ITT: We post our families war stories Dads side: >Grandpa

>>1704935
It's a good thing, you mong. Means they don't have traumatic experiences and are alive.

All I know is that my father's grandfather decapitated a German soldier with a scythe during WW2 for raping a village woman, then went to hide in the mountains for a few months. Then, when the Germans were retreating, he helped another German soldier get back to his unit.

My mother's father father grew up in Poland. He and his whole family survived the war intact, and he hated Jews with a passion. I wish I'd found out his opinion on the Holocaust, he probably thought they deserved lol RIP old man

>gramps fought for Germany at the eastern front
>got hit by shrapnell and left his arm somewhere in the caucasus
>later went into a British POW camp
>weighed 50kg when he got out
>grandma fled from Königsberg
>took a ship right before the Wilhelm Gustloff
>other grandma lived in Berlin
>laid out her clothes each night so she could get dressed in the dark and flee to a bunker
>survived multiple bombing runs
>her husband also fought in the war
>carried multiple bullets in his body for decades
>got cancer from that and died 2 weeks after I was born

My grandpa got in a bar fight with a professional boxer while in Germany during WW2.
There's a picture buried somewhere of him sitting in his bunk the next morning with bruises all over and a face swollen to the size of a melon.

love you gramps

>>1704935

I only have one great WW2 story myself, and I'm not sure about the exact relation.

See, my great-great grandfather immigrated from Russia in the late 19th century. Way later, during the 60s, my grandfather, after enormous amounts of trouble, got permission to go to the then USSR to check up on the extended clan, who lived near Smolensk.

Of the 83 recorded people with the old surname, 9 survived the war. About the only one he managed to get an extensive conversation with, a man of about his own age (so some kind of 2nd cousin, and that's of my grandfather, don't forget, not sure about the exact relation to me) got drafted in 1941 before the Germans showed up, and eventually got a job interrogating prisoners. So he had some stories about how he got information, but I don't know if those are "war" stories exactly.

Interestingly enough, he claimed (Or, well, grandpa claimed and I heard it secondhand) that the best way to get stuff out of them wasn't to open up with torture. He would only "rough them up" to get confirmation of stuff already planted by other prisoners, and he would usually start by trying to befriend/bribe/protect guys who were smaller, weaker, usually working in rear echelon units, the sorts that the other German soldiers bullied. They'd tend to blab about all kinds of things, and then he'd try to get it verified from the others, but that "roughing them up only works if you have specific, questions to get answered, otherwise they just babble and invent wild stories".

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Father served in the Terriorial defence as a squad/section leader.

Here's a couple of stories.

>Territorial defence trains in secret so the Yugoslav authorities wouldn't catch on
>some maneuver practice in some woods
>a guy brings a car full of alcohol
>a few hours later, soldiers start randomly shooting, screams and singing is heard throught the woods
>everyone is totally drunk
>officers disband the troops and send them home for fear of authorities finding out (and it takes a few hours to round everyone up, while they party away)

>guarding an intersection
>heavy rain
>everyone is nervous, ducked in cover for a few hours, soaking wet and hungry
>albanian grocer comes out of the store with an umbrella, casually walks to each soldier and gives them some fruit and veg
>lights up a cigarette and chats with a solider, the grocer standing up, the soldier covering behind a brick wall

>guarding a bridge that is an important entry way into the capital
>"if tanks come, blow up the bridge"
>no explosives, so the plan is to place some gas (propane, buthane) bottles on the bridge and shoot at them if the tanks come
>night
>everyone is in position quite a ways away from the bridge
>a fiat 101 casually drives up the bridge
>some guy with a cigarette gets out
>opens the trunk and puts 2 gas bottles in
>nobody actually wants to shoot at a civilian
>guy drives away with free gas

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>>1704935
>Grandfather and his older brother live in Barcelona.
>They tart their military service so they can begin their studies, my grandad is 19.
>Suddenly faggot Franco decides to declare war on democratically elect government
>He was doing his military service in Barcelona's HQ taken under the command of General Manuel Goded Llopis
>He and his brother stay in the HQ fighting for the national side against their wills. Barcelona was one of the cities that stayed under republican control until the very end of the war.
>The HQ siege lasts about a year.
>After a year in hell, Goded decides to surrender.
>My grandfather is one of the guys that opens the gate to the invader commander: the famous anarchist Buenaventura Durruti.
>They execute all the officers and they round up all the cadets in a square near the HQ.
>Durruti basically says: "I know many of you are here against your will so you can join us or you can leave is up to you, but next time I see you wearing blue I'm gonna kill you".
>My grandfather goes home to his father and sisters but his brother says that he is gonna make those fucking commies pay for what they did to them during the siege. My grandad begs him to come home so they can all escape that this is not their war its the politicians war. Grandad's brother goes to France so he can cross the Pyrenees and rejoin the nationalist side in Euskadi.
>Barcelona becomes an anarchist commune and my great grandfather lives with his two daughters and my grandad who lives in a very small hidden room cause they saw him fighting against republican forces and some fucking commie fucks want to kill him.
>They constantly abuse my great grandfather and my grandfather's sisters cause they ain't married and they think they are a couple of nuns and a priest in disguise.
>Situation escalates my grandad has to GTFO and decides to hide in the Montserrat mountains for 3 fucking years.
>War ends my family packs up their shit and they move to Galicia.

>>1704935
My great great grandfather died at Passchendaele. My great grandfather served in the desert rats in North Africa as an artilleryman, he survived the war.

My grandfather was leading a team of mechanics fixing and maintaining ships during the invasion of Cyprus which lead into the island's partition.

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Father's side:
>WW1
>great-great grandfather enters army service in WW1 as early as 1914
>his official documents state that he resides in Britanny (although it was more of a vacationing home for him) and he is discriminated against due to being thought Breton
>as a result of the army thinking that he was poorfag (because Breton), he is sent more often to the front than others
>goes through some intense shit obviously, continue to sketch the war in the process (pic related is his work)
The french government later issued a request for him to depict Verdun: "en 1917, le ministère de la guerre lui demande de peindre des scènes de guerre à Verdun où il réalise de nombreux pastels."


>WW2
>french army orders my great-grandfather's company to build them a munitions factory in 1939 (essentially highlighting that they were gearing themselves for another Great War rather than the impending blitzkrieg)
>come 1942, now the german army orders my great-grandfather to have his company build them a V2 rocked launch site
>"whatever_man.png"
>gets tired of their shit and meets up with a friend boasting ties to the French Resistance
>tells him where the rocket launch site is being built so that they can transmit the information to England
>turns out that the RAF does get that information in the end, and they send Hurricane fighters to destroy the site
>great-grandfather almost dies that day since he was on the site supervising the work when the Hurricane bombed it

Mother's side (here I know less though)
>ancestor that served Napoleon in the old guard
>his uniform and medals is inherited by multiple generations of the family and now my great-uncle has it (grandfather's older brother)

>Indochina
>this very same great-uncle does his service in Indochina, fucking shit up as you do

>Algerian war
>grandfather is dispatched to Algers (for those who know about the battle of Algers, you would know what this means)
>refuses to ever talk about it

>>1704935
>Maternal grandpa served at a USAAF base in Belgium during the last year of WW2, no action
>Paternal grandpa had a desk job with the army, in the US, during the Korean War
nothing exciting but at least they didn't get killed

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>some old uncle was a nazi before and under occuptation
>family shut him out.
>for some reason my family agreed to give me his name

On my mom's side
>Grandpa joins navy during WW2
>becomes airplane mechanic in the pacific
>deck gunner gets killed
>he needs to take over the gun and shoot at Japanese fighter pilots flying around
>later in the war he gets sent to the Philippines and hangs out there the rest of the time. No other stories I've ever heard

On dad's side
>Grandpa was too young to join during WW2
>becomes an MP after the war
>hangs out in Germany after the war during the allied occupation. No stories

Not that exciting. I really wish I knew more about my mom's dad. I know he was on an aircraft carrier for a while and I've seen a bunch of pictures of airplanes and ships in his house. Sadly, he died when I was very young and my grandma died ~8 years ago.

