War Stories

[Sharkman Briton]

So I heard earlier this year that my great-grandfather was in the Royal Navy, from the stories I can presume he was quite high-ranking. Here are the stories that my grandfather told me about him.

1. Lucky Escape:

He was offered a promotion to a very high rank, but refused because it would mean him being moved to another ship, and he wanted to stay with his friends. A week or so later the ship he WOULD have been transferred to sank, and all the crew along with it.

2. Captain Pingu

So at some point, a penguin got on the ship and hung around, the crew was okay with it and kept it as a pet. They fed it and I think they might have dressed it up in uniform. Eventually, though, he was ordered to get rid of the penguin because the admiral was coming to inspect the ship, so he threw the penguin overboard. 

3. Bismarck Battle

So in the big battle between the Royal Navy and Germany, the Bismarck was sunk. My great-grandfather was on one of the battleships that sank the ship.

[Tricky14]

My grandfather wasn't in the military, but he tried to rescue a british fighter pilot from a burning crashed plane. It was pointles though, the pilot burned to death. He also offered refuge to some asian folk that were in hiding during the razzias. Contrary to popular belief, the german troops weren't just after jews. Gays, communists, resistance folk.. just about anyone who wasn't 'Arian' and supporting the cause was fair game. My grandfather had to put his family at risk but managed to survive several really close encounters with soldiers looking for dissidents. The biggest problem was food. It was rationed and anyone trying to get their hands on more than they could eat themselvesm to support other people in hiding was suspect. It had to be smuggled in, through baby trolleys, suitcases with double bottoms and the occasional run during the night.

During the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944 they had to force them out of the house because it became too difficult to keep everyone fed. People headed out of the cities on foot in search for food. A lot of the farmers had it better than the city folk because they were self-sustaining and not as much subject to food rationing. Some gave food willingly to city folk, others were robbed or even killed. My grandfather had to either leave the asian folk behind to die, or take them with him. He chose the latter option and managed to avoid detection during a two-day hike to the north. He managed to find refuge for the asian refugees there.

War is a two-sided story. Or to quote This War Of Mine: "For soldiers, war is about victory. To us, it was about getting food."

Edited April 29, 2016 by Tricky14

[Sharkman Briton]

2 hours ago, Tricky14 said:

My grandfather wasn't in the military, but he tried to rescue a british fighter pilot from a burning crashed plane. It was pointles though, the pilot burned to death. He also offered refuge to some asian folk that were in hiding during the razzias. Contrary to popular belief, the german troops weren't just after jews. Gays, communists, resistance folk.. just about anyone who wasn't 'Arian' and supporting the cause was fair game. My grandfather had to put his family at risk but managed to survive several really close encounters with soldiers looking for dissidents. The biggest problem was food. It was rationed and anyone trying to get their hands on more than they could eat themselvesm to support other people in hiding was suspect. It had to be smuggled in, through baby trolleys, suitcases with double bottoms and the occasional run during the night.

During the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944 they had to force them out of the house because it became too difficult to keep everyone fed. People headed out of the cities on foot in search for food. A lot of the farmers had it better than the city folk because they were self-sustaining and not as much subject to food rationing. Some gave food willingly to city folk, others were robbed or even killed. My grandfather had to either leave the asian folk behind to die, or take them with him. He chose the latter option and managed to avoid detection during a two-day hike to the north. He managed to find refuge for the asian refugees there.

War is a two-sided story. Or to quote This War Of Mine: "For soldiers, war is about victory. To us, it was about getting food."

Wow your grandfather was awesome! Whats his name? This guy deserved to be on one of those things talking about heroes during the war.

Now, the pedant's were total butts but the soldiers in general weren't any more evil than the enemy soldiers. They didn't know about the atrocities in the concentration camp and were shocked to find out about them. Look up "german soldiers reacting to footage of concentration camps"

All sides commited atrocities, America nuked the innocent, Britain bombed the innocent, Russia killed every innocent man in Berlin and all the other contries did bad stuff. The german soldiers weren't given a choice, they had to fight for their side or else. Fighting for the bad side doesn't make you a bad person per se.

[Canberra_Gaming]

This is a rather interesting thread, I'm a Depper in the United States Air Force so I won't be seeing any action for another year when I graduate. My great grandpap Eddie on the other hand was in the coast guard during World War Two. He served as an engineer on an LST during the Battle or Iwo Jima and Okinawa carrying ammo and food for the marines on the beaches. That was my last family member on my side to serve in the military. Three generations our family has been slacking, I'm breaking the trend.

