Have you ever met any WW2 veterans or heard any stories /k/? My mother cleaned houses for well off old people who can't 100% tend to themselves anymore.
One such couple she cleaned for that I met, the husband he explained was captured by the Japanese at Singapore. He seldom talks about the labour camps in his old stories but when he did parts of his body from where he was tied and tortured with his old scars redden up as he recollects.
Imagine what it's like to feel sudden embarrassment as you blush and blood rushes around your body, except it seemed every inch of pain was being brought back to him in those moments.
He explained the MP's had to forcefully keep the prisoners from dishing out justice on the Japanese when they handed down their arms.
With personal family a great granddad served during the Somme as an artillery gunner, he absolutely made zero mention to his war years with anyone at all.
Pretty sobering stuff
Also should have just put old veterans in general, of course more modern conflicts are welcome as well
>>29205761
Just once
My great-grandfather. The man never talked about his experiences. His wife only knew what information the army sent her, or his letters home revealed.
His children only knew he served in the war. His grandchildren, my mother included, just knew he was a veteran because of his helmet that sat on the mantle above his fireplace.
If anyone asked, he would shrug it off and say I did my time.
I was ten when I told him that I wanted to be a history teacher. He perked up and asked "why?" I responded that I wanted people to tell people about how amazing our past is. And how if we do not learn from the past, then we are doomed to repeat it.
He never broke from a neutral expression, but his eye did soften up a little: his other eye was blind and sat off to the side like a cloudy blue drop.
His left hand shook all the time. He blamed Parkinsons around my parents... but I had my suspicions after my grandfather told me that his dad always shook like that when he got nervous or sad.
I finally asked him. "What happened to you over there?" He made sure his wife was watching The Price is Right before turning back to me. That's when he broke it down. The whole story. He served in the European theater at the age of seventeen: forging documents to get in.
After some training, he got to Europe a few weeks after the Allied Invasion of France.
He never gave specifics of his who he served with, and as to why will be an eternal mystery.
He said he never saw a single German soldier during his time there. Just the aftermath of previous attacks.
He said he was eager to do some fighting after he actually turned 18 - he said having two nineteenth birthday celebrations was kind of funny.
Near the end of the war in '45, he was sent alongside many others to the front lines inside of Germany proper. There he said he saw true suffering.
Malnourished people, women selling themselves to ten soldiers a day for some food rations, children carrying loot for soldiers...
Around 10 years ago I was working checkout at a drug store and this old dude doubles over and screams out in pain from out of nowhere. After a few seconds he straightens up and apologizes, explains he was shot in WW2 and it gives him trouble from time to time.
>>29205846
... people killing heirloom horses in order to pull the remaining few pounds of meat and organs out of their starving bodies, boiling shoes to chew the leather... so many other horrible things that he went on and on about.
His left hand shook so bad that he bumped his coffee mug. I placed both of my hands on it. His skin felt like paper. Beneath I could feel his muscles all tensing, relaxing, and moving all at once.
He looked at me while I smiled, trying to calm him. A deep breath slowed his spasms. "Y'know, anon... all of those things aren't even nearly as fucked up as what happened to me on a cold spring night."
It was my first time hearing "the f-bomb" and my heart nearly jumped from my chest as he wet his lips for the coming story:
"I was trying to sleep like everyone else. The others... they ate all their food as quickly as it came. It put them to sleep. Me? I could barely eat after watching a fraulein eating a horses kidney like it was a sandwich.
I kept watch for them. There were people already on sentry duty, but I felt like keeping my own eyes open. Wouldn't you know, those god damn Nazi shits actually pulled a counter-attack that night.
I was dozing off in my make-shift hole, when I noticed a form crawling towards me. I thought I was seeing things, when he stood up and lunged at me.
I didn't have time to shoot my rifle by the time he was on top of me. I couldn't see shit. It was pitch dark and some dirt had gotten onto my face.
