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Have an uncal that served in the RN during the Falklands war, he was stationed on the HMS Bristol at the time, does not have nice things to say about Prince Andrew

Had a grandfather serve in WW2, bomb disposle. funny story. He and his mates were working on an unexploded bomb and they decided that they would have lunch. He drew the short strew and had to stay with the bomb as his mates had lunch in the pub on the other side of the road. So there was my GF sitting on the bomb making sure one on would come near it when the thing goes off. He gets blow into the air, suffers total hearing loss and loses a leg. His mates in the pub are killed out right. That man had some thing paying attention at him.

WW1 two grate grandfathers on both sides, the english one was a drill sargent and by what ever grace of what ever god lived threw the Battle of the Somme, and from all accounts still shouted at every one after he retired in the mid 20s. The germen side grandfather is belived to have died at Battle of Verdun.

Going back to the late 1800s it is belived my grate grate grandfather fought in the Bore Wars but we're not quite sure.

My grandpa on my mom side flew in ww2.
Acording to him he was in the group that sunk the first submarine for american.
My dads side was weirder.
nearly 110 years on of my acesters lived. fight in the revolutionary war, war of 1812 tried to fight in the civil war but they kicked him out for being to old.
Granted i have no evidence other then my father so take it as is.

My Grandpa was a machinist on a Destroyer in the Pacific. The other one did not serve due to medical issues.

My dad served on the USS Enterprise during Vietnam as a mechanic. He was on board when the explosion hit.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/explosion-rocks-uss-enterprise

He said he didn't know about it until he read it in the ship newspaper the next day.

Ribon Fox wrote:Have an uncal that served in the RN during the Falklands war, he was stationed on the HMS Bristol at the time, does not have nice things to say about Prince Andrew

Had a grandfather serve in WW2, bomb disposle. funny story. He and his mates were working on an unexploded bomb and they decided that they would have lunch. He drew the short strew and had to stay with the bomb as his mates had lunch in the pub on the other side of the road. So there was my GF sitting on the bomb making sure one on would come near it when the thing goes off. He gets blow into the air, suffers total hearing loss and loses a leg. His mates in the pub are killed out right. That man had some thing paying attention at him.

Two grate grandfathers on both sides, the english one was a drill sargent and by what ever grace of what ever god lived threw the Battle of the Somme, and from all accounts still shouted at every one after he retired in the mid 20s. The germen side grandfather is belived to have died at Battle of Verdun.

Going back to the late 1800s it is belived my grate grate grandfather fought in the Bore Wars but we're not quite sure.

FEETH! he was very lucky!

My Great Uncle on my dad's side died flying Spitfires in WW2, I got his service medal and flight logbook to hold onto after my Grandad died, mum uses it when she teaches WW2 history to her primary school kids.
My other grandad served in the Royal Navy as a Radar Operator on HMS Jamaica during the war and for a few years after due to a lack of trained operators at the outset of the cold war.

My grandfather was a Navy Seabee in WWII.
My father was an Army Infantry Medic in Vietnam.
In a way my grandfather was killed by WWII. He contracted Rheumatic Rever in the Pacific
theater. It didn't kill him right away. But it lead to his death later in life due to the damage of the fever.

My grandpa was in 'Nam. He's one of those "I don't want to talk about it types", so I never got to hear any war stories from him. Gave me quite the sad.

Necroshea wrote:My grandpa was in 'Nam. He's one of those "I don't want to talk about it types", so I never got to hear any war stories from him. Gave me quite the sad.

My Dad was the same way. My uncle was worse. His unit was over-run by the Chinese and Dad said he came back crazy. I only met him once.

A few of my ancestors fought in the civil war, only one of my family fought in ww1. My Great Grandfather.

My grandfather was in the Marines and captured by the Japanese and was in the Bataan Death march.

His Brother was a p-51 pilot in the last year of the war. I think he had 2 or 3 kills.

Uncle (great uncle) was a B-17 radio operator and was shot down over Germany and was in a prison camp for about 3 years.

Other uncle was in the Army I'm not sure what battles he was in.

On my Mother's side My grandfather was an SS officer, not sure what rank but I can check. His father was an officer in the German army in WWI.

2 relatives in the Civil war both serving in the Union army. One was a Officer his last name was Taylor the other was a common foot soldier, my aunt has his gun.

