Family on the East Front?

[V]

I was wondering if any of our German or Russian forum members had family who served on the Eastern Front?

And if so, where and when?

[Mafiozox]

Well, im not russian or german, but my grandpa was a polish-russian jew. lived around bialistok area, when the germans came he was forced to work in some tinkering factory, one day he got beaten so hard he lost his right eye.

in early 1945 his camp was liberated, and he joined the Red army because he spoke fluent german and russian. he told me how they tracked germans, and asked them if they're nazis, when the german said no, he told them to take off their shirt, if they had the SS tattoo.. you know what happened to them.

[Michael Dorosh]

Andreas has a relative who had been in an artillery obervation battalion - a link to his site is up at der Kessel.

[daft]

My grandfather fought in the Finnish Army wich is kind of the Eastern Front I suppose. smile.gif

[Count Zero]

Originally posted by daft:
My grandfather fought in the Finnish Army wich is kind of the Eastern Front I suppose. smile.gif Same here... I´m only half-überfinn tough :(

[Blackhorse]

Both my uncles fought on the Eastern Font.

The oldest was an Aufklarer in the 3rd Motorized Division from the beginning. He was wounded and evacuated prior to the encirclement of 6th Army. He was never able to rejoin his comrades and was subsequenty assigned to a regiment in Italy. He fought in the withdrawal from Italy, and then faced the Yanks on the Western Front. At war's end, he and his crew abandoned their Achtrad and walked to areas where they could search for family or friends. He was never captured or processed. It's a damn interesting story to hear him tell of the struggle to find kin folk after they had all been displaced.

The youngest was an Infantryman in the 26th Dom Division. He was captured in 1943 outside Smolensk. My mother and her parents thought he was dead. In 1946 they learned he was alive. In 1948, he returned home to them.

Both are still alive, and both are remarkable men.

The youngest lived out a longtime dream of his a few years back. He swam the Volga. (He was a POW there and helped rebuild Stalingrad. I imagine the desire to swim the river was born during those days, as he never saw it while serving.)

[The Commissar]

My grandfather from my father's side served through the last bits of '44 and through '45. Stormed Berlin.
I keep meaning to ask him which division, army, etc. he was in but I dont get to talk to him nearly as much as Id like to.

[ham]

My grandfather from father's side joined up as a volunteer to Finnish Army and fought in the continuation war untill got wounded.

[ October 12, 2002, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: ham ]

[gunnergoz]

My Ukrainian wife's family lost 7 of 9 men in the war. The 2 male survivors died in recent years.

The surviving females still cringe when they hear German spoken.

BTW, the Russians say that 95% of the males who reached age 16 in 1941, did not survive the war. An entire generation wiped out, in other words.

Soooo...first hand war stories are hard to come by nowadays. That's why we must treasure any survivors we know or meet, and I applaud any attempts made to get their stories documented before its too late.

[gunnergoz]

Originally posted by The Commissar:
My grandfather from my father's side served through the last bits of '44 and through '45. Stormed Berlin.
I keep meaning to ask him which division, army, etc. he was in but I dont get to talk to him nearly as much as Id like to.Commissar, you'd best take advantage of the time you have left with your grandfather, it's a gift that can be withdrawn any day. Do him honor and take the time to take down his story while you can. And thank him for the rest of us, when you do. smile.gif

[Andreas]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:
Andreas has a relative who had been in an artillery obervation battalion - a link to his site is up at der Kessel.Observation, even.

Unteroffizier Biermann, Beobachtungsabteilung 26, Baltic States and Leningrad/Wolchow June 1941 - Feb/March 1944. Then seriously wounded (Heimatschuss - he still carries the bullet around), served the war out in Denmark, near Viborg. Deserted shortly before the end, and walked home, arriving in June 45 as the first returning soldier in the village. Decorated with EK I, EK II, Verwundetenabzeichen and the infamous Gefrierfleischorden.

[V]

Thanks for the info, guys, and keep them coming.

Also, I did not mean to limit this to only Russians or Germans. Just interested in hearing any little stories or histories of any of you who might have had family on the East Front, of any nationality.

Thanks again.

[JunoReactor]

Originally posted by Blackhorse:

.......
Both are still alive, and both are remarkable men.
.......
Glad to hear that; their stories are certainly touching. One swimming the Volga, and the other going to look for family relatives right after he lays down the gun... One feels the raw human substance of war even in the few paragraphs you have written.

