World War II Stories?

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Some JERK said:
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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The Japanese at the time held many incorrect beliefs. 70 years of servitude to a Western power have corrected most of them.
 
My grandmother lived in the Netherlands during the occupation, so did most of the rest of my family. There was an uncle somewhere that was in the Dutch underground resistance, but I don't know much about him. My grandmother however told me some of her stories. I might be really messing up the sequence of events, but this was from a conversation I had like 1-2 years ago, so I don't remember all the exact details. Anyway, She lives right in the south of the Netherlands, and really close to the German border. She already did back then. So when the fighting started, she knew. She could hear it going on. She told me about the bullets hitting the roof of her house, the airplanes flying over. The Germans struck without warning, so the frontline was among the innocent. She describes it as one of the scariest times of her life. I will get to the other one soon. when bullets started hitting the rooftop of her building.

The Netherlands didn't stand for long, and soon the occupation had begun. My grandmother was told to house two German soldiers. They were rather conflicting personalities, I'm told. One was a total supporter of Hitler and all the things he was doing and had done. The other dreaded the fact that this was the way he made his living. She got along quite well with the latter. I don't know much about them other than that, but at some point they disappeared out of her life, so I can only assume that they both died in action. I'm not sure if the following happened during the liberation or during the initial battling for the Netherlands, but it was when there was a lot of fighting going on. the area my grandmother lived in was at this point (still?) under German occupation. Someone tried to smuggle her out to a safehouse away from the occupation, which involved pretending to be a soldier, so by extension hoping that the guarding soldiers they had to pass by didn't notice that she was a woman. It was a rather tense journey, but it somehow all worked out.

The safehouse on the other hand, not so much. It was right near the frontline, which meant that by the morning, a series of grenades had made sure that the house was barely still standing. This was the other scariest moment, or rather night, of her life.

They were liberated by the Scots not too long after. She seemed to fondly remember the nights of partying that followed, and she probably will for the rest of her life.

That's all I can remember she told me for now. I might be missing some stuff, but as you can tell it was a rather exciting, but at the same time horrifying time for her. Or, as Jace would say: World War 2 is unrealistic.
 
My Division, the 4th, liberated Holland. We also broke through the line at Normandy. We held the line during the Battle of the Bulge and Counter Blitzed.

We've never lost a battle in over 100 years.

I realize this is not within the scope of this thread, but I am Ivy. The Ivy division deserves to have it's tale known.


By the way, IV is the roman numeral for 4. It's prnounced the same way as Ivy. It works considering our fighting style. Slow advance. Slow advance. Except when we blitz.
 
Some JERK said:
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).
Click to expand...

Yeah from what I have heard, the Japanese really did not follow any laws of war, or genva convention stuff, not even a little bit. I think there were several events like the Rape of Nanking that they did. They also bombed China with Bubonic plague viruses..... After the war there still were Japanese solders fighting... the last one surrendered in 1971.
 
My great grandfather, Charlie Johnson, and a great uncle served in the European theater. My uncle died from (I believe) cirrhosis without having ever seen combat and my great grandfather was part of the French occupation (not D Day but reserves who came in afterwards). He saw limited combat and after the war continued as a coalminer and in his later years, a preacher. Sadly the story is not very interesting because he wasn't a very talkative man by nature.
 
A-Stump said:
My great grandfather, Charlie Johnson, and a great uncle served in the European theater. My uncle died from (I believe) cirrhosis without having ever seen combat and my great grandfather was part of the French occupation (not D Day but reserves who came in afterwards). He saw limited combat and after the war continued as a coalminer and in his later years, a preacher. Sadly the story is not very interesting because he wasn't a very talkative man by nature.
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Thats ok. You dont have to have been at big battles to have made a difference. A lot of guys who were part of that did not like to talk aabout it anyway. Hopefully had a good time enjoying fine french wine and food, as well as Parisian strumpets ;)
 
FifthColumn said:
Yeah from what I have heard, the Japanese really did not follow any laws of war, or genva convention stuff, not even a little bit. I think there were several events like the Rape of Nanking that they did. They also bombed China with Bubonic plague viruses..... After the war there still were Japanese solders fighting... the last one surrendered in 1971.
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They did not bomb anyone with plague.
 
Some JERK said:
My great uncle died in a Nazi concentration camp too.
He shot himself after finding his two best friends inexplicably dead at the bottom of a machine-gun nest.
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My great Grandfather died in a concentration camp too...

He tripped and fell down some stairs trying to drag a few bodies down to the basement.
 
exball said:
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WWII veterans.
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This is pretty much my grandfather. He fought in France and Germany and pretty much disobeys his care aides now.

Satan said:
...Only upon Stalin's death in 1953 he was released, but by then he was presumed dead in the Netherlands and my great-grandmother had since remarried.

...and, as an ultimate "fuck you" to the Russians and his former wife, married a German woman.
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Before his remarriage, though, that must have been a tough spot for your great-grandmother. What does one do in that circumstance?
 
Geez, I just thought of something. You barely see World War II veterans anymore.
If you go walking on the street, or in the mall, or wherever it is highly unlikely you will see one walking aorund. And if you do they are usually reall wizened and shriveled looking and are either in a wheelchair or with a walker.
I remember as a young chap in the 90s, It was fairly common to have a friends grandfather who fought in WW2, and to see them in 4th of july parades. Politicians would speak to groups of WW2 vets, and candidates as recently as George dubya and John Kerry did that profusely. Youd always see some old folks giving history channel interviews about the battles they were in.

Now it seems like a WW2 vet is practically a unicorn..
 
FifthColumn said:
Geez, I just thought of something. You barely see World War II veterans anymore.
If you go walking on the street, or in the mall, or wherever it is highly unlikely you will see one walking aorund. And if you do they are usually reall wizened and shriveled looking and are either in a wheelchair or with a walker.
I remember as a young chap in the 90s, It was fairly common to have a friends grandfather who fought in WW2, and to see them in 4th of july parades. Politicians would speak to groups of WW2 vets, and candidates as recently as George dubya and John Kerry did that profusely. Youd always see some old folks giving history channel interviews about the battles they were in.

Now it seems like a WW2 vet is practically a unicorn..
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And we're running out of Vietnam vets now.
 
Since my family is British they were held as POWs after the fall, it's actually kind of incredible that my grandfather survived. Hong Kong was hit really hard by the occupation. Like, I dunno if it's actually true, but I was told repeatedly growing up that WWII wound up killing like 2/3 of the population of the territory.
 
I had family who never served in action, but one of them got drafted and broke into the draft board to get his papers.

He failed but somehow managed to get out undetected. And when he finally got his orders his job was to guard the Brooklyn bridge. That's the hand of God for ya.
 
Since this thread is necro'd, I'll join in:

two of my great uncles (one by blood, another by marriage) saw combat. The first was KIA in the Battle of the Bulge, and the other was at Normandy and received the Bronze Star (we didn't knoe this until after he passed away, since he never talked about it).
 
People think World War 2 started with the nazi invasion of Poland. It started before that, the Japanese invaded China before then and the Germans were invading Czechoslavkia before then also. 20 million were killed in the Japan-China war but never is mentioned in western books.

And in 1939, it was called the silent war because the Uk/France vs Germany never engaged each other in any serious engagements. Only in 1940 did they begin to fight.
 
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