An uncle (great great uncle, I believe) was a soldier in the US army during WWI for about a year.

My Dad and a few of his cousins were in Vietnam

Another Uncle was a medic in Korea

3 cousins in Iraq

My Great Grandad went down with HMS Hood when it was sunk in an engagement with the Bismarck. The RN got 'em back though.

Other than that, the only ones I'm aware of are my uncle who served during Desert Storm in one of the two 1st Armoured Division brigades that were present (can't remember which one though), and my grandad, who served in Palestine post-WWII. There are probably others, as we've traditionally been a military family - family history isn't my thing though, really.

I'm related to Aseline the Wolf, one of the Crusaders who was in the (I beleive) third Crusade. I am also related to Patrick Henry. For those of you who don't remember him;

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!

My dad was an artillery officer during the gulf war.

I'm descended from some famous Confederacy general. I can't remember his name.

Grandfather, mothers side, WWII Marine, survived Iwo.
Grandmother, fathers side, WWII WAC, Served Willow Grove NAS.

Ancestor on my fathers side was a Hessian captured in the Battle of Trenton in the Revolution. He settled in PA after the war.

Those are the ones I know for sure.

Great-grandfather, WWII. He was a 88 gunner on the Eastern Front. He managed to get my grandfather and the rest of his family to the US before the war started, but was to late to get out himself. Given the choice to enlist with either the German or the Romanian army, he decided to go with the Germans.

Apparently he came to the US once the war was over. He didn't bring any medals or souvenirs, and never really spoke about what he did or saw.

My grandfather flew a C-3 in the Pacific, I have his hat around here somewhere. Other than that my relatives have generally been anti-military, or ineligible to serve.

Great Stories

I think its interesting alot of people had family members who didn't talk about the War they fought it.

The things some people had seen/done in War must be so horrible.

Keep it up I think we could almost make a Dakka Military history archive with this infomation

Man, being a bastard SUCKS! No fething history... and me, a history buff :/
But only one I know for sure is that my grandfather flew in WW2 and was stationed in germany afterwards.
My (step) father grew up next to the guy who dropped the bomb on Nagasaki (or was it Hiroshima? I can never remember). Apparently the guy wasn't told what it was he was dropping, only that it was a really big bomb. Ironicially he died of lead poisoning in the 70's

Grandfather on my Mothers side, was a 'essential skill' and so was refused. He built trains/carriages and served as an Air Raid Warden.

Grandfather on my fathers side was a qualified carpenter, and so while served in uniform, he never left UK shores.

Going further back in history, it turns out that one ancestor (mothers side) tried to hang another ancestor (fathers side). One was a judge, the other commited an unknown offence.

And my favorite ancestor taught some of the slaves off the Amistaad (sp) to read and write!

Cheers

Andrew

KingCracker wrote:I too have family on both sides of the Civil War

Which civil war?

I have a great uncle who fought in WW2. Apparently he killed a bunch of Germans with a sten and health problems he picked up during the war killed him in the 50's. I think my great-grandfather fought for Prussia.

My maternal grandfather was a shipwright - and in a protected industry so did not have to serve - WW2, Korea or Viet-Nam.
His eldest sons took after him, and likewise were exempt.

My Paternal grandfather was a Hungarian Gypsy and I have no information as to his status after 1940 (my father was born in Budapest in 1939 and spent the war in fosterage in Holland). the records other than his birth certificate (we have a copy of it) did not survive the war.

My father was not yet a citizen when they had conscription for Viet-Nam.

My wife's great-something-grandfather fought in the Crimean war and against the Boer and is listed in our national War Memorial archives.

For a long time, the only thing I knew about my grandfather (mother's side) was a picture hanging in our staircase, showing him in a Wehrmacht uniform, together with his wife. Just recently, I decided to try and find out something about him via the internet. Turns out that he was probably a Sergeant or low-ranking officer in the 5th squadron, 2nd detachment, 24. Panzer-Regiment that mainly fought from 1942 onwards on the eastern front. An online library claims the regiment was later sent to Italy for a short time, before returning to the eastern front and fighting retreating battles; last remnants of the regiment fought in Northern Germany, right where I was born, apparently. Another part of the regiment that received some Panther tanks was attached to the 1st Panzer Division and got into American captivity at the overall capitulation.