[killmore]

Polish GrandFather server in Polish army. In 1939 he fought his way to Rumania...
Then France,Britain, Italy (Monte Cassino)

[killmore]

My Grandmothers brother died in T-34 near Kiev (1944). His crew claimed 3 german tanks in previous battles

[ParaBellum]

My grandfather served in the 5.Gebirgsjäger Division. He participated in the greece campaign and survived the bloody invasion of Crete.
In 1942 the division was transferred to the russian front where it operated in the Leningrad/Wolchow region until 1943.
The division was then transferred to Italy where it participated in the battle for Monte Cassino.
Only recently I discovered a few photos from this time, one showing him and two comrades in front of their bunker "Rosi" (short for my grandmother's name) in Russia.

[Lah]

My Grandad was on the western front with the BEF and got evacuated from Dunkirk. My Grandmother said he had suffered shell shock, apparently he got split from his unit and on his own came across a French farmhouse, the family were sat down to dinner but all dead I think from the vaccum blast of a shell close by. When she visited him in hospital she said a guy in the ward was still clinging to his tin hat on his head and no one could take it from him.

My Grandad went back over with the Middlesex regiment in 1944 to Normandy and survived the war dying in the late 1980's. My Grandmother still did not like Germans till her end, after suffering through the blitz herself.

[ October 13, 2002, 05:51 AM: Message edited by: Lah ]

[Nippy]

Lets see:

My Grandfather, on the mother's side, joined the Merchant Marines in June of 1945. He spent a lot of time ferrying American and German POW's back home. He traveled to Cuba, France (he docked in Cherborg), and even got to see the rock of Gibralter.

Now my various uncles (My Grandfather's Brothers, he came from a family of 15 children!) had more "livly" Military careers.

Uncle Frank served in China-Burma with Merals Mauraders and got to lug a 20 pound BAR all over that area.

Uncle Leu, who saddly passed away several years ago, served as an AA gunner on various Ameracan ships in the pacific theatre throughout the war and several times found himself on the wrong end of a Kamakazi attack.

As far as I know these were the only ones to see combat. The Other's either joined too late to see action or served in a support role well behind the front lines.

[von Lucke]

Originally posted by Andreas:
...and the infamous Gefrierfleischorden.OK, what's a frozen meat medal?

[Andreas]

Originally posted by von Lucke:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Andreas:
...and the infamous Gefrierfleischorden.OK, what's a frozen meat medal?</font>[/QUOTE]If you survived the winter battles 1941/42 you received it. Gefrierfleischorden was what the Landsers called it. I am sure Grog Dorosh will know the correct name.

Oh, if we go to before 1941, my grandfather served in Beobachtungsabteilung 30 in Poland and France. With them he practised for Seeloewe in Holland. He was only posted to 26 after being hospitalised for a longer time in 1940. Did not make much difference though, 30 also spent most of the time around Leningrad.

[Sytass]

One of my grandfathers died on the Eastern Front. My grandmother wouldn't say on which, she wouldn't speak of the time or of her flight from Eastern Prussia to Holstein.

My other grandfather ran away from any kind of work all his life, and so he escaped serving on the front, too. He became a chauffeur for SS brass, and so he ended up coming to Holstein among the entourage of the last government of the Reich under Adm. Dönitz. His family (my mom and her mother) fled before the Red Army from Pommerania reunited with him in Holstein.

[Blackhorse]

Originally posted by Sytass:
One of my grandfathers died on the Eastern Front. My grandmother wouldn't say on which, she wouldn't speak of the time or of her flight from Eastern Prussia to Holstein.

My other grandfather ran away from any kind of work all his life, and so he escaped serving on the front, too. He became a chauffeur for SS brass, and so he ended up coming to Holstein among the entourage of the last government of the Reich under Adm. Dönitz. His family (my mom and her mother) fled before the Red Army from Pommerania reunited with him in Holstein.Sytass,
My grandfather, my grandmother, and my mother also fled from East Prussia to Holstein. They lived originally in East Prussia in a town named Rehhof, now named Riejevo, Poland.

The left their house on Januray 25th, 1945 and made the trek westward in one of the worst winters ever. They originally went to Danzig but thankfully avoided taking the Wilhelm Gustloff.

They were in an open horse drawn carriage and eventually made it to safety.

The family remained in Holstein until 1952. My Grandfather became the local veterinarian to farmers and was able to sustain his family that way. The family then moved to a home near Bad Rappenau.