However,
>grandma dies
>need to clear out her house and all that nonsense
>going through closets and chests in the garage
>find old military rations, rifles, bayonets, Uncle Sam "I want You!" posters.
>mfw my cousin eats the rations
>mfw my aunt throws everything else away
>mfw we later find out each one of those posters can be sold for several thousand dollars each and we had like 20 of them
Mad.

>>1705655
>>hangs out in Germany after the war during the allied occupation. No stories
Probably because you're underage.

Once you're 18 and eligible to hear this sort of stuff, he'll tell you all about the german puss he must've smashed.

>>1705685
I'm 25. He died when I was 19.

>>1704935
Dad was a combat engineer at the time of the Falklands war, he avoid conscription by going to college

>>1705695
Oh was joking!

And my condolences then!
But now that I've your attention, tell me about your 60-year-old-ration-eating cousin?

>>1704935
My ancestors were badass Syrian Jews from the desert near Aleppo but moved to fucking Brazil and became Catholics

>>1705707
It was pretty funny. We're going through a bunch of stuff in the garage when we find a box that had an unopened ration in it.

>"Well it's sealed, might as well!"
>pops it open and eats something bread-like (no idea what it could have been) and some chocolate looking thing
>My aunt and my mom have the biggest shocked look on their faces
>"Meh, doesn't taste that good."
I laughed.

Great grandfather was an American Nazi sympathizer

Funnily enough, his son would marry a Jewish girl

>>1705722
>>My aunt and my mom have the biggest shocked look on their faces
I can empathize.

I thought the story would have him convulsing in stomach pains for over a week, until he'd try to end the pain and suffering by jumping from a window, but only manage to paralyze himself in the process.

Funny family/10 tho.

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My grandfather told me that my great great uncle fought in wwI, he apparently killed himself and his mates when he accidentally set off a crate of explosives in his own trench.

>dad's dad hid a nazi corpse under his desk
>mom's dad hid in Groningen in a barn
>mom's mom watched an ISIS style execution by the nazis
>dad's uncle had to do hard labor and was starved to death because löl we have run out of ze food

They had great fun, and by great fun, I mean, they were scarred for life

>>1706287
What a dumbass

Mothers side:
>grandfather was in the admirality youth until 1944, was later assigned as a submariner in a type IXc, his Wolfpack took down 17 british Merchant vessels

>his brother was drafted into the Wehrmacht and fell somewhere in the Caucasus

>Great-grandfather was a captain in the Trade navy, still have his Hat lying around somewhere

Fathers side:
>Father served in the NVA as a paratrooper
>grandfather was an Officer in the Artillerycorps and got taken POW by the russians


None of them were Nazis, they just served their country

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>>1704935
>Be Irish
>Grandpa British
>Fought with a tank crew in North Africa and Italy
>Went home
>Knocked up great Grandmother

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>Great uncle fights in europe in the 22th Canadian infantry regiment
>lucky enough to survive his service
>dies in a car accident two weeks later
He deserved better...

> Grandpa joined US Navy
> ended up some sort of decent rank
> was tasked with sending off landing boats at Normandy
> had to load his friends into the boats and send them off
> didn't enjoy that
> died when I was 5, my grandmother told me these things later
> also a funny story about him getting ripped off trying to buy liquor in San Diego on shore leave

Grandmother had family still in Poland in the ghettos. She and her family stateside would send them things, sometimes stash secret things sewn into the hem of a coat or a dress. She told me about how everyone had a war garden and they had to put up blackout shades on the windows at night.

She also mainly said the war wasn't fun. Americans always get hard about WWII but she said at the time back home it was mainly scary and sad, everyone knew someone who died.

>>1704935
My father's grandfather was a British commando during World War II.
>Joined the Durham Light Infantry in 1928
>Left sometime before the War
>Rejoined in 1939
>Went to France with the BEF
>Evacuated at Dunkirk
>Joined the Commandos because the pay was better
>Parachuted into Italy on the first commando raid on Festung Europa
>Got captured by the Italians because the submarine meant to pick them up wasn't there
>Spent the war in a POW camp
>When the Italians pussied out of the war all the guards left
>POWs are getting moved to Germany
>He and a guy from the Royal Tank Regiment break open the cattle car door and jump out
>Makes his way back to Allied lines
>Was sent over to Burma and fought there until the War ended
>Came back and was a plumber for the rest of his life.

Apparently no one knew he was even in Operation Colossus until 30 years after he died.

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Dad side
>Great Grandfather that fought in WW1 told his colleagues to stop shooting the enemy
>Grandfather was sending love letters to my grandmother in WW2
Mother side
>Haven't asked her about GGrandfather
>Only know that Grandfather was a KGB officer

Mother's side:
>Granpa was a military police office.
>When Mussolini was arrested and brought to Campo Imperatore, my granpa was his jailor.
>Managed to avoid to get shot by the rescuing Germans by sheer luck.
>Came back home, on his birthday he was captured and sent to Dachau.
>A few days before the camp was liberated, he escaped and managed to trek back to Italy.
>Meanwhile, granma moved close to the Vatican in order to avoid most bombs.


Father's side:
>Granma avoided getting raped by French colonianl troops because he played dead.
>She met my granpa while she was loking for essential objects from the ruins of Montecassino.

>>1704935
>Grandpa flew in Flying Forts in bombing runs on Germans
>Was the bomb sight guy
>Plane goes down in water
>Picked up by German U-boat
>Was in the camp The Great Escape happened in
>Was transferred a couple weeks before the escape happened
>Was the guy who put the dirt in his pockets

all sides stories:
>we had to limit our coffee and chocolate consumption
guess my country

>>1707013
USA.

>>1704935
Grandfather
>joins audience in the 50s
>stationed on a tropical island
>had the time of his life
Father
>coast guard in the 80s
>fights drug war and races to Canada
>has a lot of fun
Me
>can't join service because of anti depressants
Just end it now senpai

>>1707052
Air force not audience

>>1705655
Too young to join up but became an MP? So he was about 19 years old as an MP or what?

Do civilian stories within a country experiencing war count? I have no family who were veterans or served (except one great great grandfather in the 1800s). In fact I don't know any veterans of the two world wars now that i think of it.

My father's father's father and my mother's father's father fought on opposite sides of the battle of the 2nd Battle of Ypres in 1915

Mom side
>(WW1) Great-grandmother was a tailor, she made uniforms the soldiers. She was knocked up by a wounded German soldier she found lying half dead in a barn. He healed and left. She had been married with no children, her husband died in the war. Everyone in the village acted like her daughter (my grandma) was a perfectly legitimate one. G-Grandmother later remarried and had another daughter but died of childbirth.
>(WW2) grandmother and her half sister (whom I always called Auntie), both orphaned, worked an uncle's field in exchange for food and shelter. When the war broke out they were employed as army tailor (grandma) and nurse (auntie). Grandma hid partisans in the basement.
>(WW2) grandpa was submarine crew. He managed to come back from the war became a policeman and married grandma. Auntie never married.

