WW2 STORIES

[Simonov]

ww2 was greatest military conflict in modern world's history.here is what my grandparents remember about it.

my gradma and granpa by mother's side were born in sv.Petar (st.peter) village in Podravina.grandpa was a son of a mere peasant and ninth of twelve children he had.he was too young to actively participate in war and was practicing to become a blacksmith.he told me his older brother joined the homeguard but his unit was captured by partisans and after that every track about them is lost.(he thinks they were probably killed and buried somewhere in the woods near the village).his other brother was a partisan...my grandma remembers that both german and ustachi raided the village and were taking everything they had from food, clothes, cattle, young men for recruits etc.if anyone dared to oppose them he just dissappeared.it was a rough time to live in their village.they were helping local partisans who were hiding in woods.



my grandma by fathers side lived in Bistra in Zagorje and she remembers when german convoy of tanks and soldiers entered their village.it was time around easter and all the children greeted glorious german army threw flowers at them and were giving them food and easter eggs.they didn't know what evil ideology actually hid behind their shiny uniforms and pretty talk. she told me her uncle joined the ustachi troops and was later killed somewhere on the front.



my grandpa by father's side was a born montenegrin who lived in a small village in kolašin county.he was just 17 when his village was occupied by italian troops who constantly molested the locals.then he joined his uncle who was a founder of communist resistance in the village.he fought all over the territory of former yugoslavia against axis forces and chetniks and was wounded 2 times.once in the leg and once in the chest but somehow survived.he fought in 2 most famous battles in this part of europe - battle on neretva and battle of sutjeska.on one occasion when fighting germans in woods he got just on the line of fire of kraut machinegunner but jumped quickly behind the nearest tree, and got shot only in the leg that time.when war finished he became a JNA (yugoslav national army) officer.



more historic info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_P ... ration_War

if you have any interesting stories from ww2 about your family please write them here.

ps pics aren't authethic , found them on net

[unriggable]

My dad was an eskimo.

[Stopper]

Weird, I'd have thought there'd be more responses to this, and on a Risk site, too. On the other hand, a thread entitled "Beautiful Girls" goes up to six pages in less than a day. Actually, that's a very healthy sense of priorities, come to think of it.

Very interesting story, Simonov. I reckon there won't be many people on this site who have a Communist partisan for a grandfather...Saying that, I don't have much to add myself.

My maternal grandfather was conscripted into the British Army as a cook, and appears to have spent most of the war in the Middle East. Not very specific - I don't know whether he was in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Persia or Syria, or wherever. He refused to say much about the war when he was alive, so no-one in the family knows much about what happened. There is supposedly a journal he kept, but this is jealously guarded by one of my uncles. All very mysterious.

My other grandfather - supposedly there's a slightly more detailed history for him. He was meant to have been an infantryman in the British Army, and to have fought on the western front. Allegedly, he found his own brother, a POW in a camp somewhere. My great-uncle had apparently been bullied by a Polish POW in this camp, and this so enraged my grandfather that he found this (possibly emaciated?) Pole, and beat him to death with his bare hands.

However, this side of my family is very well known for telling tall tales to aggrandise themselves, and since the man died long before I was born, I've never been able to corroborate this delightful story, or indeed, that he was really an infantryman at all.

[chessplaya]

Cool thread

[gimil]

I dont know much about the war but ma great grandpa died on the beach while invading sicily. My gran never got to know her dad. she was born while he was serving. I would like to one day visit his memorial

[chessplaya]

I dont know much about the war but ma great grandpa died on the beach while invading sicily. My gran never got to know her dad. she was born while he was serving. I would like to one day visit his memorial

, thats very sad !

[gimil]

I dont know much about the war but ma great grandpa died on the beach while invading sicily. My gran never got to know her dad. she was born while he was serving. I would like to one day visit his memorial

, thats very sad !

t least there comfort in knowing he gave his life for the liberation of Europe and for the freedom of his daughter.

[Simonov]

here is a movie about partisans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfB-TKcX4p8

i see that some of you may a a negative visions of partisans but during the war they were antifascist just as americans or british and fought against hilter.it was actually only antifascist option in this region - others collaborated with nazist.yes later they enforced communism and the history has shown it was not a system that would last and had many flaws.nevertheless they rebuilded the country from ruins and maintained peace for almost 50 years in this region. at last days of his life my granpa said he was heavily disappointed with some actions of communist party saying they have betrayed ideals and principles they fought for.

