Your family and WWII
- Thread starter philippe
- Start date
Leifmk
Deity
I suppose that occupation duty in Norway must have been one of the luckiest assignments a Wehrmacht soldier could get. No real fighting after the invasion was complete, only a few sabotage actions and air raids; no counter-invasion at the end of the war either (except the Russians coming in up north, but the Germans just retreated from that). Chances of survival would be rather better than on the East Front, the main danger would be boredom.
Yoda Power
✫✫✫✫✫✫✫
- Joined
- Sep 24, 2002
- Messages
- 13,870
Yeah same with the Denmark too. I believe the Germans called us the "Butter Front" since that was what you got if you were stationed here.
My grandad was in the Navy, and I know he spent a lot of time in Hong Kong. I don't know if he was there when the Japenese invaded though. He died a few years after I was born, and all I know are things I've picked up from my gran. I should ask her more about it sometime.
Verbose
Deity
Lessee, both my grandfathers were Swedish. Maternal grandfather was a dentist in Gothenburg with his own business. Wartime played marry hell with it, since he got called up and sent to various parts of Sweden for shorter or longer periods depending on the situation on the Swedish borders. Not very exciting. He bought a nice summer house outside of the city, by a lake, to be able to evacuate the family there if the war came for real and Gothenburg was subjected to bombing. Family still owns it.
Paternal grandfather was chief of police in a major town along the Norwegian border. He was also a dedicated anti-Nazi (as an effect of also being a rabid anti-German), meaning he formed part of the network of Swedish police aiding the Norwegian resistance crossing the mountains. If the pro-Nazis in the police found them, they tended to get handed back over the border to the waiting Germans. If the anti-Nazis did it, they got spirited down to my grandad's town. When the French Republic remembered their friends after WWII they even awareded him some minor decoration for services rendered to French citizens.
He also spent the early part of the Finnish War of Continuation beginning alongside Barbarossa as an official observer for the Swedish government. Apparently he just went missing one night, didn't return from office in the evening. His wife, my grandmother, received a cable from Helsinki three days later briefly explaning where he'd gone off to and why, also instructing her to sew up some decent winter camo, which did come in very handy as he found himself in Finnish positions strafed by Soviet fighter-bombers on several occasions.
Being an anti-Nazi complicated family dinners during the war, since two of his three brother's in law were navy men, with a kind of a traditional military mistrust of anything the "Anglosaxons" got up to. One of them was even married to the daughter of one of the leading Swedish Nazis in politics of the time, so family dinners were hellishly complicated.
This maternal uncle of my father also holds the distinction of being the sole survivor of the crew of the Swedish submarine "Ulven", which hit a mine, sank, and two weeks were then spent on unsuccessfully try to raise it and save the crew trapped inside. It was one of the things which galvanized the attention of the Swedish public at the time. He wasn't on board, since he'd been granted leave to got to his brother's, the other naval officer, wedding.
He was quite pro-German during the war, by the revelelation of the Nazi concentration camps made him go off Germany completely towards war's end. He retained the opinion that all British and Americans were cynical and useless bastards all his life though, so no change there.
After the war he further distinguished himself by being the destroyer commander who found the wreckage of one of the spy-planes shot down by the Soviets over the Baltic, flewn by the Swedish airforce on behalf of the British and US intelligence establishment. (Not the first shot down, but the second, sent to search for the first, iirc. I've seen newspaper clippings of him holding some canvas or something fished out of the Baltic.)
He also claimed to have managed to, in heavy fog in the late 40's, completely by mistake manouver his destroyer into the Leningrad military harbour area. Some confused siganalling occurred on the Soviet side, and as they realised their mistake, they turned the destroyer around and disappeared into the fog as fast as their little propellers could carry them. He used it later in life to defend his opinion, that the Whiskey class Soviet submarine found stuck on a ground in a Swedish military protected area in the early 1980's must have ended up there by mistake, citing his own experience of how "These things happen!"
Paternal grandfather was chief of police in a major town along the Norwegian border. He was also a dedicated anti-Nazi (as an effect of also being a rabid anti-German), meaning he formed part of the network of Swedish police aiding the Norwegian resistance crossing the mountains. If the pro-Nazis in the police found them, they tended to get handed back over the border to the waiting Germans. If the anti-Nazis did it, they got spirited down to my grandad's town. When the French Republic remembered their friends after WWII they even awareded him some minor decoration for services rendered to French citizens.
He also spent the early part of the Finnish War of Continuation beginning alongside Barbarossa as an official observer for the Swedish government. Apparently he just went missing one night, didn't return from office in the evening. His wife, my grandmother, received a cable from Helsinki three days later briefly explaning where he'd gone off to and why, also instructing her to sew up some decent winter camo, which did come in very handy as he found himself in Finnish positions strafed by Soviet fighter-bombers on several occasions.
