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Many of that generations just didn't like to talk about it. I had a high school history teacher who served in the Marines in WW2, as in "get off the landing craft and to the beach under fire." He was a small guy, but there was something very intense about him, and he intimidated a lot of the students. But he also thought it was important to get students to talk back to teachers, or maybe it was authority in general, and would provoke them until they did. With my sister, he opened her purse and began going through it. She said "Give that back!" and snatched it away, and he just smiled and then never bothered her again. Anyway, he covered WW2 in our class, and you'd think he might share a war story or something, but no, from the way he spoke you'd think it was something that happened to other people. I had classes from him for three years and got to know him pretty well, and once tried to ask about his service, and he just didn't want to talk about it. When he talk about the Depression, then he got very emotional.
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Dec 23, 2014 02:45
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Disinterested posted:We should gather up the service arms everyone served in and work out which grognard poster is the luckiest to be born. My grandfather was too young to fight (and apparently too far out in the sticks to get drafted when things went bad), but his brother was a u-boat commander (and, by all accounts, a pretty good one). There's a bit of a family legend about a convoy he attacked where he was discovered by the destroyer escorts. He managed to evade the depth charging, sink a ship (this part may be embellishment), then slip away unharmed. Surprisingly, he survived the war. Some time after Germany was defeated, he was hanging around his house when he heard a knock on the door. He opened it, and found a man in an allied (either British or American, can't recall which) naval uniform standing there. It was, in fact, the destroyer captian who had been trying to sink him years before. I wish I knew what they talked about, but as far as I know they got together every year. I'm always hoping I'll run into someone with the story from the other side. Edit: well poo poo, he has a Wikipedia page. Nothing in there to confirm my half remembered story though. Edit 2: After slightly more looking, I found the actual story. Turns out the guy who tracked my relative down was captain of a ship he sunk, and there's a whole bit about him getting cases of wine every year that I never heard before. I love the internet sometimes. Here's the article: http://www.cornishguardian.co.uk/Surviving-officer-warship-sunk-Cornwall-later/story-20700189-detail/story.html faxmaster fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 03:06
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FAUXTON posted:There's a game called "This War of Mine" that goes with the whole not-soldier take on war. You're just some schmoe caught in a war so you need to avoid getting shot while foraging for food and fuel and scrap so you don't starve/get mugged/freeze to death. Sounds interesting. The title jogs my memory about a book I read a long time ago that goons who post itt might find interesting. The Dead Are Mine, by James E. Ross, is an autobiographical novel about working in a graves registration unit at the Anzio beachhead (It was a busy time for graves). The author wrote it while doing life in prison for murder, and it's a very bleak, raw perspective on the war.
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Dec 23, 2014 04:48
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My paternal grandfather was too old for WWII, being that he was born in 1892, but a couple of my dad's brothers served. One was a Marine in the Pacific, he didn't really talk about it. Another was an aircraft mechanic stationed in England. My maternal grandfather had a more interesting story. He was 38 in '41. When Pearl Harbor happened, he was going to enlist. After getting everything in order, it was discovered that he was the only other man left in the area of Atmore, Al that knew the ins and outs of the cotton gin there. The recruitment board differed him. He spent WWII working twelve hour shifts, seven days a week from 1942 to 1945. Except for a week, when lightning struck the building and German POWs were brought in to rebuild it. He received a few commendations from the War Department for production. Now a funny one was my dad, he was in the Navy in the 50s. The only time he was not confined to ship for fighting, and was going to get shore leave, the Suez Crisis started. No shore leave for pops. In his words, "I got to see England from the ship. Rotterdam, from the ship. Rota, from the ship. Naples, from the ship. I was gonna see Athens, but that poo poo in Egypt started." I worked in a retirement community back in the 90's. Got to talk with a few of them about there time in WWII. I could post a bit if anyone would be interested. ToyotaThong fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 06:22
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HEY GAL posted:He did, and three days later he was picked up. The Holocaust, for Hungarian Jews, began to happen only after Hungary was occupied by their erstwhile allies in 1944, and then it happened very quickly. He said they had him digging "a bunker." (Slave labor? Weapons manufacturing?) He said it was cold, and that beatings hurt more when you're cold. They used hungarian jews to dig fortifications in the eastern part of Austria in the last months of the war, the Südwall. When the war moved closer, they tried to march them to death. They're part of the so called "Endphasenverbrechen".
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Dec 23, 2014 06:43
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JaucheCharly posted:They used hungarian jews to dig fortifications in the eastern part of Austria in the last months of the war, the Südwall. When the war moved closer, they tried to march them to death. They're part of the so called "Endphasenverbrechen".
