guilty because I've been sitting on a WWII story for over three years now. I had the pleasure of meeting three Tuskegee airmen during a convention in Atlanta and the honor of getting them to autograph a poster sized photo of them during combat training. A neighbor of my grandfather was also in the 761th tank battalion, a segregated unit that assisted Patton during the Battle of the Bulge. He used to tell me stories all the time, especially of the nightlife in Paris. Dammit, where is that file? That story is gonna get told this summer.

 

[driphoney]

Thanks for sharing everyone. Funny or serious, the personal accounts, more than anything, are what gives meaning to the history--at least to me.

Having said that, numbers cannot be completely thrown away. It's also important not to push aside all the factors when scrutinizing with "20/20" hindsight.

I feel guilty because I've been sitting on a WWII story for over three years now. I had the pleasure of meeting three Tuskegee airmen during a convention in Atlanta and the honor of getting them to autograph a poster sized photo of them during combat training. A neighbor of my grandfather was also in the 761th tank battalion, a segregated unit that assisted Patton during the Battle of the Bulge. He used to tell me stories all the time, especially of the nightlife in Paris. Dammit, where is that file? That story is gonna get told this summer.

I hope you do! What a great experience for you.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

One of my colleagues when I was teaching was the daughter of one of the Tuskegee airmen. I have an autographed copy of the book that was written about them. He remained in the Air Force after WWII and retired with the rank of full colonel. A grand old gentleman.

 

[SeaCat]

I got to hear about World War II from participants on both sides due to my family dynamics.

On one side of my family my Grandfather, a naturalised citizen of the United States served in the European Theater as a Rifleman/Translator. (He was a Rifleman but had to work as a translator when his unit captured German Soldiers.) He survived the war and returned home with only minor injuries. I sat Shiva with the rest of the family when he died.

On the other side my Grandfather was on the Eastern Front for most of his service. It was only towards the end of the war when he was evacuated back to Germany due to wounds. The hospital he was in was over run before he had healed. After the war he was repatriated to his hometown (Bad Kreuznach) where my mother saw him for the first time in several years. His hometown was in the French Zone and he was quickly rounded up with other soldiers and placed in a camp on the outskirts of town. Fortunately for him he survived the camp, many didn't. I was at his funeral.

As an addendum to this, several years ago the journals and military effects from both of my grandfathers were passed on to me.

Cat

 

[amicus]

I would offer that my journey to Europe included the Normandy Beaches, where I expected to see what I saw...but that on my way to Paris, on a side-road, virtually unmarked, when I discovered what seemed to be an endless field of white crosses, the impact of that war became quite real and palpable.

amicus

 

[stephen55]

The Phoenix was known as the "Lucky Lady".

It was decommissioned after the war, mothballed and later sold to the Argentine navy. At the battle of Falkland Islands it was sunk by the British Navy. It went down with all hands.

The ARA General Belgrano (formerly the USS Phoenix) went down with the loss of 321 crew and 2 civilians who were on board, after being attacked by the British submarine HMS Conqueror. Upwards of 275 of those casualties were caused by the explosion of the second torpedo to hit the ship. Despite early reports that the ship went down with almost all hands, most of the ship's company made it to the boats after the captain ordered that the ship be abandoned. The order was given twenty minutes after the first hit when it was clear to Captain Bonzo that the ship was doomed.

The first torpedo hit just 10 to 15 meters aft of the bow. The bow was completely blown off but the bulkheads there held and the forward powder magazine did not explode. None of the ships company were lost to that first torpedo hit.

There was no fire on board and all the main bulkheads had held, but the second torpedo had heavily damaged the ship's main electrical power system and there was no way to pump out the sea water entering through the holed hull. The ship was also unable to put out a distress signal.

With a heavy list to port and the ship starting to sink by the bow, it was all over for the ARA General Belgrano,

Argentine and Chilean ships rescued 770 men over three days following the sinking.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/ARA_Belgrano_sinking.jpg
The Belgrano sinking after being struck by two torpedoes fired by HMS Conqueror

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARA_General_Belgrano