The only thing I knew was I was in trouble. He had both hands wrapped around something... something sharp. Once I knew he had a knife hovering a few inches above my heart, I went ballistic.
You'd be surprised how strong you are when your life is on the line, anon... I used my helmet to break his nose. Once he reeled back, I rolled to the side. I pummeled his face with my fist once I wrenched the knife away.
I kept hitting him... and hitting him... until his face crunched like salt does beneath your boots."
>>29205761
>Have you ever met any WW2 veterans or heard any stories /k/?
Yeah, there were a lot of those guys still alive when I was growing up. My grandfather was in India driving trucks for the Americans while my friend's grandfather was a motorcycle scout on the eastern front with the Germans. Not a lot of stories to go around since they didn't talk about it much. Not necessarily because it was traumatic or anything, just that they were probably sick of telling somewhat unexciting stories about things that happened so long ago. They liked to talk more about accomplishments after the war like being a successful businessman and starting a new life in America, respectively. I think they mostly viewed the war as a huge waste of time.
>>29205924
... "I didn't notice that I had a boxer's break at the time. All I noticed was how small the guy seemed to be... how still he was after all that struggling.
I fell back onto the other side of my hole when I felt the knife under my ass. The German groaned as he coughed up some of his blood. I was so angry. This Nazi fuck wanted to kill me. Pulling the knife out, I held him down with my right hand, then I slammed it into the fucker's chest... it felt so good to do it... to kill him... and then... then I noticed that around me there was men fighting. Some flares were launched to illuminate the area. Hundreds of krauts were among us. Once our rifles opened up into them, they fell back.
I don't think ten of them managed to get away. While others charged off after them, I looked down at the man I was straddling.
He wasn't a man at all. Beneath the blood... smashed, sideways nose... and swollen eyes... was... was a boy no older than you, anon... I could not crawl away fast enough. I made it to the other side of my hole when I noticed the knife handle sticking out of his chest. He... he wasn't moving no more... I shouted so loud it burned my throat. He was so little... so tiny and... and..."
His hand shook violently again. Tears flowed from both his eyes as he relived every single second of that night.
I tried to come up with the right words, but my ten year old self could barely breathe at that point. He blinked away the tears after a while. Sniffling just twice, he regained his normal neutral composure.
Just like that he swallowed all of that pain away. He died a couple years later. In his will, he left me a single lock-box. The rest of his war memorabilia went to his oldest son - who fucking put it in a box in his basement.
Underneath the box was a note taped to it. I lightly peeled it off to read it:
"Anon,
Thank you for listening. No one else cared about the realness of my experience...
>>29205761
There is something so incredibly upsetting about that soldier; i almost shit my pants when i saw his face
>>29206017
... They just wanted to hear glory stories... there was nothing glorious about what I did.
With love, Grandpapa"
A small key was taped beneath his signature. Using it, I opened the lock-box. Slowly tilting the lid, I could see a fine white cloth. As I kept opening it, I could see a very deep stain within the middle of the cloth.
Slowly opening it, I saw it: a knife. Left bloody inside the very cloth my great-grandfather used to wrap it up all those years ago. The small finger guard on the hilt, the black handle, the polished pommel, and the little red and white Nazi insignia in the handle.
He left it in my care. I cried like a little bitch that day.
I remember seeing the lock-box before. It sat next to his helmet on top of his mantle. He always had fresh flowers around it... and I never knew why he did. I finally figured out why.
That's the only veteran story I got. My grandfather served in 'Nam but he turned into that "I got a million stories" kind of veteran. I believe maybe of three of them
i've just read account of a cavalry captain who survived whole war from june 22 to the occupation of germany. much of this shit was unexpectedly funny, ugly and riveting at the same time
>>29206007
My Grandpapa did too. He never told his family, save me, that horrible story, but he did voice his complaints about how war robs nations of their young men
>>29206050
>>29206017
>>29205924
>>29205846
Goddamn, anon... that brought me to tears.