Dad's side
>(ww2) grandpa was a marconist, which is the guy with the phone backpack who calls for reinforcements
>his unit didn't see much action, got shot at by partisans more than anyone else. >they got caught at the border with Austria by Germans after Italy changed sides and were deported to a POW camp in Austria where they stayed until the end of the war
>what was left of the unit was freed by Americans. Americans gave a lot of potatoes and rich food to the survivors most of which died as a consequence. Grandpa was sick with pneumonia and didn't eat anything so he survived.

.

Dad's side
>

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Mum's side
>great-grandfather died at the beginning of WWII

Dad's side
>great-grandfaher was captured by the Russians, but managed to survive
>family expelled from East Prussia

>>1704935
>grand uncle sat in a bubble in a plane and shot a bunch of Nazis out of the sky. A lot of them. He really liked shooting them and kept going back.
>grandfather was in the navy and went to China

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Moms side
>grandfather gunned down gooks from a chopper in Vietnam
>great-grandfather was a fucking marine cook for the troops at Iwa Jima and Pelielu
>great-great grandfather fought for the Canadians on the western front during WW1
>great-great-great-great grandfather was an irishman who fought with Corcorans Irish brigade against Dixie scum in the civil war

Dads side
>great-grandfather served the British as a pooinloo troop against the Japanese in Burma
>great-great grandfather was fucking HANGED by Germans in Tanganyika for being a British pooinloo spy during WW1


Tfw half Irish half pooinloo

>Mum's Side

Get shot at Dunkirk. Spend rest of the war as a prison guard in Scotland.

Dad's side

>See war coming, sign up before it breaks out.
>Get comfy desk job in North Africa

Yeah, we pretty much lucked out. Also my great grandfathers were too young to fight in WWI so missed that too.

>>1704935
>maternal grandmother born out of wedlock in 1914
>her father was known but was commanded to the serbian front where he allegedly died among the first, before/instead of marrying my great-grandmother
>maternal grandfather fought in WWII holding the line against the soviets in the Eastern Carpathians
>was messenger of the unit, riding motorcycle in fancy outfit
>once was hit by shell, recovered in a few hours, his mate got shellshock and had to be tied to a chair where he kept screaming even after his voice finally went away
>once the russians opened gunfire on the unit, nobody got hit but a bullet entered the barrel of one of the guns, tearing it up
>another time an explosion tore off both legs of a soldier but he survived long enough to be carried away in a basket; maybe he even survived the war, having failed to bleed out on the spot
>grandfather finally deserted when the russians pushed back the front past our city
>allied bombers hit their house while he was away, luckily my grandmother was visiting some relative in another part of the town
>paternal grandfather had four kids by the time the war started, so he never even went to war
>father was a kid when the front passed over us, he had fun collecting discarded ammunition and blowing it up. he was very lucky and never had any accident

>>1705312

Kill yourself you worthless sack of shit.

>>1711511
H-how old are you?

>>1711523
turned 50 this year.

>>1711533
Damn! Well I didn't mean to startle you of course by asking indiscreetly about your age. Happy to see we're not all 20-something idiots.

>>1705730
Fucking Jeff

>>1705312
Did your family plant any birches on the orders of KGB?

>>1705711
Dude, you need to get your ass to Israel to get some shekels

>>1705607
Damn, your family went through alot of wars

>>1706566
That's a cool story! You don't hear about submarine stories everyday

>>1704935
>grandmother was in US Navy, nursing.
>grandfather also in US Navy, Navy bomber pilot WW2, then on carrier during Korea
>never liked talking about the war, only a few stories here and there
>both dead now
>go through boxes of their stuff
>piece together more of their history via their naval documents
>find hundreds of their personal correspondence sent between 1941-1951
>incredible personal stories
>never knew about any of this until after they died

talk to your grandparents before it's too late, kids.

>>1711594
I think everyone's can boast of such proximity, including when you're either french, german, english, italian, russian, and the sort, who have had the most wars to get on in. It's not necessarily that my family has endured war more, but just that I've bothered to dig into it.

Also WW2 doesn't really count. It's really just an anecdote about le resistance.

>>1706756
>Evacuated at Dunkirk
Lucky guy

>>1704935
>Uncle had a desk job in Vietnam
>Grandfather was Polish
>born in 1925
>captured and put in Dachau
>not jewish, just can't have Polish teenagers running around
>built Mercedes airplane engines in Dachau
>used to borrow armbands from the French prisoners so he could leave the camp for A&R
>would regularly pretend to be French and go to a German restaurant to play poker
>thats how he met my grandmother
My other grandfather is American and was in an airborne unit but never got deployed.

>>1711639
>is interned at Dachau
>still has the time to charm his way into the heart of a german qt

Well, I think that I've officially run out of excuses for why I'm such a lonely loser.

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Augusta, Sicily 28 May 1950
Dearest,
How are you darling? I surely hope that you are well and that young'un is too –
I have had my hair cut short and feel fit. If only you were with me.
Yesterday I marched up to the Exec and asked him if I could use one of the ships boats for trolling. I nearly keeled over when he said sure. In one hour, I had rounded up 3 cases of Pabst, some ice, 18 sandwiches, 3 pounds of shrimp for bait and off we went. "We" was Sandy and 6 of the men in the division. We trolled far + wide for tuna but no luck, which of course had nothing to do with the success of the day. It was so unusual and felt so great that I can still hardly believe it. I've already mailed you a 50 foot reel of film that we took. Hope it all comes out. The day was one of the best I could possibly spend under the present conditions.
When I returned to the ship, we stopped our boat quite a way out and we all went in swimming. Consequently when we came aboard, we were all clean and freshly dressed and I was sure glad for lo + behold there stood the old man! He said our trip was a trial run and that from the appearance of all hands, when we returned, the crew could look forward to more like it! Today, he allowed the entire ship to swim off the side. I have the OOD duty so was there to see them start it off.

>pic related

>>1705312
Well duh, torture doesn't work because people will make up shit to not suffer and you'll have trouble confirming it. It only works for phoney confessions.
Enchanted interrogation nowdays mostly focuses on breaking the mind of a prisoner.

Father was Air Force psychologist during the Vietnam era. He never had to go to Vietnam, but treated returning troops. He never wanted to talk about it.

Several of maternal grandmother's cousins died in the Holocaust.

>>1711651
Not only did he marry a "german qt" but that qt's father was a fairly high ranking German officer who fought on the western front and survived the war (but not subsequent Russian internment)
forgot to mention that

>>1711677
Bro, not one more fucking detail! His exploits are drowning me in utter lack of self-worth, so I don't want to hear one more word on how successful he was!

Good for him though. Not everyone gets out Dachau with that nice a story.