[KerbMav]

I did know my great-grandmothers, but the only thing I heard, was that one of them - living in a small village - hid a French soldier, but I cannot even tell if it was the first or second world war.

When I was old enough to take interest in history and what happened back then, they were already gone.

My grandmother told me, that while still a baby for some reason she laughed every time her mother took her into the cellar during air raids.

Edited April 29, 2016 by KerbMav

[RizzoTheRat]

My grandfather was a tail gunner on Lancasters.  Never really talked about it much as he lost a lot of mates.  They were window dropping (foil/chaff to confuse radar) on d-day and flew back over the allied forces, he reckoned you could have walked across the channel there were so many boats down there.

I still find it amazing that these guys went through what the did and then managed to come home and lead normal lives.  He came home and raised chickens for years.

My other grandfather was a farmer (much needed profession so encouraged not to join the military), grew opium poppies for years.  I imagine these days you'd need armed guards on your fields

 

 

[Tricky14]

12 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

I still find it amazing that these guys went through what the did and then managed to come home and lead normal lives.  He came home and raised chickens for years.

This right there. My grandpa didn't raise any chickens, but he had six (!) more kids.

I'm sure there are many KSP players that served during one recent conflict or another. Heck, there might be people on this board right now who were kids experiencing first hand Sarajevo, the gulf war or any number of conflicts. Again, reaching back to This War Of Mine because it left such an impression on me. I think it's okay if I post this here, since it's clearly someone's personal war story:

 

Edited April 29, 2016 by Tricky14

[Streetwind]

My grandfather was made to fight for the German Wehrmacht at the siege of Stalingrad. If you do not know about this battle, how it unfolded, played out and ended, I highly recommend you read up on it. There are many examples of gruesome battle reports in the world, but few drive home the sheer insanity of warfare to the last resort like this one does.

Among more than one million Axis soldiers committed to that battle across half a year, with a 85% casualty rate, he was one of the lucky few who managed to return home after the war ended. But miraculously, he shook off the horrors of war, found love, built a family and a career. He outlived his ten years younger wife and died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 98, in his own home. Neither dementia nor alzheimers nor cancer ever managed to touch him. The war was always a vivid memory in his mind, it felt like; he tirelessly tried to tell stories of it, and to impress on everyone how we ought to cherish the peace we had finally achieved. But despite all of it, he never appeared traumatized to me. I find that to be particularly impressive.

[razark]

My father was with the Marines in Vietnam in 1965.

Most of his stories involve guard duty, Spam sandwiches, communal latrines, and griping that the NSA had better gear than the Marines.

[pTrevTrevs]

I think I have a great uncle who fought on Guadalcanal and Peleliu during World War II, but I don't know anything about him, except that he probably had bad PTSD from the war. My father flew UH-60s in Desert Storm, but the most interesting story I've ever heard from him about his time in the army was from when he was in Germany. He and his friends casme back from town one night and one of them was so drunk that he felt the urge to climb to the top of the base's water tower and take a leak, all while shouting very, very loudly. My father and the others with him tried to stop him, but he got through in the end and was elated when he climbed down, although I bet he got in big trouble the next day.

Lesson learned: German beer is extremely potent.

[QuesoExplosivo]

Both of my grandfathers were involved in the Korean war (one was a medic at an Army hospital, the other was a GI), but neither actually saw any combat. Besides treating combat casualties, the medic grandfather had to deal with a nasty outbreak of Japanese encephalitis near Pusan. The GI grandfather was deployed just before the end of the war, and his experience in the Army was relatively uneventful (except for camouflaging himself with poison oak in training camp).

[Columbia]

..Nothing, really. As a Filipino, the only WW2 story I heard of from grandparents was that my grandmother hid in Mount Taal when the Japanese bombed the country.

 

[lajoswinkler]

On 4/29/2016 at 10:54 AM, Tricky14 said:

Contrary to popular belief, the german troops weren't just after jews. Gays, communists, resistance folk.. just about anyone who wasn't 'Arian' and supporting the cause was fair game.

I wouldn't call that a popular belief. I'd call that an ignorant view of a minority. The fact that Nazis were exterminating all of them (including the Roma people, Jehowa's witnesses, etc.) is common knowledge. They even had a plan for the Slavic nations, to turn them into slaves.

[ToukieToucan]

I believe that my grand grand father had a farm during the Dutch hunger winter, he hid meat (not sure if there were refugees on the farm) that would otherwise go to the germans and small things like delivering things late. A cross the street was a member of the NSB which is the dutch version of the NSDP. Apparently he lit the farm on fire once. 

