Your family and WWII

[JohnRM]

My grandparents on my Father's side were Sgts. in WWII, but I am not sure what they did. My Grandmother was involved in logistics. She never talked about my Grandfather much after his death in 1961 and my Father mentioned him not at all, so I've had a hard time learning what little I have.

My grandparents on my Mother's side; My Grandmother was twinkle in my Great-grandfather's eye (she was born in 1949) and my Grandfather was probably playing in the yard somewhere.

 

[Dubai Vol]

Paternal grandfather was a gunnery officer in the US Navy, served in the Atlantic. He died when I was a baby, but my grandmother kept the letters he wrote during the war, and let me read them when I was grown and a veteran myself. She also gave me the keyring he had before he died. I have used it ever since. It's in my pocket now.

Maternal grandfather worked in Oak Ridge on the atom bomb, but he and everyone else he knew there had no idea what they were working on.

 

[MamboJoel]

My grandfather (father side) was enrolled in the infantry and captured by the German in May 1940 and POWed in Austria until the end of the war. The odd thing about conscription is that his twin was enrolled in a administration regiment. He lived 20 years longer than my grandfather.

My grandfather (mother side) was American, met my English grandmother in England, landed in Normandy a few days after D-Day and fought until the end of the war. My mother was born in England in 45 and lived in the US with her parents before returning in Europe in the 70s.

An epic story happened to cousins of my French Grand Mother. They were two brothers. Their father fought as a simple soldier in WWI and was Captain by the end of this war. His two sons and him were enrolled in WWII
His younger son, Michel, fought for Free France in North Africa and died of a disease. His older son, Fernand Prevost, entered StCyr (french Westpoint) and was a young officer during the war. He maried a girl just before goind to Indochina (occupied by Japan at that time). At the end of the war in april 1945 while the situation was getting confused for Japan in the area he was in charge of a small squad that had to reach a spot where coalition forces were supposed to land some supply. During their journey he stoped at night in the forest in a small abandoned cabin. A Japanese patrol approached them and fired at the cabin from the outside. He got killed while rushing to turn off the light they were using to check the map. The other French soldiers were POWed for only a few weeks and related the story. I have a lot of letters (mostly his wife trying to understand) and reports about what happened. He was burried in this forest...
The father survived, was Major at the end of the war but lost his two children. Fernand Prevost's wife is still alive, lives in Southern France and didn't remary.

 

[Masquerouge]

My grandparents were all too young in WW2... so not much.

Oh, and one of my grandmothers was/is German, and her mom was working in France during WW2, she was a chambermaid in the Kommandantur in Nice.

The story of how they tried to make it back to Germany when they realized things were going badly for Hitler is the stuff of legend

My grandfather later joined the French army, and is that guy:
http://www.amazon.fr/Soldat-guerre-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200502838&sr=1-1

Funnily enough, he married my German grandmother

Yay.

 

[nc-1701]

My great-grandmother was the person who made sure everyone had their windows covered during air raid drills here in the states. Where of course we never got any real air raids.
Now two of my Great-Grandfathers fought for the Royal Canadian army in WW1, and my Grandfather fought in Vietnam. But somehow my family managed to dodge WW2

 

[McManus]

One grandfather farmed apparently, the other served in one of the jager companies against the soviets.

He also suffered a Saving Private Ryan type of situation: He lost all three of his brothers in combat, and was moved to command a casualty clearing station behind the lines.

 

[MobBoss]

My dad was in the navy and I had an uncle that was killed as a fighter pilot for the USAAF.

 

[Masquerouge]

My dad was in the navy and I had an uncle that was killed as a fighter pilot for the USAAF.

Tangentially related question: is it USAAF or USAF? I've seen both...

 

[Leonel]

My grandpa on the Indonesian side suffered under the Japanese while my grandpa on the American side was a conscientious objector as he was worried about what'd happen to grandma and my dad and uncle if he got killed. But he and the draft board wanted him to help the war effort anyway so they got him a job on the Burlington Northern railroad transporting war supplies to ports.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

My dad was born in 1940. He likes to remind me of things that happened during and after the war, like rationing, and everytime a conflict happens he says it will be like WWII.

 

[Ugly]

Tangentially related question: is it USAAF or USAF? I've seen both...

United States Army Air Force vs United States Air Force. In world war two it was the USAAF. The USAF was seperated out from the army in 1947

My father was a private in the US Army. He didn't talk much about his service. The only story that I recall is that his commander refused to go into one of the concentrations camps, and the group that did got torn apart. I don't remember which camp he said it was, and my Mother made him destroy the pictures he had taken.

 

[StarWorms]

What did your parents or grand-parents do in WWII?
My grandfather on mother side was in the Belgian resistance movement (apprantly blowing up railroad tracks and stuff like that) and my grandfather at father's side was an conscript in the Belgian army and was sent to an POW camp in Germany.

So:

That's a WWI poster

Mother's father went to Scotland, then broke his arm playing football, and ended up going to the USA because of it (instead of the Middle East)... then ended up in Barbados, then served in Egypt.
Father's father from what I know was in Africa, but that's all I know.

For WWI:
Father's father's father didn't serve (don't know why)
Father's mother's father failed the test (poor eyesight)
Mother's father's father was hit in the chin by a cricket ball and failed the medical
Mother's mother's father was a baker, and therefore in a reserved occupation.

 

[The Loser]

=> a mistake, sorry for double posting!

 

[The Loser]

My grandfather was in the Belgian army.
By the start of the war he was ordered to defend a bridge.
He was giving a rifle, but no bullets.
So he stayed there until the Germans came and the he fled.

My other grandfather lived as a child in Antwerp's, he saw the V2's fly over or hit Antwerp's.

 

[EconomistBR]

comment deleted

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Both my grandfathers were dead when I was born.
My fathers father was a serbian/bosnian farmer and not involved in the war, but one of my uncles was part of the Partisan movement and was ambushing German supply lines, sabotaging rails.
I don't know anything about my mother's (croat) line during the war.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

No direct involvement by direct ancestors, although my father shares a middle name with a second cousin of his mother, a US Navy pilot killed somewhere in the Pacific.

My dad's dad served in Korea, my mom's dad in Vietnam. And my brother and brother-in-law have served in Iraq.

 

[angeleyes]

My father was forced to work in Germany the last two years of the war. These were the best years of his life. Before this, he was forced to work for his father, after this, he married and got into a unhappy lifelong marriage.

 

[warpus]

My father's father was working in a German labour camp.. He made tables for the Nazi bastards. My grandma would walk 30km every couple days to bring him food.

At least that's how my parents tell it.

I'm not sure about my Mom's side of the family, but I am sure they did not have a fun time during the German & Soviet occupations.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I know only rough details on what my fathers side of the family did during the war. My grandma wanted to join the WAVES.

Across the pond I had relatives fighting for the Poles early on, and after that either for the Germans or the Soviets. Yes, we were a sort of house divided.