One thing I forgot to mention was that they stayed with relatives in Holstein. Relatives who are still there. I only know her as Tante Bertha. I'll have to find out her last name (it is not Wilhelmy) It may be Schramm... I recall her having a pig farm (I was young the several times we visited).

It would be very interesting if members of your family knew or know members of my mother's family.

Cheers,
Chris

[ October 13, 2002, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: Blackhorse ]

[Scots Grey]

My paternal grandfather was a pre-war Territorial Artilleryman in the RHA serving on 2pdr A/T guns.
went to France in '40 evacuated at Dunkirk and then posted to Thames Forts during the Blitz as an AA gunner.Posted back to A/T guns(6Pdr) and took part in the Torch landings.
Returned to UK and posted once again to AA unit in 11th Armoured ended the war guarding the camp guards at Belsen.
Unfortunatly I never knew him as he died in 1957 before my parents got married but recently I spotted him in a newsreel about the liberation of Belsen.

[Scipio]

My father served in 1945 in Grenadier - Ersatzbattalion 46(?, not sure about the number) and was wounded on 1st May, somewhere between Dresden and Breslau. He was a MG-42 gunner. My father was 16 years old at that time.

P.S.: Do somebody know if or where I could find informations about my fathers unit?

[ October 13, 2002, 10:18 AM: Message edited by: Scipio ]

[Juju]

My (German) grandfather fought on the Eastern Front and was M.I.A in 1943.
The family on my father's side has always claimed they know/remember nothing about him, which has always struck me as kinda odd. Suspicious even...

[Scheer]

Hi all,

interesting thread. Both of my grandfathers served in WW2, one in the german navy on a torpedoboat as a "Bootsmann". He was in Norway when it was occupied. I still have his Portopee ( spelling? ) bayonet.

My other Grandfather fought on the russian front as an infanteryman. He was killed, when he shot down a russian fighter with his MG42, which crashed down on his foxhole. That was in 1944.

Also one of my uncles served in the navy. He was also on a torpedoboat in the mediteran sea, was sunk and captured in egypt. He made it back to germany in 1946. He died a few years ago.

[Boris Balaban]

My uncle fought in one of the German Ukrainian divisions (1 or 2) and he manned a mortar. :cool:

[DrAlimantado]

My grandfather on my mother's side served as a fallschirmsjaeger, from 39/40 until 44 when he was captured. As far as I know he saw action on the eastern front and were wounded there three times.

My grandmother served as a JU-87 mechanic on the eastern front from 42 to 44. She never spoke anything about it, she was a women who liked secrets.

My Danish step-grandfather tried to enlist in the Red Army, but was captured and interned in Sweden.

If I recall correctly, my grandmother's brother also served on the eastern front.

[Sytass]

Blackhorse, my mother was four at the time of the flight from Pommerania, and she had little memory about it. But from my late grandma I know how perilous that flight was.

My father's family was from Braunsberg, Eastern Prussia, and as I said, I know nothing about their flight. My father as well as his parents are dead, and his step-siblings no nothing, either, so no chance of asking.

[audace]

My grandfather (father' side) was stationed in Sicily during 1942 , as a part of the medical staff of the 180th Field Hospital, attached to the "Superga" Inf. Div.

The Superga had to take Malta during that summer, but insted they landed in Tunisia and were sent to the frontline as soon as they reached the theater. He recalled of being strafed by British planes before landing, and the terrific noises of Machine guns firing against them.

The Superga was later almost destroyed, and he and a handful of survivors were captured by the British, then sent to the USS "Vulcan" (I have his POW card with the ship's name) for recognition, and then to Gibraltar, where he worked alongside British pesonnel.
He was under the Red Cross and never ever said anything wrong against the British.
He actually disliked the Germans, as he remembered some bad accounts in North Africa.
Finally he came back in 1950 or so, and died in 1982 when I was just born.
He almost never talked about his war experiences. Sometimes he recalled so many wounded men he saw, British or Italian, and how they suffered.
He said that many times they didn't have sufficient medicinals, so they gave Whiskey to the prisoners as an anestetic (!).

His brother was a Leutenent , and fought in Albania and Greece during 1940/41 and then in Jugoslavia against Tito's partisans. He told us some stories, about how terrible it was, but not a lot too.
He always hated yugoslavians, or communist for that reason. He is still alive and looks younger than me.