>>29206050
Jesus that was a good read, would make a really good short film
>>29206050
Jesus anon, can we get a pic? Of the box at least? I understand if you don't want to open it.
My great grandfather was a translator for a german general in world war 2. Never met him but he wrote a book about his life. I guess the general wanted his wife(my great grandmother) in the worst way, she worked in the kitchen. One day my great grandfather returned to the kitchen to find the general chasing her around the kitchen so he beat the fuck out of the general, gathered up his kids and left
i definitley get teh feeling that the reason a lot of people basically dont talk about their experiences is because while normal people can understand the physical reality of what happened their never going to comprehend what being there is actually like and how it makes you feel.
Grand uncle served in Europe towards the end of the war with the Canadian army. Only told me one story, which was about throwing canned food to starving Germans and having them run because they thought it was a hand grenade.
I have a little trouble feeling bad for starving Germans. Don't start no shit, won't be no shit I guess.
I have several from my Opa. He was an officer and survived the war. Give me a few to type one up
>>29206218
The civilians asked for none of it; anon. Nobody ever does. 99% of people just want to live their little quiet lives.
A few months ago one of the last Navajo code talkers came to my high school and spoke about his experience on Iwo Jima and how it was. I was pretty luck cause it was the last time he was going to leave Arizona to speak. Pic related
>>29206280
Also sorry about the clump of text on mobile right now.
>>29205761
I never knew my grandfather, but he was a South African of Scottish descent that joined the royal navy and ended up on a Tribal Class destroyer out of Malta in the middle of all the shit. I've shared it before on /k/ but I have his firsthand account from the second battle of sirte.
“We had been bombed regularly since leaving Alex. We were usually at action stations from dawn till dusk with a few rest breaks. We closed up at about 1400 and were kept fully occupied for nearly four hours. The ship was doing about 28 knots into a head sea…. The ammunition chute of A gun was open to the sea. We were passing ammunition with water cascading down on us. Our mess deck lockers were floating around because the water was as high as the mess deck coaming. I think we were more afraid of the lockers than the 15” shells being fired at us by the Littorio”
“As we were Captain (D) our bows were out of the smoke. Sikh with two other destroyers held off the Italian battleship for about two hours at a range of about 6,000 yards. We provided smoke through which the 14th flotilla could attack with torpedoes. The only damage we suffered was an 8” shell through our for’ard funnel.”
“The Littorio and cruisers eventually gave up and we headed back to Alex, mopping up the mess decks between bombings. We got back at about 8 am, fully ammunitioned ship - 250 rounds per main gun. We only had eight rounds left. All told the Sikh fired 450 rounds of 4.7”
It's in the book Malta Convoys by David A. Thomas, and it's a good read through and through. Pic related is a bunch of plaques he left my father when he died. The one for the HMS Sikh is above my fathers desk in a little memorial box.
>>29206328
Read about the tribals earlier this week. They had a pretty low survival rate in WW2.
>be great grandpa in 1944
>get drafted into the Navy at the age of 38
>get sent to fight in Pacific on a destroyer
>turns out you're older than the Captain of the ship, yet you're the lowest ranking.
>get training on 40mm bofors gun as gunner.
>loader is a 17 year old kid
>battle of Leyte Gulf happens (largest naval battle in history)
>be shooting at Jap planes
>INCOMING!! GET BEHIND THE ARMOR PLATE!
>see kid gets torn to bits by Jap machine gun from attacking plane
>Honorable discharge a few months later after war is over
I didn't know him well, I was pretty young when he died, but I do remember him being very nice but distant, and once while eating lunch at his house my great grandma knocked over a glass and my grandpa got underneath the table screaming "hit the deck!". 90 year old man diving for cover 50 years after the war was over.
>tfw I went to Iraq
>tfw I do some of the exact same shit around my family that he did like being distant, reclusive, quiet, nice but with a short fuse, etc
>tfw I'll probably be 90 years old screaming "IED CONTACT LEFT!" at my great grandson.