>>1711714
After the war he moved to America with only pennies in his pockets, and eventually started a successful fencing company. He also owned some rental properties and a condo in Puerto Vallarta where they vacation every year

>>1711739
Fucking Źchad Źunzvdercockorovoskí

>Great-Grandparents are Irish
>World war breaks out
>Tea rationing starts
>It....it was awful

Never met them but from what my I can get out of my grandparents they always changed the subject when it came up

>one of grandfather's siblings taken by communists during the war
The details are still vague, no one ever told me much
>basically everyone has gone temporarily deaf from mandatory military training
Such is life as a korean

>>1704935
Not actually related to him, but interesting anyways
>Mom gets taken in by her BFs parents after shes kicked out
>The dad is a haida native who got in trouble with the law, and was told to either go to jail or vietnam
>Eventually ends up a green beret
>Has to collect ears and put them on his belt to prove his kills

thats my only "story" he doesn't talk about it, understandably

>>1704935

On my dad's side, my grandpa was an oil refinery manager and deemed necessary for the war effort.

On my mom's side, my grandfather enlisted and ended up being a mine clearer in North Africa and Italy. He didn't talk about it much and took to drinking after the war.

Apparently mine clearing was very bad and had lots of friends die doing it.

>Ancestor fought in siege of constantinople
>Great Grandpa from father side fights in Italian Turkish War, Greek Turkish war of 89, WW1 and Liberation War. Takes part in Gallipoli
>Other great grandpa fights in Balkan Wars.
>Grandpa is stationed in Turkish Axis border in case of Turkey joining ww2
>Dad was in Cyprus war
>Uncle in Korea War
>Brother in Kosovo war

I wonder if I will ever go to war...

Question and a bit off topic...

For US people, is there a government website where you can look up the unit your ancestor served in.

I have their name obviously and know they served but no one in the family remembers what unit they served in.

>>1704935
My grandfather nearly served in the Brazilian Army in WW2. He was literally standing in front of the ship that was gonna take him there when he learned that the war was over. He never got any veterans' benefits.

Mom's side
>Grand pappy was commie soldier in China

Dad side
>Great uncle and entire family was Kuomintang
>great uncle was captain aboard a destroyer
>losing like shit against the commies
>decide to fuck off to Taiwan and bring over as many of the family as possible
>fucked off to taiwan but couldn't bring ALL the family members only parts of it
>Fucks off to America because looming commie invasion
>From America sends for trapped mainland family side to come over
>dad and extended family comes over
>had relationship with mom before he came to America so he works to get enough money to bring mom over and her parents

and that's why there was alot of yelling when grampa was over

Dad's side
>Great-grandfather was in the 10th Mountain Division. Never talked about it, but when he died, my father inherited a box full of nazi armbands and a luger
>Grandfather was in Vietnam, The only story I've heard was he was climbing up one of those repelling ladders for a helicopter, and the guy in front of him and behind him got shot off. He became a minister afterward.
>Dad was in Operation Desert Storm and spoke Persian Farsi. I've never heard him talk about it, other than that as an intelligence officer he had to pick places to bomb or something along those lines. I think that shook him up.
Mom's side
>Great-grandfather died on Normandy, decapitate by shrapnel from a landmine
I once thought I'd join the military, I guess out of a sense of emulation. But seeing what it's done to my family, and knowing that there's stories they will never tell, I don't ever want to be near a war. I don't think my dad would want me to, either.

Dad's Side, William Shearer

>Fought in trenches
>Wound up captured
>Escaped and made it back to friendly territory and helped orchestrate a rescue
>The rescue was a success and all prisoners were brought back to friendly territory
>One exception
>William Shearer decided to return from freedom back to the prisoners to tell them to hold on, that help was coming
>Died to a shell on the way
>The prisoners were all asking where he was, nobody could tell them
>Have his medals and shit in a cabinet as well as some letters
>The last letter talks about how he feels invincible writing a letter, but returning to the reality makes him feel small as a mouse
>Talks about wondering the part he and his friends play in the grand scheme of it all, and what god sees from above as they "roll around in the filth and wanton destruction"
>Asks whether the higher ups think of him as he squats in the mud, or is he another thousand men crammed into a pin on a map
>Concludes by stating that this christmas he'd like not to kill anyone

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>>1704935
>Grandfather was a Jehovah's witness
>doesn't go to war
>house gets bombed
>dig him out of the rubble
>he has a picture frame stuck round his neck
>suddenly decides being a Jehovah's witness isn't for him
>joins the army
>gets a german war bride

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Cant find any sources/dociments other then a picture kept by some local ww2 remembrance organization

>one day temporary war museum at nazi bunkers from the atlantikwall
>Not too far from House
>Go with whole family
>They've got lots of uniforms,flags and weapons lined up in one of the bunkers
>cool
>See a huge wall with pictures and names dedicated to "traitors"
>Norwegians in the SS/NS or who simply helped
>One of them share my fathers last name
>I ask him about it
>He tells me he thought he was related to my grandfather but never spoke to him about it
>Never knew who he was and didnt care

He looked like he had some sort of SS uniform, could have been something else though. I wish i took pics.

Though i have proof that my grandma and her family helped hide Jews and one our towns "coat of arms" or whatever you'd call it.

>>1704935

>Be Northern Irish Catholic

>Mother's side
>Lower Middle Class family
>Granddad was Air Warden during WW2. A bomb landed just in front of him but didn't go off
>Got burned out of his home by the B-Specials (a Protestant paramilitary organisation that was officially an arm of the state)
>Kept well away from any terrorist behaviour

>Dad side's different
>Dirt poor background
>All of my Grandad's siblings join the IRA, some become top commanders
>My grandfather is only convinced not to go by my Grandmother, who had family in the RAF
>House regularly raided by the army
>He was targeted by notorious serial murderer Lennie Murphy just before he got caught by the police
>Dad takes part in riots daily. Everyone did.
>The violence gets so awful that he and his family move to England for a few years

We don't really like to talk about it at the table.

>>1714917
Northern Catholic here too

>Mother's family literally live in bog mountains
>Very nationalist community
>Uncles become associated with IRA
>Lots of british harassment and raids
>Take part in big operation in early 70's against isolated barracks
>Around 30 men, armed with newly arrived libya weapons
>HMGs, Mortors, RPGs
>30 minute attack on barracks from all sides
>Commander fiiring ancient Bren gun
>Pointless exercise but one british casuality as result of RPG (they just had rifles)
>They withdraw over the mountain across the border
>Shortly afterwards republican solicitor found out their names came up in connection with the police
>One got out quick and moved to Dublin
>Other dithered until solicitor picked up in his mercades, put him in a suit and moved him across the border through the army checkpoint no problem
>They couldn't return north until around 2000 when they had confirmation the police was no longer seeking them

>Father
>Also grew up in republican community
>Joined IRA in early seventies
>Support stuff, logistics, intelligence, engineering etc
>Him and friend got nabbed by UDR patrol one night after tossing away a radio (was used in abortive attack on police)
>UDR search friends house and find ammo
>UDR beat them both up but friend got the worst of it
>THe same UDR sergeant would be associated with murdering a nationalist coucillor one year later, also one of the founding members of the DUP and a former MLA
>THey spend a week in Crumlin road jail on remand
>Case gets thrown out because UDR cannot legally search property
>IRA asks my father they want to target UDR sergeant in proxy bomb attack on army barracks
>My father says no because it will implicate him
>UDR man is ancient now but has no idea my father probably saved his life
>Transported Francis Hughes once when he was on the run (he was later go on to die in the 83 hunger strike)

>>1704935
>Grandfather shipped to Vietnam in late 1967
>stationed in Da Nang when the Tet Offensive started
>his battalion repelled the attack, but he had this right thumb shot in the fighting
>thumb couldn't be saved, had it amputated.
>couldn't hold a rifle anymore with a missing right thumb
>awarded purple heart, was transferred to back to the US doing inventory paperwork for the rest of this contract.

too bad my family doesn't have any WWII service members, my grandparents were in diapers when it happened and their parents were well into their 40's.