Being an anti-Nazi complicated family dinners during the war, since two of his three brother's in law were navy men, with a kind of a traditional military mistrust of anything the "Anglosaxons" got up to. One of them was even married to the daughter of one of the leading Swedish Nazis in politics of the time, so family dinners were hellishly complicated.
This maternal uncle of my father also holds the distinction of being the sole survivor of the crew of the Swedish submarine "Ulven", which hit a mine, sank, and two weeks were then spent on unsuccessfully try to raise it and save the crew trapped inside. It was one of the things which galvanized the attention of the Swedish public at the time. He wasn't on board, since he'd been granted leave to got to his brother's, the other naval officer, wedding.
He was quite pro-German during the war, by the revelelation of the Nazi concentration camps made him go off Germany completely towards war's end. He retained the opinion that all British and Americans were cynical and useless bastards all his life though, so no change there.
After the war he further distinguished himself by being the destroyer commander who found the wreckage of one of the spy-planes shot down by the Soviets over the Baltic, flewn by the Swedish airforce on behalf of the British and US intelligence establishment. (Not the first shot down, but the second, sent to search for the first, iirc. I've seen newspaper clippings of him holding some canvas or something fished out of the Baltic.)
He also claimed to have managed to, in heavy fog in the late 40's, completely by mistake manouver his destroyer into the Leningrad military harbour area. Some confused siganalling occurred on the Soviet side, and as they realised their mistake, they turned the destroyer around and disappeared into the fog as fast as their little propellers could carry them. He used it later in life to defend his opinion, that the Whiskey class Soviet submarine found stuck on a ground in a Swedish military protected area in the early 1980's must have ended up there by mistake, citing his own experience of how "These things happen!"
jessiecat
Divine Monarch
Dad -D Day landings 1944, Sword Beach, private, Canadian Ist. Army
Uncle- WW1 -Canadian Army Military Police 1915-1919, occupation of Hamburg
Grandad- WW I - Battle of Ypres - Seargent- British Royal Signal Corps
(His brother was gassed at Ypres 1917, died 4 years later)
Mum - Injured in V1 rocket attack, Manchester, 1944
Mum's cousin- Shot down in a Hurricane, missing, North Sea 1940
Uncle- WW1 -Canadian Army Military Police 1915-1919, occupation of Hamburg
Grandad- WW I - Battle of Ypres - Seargent- British Royal Signal Corps
(His brother was gassed at Ypres 1917, died 4 years later)
Mum - Injured in V1 rocket attack, Manchester, 1944
Mum's cousin- Shot down in a Hurricane, missing, North Sea 1940
Paternal Grandad - dock foreman, Plymouth Naval Dockyard
Paternal Grandma - killed, 1940, German air raid.
Father - Conscientious objector, anti-fraud & corruption investigator
Maternal Grandad - Tailor, London's East End
Maternal Grandma - already dead
Mother - secretary/admin assistant, later married and bringing up my brothers.
Not very glam... although my mate's dad was one of the famous Malta Convoy destroyer commanders, and our next door neighbour as I grew up was one of the less famous WW1 poets (who incidentally lost his sight and one arm in the hours added on to the war so it could end at a sexy time, 11am on 11/11 - amazingly he was never bitter about it).
Paternal Grandma - killed, 1940, German air raid.
Father - Conscientious objector, anti-fraud & corruption investigator
Maternal Grandad - Tailor, London's East End
Maternal Grandma - already dead
Mother - secretary/admin assistant, later married and bringing up my brothers.
Not very glam... although my mate's dad was one of the famous Malta Convoy destroyer commanders, and our next door neighbour as I grew up was one of the less famous WW1 poets (who incidentally lost his sight and one arm in the hours added on to the war so it could end at a sexy time, 11am on 11/11 - amazingly he was never bitter about it).
Sofista
Deity
My paternal grandfather was drafted into artillery, but managed to be sent home after some comedic events: he won a contest and was deemed the best shot in his base, and so... he won a spot as the general's chauffeur. After winning his good graces, he persuaded him to send him home. To his chagrin, the training period was later deemed not enough to get a veteran's pension...
On the mother's side, grandpa was also drafted and promptly taken prisoner in Sicily.
The real character on mom's side was the great-grandpa, another veteran of the WWI Hapsburg army. He had avoided drafting thanks to his age, and didn't think of enroling because he was a socialist. But when Germany created the Alpenvorland he would have been forced to join the collaborationist forces, he chose to desert... while staying at home. And so it happened that the formerly fascict carabinieri regularly knocked at his door, and he promptly jumped out of the window on the other side of the house to flee through the vineyard.