War is hell.
My grandfather has been a friend of a ww2 vet named Virgil Hughes, if I remember right. Fought in the battle of the bulge, and became a career man. I met him, and he's the spitting image of a senile old man. I also remember my grandfather saying he was an Army cook in Korea.
>>29206556
another story from a guy that went to my church when I was young
>be this guy
>1944
>drafted and sent in as a replacement to an Infantry unit
>a few days later the Germans come pouring over into their lines by the thousands with tanks
>ohshit.jpeg
>retreat for days
>finally the lines are restored
>becomes known as "Battle of the Bulge"
>while getting some chow one of the Sgts comes back from patrol with an SS private
>looks to be young, maybe 16 to 18
>Sgt asks "anyone want to shoot a kraut?"
>Sgt supposedly had a history of shooting POWs
>everyone just stares in silence
>Sgt walks into woods with German
>pistolshot.mp3
>comes back and eat chow like nothing happened
>>29205761
I went out to get some food with a friend who was about to EAS, we were at a burger joint when the old gentleman walked over to our booth and asked if he could sit with us.
He asked us if we were marines and we said yes, he pulls out a picture of himself with a bunch of other marines. He tells us thats him with his platoon in Bougainville I think and that he was with 3rd Marines, he said he didn't really see much action there and was usually standing post rether than going on patrols or assaults.
Then he tells us he was in the second wave at Iwo Jima as a corporal and that he would leave the battle with the billet of a Staff Sergeant. When I asked him what Iwo Jima was like he would just look at me with that piercing gaze that only a man who had seen some shit would have. He just tells me that it was the hardest and scariest thing hes even done and that he lost many good friends there, he didn't into much detail but he did say when they finally took fire on the beach it was like being a scared animal. Too afraid to move because moving just one inch might cost you an arm or a leg or your life, we being marines he was a bit more open to it than he probably wouldve been to someone I figured since he told us the only japs they actually saw in Iwo were either dead or shooting at them before they killed them or ran off into the tunnels.
Me and my friend were in awe listening to this honest to God pacific war marine, one of the greatest to ever live. I felt like a kid listening intently to his veteran grandpa's war stories at the fireplace, he told us about his time in the reserves after the war and about making the change from Marine and civilian.
He told us that if we ever had to go through something he had gone through to remember that guys like him and the majority of his generation had gone through it too and that we'll never be alone so long as theres Marines around.
Someone who I assume to be his son showed up in the parking lot and the Old Man left.
Opa signed up under Hindenburg in '31. Like I said he made officer by the time war broke out.
He was not convinced in total victory and was worried about his wife and 4 young daughters back home.
I the midst of the Reich victories in western Europe he started ordering the mess hall privates to collect the scraps of bread left over from the daily meals. He kept those scraps in a large rucksack and when it was full he sent it to his wife back home.
Keep in mind Deutschland was expanding and there was really no need to be that concerned.
He wrote letters to his wife asking if the bread was there and was it safe.
He came home on leave (in the middle of the war) and one of the first things he did was check the bread sacks.
Opa got captured by the Americans. His wife thinks he is dead.
Millions of Germans died after the war of starvation.
Mom tells me they had bellies like the starving kids in Africa all bulging out.
The starving neighborhood children would beg Oma for a scrap of bread.
All were given a portion.
That bread was traded sometime for a small scrape of meat or a few onions or potatoes. Can you smell the soup cooking.
Thankful for my Opa's foresight. That foresight keep my Mother alive and gave her a chance to have me as her son.
Pic related
>>29206645
most SS prisoners met that fate after malmedy
>>29206718
We shook hands and we told him we appreciated sharing dinner with a fellow marine and all the advice and stories he told us, he was just glowing guys, I could tell he was so happy just to talk to Marines again and reminisce about those days so long ago. I'm grateful that I got to speak to this Old Marine, just to think that our children probably won't have the opportunity to speak to the Greatest Generation like we did.