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Dec 23, 2014 07:17
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There's many other KZs and small camps, not just the large ones. Or places like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seegrotte They used so many hungarian jews for the Südwall, it's probably the best candidate. They didn't just dig tank traps, but made fortifications of all kinds.
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Dec 23, 2014 07:46
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Disinterested posted:Some of you fuckers being here to make posts in this thread seems to have been an alarmingly close-run thing. Just ask anyone in your family for scary stories or sketchy situations or "holy poo poo gramps, you almost died!" Anyone will have at least a few whether they're militarily related or not. One of my grandfathers, for example. He got 4F'd out of the draft in WWII. Why? Because he had been badly injured digging a well (like real old-school, "Timmy fell down a well", several feet wide stone lined death trap kind of well) when the guy hauling buckets of dug materiel up dropped some rocks on my grandpappies head from like 25 feet up. The lingering health problems caused the draft board doctors to 4F him. So it's more of an OSHA thread story. But it kept him out of the war and drat near killed him. War related, I've always heard that the troop ship his unit went out on got torpedoed. The survivors were recovered and regrouped, then put on another ship to go to war. Which was then torpedoed. Kinda sounds like stdh to me, but crazy poo poo happens. Especially during war, when it makes the best stories. So please keep em coming 
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Dec 23, 2014 08:06
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Arrath posted:Just ask anyone in your family for scary stories or sketchy situations or "holy poo poo gramps, you almost died!" Anyone will have at least a few whether they're militarily related or not. Yeah, this is why learning from past generations is both important and horrifying. My dad gives me the impression that he'd been better off in a war, with all the crazy poo poo that happened to him. He was (almost literally) raised by wild dogs in one of Copenhagen's old-time working class neighbourhoods, and started fighting gang wars with the hood kids as soon as he could walk, and soon after he became an alcoholic, was abused sexually, and a lot of other lovely things  When I got emotional over it, he told me to suck it up, because with all the dope he was doing during my conception, I'm lucky I don't have three arms! Old people
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Dec 23, 2014 08:29
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Tias posted:Yeah, this is why learning from past generations is both important and horrifying. My dad gives me the impression that he'd been better off in a war, with all the crazy poo poo that happened to him. He was (almost literally) raised by wild dogs in one of Copenhagen's old-time working class neighbourhoods, and started fighting gang wars with the hood kids as soon as he could walk, and soon after he became an alcoholic, was abused sexually, and a lot of other lovely things The most I get is "walking to school through the snow and the woods" stories, but that's because my gramps used to be a forester. My mom grew up in a much more civilized environment and made use of the cheap internal USSR tourism. Now, my uncle either has the best stories, or is the best story teller. Honor guard in Moscow, ice breaking under a BTR, motorized troopers eating bread with condensed milk... even if said bread had been dunked in oil sloshing around on the BTR floor...
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Dec 23, 2014 09:29
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My grandfather served in WW2 but died when I was 4 so I never got the chance to ask him anything. However I recently inherited a small box of his I didn't previously know about that contained some of his possessions. For me it was an absolute goldmine, it included his service booklet, campaign medals, airborne & regimental patches, photographs of him and his mates, as well as a photo of Montgomery talking to the troops, which apparently my grandad claimed to be in, as well as two pictures of German soldiers (self potrait style), a pocket watch with a German inscription on the back and a shed load of German currency from the time. From all that I was able to piece together that he joined the 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles in 1940 and was trained as glider infantry in the 1st airlanding brigade. On the afternoon of D-Day the gliders crash landed in the pegasus bridge area and the RUR stayed in Normandy until September 1944. With that I did a quick google and found a book, 'The Rifles are There' which detailed the actions of the regiment throughout WW2 which filled in a lot of gaps for me and my grandads three daughters, who had never spoken to him about the war either. After the war he was based in Tel Aviv before returning to England. I'm sure he would've had some stories to tell but just finding out where he was and what he did from books and photographs was really interesting. I had great grandparents and their siblings who fought in WW1, and I know one of them survived a gassing, but it's really hard to get any more information other than that.
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Dec 23, 2014 12:05
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My grandfather was in the Spanish navy in his youth, defected to the anarchists during the civil war and when things went sour he got into a ship headed to Australia. This ship happened to pass through Brazil and he took one look at the women in Rio and decided that "gently caress it, I am staying here". Unfortunately he died when I was two years old, so I never got any war stories from him, but my grandmother has a lot of photographs from his time in Spain.
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Dec 23, 2014 15:19
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ZearothK posted:My grandfather was in the Spanish navy in his youth, defected to the anarchists during the civil war...
