i had only 1 relative(that i know of) who was involved in ww2 and he was a rear gunner on a lancaster, being irish and my countries neutral status means we had no part in ww2 which means i dont hear any war stories apart from my gran uncle(grandads brother) who past way about 2 years ago now, i read some stories on the net like lt.col.robert cole for example but i would love to hear stories from all the american and british guys on this forum who have relatives who fought in the war.

regards
don.

Im AMerican and i had 5 relatives in World War Two

1 of Grandpa's uncles=Ground Crewman in Italy repairing and doing welding work for B-17s and B-29s

1 of Grandpa's uncles=M.P. in Washington later goes to Germany

1 of Grandpa's uncles= Combat infantryman Fights in Africa Sicily Omaha Beach and all through Europe and into Germany Gets 3 Purple hearts is injured by Grenades bulllets and more Shrapnel. Got to drive around people in a jeep while recovering from wounds. Dont know all the Medals he won i'll find out i only know about the three purple hearts.

Grandpa(not the one with the uncles)= Was in India and China finding out the Weather for planes going over the "Hump" or the Himalayas.
Also Intercepted Japanese Radio Messages and did other things. He got to work with the OSS he gave me his OSS knife.

Grandma's uncle= Fought in the Army ill try to find out more.

One of my grandfathers was 4F, so he never fought. My other grandfather enlisted in the US Navy the day after Pearl Harbor. He served in combat at Guadalcanal, Saipan, and Okinawa (and a couple other places that I don't know). At Okinawa, he was awarded the Navy Cross for saving the lives of (I think) 6 sailors after a kamikaze hit his destroyer. He was also then given a field commission to Ensign and was sent to Nagasaki immediately following Japan's surrender. He died when my mother was 16 due to his radiation exposure at Nagasaki.

My dad was in the Battle of the Bulge in the 75th infantry Division (The "Bulge Busters"). He was awarded a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and the Combat Infantry Badge.
He carried a bazooka but he thought it made him a higher profile target so he tried to ditch it at every opportunity. One time he left the bazooka on a tank while he had a cigarette with some guys and walked away without it. The tank commander tracked him down and gave it back. Later that day during a battle, the tank commander was killed by a german machinegun emplacement. My dad used the bazooka to destroy the gun which earned him a bronze star. He later succumbed to frostbite requiring amputation of several toes.

My fathers uncle was a bombadere in WWII. I dont know much, sense my father didnt talk to him much, but he said that he flew many missions over Germany. When my father told him of the places in Germany that he was in when he served in the Air Force, his uncle said he had dropped many bombs on many of those places.

my grandad is scottish and was an ammo runner in the battle of monte carlo (or monte casino, i forget what it was called), he also served in other places in the medditteranean, such as crete i think. he took heavy bombing at monte casino/carlo, but not from the germans, from the Americans! they did some seriously off target bombing in WW2

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Originally posted by jackpollard_i:
my grandad is scottish and was an ammo runner in the battle of monte carlo (or monte casino, i forget what it was called), he also served in other places in the medditteranean, such as crete i think. he took heavy bombing at monte casino/carlo, but not from the germans, from the Americans! they did some seriously off target bombing in WW2

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Monte Cassino, so yes. American bombing was notorious for being inaccurate...especially in the Cassino campaign.

Here's a Canadian perspective for you.

I have 3 Uncles who fought in the Second World War.

Two made it home. One didn't: My Uncles Joseph.
He fought with the South Saskatchewan Rifles.

He'd been a merchant sailor, and after having a couple of ships sunk from under him (one torpedoed, one bombed on the Murmansk Run, decided to enlist.


This is the Royal Canadian Legion story of the battle he died in:

http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwmsds/341coppverrieres.htm