[glide]

My uncle Roy on the Canadian side.....went down from a uboat torpedo off the coast of Halifax aboard HMCS Shawinigan. My father served in the Royal Navy in Britain, and was actually serving aboard HMS Hood until 3 weeks before the fatal day she went down, when he was transferred to HMS Dorsetshire. Strangely enough, Dorsetshire was instrumental in Bismarks eventual sinking. Revenge must have been very sweet, although he didn't speak of it much to me. He did however, mention meeting many Canadians who were part of the "Sheepdog Navy" escorting convoys across from Halifax, and I often wonder if he had met any future in-laws before he met my mom.

[btownmeggy]

My grandfathers were much too old to have fought in WW2, but I had two great uncles that did.

Here's one of them (the tall guy) with my dad (the wee little guy) and my dad's cousin (the wee little gal) during the war:



My partner's grandfathers had rather interesting participations in the war. One of his grandfathers worked at the Rolls-Royce factory (somewhere in northernish England... Derby?) making Armoured Cars like this one:



The other one was the youngest sergeant at the Battle of Okinawa. He once wept as he told me about, at 19, having to send his friends off to die.

Sometimes I like to think what my life would have been like if I had lived in various countries during WW2. What side I would have been on, what the political circumstances would have made out of my existence. I usually come to the conclusion that I'd be either imprisoned or dead.

EDIT: I did further research. After they stopped making armoured cars, my partner's grandfather made Spitfire engines, a la http://www.spitfiresociety.demon.co.uk/engines.htm

[Iz Man]

Great thread.
I just happened to be talking with my grandmother about a month ago about this.
My (maternal) grandparents were on the way home from the movies when they heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio. The next morning, my Grandfather (like many others) went downtown and signed up into what was then known as the Army Air-Corps.
He then was sent to Alaska and fought in the Aleutian Campaign. Also known as the Forgotten Battle. Not many know this, but it happens to be the only time in the war that U.S. land was invaded by enemy forces.
The weather conditions were brutal.
Here's wikipedia's page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_ ... an_Islands

My uncle's father was a Gunner's Mate and stormed the beach at Normandy.
His landing craft was blown out of the water before it reached land. He survived the sinking, but floated for 3 days before he was rescued. The ship that rescued him thought he was dead, when in fact he was unconscious. To bring him up on board, they hooked him under his ribs with a grappling hook on a rope so he could be hoisted on board. Once he screamed, they dropped him back in the water and sent in a rescue swimmer to grab him.

[Titanic]

I'd love to say my ancestors were in the war, but my family were famers in India for at least 10 generations.

I love reading up on wars and battles though.

[flashleg8]

I'd love to say my ancestors were in the war, but my family were famers in India for at least 10 generations.

Nearly all of my family (on my mum and dads side) were farmers - or farm workers during both world wars. I'm not ashamed of this in any way, Titanic, as in Britain the food situation was so dire (due to the U boat campaign in the Atlantic) that all farm labourers were exempt from conscription (with coal miners, doctors and other critical industry workers) and I believe they played a vital role in keeping Britain in the fight against fascism.

A few stories I've been told though briefly. An Italian POW helped work on my great uncles farm, and his kids spent so much time around the soldier that the youngest girl spoke more in Italian than English when she was learning to talk, which caused a bit of concern! The soldier liked his time here so much he moved his family here after the war and I believe that he stayed in contact with my family for many years.
The neighbouring farm to my Granddads was bombed by German planes (very unusual for our area). At the time it was suspected that the pilot thought that the hen houses looked like an army barracks from the air! But it might be more true to think that the German pilot was dumping excess bombs not dropped on his way from Clydebank (part of the Clydebank blitz on the shipping industry in Glasgow) - as his commanders would have looked harshly on him coming back from an attack without completing his bombing run.

My bagpipe teacher (now dead) fought in the Cameronians regiment and served in Burma (along with the merchant navy). He had his trigger finger shot off while fighting in the Kohema pass. It was so difficult to reach a first aider he just ripped the remains off and taped it up for a week while the fighting continued. They eventually stopped the Japanese attempt to open an invasion route to India. He still managed to play better than any other piper I knew!