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Dec 23, 2014 22:40
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On one side of the family, my grandfather was on the beaches on D-Day as a Royal Marine. On the other, I've got one great-grandfather who I'm just starting to research; we've worked out that he's joined the London Regiment last month as a private, served with them for about a year, then went to officer training and then went on to the York & Lancasters in what I'm pretty sure is a reinforcement-draft to make good some of the horrible losses they suffered on the Somme. Also on that side of the family, my other great-grandfather was imprisoned for refusing conscription in 1917, and then his son (my grandfather) was also imprisoned in 1941 for exactly the same thing. He was in HMP Wandsworth, and I've got a recording of him telling me about the time when one of the inmates was executed while he was inside, which I find far more terrifying than any war story could ever be. "I looked out of the window, and I could see them digging the grave that he was going to go in..." 100 Years Ago The Ottomans arrive at Oltu, reputed birthplace of the doner kebab, and celebrate with some informal resupply exercises. The French offensive is well and truly stuck in the mud; and the Belgians launch a mildly bizarre offensive across the Yser towards Dixmude. In the paper, the strange case of two kleptomanics, "Money Very Abundant" in the money market, and a gobshite called Hilaire Belloc sounds off about the war. As fighting wears on, his diet of high-handed blanco (funded mostly by the War Propaganda Bureau) will make him one of the more despised commentators among servicemen of all ranks; the Wipers Times was particularly fond of taking cheap shots at him. Trin Tragula fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 22:42
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? Me. 2nd gramps was a railroader. I wonder what these people talked about or what they knew.
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Dec 23, 2014 22:54
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JaucheCharly posted:Me. 2nd gramps was a railroader. I wonder what these people talked about or what they knew. "Holy poo poo, my back hurts!"
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Dec 23, 2014 22:58
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Also, is it my imagination, or does this German war diary from Christmas on Aubers Ridge basically say "Das Englanders made us a cup of tea"?
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Dec 23, 2014 23:11
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? Uh.. does the KMT count?
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Dec 23, 2014 23:12
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Trin Tragula posted:Also, is it my imagination, or does this German war diary from Christmas on Aubers Ridge basically say "Das Englanders made us a cup of tea"? HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Dec 23, 2014 |
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Dec 23, 2014 23:31
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? *raises hand* Both my granddads were USAAF bomber pilots... who stayed stateside and did work training other pilots.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:47
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You can find stories like that for every generation if you dig around in your family history a bit. My family on my dad's side is all south Germans who ended up on the wrong side of a couple revolutions in 1848, got the gently caress out of dodge and landed in Kentucky just in time for the ACW, and then made the very conscious decision to send family members to both armies. The reasoning was that no matter what side won they'd be able to claim service and wouldn't need to move again. No brother vs. brother drama, more like just carefully coordinating which direction cousins walked off to enlist.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:57
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? Probably not me, no naval vets anywhere I know of, and everyone came over a generation or two before Fascism was a thing.
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Dec 24, 2014 03:07
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? Hoho, they'd need to have lived somewhere where navies existed. That said, railroads seem to be the other big trend here, and I'd say at least half of my family from my Grandpa's generation worked for the rail companies. Slim Jim Pickens fucked around with this message at 05:07 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 05:03
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HEY GAL posted:OK, who here doesn't have a relative who defected from a Fascist navy? My entire family, on both sides: I have a single cousin that had a quiet peacetime service in the US Marine Corps, and apparently one of my great-great-uncles rode with Teddy Roosevelt in the Rough Riders. Other than that it's all farmers and fishermen.
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Dec 24, 2014 05:05
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Kaal posted:My entire family, on both sides: I have a single cousin that had a quiet peacetime service in the US Marine Corps, and apparently one of my great-great-uncles rode with Teddy Roosevelt in the Rough Riders. Other than that it's all farmers and fishermen. I had a great great grandfather that everyone thought fought in the Spanish American war, based on the dates of enlistment, but then we dug up some additional paperwork that showed it was actually the Boxer Rebellion. Wish I had more info on that.
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Dec 24, 2014 05:23
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Slim Jim Pickens posted:Hoho, they'd need to have lived somewhere where navies existed. Railroads used to employ like 10% of the American work force not engaged in farm labor or something. edit: Peak employment at 2.1mil in the US in 1920. The US population in 1920 was 100mil. 10% might be high but the railroad industry employed a lot of people until the mid 50s. vains fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 05:28
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My grandfather served in the US army in the 50's. He was in Ethiopia. I've tried to look up what the US army could have possibly been doing there around then, any ideas?
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Dec 24, 2014 08:40
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Ferroque posted:My grandfather served in the US army in the 50's. He was in Ethiopia. I've tried to look up what the US army could have possibly been doing there around then, any ideas? Some brief Google-Fu turns up the existence of Kagnew Station a US Army radio installation that was taken over from the Italians in '43 and in use until 1977.