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My grandad fought in the Africa campaign. Nothing unusual happened and he brought back junk for my granny from the local markets. As I recall, a brass ashtray with the head of cleopatra and a necklace made out of bone. Pretty classy trinkets.

My great income in my mum's side, though, was a bit of a hero. He was in the French resistance and did a really important and dangerous thing of gathering and radioing in co-ordinates for allied bombing of the harbour at la ciotat which is the deepest natural harbour in the med and was full of German u boats. He was almost caught by the Germans and had to escape into the countryside for a while. He got a big deal medal and for the rest of his life he was given free meals and drink in local restaurants. He also had many mistresses and was apparently quite the playa.

Oh, and my mum used to tell us that he got really angry about the Americans as once France was liberated, they came through and would throw chocolates to the local kids from tanks. Even though this is based and obviously really cool of them, his view was that it was thoughtless and made French parents who couldn't give their kids chocolate and other luxuries look like shit. I think it made them feel humiliated.

All my grandparents though talked very highly about the Americans and my mum especially used to say and I quote "they took it the worst at Normandy and no one ever talks about it; those poor boys - without them we couldn't have done it".

So I guess that makes my great uncle look a little churlish all things considered.

Based Americans. Thanks again.

>>1704935
My grandad fought in ww2 in the HLI. His brother my great uncle died of shell shock but they were deployed on different fronts. My grandad brought back a Luger but my dysfunctional uncle lost it and most of my grandads medals. He never got shot once. He said watching your friends die is one of the worst things ever. After the dementia got really back he would experience flash backs. He was the nicest man I knew I miss him. We are Scottish so pretty much every generation of our families has at least one person who has served. It's hard being Scottish. My other grandad served in the navy and was deployed in Cairo in the last 40s I think there was a revolt I don't know. Our mental health is pretty fucked.

>>1704935
Czech's pussied out is not exactly the right expression. Either getting fucked from the maps by brutal force due to lacking manpower and weaponry to resist or try to save as many lives fighting from different countries because they left you for dead after a rather unsuccessful hopes for Munich agreement leaves you with a logic conclusion. At least that's what I read.

NI Prod
>granda
>hates fenians
>war breaks out
>/loyal/
>joins Royal Arttillery
>goes to England
>meets and English factory worker who hates fenians more than he does
>go to france
>get your shit knocked in
>escape at dunkirk
>spend rest of the war in Caitness
>marry english girl
>move to ni
>drive a tractor at a golf club until your retire

>>1715136
Why so shy on the Troubles, nig?

>>1715146
We live in the middle of nowhere, barely bothered us.

Dad was in the army and did riot shit though. My uncle got injured when a pub he was at was bombed.

My Great-Grandpa personally made sure his fellow soldiers were able to retreat safely during a ww2 battle in France by staying behind and laying down covering fire until he was the last one to leave

>>1715159
Republican bomb?

You should watch that film '72'. Saw it recently and its fucking excellent. Think you might find it interesting. Be interesting to see what your grandad and other older family members think too.

>>1715172
>Republican bomb?
Aye.

>You should watch that film '72'.
Looks alright I'll give it a watch.

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>>1715199

>Great grandpa fought in WWII and was taken prisoner by the allies
>My grandma and great grandma fled Germany

>>1715213
Interesting.

How did the allies treat him?

Why escape? Juden?

>>1715215
>Why escape?
my moneys on russians

>WW2 great grandfather
Stationed in philipines, guarding jap POWs. Apparently it was kind of lax, japs were practicing karate in courtyard or some kind of fancy martial art.
One of grandpas friends sees this and asks jap to a 1v1 fight basically
Jap agrees
Grandpa said jap fucked his friends shit up
All the guards were laughing


Other grandpa was just a cook, i never got any stories from him.

>>1704935
>Great great great grandfather in 1st and second boer war, after the wars ended he still fought in the boer resistance. My grandfather still has a british officers pistol from the 1800's from his grandfather.
>Grandfather in ww2
>Father in Angolan bush war
>tfw none of them want to talk about it

>>1715373
Lemme guess: you're a perennial favourite on /pol/, right?

>>1715395
Just a jaded expat who thinks /pol/ is garbage.

>>1715429
Is jy Afrikaans?

>>1715445
So afrikaans soos pannekoek en boerewors

>>1715450
Ok, so fokkin baaie dan.

My Afrikaans is treurig.

Where from?

>>1715454
Myne ook, ek is al te lank in die buiteland. Van bloem maar het meeste van my tyd in potch gespandeer. Jy?

>>1715462
Fucking hell. Smack bang in the middle of rock spider land, ne?

Jo'burg. Ek het in potch boarding school toe ge gaan. Waar bly jy nou?

My fathers side
>huge sprawling family across the South, many fought for the CSA during the Civil War, nothing too interesting
>great grandfather killed at Savo Island
>grandfather in the navy during the Cuban missile crisis, apparently hated it

My mothers side
>A direct ancestor of mine in the 251st Pennsylvania died at Antietam
>my last foreign ancestor was in the Prussian Army in 1870, but that's all I know

>>1715509
>>my last foreign ancestor was in the Prussian Army in 1870


my ancestors were Austrian line troops, go fuck yourself filthy juncherre

>>1715479
>volkskool? Ek bly in Kanada.

>>1715546
Wat bedoel 'volkskool'? Vir taal-sprekers? Nie, engels. Bizarrely enough.

Canada is cool. Ek's in die VK. Miss jy tuis? Sometimes I cry, man. My highveld storms ;(

>>1704935

My grandfather served in the Pacific during World War II, though he never saw "real" combat. He was in the group that was going to invade Japan if the bombs hadn't been dropped.

He does have a badge for combat, though. Whatever group he was a part of arrived at Manicani island, and he was sent to the top of a hill to investigate some type of structure. He gets up there with another soldier and suddenly starts hearing ping sounds. He and the other soldier immediately drop to the ground and call into the jungle, and crawl far enough away that they can go back down the mountain. They tell their commander and he sends a unit up to clear away whoever was shooting at them.

And that's how I'm shitposting on 4chan today: because Japanese can't shoot for shit and my grandfather ran the fuck away anyway.

>>1715631
I love these stories so much.

History alive in transmitted memory.

Fucking awesome.

>>1715631

*crawl into the jungle where there's cover. Obviously they didn't call out to whoever the fuck was shooting at them.

>>1715642

Yeah, I always make a point of getting some stories out of my grandfather whenever I see him. Some of my favorite stories from him are about how he used to play with the little Filipino kids that would sell cigarettes to the soldiers during the second world war, the time he was a traveling salesman and got run out of a club because he accidentally walked into an all-black club, and people starting fires in the stands of Neyland stadium at University of Tennessee football games because it was so damn cold that day. My other grandfather who didn't serve used to tell me about collecting scrap metal for the war effort and growing victory gardens.

Talk to you grandparents, kids!

>>1715761
You're so lucky. My one grandad died before I was born and the other when o was very young.

This is a good thread idea, though. You should start it some time. Both your grandads sound awesome.

>>1704935
My grandfather was an operative (I think that's what it's called) during the Portuguese Colonial Wars. He was stationed in Angola.
Long story short, he was fixing some car on his own, some nigger shot up in the left ass cheek and he proceeded to kill said nig nog with 5 rounds to the head with his handgun.
He has been a raving racist ever since.

