• Family Military History
    334 replies, posted
Both grandfathers served in the military, one as an Air Force pilot during Korea and the other as a designated marksman during Korea, one of my father's cousins were killed in the Tet Offensive.
My grandfather commanded some artillery in ww2, he fought Rommel in the desert.
My Grandfather was in Vietnam, my dad and his dad were in the Navy. :patriot:
I've never given so many heart ratings in one thread.
My great grandfather was a U-2 pilot in the Soviet army during WWII - specifically during the assault on Berlin. Never saw him but it sounded pretty awesome.
My grandfather was a tank company commander, and was the the Battle of the Bulge and the Bridge at Remagen. He wrote a book about it, but I have yet to read it.
my grandfather who is still around served in the RAF as a AA gunner on the airfield
My Great Grandfather served in WWII in the Russian army at the time. He was in Stalingrad for a lot of the time, while the Germans were surrounding the city trying to get inwards. I remember my Grandmother telling me stories about Stalingrad, that there were little supplies and food because nothing went in and out and many were sick. He did survive and died many years later, and my Grandmother got to show me some of his medals and such.
my granddad was in wehrmacht eat a bag of dicks if you think that wehrmacht was full of nazis heil hitlah sieg nazi we will conquer the yourop
My grandad on my mother's side was a tank driver in WW2. What I know of him is that he was part of the assault on Juno beach and the taking of Normandy and Italy. He never spoke of his experiences and died when I was quite young so I don't know a lot about him. I have two albums around somewhere of the photos he and his friends took during their service. One story I was told by my mother, which was the only story she ever shared with me on my grandad's experiences was that once during a battle his tank was hit and disabled, as they were all getting out the man ahead of him, his best friend, was shot by a sniper. To think, if my grandad had gone first I wouldn't be here. My great uncle (I think, I'll have to check on which relation it was) also on my mother's side served in the navy for a long time, there's also a photo album from him laying around somewhere with photos from all over the world. I'll try and dig them out and scan a few photos in when I get the chance.
My friends granddad did something funny during WW2: Ok, so the Germans had just invaded Norway, and they were setting up camps and such along the countryside. One day, a German asked him if he could use the toilet. Ofcourse he said yes, but what the German didnt know was that he had removed the inner lock from the toilet, so Mr. Granddad stood there, keeping guard. While the German was shitting, he quickly locked the outside lock, so the German didnt get out, so he sat there all day. Good times
My great-grandfather was a Private First Class ("Gefreiter") in WW1, and a Captain in WW2 ("Hauptmann"). My grandfather was in the SS, but I don't know wich rank. Both didn't like to talk about it, so I don't know all that much
My grandfather was a tankman at El Alamein. Thankfully we were against the Allies at that point, so he was imprisoned in a Brit camp and not a Nazi one...
[QUOTE=jimhowl33t;27815390]My grandfather was a tankman at El Alamein. Thankfully we were against the Allies at that point, so he was imprisoned in a Brit camp and not a Nazi one...[/QUOTE] What nationality was he? Romanian? Hungarian? North African?
I am a distant descendant of this man: [IMG]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Oskar_Victorovich_Stark.jpg[/IMG] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Victorovich_Stark[/URL] He was in charge of the Russian Pacific Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. Things didn't go very well for him. At least he had an epic beard.
My grandfather was the officer in charge of a gun turret on the USS California in WW2 My dad was a cryptolinguist for the USAF during the Cold War, his people gathered most of the intelligence we had on Soviet aircraft of that era
Several far off relatives were soldiers for the North during the American Civil War, My great grandfather was a pilot in WWI, my grandfather was part of the occupation force in Japan after WWII.
My father's family immigrated here in 1905 from Italy, so I don't know anything or anyone before that, and I know absolutely nothing about my mother's side. My grandfather was in the Reserves during WWII because he had bad knees and couldn't serve. Apparently all my grandmother's brothers served in WWII and I had a really badass grand uncle that had a lot of medals and such. I contacted the site that deals with handing out information on GIs during World War II, but they think that his records got burned when part of the Archives burned down in the 70s. He died years ago so we'll never really know what he did or what he earned :smith:
One of my grandfathers was in the Wehrmacht, the other one in the Red Army.
My grandad fought as a Polish Soldier in WW2. Got shot twice and still survived. I was little and never really asked him about it. I was too shy to ask him when I was little. My mum always told me "he's still got the bullet wound scars, one day he'll show you!" I never got to see those scars...or ask for any war stories...