A relative was on an Atlantic submarine (have to find in what submarine he was exactly), and survived.

There is a relative who fought in Russia, but he's a far relative and I don't know much about him.

[offtaskagain]

One of my great uncles was in one of glider regiments of the 101st airborne. He joined the division in time for Market Garden and served the rest of the war.

[Shadow 1st Hussars]

I had an Uncle that served in the SS but information on what he did isn't talked about. :(

[Grazo]

My grandfather fought his Winter War as a 17-year old volunteer in air defense at Turku. In 1941 he joined also as a volunteer in German army with two years contract and fought in 5.SS-division Wiking in Ukraine and Caucasus. He wounded in Malgobek area in Caucasus and came back to Finland in summer 1943 and fought the end of the Finnish Continuation war in Rukajärvi area. He is still alive and I have also met lots of Finnish SS-veterans in their meetings. He has also shown me some nice stuff which he took (and stole :D )from Germany like his uniform, SS-Camo suit, 50mm mortar grenade, medals, etc.

[PiggDogg]

No one in my family had any WWII experiences of note. However, a friend of mine's dad had WWII experiences worthy of note and almost books stature. Here is the short story.

My friend's dad was a young Polish Jew in 1939. After the Germans invaded Poland, he escaped across the eastern border into Russia. Promptly, the Russians imprisoned him.

When the Germans invaded Old Mother Russia, the Russians saw fit to utilize my friend's dad's services ... as an infantryman in the Russian army.

Few who read the the BTS threads or who play CMBO & BB can doubt the courage and good fortune that it took to survive as a Russian infantryman in WWII. :eek:

The gentleman fought across Russia and into Germany. He survived WWII and thereafter sought out his remaining family. The Germans and the war saw to it that he had no remaining family. During this immediate post WWII time, he met & married his wife in Poland.

Soon thereafter, he and his new wife made it to the USA at Mobile, Alabama. They ended up in New Orleans, where in the uptown New Orleans area, he has run a small retail Kosher deli and store for over 40 years.

Salutes to this man and all (no matter what side) who fought in WWII.

Cheers, Richard smile.gif

[Hortlund]

I'm Swedish, but my dad is German.

My Grandmother had 7 brothers who all died in the war. She never *ever* talks about it, but dad has told me a little about them (he really doesnt like to talk about it either). I know that one was a 109 pilot who got killed in the east, and two were infantrymen, also in the east. My grandmother was at Dresden that night in April 45, and she lost two of her brothers there, the youngest one was 4. I think Grandmom was something like 13-14 at the time. She is still around.

My great-grandfather fought in both wars. In ww1 he was a captain in the cavalry, but since there were little use for cavalry in the trenches, he spent most of his the time in various French villages behind the front. He was stripped of rank twice for his excessive partying (apparently he and his drinking escapades were something like a legend in his division). In ww2 he was a officer in a cavalry unit, but I dont know which one.

[V]

I really did not expect this kind of response.

Thanks for sharing your stories, again, guys.

Please, keep them coming...

[ParaBellum]

Completely forgot my other grandfather. I don't know much about him, since he died in the 50's.
All I know is he served as an infantryman on the eastern front 'til 1945 and spent some time in russian captivity after the war. He never recuperated from that time and AFAIK he never talked about that time.
My father has kept his decorations and, what's really interesting, his walking stick from Russia.
It seems that it was common practice for soldiers on the russian front to make these sticks during the long winter nights, often plentifully decorated with ornaments like national emblems, regimental insignia, place and date of where and when it was fabricated and sometimes very personal things like carved faces of wives or kids.
Interesting is that there's no reference to the "Führer" or even a swastika on it but instead the old motto "Gott mit uns!".

[Kallimakhos]

From father's side my grandpa fought in artillery in Continuation war and survived. From mothers side grandpa fought in Winter war, was badly wounded in the head and freed from service. He had three brothers. Two of them fought through Winter. In Continuation war they were both company commanders on the Kannas front. When one of them fell in summer 1941, the other one had to fetch the body from between frontlines and fell himself two days after that. The fourth brother was too young to participate.

Grandma served organizing Lotta Svärd in her hometown in both wars. Once, while pregnant, when running to the shelter during air bombing she fell causing internal bleeding in the woomb. Luckily the child survived and became my mother.