Mum's side

>WW2
>grandfather fought for the partisans in north eastern italy
>patrolling the mountainside
>camp out in a remote hide out
>ambushed by Germans
>whole squad dies except him
>hid behind door

He had several scars from being shot during small skirmishes. He was one tough bastard.

Dad's side

>WW2
>Aussie grandfather did a tour in PNG
>Came back with a Jap's samurai sword

Need to find out more about his war experience from my relos

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>Maternal grandfather's mother
Was one of the first Women in the US Navy sometime around WWI

>maternal grandfather
In the Navy during WWII, stationed at a base in San Diego

>paternal grandfather
Army, occupied Japan after we won, never saw any combat

>father
Army right after the Vietnam war was over, was stationed at an airfield in Germany in the late 70's doing crash rescue (expirienced no actual crashes)

>>1716659
Oh yeah, also had multiple ancestors on both sides of the civil war, like many Americans.

My one grandpa was a bomber pilot in Europe and he never mentioned it to my family at all, but we found a Purple Heart and old war letters/journals in his personal trunk after he died. My other grandpa was part of the engineering corps but he never saw combat so he's a pretty normal guy.

Not the best but all I have:

>Great uncle, dad's side was 19 in 1969
>Against the war but drafted and sent to Nam
>Filed as consencious objector, went exactly how you think
>Got placed in engineer corps since he'd been to carpentry school
>Mostly cleared sections of jungle and fixed buildings, occasionally placed barbed wire and claymores
>Has this one fucked up story where he was told they were going to fix up a POW camp
>The prisoners were being kept in plain bamboo cages
>No mattresses, sinks or toilets
>Also, they were all American
>Kept shouting out names and phone numbers, saying stuff like tell my parents I'm still alive
>Lt Gen lines them up afterward and tells them they saw nothing

Dads side only

>great-grandfather took mustard gas at Third Ypres, suffered from it until his death in 1942
>one great-uncle died in a truck rollover training for WW2
>3 great-uncles served in Korea, grandma vague on details

Canada btw

>>1715078
>tfw 22 but have old af parents who had me at 39
>Both my grandfathers were in WWII
>Both my parents remember segregation and colored water fountains (we live in the South)
>Parents were hippies in the 70's

I think my generation is anyone who can remember 9/11 and being sent home from school and watching the Iraq war unfold on the news over the next couple years. I distinctly remmeber sitting on my living room floor in third grade watching Operation Shock and Awe on CNN, seeing the Baghdad night sky light up and the tanks roll in. That's what sticks with me from my childhood the most, history-wise.

>paternal grandfather was an MP in Korea
>18 year old kid from the Bronx
>"Carey, take the Jeep"
>had never driven before
>proceeds to drive it into a ditch containing a fellow soldier

>also played a ton of baseball

>>1716684
What the fuck? Was your great uncle with the Vietcong?

>>1716709
It was a camp for deserters, dipshit.

Dad side:
>grandpa's brother (who I'm named after (^:) was a test pilot for the air force during 'Nam

Mom side:
>great grandpa worked in the engine room of a minesweeper ship during WWII, not sure exactly where he was deployed but he has some funny ass stories
>he's one of the few living people left who has an opinion of admiral William Halsey ("I never much cared for the man"), unfortunately he's going senile since his wife died and all his kids are trying to backstab him and take his little piece of land in Oregon, he's so fucking old its crazy

I wish I talked to them more but I was too young desu

>>1711570

What did he mean by this?

>>1716684
One part I forgot:

>Got recommended for promotion, didn't want it since he just wanted to go home
>Didn't shave, shower or or lace his boots for 2 weeks before his meeting with the CO
>Very short meeting, CO said "who the hell is this?"
>Got whole stacks of Article 15s for shit like that but never got court martialed since he was the only one with half a clue what he was doing

>>1716714
How in the world was anyone supposed to know that there were prisons for deserters in Vietnam?

>>1704935
>great grandparents are japanese fishermen in california
>put into prison camps. everything is stolen from them
>ridiculed as traitors
>grandparents born into prison
>get out, re-establish businesses, become successful again
>exclusion act is enforced, affirmative action pushes asians out of schools, my father can't get into an elite school any more
>our japanese family ostracizes us for trying to be loyal to our new home
>high taxes slowly erode our business and destroy it
>I grow up, get perfect scores on the SAT, get rejected from all the ivies, 70 iq niggers get in
>welp, fuck this stupid country, I'm going back
>americans die in terrorist attacks from muslims
>hiroshima got nuked and is now one of the wealthiest cities in the world
>one of the wealthiest cities in the world (in america) where my family lived during ww2 is now the site of terrorist attacks and one of the murderous cities in the world
america chose the wrong side in ww2

>>1716739
What else would it be, a secret sex club for the generals?

Grandfather:
>was stationed in east Poland in '39
>Soviets captured him before he even had a chance to fight
>Sent deep into CCCP for slow dying in gualg
>ZE NAZIZ IVADED, SORRY FOR THE BACKSTAB POLAN, HERE YOU MAKE YOUR ARMY NOW
>skipped the commies, went with the lads going for the middle east
>met Brits.
>became a tank driver (Crusaders)
>Spent Tobruk and El-Alamein in bed because of lung infection.
>Deployed in Italy as a Sherman driver in Polish Armored Corps
>Fought at Monte Cassino's final approach
>liberated few towns
>War ends
>goes back to Poland
>Secret Police cant find a flaw on his recors, and hes not important.
>continues to be a tank driver in a newly formed polish army.

He was anti-soviet, but he didn't want his family to get in trouble. Later on, he became a barber.

I miss him ;_;7

>>1716743
You know it became that; stop pretending. Your great grandfather was a fucking fluffer for the US Army.

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>>1704935
>great-grandpa
>honest to God injun in El Salvador in the 1930s
>lives in remote as part of the country
>hear the Army is removing injun at the cyclic rate
>tells grandad to hide in the jungle
>grabs old rifle he uses for hunting and goes to the only known road in his part of the jungle
>survives for almost a week alone in the jungle
>suddenly a wild patrol of Army dudes comes along
>takes a vantage point, aims at the important looking fella on a horse
>fires his one shot, important looking fella goes down
>patrol descends into chaos, great-abuelo runs into the jungle
>goes to his little part of jungle, grandpa waiting for him there
>continues to do injun shit till he leaves for the city
>that eas great grandpas war

Not as exciting but hey, he got himself an officer

Grandfather was a sonar operator in a submarine during the Korean war, don't know much beyond that.

Father would've served in Vietnam but his only brother was killed in testing a fighter plane (the Starfighter, which had the whole safety scandal you can read up on). Sole surviving son clause kicked in, he outright wasn't allowed to go.

And if you go far enough in my family history I'm related to Horatio Gates of the revolutionary war, and really you can read about him on wiki.

>>1711666

It's an amazing technique if you just want someone to suffer though

Bump for more stories.

Father's
>Great-great-great grandfather literally Ephialted the Spanish government to the US army in the Spanish-American war.

>Mother's
>Great-great grandfather was a Spanish man enlisted in the colonial army
>Great grandfather went with his other two brothers to fight for Franco in the Civil War, owned a fine looking Mauser.