Both my grandparents were on WWII, but on opposite sides. My mother's father was an Americans, he island hopped in the Pacific. My father's father was a Nazi, he was an infantry man captured in Africa and kept as a POW until 1950's. My father's father died a few years ago, but I still remember the mournful look he had on his face when I asked him what he did during WWII :smith: I never learned about it until after he died.
[QUOTE=Sasasing;27813744]The Spanish civil war, quite devastating for the country[/QUOTE] He wasn't born then. Although he is an artillery colonel.
One of my Great Grandfathers was a Finnish prison guard in WW2 and used them as farmers The other was a simple frontline soldier, but ended up getting paralysed... Both of them died before I could meet them. However, My Great Great Grandfather on my Father's Mother's side skied with his two brothers from Siberia to Finland. They were in gulags and when one was shot skiing over he had to stay behind (the pact was everyone for themselves). He ended up staying there for 10-15 years. The other brother ended up in Sweden. My Great Great Grandfather stayed in Finland and raised a family. He was killed by communists during the Finnish Civil War because he was a bank manager.
[QUOTE=Bean-O;27815612]I am a distant descendant of this man: [img_thumb]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Oskar_Victorovich_Stark.jpg[/img_thumb] [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Victorovich_Stark[/URL] He was in charge of the Russian Pacific Fleet during the Russo-Japanese War. Things didn't go very well for him. At least he had an epic beard.[/QUOTE] He's be definitely proud of seeing his far far relative posting since 5 years on facepunch. [sp]Just kidding, you can't compare two people from different ages. Its like saying that we all suck because we don't know/behave what/like the people in 500 years will.[/sp]
My uncle manned a tank, and got a purple heart when his tank got hit by a shell AND HE FLEW UPWARD, OUT OF THE HATCH, AND FELL A FEW YARDS BACK. I dunno if it's exaggerated, but he also got another 2 hearts for something else.
Great-great Grandfather was an Unteroffizier in a German-speaking division in the Austro-Hungarian army before WWI. Then he moved to America. Might have been a mountain unit seeing as he lived around Salzberg. Great-great grandfather wasn't in the military and somehow avoided the draft in WWI. Grandfather was an engineer during the Korean War. Never saw combat. Dad was in the same unit as my grandpappy but during gulf war. Was never deployed. Wish I could carry on my family's military tradition, but I have diabetes. :smith:
One of my grandfathers was an artillery operative and the other a lieutenant in the romanian army. Both of them died in WW2 at Stalingrad so I didn't get to meet any of them or hear stories from the war :smith: Makes me feel so bad since my big bro and my father told me that they were great persons and they would've loved me a lot if they were alive. I also would've been very fascinated by their war stories. Oh well...that's life I guess :saddowns:
Don't know much about my family history. My Grandfather was in the SS. I have never met him (he died before I was born), and he didn't say much about it to my mum, but by what he has said it sounds like he was in the 24th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS.
My grandpa and great uncle were in the Wehrmacht in WW2. Grandpa was only 16 or so (I'm assuming it was closer to the end of the war when they were running out of men), he made it through the war fine, met my Grandma in East Germany and they fled to Canada. My great uncle was captured by the Russians and was treated very badly in their camps (for their meals, they were thrown rats which they had to kill and eat raw). On my fathers side of the family my grandpa and uncles were also in the army (Canadian army) I believe. My Grandpa was apparently in what my dad described as a "hit squad", they were sent into German towns and killed everyone in them including civilians. I'm not sure what the story behind it all is, sounds awful though. After the war he became an alcoholic and died before I was born. My Grandma was from Czechoslovakia and fled to Canada during the Soviet invasion.
[QUOTE=Stupideye;27816341] On my fathers side of the family my grandpa and uncles were also in the army (Canadian army) I believe. My Grandpa was apparently in what my dad described as a "hit squad", they were sent into German towns and killed everyone in them including civilians. I'm not sure what the story behind it all is, sounds awful though. After the war he became an alcoholic and died before I was born. My Grandma was from Czechoslovakia and fled to Canada during the Soviet invasion.[/QUOTE] Jesus Christ what. Sounds like Canadians weren't any better than any other side in the war either, Russians during the Winter War sent paratroopers behind finnish lines with only one objective for them; to convert/destroy as much villages as possible. Back then Finland had every able men in the frontlines so it was very rare for any village behind the lines to have soldiers protecting them.
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