[HoloYolo]

My father recently returned from Afghanistan. He was an engineer and had to go along with other patrols in humvees in case something broke down. He got a day off and went to Kabul. He met a lot of people and brought home a lot of Afghan items and clothing. He was also shot at by machine guns and mortars when he was there as well, but he enjoyed the city. When he came home, we thought he was fine and wasn't changed by the deployment. For a few months, he had massive panic attacks and had anxiety. He had to take sleeping pills even in the middle of the day to calm him down. Even today, 3 years after he returned, I can still here him opening the pill bottle to calm him down. It honestly makes me cry inside. I wish he never had to go. 

[SlabGizor117]

My grandfather served in Korea as a marine, I believe.  M*A*S*H was his favorite show because that's what he did in Korea.  There was a lot of survivor's guilt I'm sure, from the few stories I can think of off the top of my head.  He had been going out, I believe, to pick up any bodies or... Parts, around, though that could be wrong.  Fuzzy memory.  Anyways he had been out for a few days, and when he came back he was told to go out and do that again, and one other corpsman decided to take his place so he could have some time off, and then was shot by a sniper.

He also had two bodyguards, I believe, killed protecting him.  

I'll update if I get a chance to talk to my dad and there are any other interesting stories.

Edited May 1, 2016 by SlabGizor117

[Nibb31]

My father was a kid in the London East End during the Blitz bombings. He used to sneak out of the shelters to watch the "doodlebugs" (the nickname for the V1). One day, when they returned home from a wedding, they found the house burning because a German bomb had gone right through my father's bedroom. If it wasn't for the wedding, he would have been sleeping in his cot.

My great grandfather was killed in Belgium during WWI. Although we have an old letter from one of his mates saying that it was in a heroic action to take a fort, we'll probably never know about the actual circumstances. Many of the "heroic actions" from WWI were desperate attempts to overwhelm the enemy's machine guns with more cannon fodder. He was probably sacrificed like millions of other poor blokes like him.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Nibb31

[Atlas2342]

On 5/1/2016 at 6:37 PM, Columbia said:

..Nothing, really. As a Filipino, the only WW2 story I heard of from grandparents was that my grandmother hid in Mount Taal when the Japanese bombed the country.

 

Ooh, a fellow Filipino....

[ColKlonk]

He fought from Abyssinia, through North Africa to Northern Italy.. all 6 years of it.

Foot soldier, tank gunner, ended up as tank commander (field commission).

Closest call was when a sniper got his friend sitting next to him.

Never talked about the war, but you'll see him reliving it, year after year, as he spent hours, sitting in dead silence, on the front porch of the house.

RIP

[lajoswinkler]

I almost got killed by a grenade. I guess that counts.

[r4pt0r]

My grandpa worked on radar equipment for the F-4 Phantom and other jets in Vietnam. He also worked with the SR-71 later on, and the MiG-25 that defected.

Edited May 5, 2016 by r4pt0r

[Kertech]

My great uncle fought on d-day, strolled up sword beach and had a glass of wine at a french farmhouse. Took him two weeks to see german soldiers! 

On the other side my great grandad fought at galipoli though all he ever would say was the film was completely inaccurate! (yay for ANZAC!)

[Bill Phil]

I have a great uncle who drowned in a tank on D-Day. Pretty sad.

Both of my grandfathers were in the military. On my mother's side, he was a logistics officer for the army. On my father's side, he was a pilot for the Air Force, but I don't think he ever got stationed in  a war zone. Although he did go to Korea, but it was post Korean War.

[SlabGizor117]

On 5/5/2016 at 6:35 AM, lajoswinkler said:

I almost got killed by a grenade. I guess that counts.

Whoa..  Middle East wars I assume?  Would you mind telling more about it?

[Greythorn032]

On 2016. 4. 30. at 1:21 AM, QuesoExplosivo said:

Both of my grandfathers were involved in the Korean war (one was a medic at an Army hospital, the other was a GI), but neither actually saw any combat. Besides treating combat casualties, the medic grandfather had to deal with a nasty outbreak of Japanese encephalitis near Pusan. The GI grandfather was deployed just before the end of the war, and his experience in the Army was relatively uneventful (except for camouflaging himself with poison oak in training camp).

My hometown Busan has grown into a second biggest city in South Korea thanks to your family's service, Regardless of how eventful their duties were. Glad to see someone remembers this war.