[Sniper Fodder]

Mother's side, my grandfather was 4th PLDG (Princess Louise Dragoon Guards) "the Plugs", armour recon. Sicily, Italy, France, Holland. After the first day of advance combat training (not official name of training) in England, he said "F&@K! a guy could get killed doing this!" So after that he always snuck off and drank coffee in the canteen.
Once in italy, he spend the night in an old barn with his officer (he was wireless operator). In the morning when they went out, all the guys (about 8 men he thinks) on guard duty right outside the barn where gone. Nabbed by the Germans in the night!! During a big fight in Holland he had another officer (a young new guy) order him to hold his position in the armoured car while the officer went to check with their commander. Again, he said "f@#K this" and hopped out and took cover. The amoured car was immiadiatly blowed up, blowed up good.

His brother was 82 Airborne. With the regiment that got detached and sent to Italy (I don't know too much about it). When they compared stories it turned out that they "passed" each other with out knowing it.

Great Uncle,(grandmothers brother) was Lake Superior Regiment. Shermans tanks.
Grandmother worked one of those decoder things in New York. All hush hush. They had a list of bars that they where not to go to because "know Nazi's and possible Nazi spyies fequented them". I ask her stuff and she is still tight lipped.

Paternal grandfather got sucked up and put in a forced labour camp in the eastern Europe.
There are a bunch more, but most of them either pushed paper, or due to age had jobs training others, ie one of the brother was with artillery but he never left Canada.

[Bullethead]

Going back a bit further than WW2... :D

One of my granddaddy's brothers was in the US expeditionary force fighting the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Way up north around Arkangelsk. (How many US citizens today even know this happened?) Besides freezing his ass off, the only story he told was how one time his platoon got surrounded and things looked grim. But then the revolutionary Russians had a "change of command ceremony"--they shot their officers and elected new ones. There was a lot of arguing in the latter phase and while the Russians were thus distracted, my great uncle and his boys snuck away.

[ October 14, 2002, 01:52 AM: Message edited by: Bullethead ]

[Nick Schieben]

I'd better chip in - On my German side, 3 uncles who fought in the Wehrmacht, 2 in the east:

1, Artillery, motorcycle, bad back from cold winters and long stay in Siberia, still going strong.
2, Volksturm, captured by soviets at 16, still going strong.
3, Artillery, captured in South France during allied liberation of Marseilles/Toulon. Health problems from imprisonment in North Africa were detrimental to longevity.

Sorry, but I can't pinpoint units, etc.

Their sister, my mother who at 16 was helping with telegraphs and phones, was fortunate to have had asssistance in evacuating from their homeland of East Prussia, where they lived on a farm in the region of Koenigsburg. Most of the family wasn't so fortunate.

Regards,

[Da Beginna]

One of my grandpas lost 5 out of his 6 six brothers on the East Front. He self got cripled. As a Social Democrat in Danzig/Gdansk first they put him into a concentration camp then he put him into the Wehrmacht. After returning because crippled he lost his beloved home and had to flee to Northern German.

War sucks.

[bardosy]

My grandfather fought in East. He was a commander of an anti-tank gun. He served in the Hungarian Fast Corps.
They fired to T-34s from very close dictance, but they laughed and he must retreat. This gun was a 50mm...
He injured in Poland 1944, but he survived. He could travel back to Hungary, married with my grandmother (near the austrian border) and they escaped from russians to west Austria and captured by americans. 1945 they went back.
Tomorrow I visit my grandfather...

[Santi]

On my father's side: two Greatuncles (dad's mother brothers') volunteered for the 250th Div, dubbed "The Blue one" one made it back only and was given a position as a subway train driver. Franco's dictatorship gave all the volunteers a living once they had come back...maybe out of remorsement

On my mom's: one of my mom's brother in law worked as one of the assitants to either -sorry I can't recall exactly- the top brass : Gral Muñoz Grandes or Gral Esteban Infantes. Incidentally the latter being my sister in law's Greatuncle...err I agree it sounds convoluted smile.gif

and last but not least my sister in law's father volunteered as well, fighting in the zapadores (assault engineers) Bn. He never said a word about it , he surely went through hell

[Lou2000]

Slightly OT.

My father was a gunner in the Royal Navy and was involved in escorting merchant shipping up to the Barents ... some of which was carrying US and UK armour for use on the Eastern front....

When asked what he remembers the most .....
........... It was cold and rough !

Lou2000

[Londoner]

Interesting thread.