I hope he's doing well now, its been a while and me nor my friend can remember his name as I spoke to him after I got back from deployment and I had a lot going on then. If he's passed on I hope he's resting easy and that his family is doing well.
>>29205761
well my grandpa served on Iwo Jima as a radioman
he said he never touched a radio the entire time he was on the island, he got there after the battle and spent like 6 months (or more, basically until V-J Day) digging body parts out of the sand and mud. Said they didn't even try to figure out what parts belonged to who, they were just instructed to make sure the body bag had a torso, 4 limbs and a head before they zipped it up.
I barely remember him telling me, I must have been 9 or 10 or so. I had to do a school report on someone in my family for some reason so I asked him and from what my mom/aunts/uncles (all his kids) tell me, I guess he told me more for my report than he had told any of them.
I cried like a bitch at his funeral, I was holding up fine until I had to carry him out and watch these old, old veterans fire volleys and play taps, and give my grandma the folded flag. But I get it now, why some people want to join up. I've never seen the level of camaraderie or sense of belonging then when I watched those old dudes in their uniforms that no longer fit their old bodies quite right, stand tall and transform their gnarled hands and bent backs into a soldiers posture, and fire those volleys in perfect unison to honor another soldier they never knew personally but shared the war with. And there is nothing more sad to me than hearing taps being played specifically at a military funeral, I mean holy shit.
That experience is what made me never want to go to war. All that suffering, pain, and misery, and 50+ years later war still rages across the globe. People never change.
Both my grandfathers served in the 2nf AIF and saw action in all theatres were at tobruck, New Guinea and Malaya. Both never spoke of their time but were deeply effected by the war. Dads father was a machine gunner and spent 2 years in rehab when he came home. The only time i really saw what the war had done was when neighbors kids threw fire crackers over the fence at him because he would run,dive and hide. Also the only time ive seen my father be physically violent when he beat the kids (19yo's) for picking on an old man who served his nation.
War truly is hell
>>29205761
Ya my pen pal in 7th grade was a tSgt. And I also met a fighter pilot, Jerry yellin. He wrote a couple of books. I suggest his book "Of War And Weddings" it's pretty decent.
>>29206151
Nope cuz it's shit that never happened
>>29206925
Seems pretty believable
Audy Murphy is incredible, but it happened
>>29206543
Yeah. So far as I know he wasn't on the Sikh when it was disabled near Tobruk. He served the rest of the war in a tank landing craft.
Not a lot of people bring up the Malta convoys. Most of the time when people think of naval fighting in the European theater they go to the Bismarck and the sub packs but not much further.
>>29205761
This my ww2 set up
Guess what side I'm on
My granddad served in wwII...he was stationed in Africa, though.
I was told by some oldtimers in the military that my grandpops was one of the guys that helped sink the Blücher. Sucks that he was executed in the initial invasion, that must have been a Goddamn sight to behold.
I tried to get my grandfather (father's side) to talk about it several times before he died, but he would never say much. All I know is that he was a Seabee, he was in Australia, and the Japanese bombed them unless battleships were in port. Not if he just made shit up.
My uncle was a Marine in the 60's, which was weird because he was a hippy, and got stationed in Guantanamo Bay. Anyhow, before he died he gave me a cigar box full of arrowheads and a WWII African campaign medal I assume was his father's (whom I never met). I should probably look into that.
Werner Päplow....german Tank gunner at Kursk....said:" We didn't care for anything...we just shot and hit anything in the dust." Had burns over half of his Body . Showed his scars ( like freddy kruegger) and drank a lot. His son is the principal of a school in Samtens/ Rügen.
My grandfather was an army quartermaster in the Pacific.