>grandmother's big brothers both join the navy
>one killed in the battle of the Barents sea
>one killed in the battle of Crete

My grandfather on my mother's side worked as a Norwegian border police during WW2. Worst he did was if anything smack someone according to all manuscripts surviving that time.
His family was also a part of NS and they hosted 3 German soldiers on their farm. All 3 were veterans of ww1.
On my father's side I think it's only his father who served as a chief mechanic at some base in Korea.

Both grandparents being Norwegian of course

Dad's side:
Grandpa and grandma were kids in Ukraine when the war started, they were transporeted to Kazakhstan with their families.
Mom's side:
Same as with dad only to Siberia, grandpa's dad was a soviet officer in the siege of Leningrad.
Grandma's dad was a major in the artillery and disappeared during the chaos in the beginning of the Nazi invasion

>grandad was a NDH soldier
>not an ustaša
>he had medical training and was one few literate people in his unit
>one day they had a skirmish with the chetniks
>most of his friends got killed and survivors barricaded themselves in some house
>chetniks surrounded them and outnumbered them
>grandad took a machine gun and ran from window to window shooting at them
>chetniks scattered, presumably thinking there's more of them (there was like 3 or 4)
Not much of a story. Grandad didn't like talking about the war, but he was in the worst part of Croatia during it, he probably seen some horrible shit. Later he was captured by partisans but was spared because he could read and, as I said, had medical training.
My grandma has crazy ustaša/četnik/partizani stories, if anyone is interested

>Great-Great Grandfather fought with the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian war.
>Moved to the US when the war was over
>Told his kids that if any of them joined the military he would disown them
>"I moved here so you wouldn't have to throw your life away"

>>1717989
Sounds like a dirty commie

One of my grandfathers was blind
The other was in the British Army during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. He got injured at one point and could barely walk and swore there was a lion stalking him He never told me any stories of any serious fighting that happened there but my nan always says he kept a lot of it to himself so I don't know the full extent of what went on.

One of my great grandfather's was a miner during WW2 so didn't serve, that's about all I know.

>>1717996
No, he was just really fucked up from the war.
I have all of his journals back in Florida, one day I'll have them shipped to me and I'll upload them here.

>>1704935
>Great grandfather lost a leg in ww1
>brother of my grandpa died in stalingrad being 18 or 19 years old/ cried that he didn't want to go back before he got sent to the front
>grandma almost got deported to siberia but the train was halted
>just had to do some labour for the polish and move out of east prussia instead

Not a family member but my namesake:
>in nazi occupied France during the war
>Jewish
>dermatologist
>constantly on the run and never sleeping in the same place twice
>assistant to a doctor who would take allied soldiers and perform surgery on them in the Parisian sewers
>rescued dozens of soldiers and smuggle them to safety by pretending to go on picnics to the countryside and then dropping them off
>war ended
>reunited with dad in the hospital for a broken leg
>he fell and broke it hanging up a banner welcoming the allies into France
>moved to America
>got married
>got visited by important people like the president of France
>lived to 100
I should really do some research so I can figure out the scale of what she did. She passed when I was like 6 so I never got the chance.

>maternal grandpa was supposed to roll under Soviet tanks with a bomb strapped to his back
>his bomb was a dud
>soviet pow for a few years before coming home to Okinawa
>told everybody he was a civil engineer and my parents didn't find out until they had a look at the family registry while doing marriage paperwork
>told my dad Wisconsin in the winter reminded him of Siberia when they were going for a drive during a visit

He died when I was four so I didn't get to really interact with him much, but the Soviet hate runs real strong in my family, my mom still refers to the Ruskies as soviets.

>paternal grandpa got out of the war because he was a farmer
>paternal grandpa fought somewhere in France during WW1 and managed to get a bullet through his back and ass while laying on his belly
>still have his rusty old doughboy helmet

I wish my dad's family kept better track of their history, at least my mom's family had the excuse that people were straight up lying because of shame.

>Great-grandfather
>some year pre-1917, Finland still under Russian rule
>conscripted to military service
>fuck this shit, got some farming to do
>officers consistently call you with wrong name
>a mate hints you to go home
>go home
>end of military service
later
>1918
>Finnish civil war
>get conscripted with your horse by Whites to drive supplies and corpses etc.
>not keen
>sneak out with a mate one night, ride for home
>stop by a house on the way
>stay for a while, get something to eat
>the house telephone rings
>mate whispers "let's go"
>leave, never hear what the call was about
>get home
later, after White victory
>go pick up your neighbor, who fought for reds, from a prison camp
>get later threatened by white fanatics
Just wanted to farming and pacifist ;__;

>great grandfather is Polish farmer in Silesia
>drafted to German Army with brother
>sent to Verdun
>charging french fortifications
>70% of unit dead, including his brother
>unit withdrawn
>great grandfather got shot in arm
>received some first aid
>"ok your unit is dissolved, you can go home"
>receive no pay
>have to go back 1200 kilometers back to home village on foot
>boots fall apart halfway back
>arm got some complications and had to be amputated

He died in the early 1970s and really hated Germans. He supposedly used to rant that they all should have been killed after either of the world wars.

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Don't know much since most of them died when I was young.
Only my paternal grand-mother is alive. Her family was living near the german border, and fled during the 1940 exodus through France to the South. Both of my great-parents were killed by german aviation bombing convoys, my grand-mother was adopted by family's friend also fleeing. She doesn't remember much of the war, but a lot about the Liberation, when the american came in. She also got chocolate from soldiers like this guy said >>1715097

I share the same first/lastname of one of the 15 survivor of La Méduse, and one of the 3 that would pose for Gericault for the painting. He wrote a book about it, and all the cannibal shit that went on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_M%C3%A9duse_(1810)#The_raft
The guy was an engineer who also designed the plans for la Gare de Paris-Austerlitz and was a member of a shortlived Bonapartist conspiracy during the reign of Louis XVIII

>>1704935
Only have my Grandfather, he was the only family member old enough.

>Conscripted on 2nd September 1939
>Given a weeks training and told "the Russians are that way"
>Kills Russians
>Poland goes down swinging, he gets arrested and sent to Gulag in Archangel
>Released when USSR goes to war with Germany, joins Ander's 8th Army
>Treks through the Caucasus, Turkey, Syria, Iran to get to Egypt
>Unit picks up a Bear along the way, train it to carry shells for them, name it Wojtek
>Fights across North Africa and Libya, Tobruk happens, begins driving Tanks
>Injured, 8 MG bullets to the leg. Meets Monty in hospital, there's a photo of a handshake between them somewhere
>"Time to go to Italy boys, no pets allowed, leave the bear"
>Falsifies papers for the bear, it gets enlisted as a Private I think
>Fight through Sicily, switches back to the infantry, fights all the way to Monte Cassino, kills many Axis
>Unit disbanded, rewarded for service with citizenship by the British Empire
>Moves to England
>Lives a long and happy life

Cancer took him three years ago. Love you Dziadek

>Here's the Bear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

>>1719322
What happened to the bear?

>>1719322
>you will never get a bear war buddy
Your grandpa was a lucky dude.

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>>1719322
Holy shit

>>1717982
yes i am very interested please continue
t.serb

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>great grandpa gets enlisted in 1914
>gets shot in legs a few months later
>doesn't fight for the rest of the war

>Father's side
Great great great grandfather got an Iron Cross in the Franco-Prussian war
One great great grandfather died in the second battle of Aisne, another one survived the war (His two brothers didn't though, and his parents died the same year as the brothers too, must have been pretty shit)
>Mother's side
Only thing I know is that a great grandfather was in Russia in WW2, another great great grandfather in France in WW1. I believe they survived though.