Does (Andreas) anyone know any English language sources concerning the personal of Waffen SS units on the Eastern front? I'm trying to find out more about my grandad, who apparently served throughout the war. What I do know is that he was a captain in an infantry company and he was captured by a british unit after being transfered to the west in '45.

He died recently and after a falling out, I haven't spoke to my father for a number of years, so I'm a bit stumped. I think I can get hold of the naturalisation card he was given after he was released in '47. Still, I have a feeling I'm gonna have to learn German to find out anything more.... smile.gif

As an interesting sidenote, he was, according to most, a real monster in all senses. 6'4, 18 stone. He was particularly brutal with his family as a young man. He mellowed somewhat in his old age. Still at the age of 73 he was convicted of ABH; he knocked his neighbour (a man in his 30s) around.

[Bogdan]

Hi gentlemen.

My grandfather (mother's side) was hidden in a hospital in Paris during german occupation. Avoiding STO (obligatory work in Germany). As a young resistant, just after the Liberation (summer 1944),i joined the Free French Army and served in an infantry division. He fought in Vosges mountains, during this very cold winter 44-45, against children and old men of the Volksturm. Later, his feet froze and he was also wounded in Alsace. He went back to front in spring 45 and finished war in the Black Forest, in Germany.

My other grandfather had not a military experience, but lived near Lwow (now Lviv in Ukraine) as peasant. He saw WW1 as a child (born in 1908), and then soviet invasion in 1939, Barbarossa in 1941 and he definitly left his home with nothing but his family in summer 1944, during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. Before coming in France, he worked in Pirna near Dresden. He told me that, during the massive raid of the city, it was possible to read a newspaper without any light...

Bye and sorry for my bad english ! smile.gif

[Thin Red Line]

My great-great-great-grand-father was a colonel and charged against the Russians leading his french Cuirassiers regiment ... emmm wait it was in 1805 at Austerlitz, not the same East Front. (Hey, he also charged against the Germans at Iena on year later :D )

[JRRRT]

I have interviewed 3 Soviet vets now resident in the US. One was a career officer, begining service in the First Finnish War, finally wounded severely during Operation Rumyatsev. 2nd was commanding an AA unit, fought on the fringes of Kursk...His unit was 50% women, says women very good at operating sound-ranging gear and sometimes braver than the men. "Whenever we got ot a place where we were going to stay for a while, we built 4 bunkers. One for officers, one for male soldiers, one for females, and one for dancing?!" Direct quote. Last was ordinary teenage grunt, nearly executed for stealing a "Swinya Tuschanka" (phonetic spelling) which is a whole can of spam-like product, manufactured by Hormel, and eating it himself. Was hungry for the whole war. All were Jews from the area of Kiev, all left USSR during the mass flight of Jews in the 70's. When they left, they all had to turn in their medals. After we interviewed each, and determined what decorations they had been awarded, we found them replacements and made a presentation.

[meldorian]

My one grandfather was a truck driver first on the western front, than on the eastern front. Later in the war (I guess when there were no more trucks and no more fuel to drive the trucks still there), he became a medic. Got captured at some point, but he never ever talked about the war in his late years. Died nearly a decade ago at the age of 93.

My other grandfather served as a bomber pilot. He was shot down in 1940 or '41 over the UK. He is still alive, but only entered a plane again some years ago when he no longer wanted to go to Spain by car.

Both would probably be able to live without their war experiences, and both haver never talked much about them.

[TwelfthMonkey]

Hello all,

This is my first post to this forum, though I've been lurking for some weeks. All these great stories moved me to post my own family history in WW2, insofar as I know it.

My father didn't serve, being the eldest son of a farm family. But three uncles did: one was in the infantry throughout North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He was at Anzio when a German shell landed very near his foxhole -- a buddy of his saw the shell land and saw my uncle go cartwheeling through the air like a rag doll. He was completely buried in the sand, but his buddy saw where he landed and dug him out before he suffocated. Miraculously, he didn't have a single shrapnel wound, but he was out cold -- he woke up on a hospital ship almost two weeks later. He finished out the war slogging through the Po valley. He also fought briefly at Cassino. My dad once saw a television show, back in the 1960s, which talked about the Germans not occupying the monastery until after the Allies bombed it. My dad asked my uncle if that was true and my uncle replied, "I don't know if there were any Germans in that monastery or not, because I never saw any. If there weren't, though, those monks were the best damned shots I've ever seen."