When I was 16 I worked for a guy who was a vet of the 99th ID. He was a BAR gunner and let me read his book that the division put out (not the shit one written by the commander). It was absolutely god-tier reading and would love to find it and read it again.
I know another man who's still living right now who was a mechanic in the Luftwaffe from '41 till the end of the war. He never saw combat though.
Met Doolittle's copilot once years ago.
Knew a guy from work who was in the navy on a battleship he was a retired tech but came to visit often.
Met a guy in an old folks home who was a coxwain in the navy. He was part of the first wave that landed on Guadalcanal in 1942. He told me a funny story about too
>be him
>just out of basic
>put in charge of a small boat to ferry officers around the fleet at anchor
>everything was rushed so he doesn't know the rules of the road yet
>headed to an aircraft carrier
>see's boatswain waving on the next boat
>he goes ahead
>accidentaly cuts in front of another boat
>boatswain chews his ass and tells him to moor up around the other side
>huge marine escorts him to the bridge to talk to the captain
>captain informs him he just cut off the admiral
I forget what his punishment was
Met a guy who was on the USS New Jersey when it was commissioned. He was part of Shore Patrol and showed me his stuff including his original handcuffs.
Met a member of the 82nd who jumped into normandy while I was volunteering aboard the USS Texas. Actually me several vets in passing there. Mostly those who served on her.
Met a woman who lived in London during the Blitz. She was 16 and didn't think too much of it and said that they used to play with the incendiary bombs.
I'm sure there's some I'm missing....
My great-grandfather was a navigator and co-pilot in the RAF in WWII. He told me that out of everything that he flew in, his favourite was the B-29 'cause he could head into the back and close the door to the rear cabin and take naps.
>>29206218
I laughed then felt bad.
Anyways, anon when your country goes to war and there's a draft, you don't get to say "no". Don't blame the german people.
Our class met a former Avro Lancaster gunner.
He was pretty cool.
>>29205761
I had the chance to talk a lot to my grandfather who is a WW2 (AIF) veteran and served through the pacific from 1942 to 1946
Being the only one in 2 generations that joined the army we sort of had a pretty special bond in the family, he was also proud as punch when I became an officer which was a bit of a dichotomy I guess from my parents who where very against me joining the armed forces. To the point I remained quite estranged from them for quite a few years and still don't talk much, but my grandfather and grandmother (who also served as a nurse in the AIF) would always manage to keep in contact when I was deployed overseas knowing that it was fairly important to let me know someone cared.
Was a fairly remarkable man my grandfather, survived BT and MT malaria, scrub typhus and numerous battles. You wouldn't have guessed it as he was all of about 5'8" and maybe 10st wet, damn strong and carried a Bren gun of all things as he was '2nd best shot' in the battalion. So it would have been rough going carrying about 35lb of gear + the 24lb of bren and ammo as it would have been nearly half his weight, they did it for extended periods of time through some rough as guts country in PNG, Bougainville and parts of Indonesia, 30-38C heat and 95-99% humidity.
Everything they sort of owned that was organic literally rotted away in weeks. Something I didn't come to appreciate until I went through some jungle warfare training myself years ago, its so damn tough, we had 'proper' food though in MRE's... well MRE's suck but they aren't bully beef and hard-tack biscuits for breakfast lunch and tea which was what they virtually lived on for months at a time.
I have a World War 2 memoir book that is from 1942 when my grandfather was in the Marines in the Pacific. Don't have actual war pics though.
My grandpa got drafted in the AAC during WW2. He we a gunner on a bomber, I forget which one. I was told he used twin hydraulic .30 cal machine guns that I assume to me M1919's. The only story I remember him telling is on a bombing run one of the bombs got hung up in the chute or whatever and somebody had to literally crawl outside of the plane in the air and kick it free. He was praying like a motherfucker that he wouldn't be the one that had to do it. Other than that he never really talked about it, he says he never wasted anybody but he could have just been saying that.
He was on Tinian when the nukes left to fuck up the nips.