Not sure which way exactly he took during the war, since he and his wife died when my mother was very young, so he never told her anything that she remembers. On the one picture hanging in our house, he's wearing what I think is a Sturmabzeichen, an assault badge acknowledging his participation in a certain number of assaults in contact with the enemy.

Yeah, it's kind of a weird feeling knowing that my grandfather actively fought in WW2 on the bad side - comfirmedly killing some soviets - and not even knowing what his stance on Nazism, anti-semitism and all that was. Maybe he was just a regular guy doing what every able German male basically had to do during that time, maybe he really was a Nazi donkey-cave. I have no idea.

Slarg232 wrote:I'm related to Aseline the Wolf, one of the Crusaders who was in the (I beleive) third Crusade.

And you know this how?

None of my immediate family fought in world war 1 or 2 as they were all either conscientious objectors or worked in protected industries.

My Paternal Grandfather was an RAF medic and spent most of WW2 pulling pilots out of the Med of North Africa. I Have the GI Bowie knife that a greatful USAF pilot gave him.
He was in the Sicilly landings for some reason and all he would say about that was: "It was a bit hairy", possibly one of the best descriptions of amphibious landing under artillery fire.

My maternal Grandfather was in North Africa and said he wasn't allowed to talk about what he did there.

I have a brother in law in Afganistan atm.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Witzkatz wrote:For a long time, the only thing I knew about my grandfather (mother's side) was a picture hanging in our staircase, showing him in a Wehrmacht uniform, together with his wife. Just recently, I decided to try and find out something about him via the internet. Turns out that he was probably a Sergeant or low-ranking officer in the 5th squadron, 2nd detachment, 24. Panzer-Regiment that mainly fought from 1942 onwards on the eastern front. An online library claims the regiment was later sent to Italy for a short time, before returning to the eastern front and fighting retreating battles; last remnants of the regiment fought in Northern Germany, right where I was born, apparently. Another part of the regiment that received some Panther tanks was attached to the 1st Panzer Division and got into American captivity at the overall capitulation.

Not sure which way exactly he took during the war, since he and his wife died when my mother was very young, so he never told her anything that she remembers. On the one picture hanging in our house, he's wearing what I think is a Sturmabzeichen, an assault badge acknowledging his participation in a certain number of assaults in contact with the enemy.

Yeah, it's kind of a weird feeling knowing that my grandfather actively fought in WW2 on the bad side - comfirmedly killing some soviets - and not even knowing what his stance on Nazism, anti-semitism and all that was. Maybe he was just a regular guy doing what every able German male basically had to do during that time, maybe he really was a Nazi donkey-cave. I have no idea.

I always thought that most German people honestly believed that the Jews were being deported and it wasn't really bigged up the way we are told today. Military service was mandatory and you pretty much had to be a party memeber to get on in life at that time.

CuddlySquig wrote:

KingCracker wrote:I too have family on both sides of the Civil War

Which civil war?

I have a great uncle who fought in WW2. Apparently he killed a bunch of Germans with a sten and health problems he picked up during the war killed him in the 50's. I think my great-grandfather fought for Prussia.

Im American, so the American Civil war

I am from a long great military tradition. Somebody from my family has fought and died in every single American war. I guess you could say I have a lot to live up to.

I have ancestors who fought in the American Revolutionary war. I don't think they were high ranking (my sister is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution - but that's another rant), but they served.

My grandfather was able to avoid serving during WWII thanks to being the youngest son on a farm, but his brothers weren't so lucky. One of them was a POW in a German camp...he doesn't like to talk about it.

Lots of other relatives who have served in many wars throughout US history. Probably even broader if I explored some other lines.

My father fought in Europe (for the U.S, 100th Infantry Division) in WWII. He's still alive and kickin' by the way. My great uncle was a German SS officer who died in prison soon after the war's end. My dad tells stories of his dad (my grandfather) having heated arguments with his brother (the SS Officer) over the Nazi party & Germany's direction BY MAIL. Imagine a raging row with your brother that requires a month or so for each segment of the "argument" to be made.

My 4x great Grandfather was a cavalry officer for the Grand Army of Württemberg in the Napoleonic Wars and was knighted for his efforts. (non-hereditary title of course). Since the army switched sides a couple of times... he could have fought against Napoleon, with Napoleon... or both. He did survive the war.

Forgot to mention, I am also a distant cousin to Colonel 'Mad' Mike Hoare...