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Dec 24, 2014 09:20
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He could have also been part of the effort to train and equip the Ethiopians. They sent troops to Korea (and later to many UN missions) and that would fit with the time-frame.
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Dec 24, 2014 11:14
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:Railroads used to employ like 10% of the American work force not engaged in farm labor or something. The railroad company (singular) was state owned until not so long ago. In Germany and other places in Europe too. Can't have something of such strategical and economic importance in private hands. Before private means of transportation took over, the railroad holds extreme importance. We tend to forget that nowadays. My dad was just a railroad worker, flipping switches all day, but his status was "civil servant", very well payed with all the late night shifts and he couldn't be layed off. The railroad guys like my granddad in WW2 wouldn't usually need to fight. Their job was too important.
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Dec 24, 2014 11:57
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Merry Christmas, thread. Hope you enjoy whatever you're into as much as these people Carel de Moor, Soldatenscene Edit: Why do so many of these paintings involve dragoons or harquebusiers? I guess the buff coats and harnesses look pretty cool. I mean, without all his poo poo on a musketeer is just wearing normal clothing. HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 12:16
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I like to imagine it is because the dragoon is the man of the people of the cavalry what with being the least well bred and having to pay for his own gear, everyone likes the underdog. Also, drat that is one manly looking woman. It is just that hair style. Plus, dragoon is a really neat word and fun to say. Dragooooooooooooooooooooon. SeanBeansShako fucked around with this message at 12:24 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 12:21
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JaucheCharly posted:The railroad company (singular) was state owned until not so long ago. In Germany and other places in Europe too. Can't have something of such strategical and economic importance in private hands. Before private means of transportation took over, the railroad holds extreme importance. We tend to forget that nowadays. The only thing that would be worse than dealing with union labor would be having to deal with government employee labor.
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Dec 24, 2014 12:37
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SeanBeansShako posted:I like to imagine it is because the dragoon is the man of the people of the cavalry what with being the least well bred and having to pay for his own gear... quote:Plus, dragoon is a really neat word and fun to say. Dragooooooooooooooooooooon. HEY GUNS fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 12:37
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JaucheCharly posted:The railroad company (singular) was state owned until not so long ago. In Germany and other places in Europe too. Can't have something of such strategical and economic importance in private hands. Before private means of transportation took over, the railroad holds extreme importance. We tend to forget that nowadays. Railroads have always had trouble making money in the long term while retaining their use as a widespread social utility, is part of the problem. Rail is ultimately not that profitable of an industry for passenger haulage. In a lot of instances that encouraged the state to nationalise it, rather than pure ideology.
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Dec 24, 2014 13:15
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MassivelyBuckNegro posted:The only thing that would be worse than dealing with union labor would be having to deal with government employee labor. The only thing that would be worse than dealing with government employee labor would be having to deal with government employee labor unions that are a fixed part of the political process and to a large part the reason for our relatively successful system of collective bargaining. Even fast food workers can make a decent living. That probably does sound too foreign and strange. Merry Christmas btw. Have some marching music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vcK443rRDE Der Monarch hat abgedankt. Disinterested posted:Railroads have always had trouble making money in the long term while retaining their use as a widespread social utility, is part of the problem. Rail is ultimately not that profitable of an industry for passenger haulage. In a lot of instances that encouraged the state to nationalise it, rather than pure ideology. If you want to know what makes railways profitable, you might look up what's connected to the name Vanderbilt. That might also give you an idea, why the state doesn't want to give such power away - that's not passenger transport. It's not about hauling a bunch people for sightseeing to the next metropolis, but to make coal, steel and oil run inland in an age before trucks are omnipresent. The problems that nationalized railways nowadays have is, that they have to run and support routes that aren't profitable as long as individual transportation is still so cheap, while politics often forces questionable infrastructure measures like giant tunnel projects and new routes that turn out to cost hillariously more than expected. These costs are part of the budget and the reason why "it's just not profitable", while it actually is. Or at least that's what it costs to not turn parts of the country into an inaccessible backwater. The same could be said about roads. Why build a road or a highway there? Infrastructure costs money. Note that the critique of the railway comes from the political parties that are classically opposed to socialist parties, which are connected to the railway literally everywhere here in Europe. Power Khan fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Dec 24, 2014 |
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Dec 24, 2014 13:25
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Prussian band music is the worst military earworm. You'll hear it in your head forever.
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Dec 24, 2014 13:34
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Best Prussian song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBj9TfqOpxE
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Dec 24, 2014 13:40
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I still love how the drum and fife cadence build up this little classic.
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Dec 24, 2014 13:50
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Hogge Wild posted:Best Prussian song: I don't know, this one gives it a hell of a run for its money.
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Dec 24, 2014 16:30
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