World War II Stories?

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FifthColumn

FifthColumn

Super Kami Guru
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Hey all,
In honor of the 70th anniversary of D-day, I put up this thread for us to share stories of family members, or other people we have known who fought or otherwise served in World War II. I will share two.

1. Gerald Heany: This was a judge my mother served as a secretary for in the early to mid '80s.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Heaney. He served at the Normandy beach landings, as an army ranger. He was fired upon as he stormed the beach, but he and his unit managed to take control of a nearby cliff and secure it for the other soldiers. Once the war ended, he was asked a superior officer if he could go home. The officer told him he couldn't, his tour of duty was not yet over. Suddenly Patton walks into the room and overhears the conversation. He goes up to the judge ( still only abour 23 or 24 or so). And he asked him if he was at D-day? he says yes. He asks him several other questions about battles he was at. Judge Heaney confirms he was at all of them. Patton turns to the officer and tells him "Give this man anything he wants." He got to go home :)!

My grandfather actually wasn't at Okinawa, though he served on this ship http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Intrepid_(CV-11) and was on duty when a Kamikaze crashed into it!

Any stories guys?
 
My Dad's Dad was too young for WWII ,but he was in Korea with Bob and sperm-chris.
 
My grandfather was in the South Pacific, he was at Pearl Harbor before the attack.
That's all I really know, he didn't like to talk about it.
 
Pikonic said:
My grandfather was in the South Pacific, he was at Pearl Harbor before the attack.
That's all I really know, he didn't like to talk about it.
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One of my great grandfathers was actually stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked but he was on shore leave, so he wasn't in any danger.
 
My grandfather on my dad's side enlisted in the Canadian army. There was a bunch of things and stuff that prevented him from joining the American military, obviously stuff relating to being from the islands that were still under British Control.
 
My maternal grandfather was a machinist in the European theater during WWII but he died in 1968 and I never met him. I know this from his death certificate.

My paternal grandfather was 4-F (not eligible for service) during the war because he had a bad back. He worked as a draftsman for a crane and machinery manufacturer.
 
2 of my g-grandfathers served in WWI & II. One got wounded early on in WWI and spent the rest of the war partying in the UK, but he was fine to serve again in WWII.
One of my grandfathers was too young until towards the end of the war. He tried to join the airforce but because his mother was born in evil Argentina, the Australian government went to the trouble of questioning his neighbours and may have spied on the family. By the time they were done with that the war was over. His brother had been an officer in the army for several years at that point and he was the son of an Australian born WWI veteran.
 
I've got a few stories, I guess.

I had a great-uncle that served in the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) in '44. He was in a bomber that was shot down somewhere over Germany. His remains were never recovered.

I had another great uncle who was discharged from the service after the invasion of Sicily in '43. He got shot in the ass, a'la Forrest Gump, and evacuated to a hospital in England. He was a bit loony and tried to escape from the hospital, which lead to his discharge.

Although my grandfather never saw action in World War II (he was at DLI at the time, where he became fluent in Japanese), he was stationed in Tokyo after the war ended. He apparently used his Japanese language ability for purposes of evil--namely, he would mind-fuck the MPs by going out after curfew and getting caught in off-limits bars, then start screaming in perfect Japanese that he was a Japanese citizen and HOW DARE THEY try to arrest him.

My grandfather was a 6' tall white man with blue eyes from Texas.

My grandfather eventually was able to bring my grandmother over to Tokyo, where she got a job working in General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters. She never spoke to MacArthur, but did see him several times. I think that's pretty awesome.
 
My grandfathers both fought in WWII (Both in the Navy). One grandfather was a gunner's mate on the USS New York, (BB-34) and was almost killed when a Kamikaze pilot smashed into a plane on the deck. They were part of the initial bombardment of Iwo-Jima, and were the only ship to really hit much of anything. (they hail-mary'd an ammunition dump, causing "the most spectacular secondary explosion in the campaign.")

My other grandfather had his ship blown out from under him, and survived. He got picked up with the other survivors by another ship, but due to some general clusterfuckery coupled with some operational security shit surrounding the Normady invasion, his family wasn't informed that he wasn't dead until about 6 months later.
 
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WWII veterans.
 
My dad's grandpa died when a nazi u-boat sunk his ship, he was part of the portuguese merchant marine and yes I know Portugal was "neutral" but sent the nazis a lot of supplies but whatever. Also my grandma remembers seeing british bombers flying over her village I'm guessing on their way to bomb Germany.
 
Anchuent Christory said:
My great Grandfather on my Mother's side died in a Nazi concentration camp.....
He fell out of his machine gun nest
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Mine died in a concentration camp too.
Some idiot fell out of a machine gun nest and squashed him.
 
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Another of my great Grandfathers, father of the Grandfather I spoke of in Connor's adoption debate thread, fought for the Indonesian Resistance. He had previously served in the Dutch Imperial Army. Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies and he went to war. He was by then an Engineer and he put his skills to use blowing up bridges as the nips tried to cross them.

He was caught on his third attack. He was sent to a Japanese death camp.

He survived. Ever since this family has really, really fucking hated the Japanese.
 
Crazy Pacer said:
Another of my great Grandfathers, father of the Grandfather I spoke of in Connor's adoption debate thread, fought for the Indonesian Resistance. He had previously served in the Dutch Imperial Army. Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies and he went to war. He was by then an Engineer and he put his skills to use blowing up bridges as the nips tried to cross them.

He was caught on his third attack. He was sent to a Japanese death camp.

He survived.
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Man, that blows. From what I've heard, the Japanese viewed allowing yourself to be taken alive as one of the most revolting, disgraceful things you could possibly let happen. In their view, POWs didn't deserve to be treated like humans. (so they generally weren't).
 
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