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>>1719322
>>Falsifies papers for the bear, it gets enlisted as a Private I think

>>1705607
Are you bullshitting through the whole post or just the WW1 part?
>Le bois de Vaux-Chapitre (face au fort de Douaumont) de Guinier Henri Jules

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>Grandpa was sent to the work camps with his brother
>War is ending
> Long walk to escape from the russians
>My grandpa's brother is too tired to keep on
>My grandpa's brother is shot in front of him because he couldn't keep going
>Get locked in a camp
>Germans leave, Americans come up
>They say to the prisoners they can sign up in the army or be enslaved by the russians etc
>My grandpa signs up
>He got sent to Korea a few years later, lost his right butt cheek to a shellburst
>91 years old and healthy as fuck, he crushes my hand every time we handshake
>A picture of his brother is hanging in his living room, he cried when I asked him about it

(cont.)

My ancestors all fought valiantly against the jewish world order in both world wars, some of them also gave their very lives for the freedom struggle of the white race

>>1723855
My grandma, his wife
>Be like 5 years old in Mussolini's Italy
>Her family is communist, it's not good
>Men from her family are kidnapped by the blackshirts
>Once, the blackshirts tried to kidnap her but her grandfather, who was a countryman, threaten to behead them with his scythe (I'll tell the full stoyr if someone asks)
>Her father and her uncles are tortured, beaten, forced to drink ricin oil, etc
>Some of them never got back
>In the end she left because she fought with her family about something she won't tell me
>She took the train, settled in France
>Worked in the fields her whole life
>Now she is like 85
>Still strong, but she is getting tired

I love her so much and I love my grandpa so much, I'll tell you how they met each other if someone asks

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My grandfather got the silver star in France fighting in an armored division he took a german gun position and captured a slew of Krauts I.e timothy burke

>Grandfathers dad warned him war was inevitable and to enlist in a preferred military branch before he was drafted into one against his will
>Joined air force
>Knocked his teeth out falling out of a plane, I assume not in mid flight or the rest of him would have shattered too
>flied bombers and fighter aircraft against the Japanese

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>mum's side
>grandad fought in korea towards the end of the war, one of the few bongs there
>gets ptsd
>becomes alcoholic and abusive rest of his life

>dad's side
>grandad originally an engineer
>gets enlisted
>tank gunner for 11th armoured division
>kills an officer, takes his papers and gun
>goes into belsen
>totally fucked up by what he sees in there
>refused to discuss the war his entire life, only got info from my granny who would find this stuff in letters and talking to his crew
>becomes a social recluse and flies planes in a private airfield rest of his life

I have the papers if anyone wants to see them

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>>1704935
My grandfather on my mothers side shot, what I'm going to assume were nazis, in the Italian alps while skiing. He got injured while on the slopes and was taken in by an Italian family and one day he got so drunk he fell asleep butt naked on a stone sign that pointed to Rome.

>>1723832
Henri Guinier was indeed my great, great-grandfather though.

How is that hard to understand?

>>1723935
You think I'd be citing his Wikipedia article for any other reason than that?

>great grandad helped form commandos
>grandad was an orphan great grandad died when his parachute failed in an operation behind enemy lines
>grandad fought in The Bush Wars
>Royal Engineer sergeant during The Troubles
>uncle was infantry sergeant

>>1705448
And you'll die posting memes on the internet

>>1723888
How'd they meet?

>>1724368
When my grandfather got back from Korea he went to France to get a job because there was nothing left of his family in Poland. I don't know why but he was homeless in France, in a town in the Paris suburbs : he couldn't speak french and knew nobody that could help him.

My grandmother, who had been in this town for a few years already, was sharing a house with other field workers. They had a TV (a luxury) and sometimes they'd put it in front of their house so every passerby could watch it with them. My grandfather was one of them - he was speaking Polish and English, my grandmother knew only Italian and a bit of French. Seems like it was enough for them to fall in love.

Problem : my grandma was already married to a guy, an Italian like her, that was so indebted he just disappeared without a trace one day, leaving her with a young daughter. So she just settled with my grandpa without filing for divorce. My grandpa and my grandma got married the same day I was baptised, something like 20 years ago. It was in the same town they had met, so when they tried to register their new union in the city hall, she got told she was already married... And discovered her first husband died a few years earlier.

Now Maria and Bronislaw are still living together somewhere in Bretagne, France, and they can't stop fighting but they love and need each other.

Sorry for my poor English.

>>1725596
This story is awesome.

I love this thread.

>>1704935
>great granddad on my mother's side was Naval intelligence in the Pacific
>the shit he did was so under wraps we still have no idea what the fuck he did because those files are STILL fucking classified

>granddad was navy Yeoman in Korea and Vietnam
>was a paper pusher but still managed to be an olympic-tier marksmen
>never went to the olympics despite being asked formally multiple times

>uncle was a boatswain mate in Vietnam
>ended up on a PT boat
>absolutely refuses to talk about it

>dad was in the Navy during Libya #1
>STG hunting Russian subs in the Med that were thought to be assisting Gaddafi
>once used an electric razor to scare a Russian nuclear submarine off the bottom
>got buzzed by a Russian MiG and if the MiG had returned for another pass they would have shot it down
My Dad's boat almost caused WW3.

Here's a fragment of the transcript of a 1917 letter from my great-great-grandfather to a friend, in which he recounts his son's (my great-grandfather's) story from the front after the son visited him on leave back in England:

>The boy had just got his lorry back on the road and was waiting for a bit because the landscape ahead was full of German shells. He saw a colonel's car come along from the direction of Pozières. It pulled up opposite him and the colonel got out, apparently to speak with him. Just at that moment a H.Z. shell landed on the car's forewheel blew the whole thing to smithereens and flung the colonel covered with his drivers blood and shreds of flesh under B's lorry. B had been flung there too; the lorry (an American-Peerless) was half demolished and two of the men with B one was killed and the other had his hand blown off. B and the colonel crawled from under the wreck together. The Col. was a horrible sight. He said to B: "For Goodness' sake lets get out of this".

>And B pointed out to him an enormous shell-crater quite near the road. So they crawled along over there taking the wounded man with them. In that crater there were a good many people some dead and some alive and luckily two stretcher-bearers who bandaged the man's arm. Meanwhile B wiped the colonel down with some rags he found lying about, the best way he could; and then they both sat in that hole for an hour and a a half shivering and shaking from the shock. Later the Col. got away down a trench and B went back to his battery where he helped around generally till the evening, when his junior officer arrived with an ammunition convoy with which B returned to the replenishing station. But before daybreak he was back with the battery with another ammunition convoy. And now said B "whenever the Col. sees me on the roads he waves his hand to me, though I am certain he doesn't know my name"

NZer but
>Aussie Great grandfather is slightly too old and has 3 kids so isn't drafted, is a reservist though. Australian army serving in North Africa, Japanese invasion of PNG means reservists have to go to kokoda, whilst the main army gets back.

>don't know much asidr from him riding a horse, best friend had his horse swept out from under him in a river and drowned (redhead nicknamed blue), once found a Japanese camp with half eaten human remains.

>refused to really talk about much else.

>tfw wrote to him when I was young, like 7, he writes back thanking me. Left me his ribbon bar when he died. Wear it on Anzac day

>>1725964
Saving bumb.