A second uncle fought at Bougainville, and he never talked about it much. The only story he ever told was about how the Americans would dig trenches an arm's reach apart and stay awake all night, and the Japanese would still infiltrate through the line. And because you didn't want to give away your position by firing your weapon, it was bayonet and spade work to take them out.

A third uncle served on the Merchant Marine on the Murmansk runs. He used to talk about the helpless feeling you'd get watching one ship after another in your convoy get torpedoed and never knowing if your own ship would be next, and the certain death that would result from going into the Arctic waters. He also used to talk about the fistfights he'd get into in port with the regular servicemen, who thought that the Merchant Marine were a bunch of goldbricks and draft dodgers with cushy jobs...

As for my mother's side, well, my mother's side were Polish Jews. None of them made it through the war alive, a fact that fills me with rage whenever I think of it...

[Scots Grey]

Further to my last post my maternal grandfather was in the "Scruff"(Desert Airforce) from late '41. According to my mother he said that he always manged to arrive in a place after all the fighting was over.
My fathers step-father was in 5th Camerons(51st Highland Division).Just before Alamein he thought he would be clever and dug his foxhole next to where the Naffi canteen truck stopped.As his section was queing up for their grub a Stuka appeared from nowhere.He dived into his foxhole and his section dived in on top of him.After the attack he was covered in Naffi custard from head to foot
I also worked with a man who enlisted under age in the Lovat Scouts (as his father had done in WW1)and then transferred to 2/Camerons when the regiment was being reformed after the fall of Tobruk.At Cassino his Section trench was mortared and he was the only survivor

[PJungnitsch]

My German grandfather was another one of those unlucky enough to be of the right age to serve in both wars. Apparently in the first he was buried so completely in an artillery barrage that it was thought he was gone until a buddy found his hand and dug him out. Between the wars he was a teacher but in the second he was called up immediately and spent most of it in the east, not making it home until '46.

One uncle was in the Luftwaffe and apparently bombed the same London that my English grandfather was working in at the time. I tried asking this uncle about the war but all that he said was that by the end they had no gas for their Focke-Wulfs and could only watch the Allied planes go by. Of course if he was one of the bomber pilots hastily converted to fighters at the end that may have been better for him.

Another uncle has something to do with training tank crews and one aunt worked with searchlights on the anti-aircraft batteries.

Everyone survived, including my father who was too young to get involved but was moved with my grandmother and the other younger children from Silesia to Dresden, where fortunately they were placed in the suburbs and were not killed when the city was flattened.

[Jagdratt]

My father was a teenage bombadier in the Canadian Army. He was in a replacement depot laying telephone wire in a "cold ditch" in Britain when a Sgt rode up on a motorcycle and told him the war had ended. He asked if this meant he could leave the wire and get out of the ditch - "No". He said he was always cold and hungry in Britain.
He was in London when VE day was celebrated. A friend of his jumped on the fender of Churchill's car as it wound through the crowds, and Dad has pointed him out in various newsreel shots.
He was in Holland when German POWs were being repatriated to Germany. They were using German transport whenever possible, and the vehicles were in terrible shape.
A Kubelwagon broke down out on the "polder"(?) and he was left to guard four POWs who were trying to fix it. He thought any one of them could have broken his neck before he could unshoulder his rifle.
When they finally go it running, the convoy was miles ahead. They arrived in a Dutch village, and word that a German vehicle with German soldiers had entered the village appeared to spread fast. By the time they reached the market square, it was full of people. They were screaming and spitting on the VW, pounding on it and rocking it. Dad was trying to stick his shoulder out the window with the 'Canada' rocker on top. He thought they were going to get hauled out and lynched.
A big dutch woman came up to the car and was screaming at the driver while shaking a large painting of King George the fifth at him. My dad couldn't understand that.
He missed a trip to Berlin to tour the Nazi ruins because he was on guard duty. He traded a pack of cigarettes for a peice of velumn paper with an embossed Nazi eagle and the words "Adolf Hitler' on it in huge letters. We still have that.
He spent several years in Germany in the 50's as a Lt and Cpt. He came to love the German people, culture, and cuisine. He couldn't believe the devastation in the country, and didn't think the Brits or Canadians would have kept going - fighting - through that kind of hardship.
He shared his own father's strong post WW1 sentiment - he was a Lt Col running a military hospital in Britain during WWI - that the Allies had far more in common with the Germans than they did the French... :rolleyes:

[edward cameron]

I had a dear friend called Hans Feldhorst. He was a tank driver in the 16th Panzer Division. He managed to get to the Volga but was injured in September in 42 norht of the Tractor factory and was evacuated to a hospital further back. He managed to survive the collapse of the southern front.