Grandma maintains that the remaining Italian authorities weren't really willing to collaborate with the Nazis: for once, they didn't take from him the stud farm, which would have been easy enough, but also... great-grandpa and the officers went to the same bomb shelter during raids, and they spent the time there studiously pretending not to notice each other!
On the mother's side, grandpa was also drafted and promptly taken prisoner in Sicily.
The real character on mom's side was the great-grandpa, another veteran of the WWI Hapsburg army. He had avoided drafting thanks to his age, and didn't think of enroling because he was a socialist. But when Germany created the Alpenvorland he would have been forced to join the collaborationist forces, he chose to desert... while staying at home. And so it happened that the formerly fascict carabinieri regularly knocked at his door, and he promptly jumped out of the window on the other side of the house to flee through the vineyard.
Grandma maintains that the remaining Italian authorities weren't really willing to collaborate with the Nazis: for once, they didn't take from him the stud farm, which would have been easy enough, but also... great-grandpa and the officers went to the same bomb shelter during raids, and they spent the time there studiously pretending not to notice each other!
Thorbal
not enough ram!
Yeah, he was *very* happy to be stationed in Norway ( thanks to his language skills, I guess. He worked as a translator most of the time ) . Although he had a very bad conscience - he went to school in Bergen ( I think ) as a kid and returned 20 years later to help occupy the place. He told me that some of the people there knew him from school and recognized him. Must have been very unpleasant and shameful.
Mirc
Not mIRC!!!
My two grandfathers were decorated. 
Don't know much else. BTW - not by the same country.
Don't know much else. BTW - not by the same country.My fathers dad fought in Russia and lost a leg as a POW. When he returned his family lived 400 km west of his old home because they had been expelled from what is now Liberec in the Czech Republic. It took him 3 month to find them.
My mothers father had much more luck. He was a chief physician at a university hospital, so he only saw the victims of the war.
My mothers father had much more luck. He was a chief physician at a university hospital, so he only saw the victims of the war.
Eukaryote
Deity
My relitives were lucky enought to have all been the wrong age to fight. Weird eh?
Hadesspirit
Prince
My grandfather was in Artillery base in Moscow in ww2.If we didnt participate the war my grandfather would serve as normal fuctions..
after that He served as secret agent in Bulgaria in 1945-1955.
He died in 1999.
And before he died he told nothing about what he had done in Sofia while he was there.He died with all his secrets and we wont be able to learn his past forever.
after that He served as secret agent in Bulgaria in 1945-1955.
He died in 1999.
And before he died he told nothing about what he had done in Sofia while he was there.He died with all his secrets and we wont be able to learn his past forever.
Darth_Pugwash
wobble wobble
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2003
- Messages
- 2,873
My paternal grandfather was abroad with the RAF in North Africa and Italy. He wasn't a pilot, but part of the ground staff for various airfields. We actually still have a collection of bits and bobs and papers of his from the war, including about thirty photos, mostly of him posing with various buddies of his etc. We also have a guide to Florence handed out while he was in Italy, and the menu from his 1944 Christmas dinner.
Maternal grandfather I know less about, he was some kind of medical type stationed in India.
Maternal grandfather I know less about, he was some kind of medical type stationed in India.
echinococcus
Prince
Great uncle: Served very young in the SS, was captured in Normandy and taken to England, where he married an english wife, has a daughter and lives since then.
Father's father: Served on the Eastern Front as Oberjäger with the mountaineers...got some decorations and was wounded at least once...claimed to have survived a gunshot because the bullet hit a metal "cigarette box" in his pocket.
Mother's father: worked in the town's civil administration the whole time-
The first fiancee of my grandmother was a submariner who did not return.
Father's father: Served on the Eastern Front as Oberjäger with the mountaineers...got some decorations and was wounded at least once...claimed to have survived a gunshot because the bullet hit a metal "cigarette box" in his pocket.
Mother's father: worked in the town's civil administration the whole time-
The first fiancee of my grandmother was a submariner who did not return.
Cullyn
red ones go faster!!
My Grandfather joined the RAF in September 1939, and was assigned as a radio operator with a Polish squadron of Bomber Command (he was Irish, so comm's would be easier). he campaigned through the whole war until he was tragically killed in Italy on Nov 17, 1945. He on his way home to be demobed when his bomber crashed into the side of a mountain.
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
Various relatives of mine were freedom fighters against British rule, most notably my grand uncle who was jailed several time for various actions against the British and met Gandhi and all such good stuff.
My family was apathetic about the whole WWII business but they sort of hoped the Japanese and Germans would win so India would be independent.
My family was apathetic about the whole WWII business but they sort of hoped the Japanese and Germans would win so India would be independent.
RedRalph
Deity
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2007
- Messages
- 20,708
My two grandfathers were decorated.
what year?