He ended up as a tank driver in the reformed 116th Panzer Division and spent time in both the Panzer regiment and the Panzerjaeger unit. His favourite vehicle was the Jadgpanther. He died 7 years ago.

[Reckall]

My mother father served in WWI against the Austro-Hungarians in the "Alpini" and got two Silver Medals. He was then wounded in the back in 1918 and spent the rest of his life with a bullet in his spine (he could walk, but not even bow to tie his shoes). He met my Grandma, who served as a nurse in the hospital, and they fell in love and married. It could seem a romantic story if you have not lived throug it, I belive. My mother still cannot see the Alpini on TV without crying.

My father's father served in the Bersaglieri in North Africa, somewhere in the '30s. His regiment WALKED from Tripoli to Abissinia when it was reassigned to the latter. He came home in 1939, never to return in the army again.

[Sytass]

Sort of a bit of off topic, but don't you think it's wonderful that we, the following generations, can sit together on a forum, descendants of former adversaries, and share our memories and love for a game in peace and harmony?

*gets suddenly all mushy*

[EDIT: Difficult time typing. tongue.gif ]

[ October 15, 2002, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: Sytass ]

[laxx]

this is Off-Topic but

in WWII, my Granddad and the whole family hid in neighbouring Malayan State of Johore, deep in the jungle while the Japanese invaded Singapore in Bicycles. It was a whole commune cut off for a few years from the cities, living off tapioca, fruits, and sweet potatoes.

He had a sworn-brother, who was a bandit who would scour the battlefields for the dead's belongings, gold-rings, tooth etc. The Brother was extradited back to China in the early fifties.

[MikeyD]

A short while ago I walked into my supervisor's office in Boston and found a large document unfolded on his desk with a big Nazi stamp at the top! My supervisor was in the process of documenting the flight of his parents out of Krakow as the Russians approached.

[PPeter]

Hi there

It's my first post here, although I'm a long-time lurker.

My Grandfather served in... russian army in I World War - cavalery unit. My second Grandfather served as infantryman in 1939 (Armia Odwodowa Prusy) - he fought near Modlin and was only one survivor from his entire company - due scouting they were caught in MG/mortar fire. He was injured and spent 2 days laing in the field. Although he lost part of his stomach and has trouble moving (one leg shortened) he lived 'till 1999.

[Mafiozox]

In my last post i wrote about my grandfather in the Red army,well, my grandmother was in Auschwitz Birkenau, she lives with us so i ask her alot about it. she has no real problem talking about, and she's a strong woman.

Around '41 she escaped a mass-execution somewhere in Czechlovakia, 3 Wehrmacht soldiers helped her get away, knowing she was a jew escaping.

She cooked for kapos and uberkapos in Birkenau since '42 and that's how she survived Auschwitz, she tells me that she remembers seeing the American bombers. "they shined like diamonds in the sky" and the Germans would run into Auschwitz because they knew the Americans wont bomb it, heh.

Then she tells me that around the end of '44 they were taken from Auschwitz and marched into Germany. in april they stopped in the area of Berlin as she recalls, and stayed there untill the Russians liberated them in the ending days of the war.

She told me "I remember we woke up one day in the spring, and as we got out of barracks we saw dead Germans, so many dead Germans, scattered around like flies."

About the Wehrmacht after the war she tells me : "They came back from war, held their heads and said 'mein gott mein gott'. they were shocked by what their own people did to us."

[Ruthless]

My grandparents (on my father's side) are both from Romania. My grandfather was in (I believe) the Prinz Eugan division/regiment in WWII. Apparently he was fortunate that he was not tattooed as an SS because his brother(or something) apparently could not emigrate to U.S. because of SS tattoo. However, my grandfather, after being wounded twice (once in the head) ended up captured. I believe he said something about every man being lined up and every other one being shot. Nice fun stuff like that. He ended up in a Russian prison camp where he managed to make friends with one of the guards because he spoke some Russian. That probably kept him alive because he "was one of the lucky ones" to get a fish head with his soup (mostly water) very sporadically. Anyhow, he emigrated to U.S. with his wife after the war, eventually managed to buy his own orchard, and is retired now.