Hey /b/, this is a letter sent home during world war 1 by my great grandfather. It is a letter sent just before he went into battle. There are letters after this if anyone is interested. This took place on the Western Front in France, October 1917.
Also, war story thread.
Bumperino, I guess traps are more interesting lol
I'll bump a few times for you even though I'm going to work in a few minutes
Bump out of interest
I presume he made it through the battle
Last bump I'm leaving
post moar op i feel like reading this
There's 4 more, will post if people bump
Will be back in 10
/b/umpin
my great grandfather fought with the french in ww1, lost his left eye in a gas attack, i can only imagine what he saw. no letters or anything like this, only a few photos of him and his wife with his new glass eye meh.
>>684602493
Yeah my great grandfather was gassed too. It's described in one of these pics. Pretty horrible stuff.
2 More
This is getting me hyped for battlefield 1 kek
>>684599123
It's fake.
People can't write like that and back in WW1 they didn't have printers yet so it's fake.
>>684603462
ever heard of typewriter you fuck
>>684603462
Lol someone made a copy of the original handwriting on a typewriter. I don't have access to the originals.
>>684603319
Yeah me too kek
Last pic from this letter. There's a shitload more tho.
so he lived right op?
>>684603907
Yeah he lived. He was a principal at a highschool and continued there until he died of heart failure at 68 since it was weakened from being gassed twice. He only had my grandfather when he returned from the war so if he didn't make it, there'd be one less faggot OP.
>>684603462
Hmm maybe they copied it over to a fresher page. Wait, no one would do that! It is a wide known fact that paper pages stay fresh after a 100 years. Fucking retard kill yourself
>>684604291
Why would noone do that? My family made digital (and typewriter reconstructions) of the originals so they would last longer. Why just let the originals die? It's history.
I'm surprised no one else has stories to share
>>684604096
just remember be proud of your ancestor op, his warrior spirit lives on through you. The horrors he saw and the pain he endured to continue his bloodline, make sure that sacrifice isn't wasted since yours, and my lives could have been so easily snuffed out by a stray bullet or shell.
>>684599123
I never met my grandfather; he died before I was born, but he was a commando in the Second World War. He and the other commandos would be sent in lightly armed to move quickly ahead of all the other troops to take out officers and do as much damage as they could before attacks. My father says his father never talked much about his experiences except when he was very, very drunk, and that the stories he did tell were dark.
For instance, he told a story about being ordered to interrogate an SS officer, who was all bloody and tied to a chair. The main wouldn't say a word, so my grandfather stabbed him in the face with a bayonet -- and the man's head rolled off his shoulders. He'd been beheaded and his buddies had set it all up as a practical joke. My father says all his stories of the war were like that.
>>684599123
I bet you'll have a much better thread on /k/
>>684604798
I definitely am proud anon. Thank you for such wise words.
>>684604851
Jesus Christ that's pretty heavy
>>684604929
Yeah probably, but I thought It'd be good for /b/ to get a change from all the fb fap threads and the trap threads and all the repetitive shit like that.
Good job OP I love stuff like this.
Nobody today could ever fathom the horrors of that Great War. It was during such a strange time period which brings out my curiosity.
Also, this is some refreshing OC and not faggot trap or porn related so again NICE!
>>684605022
>pretty heavy
Yeah. There were other stories, like crawling around at night in the pitch black, going from foxhole to foxhole, feeling people's boots. If they felt laces, they crept back out of the foxhole. If they didn't feel laces, they'd slit the person's throat while they slept.
Apparently the German jackboots were more comfortable, so a few Allied soldiers took to wearing them... until word got around of soldiers waking up in the morning and find anyone who'd been wearing German boots had gotten their throats quietly slashed during the night.
>>684605308
What he said
>>684605308
I havnt done anything but lurk for the last 2 years but I'm breaking that now to tell you reading these was an awesome experience, thanks OP
>>684605444
nice get
>>684605385
Woah that's crazy! Some really intense stuff happened during these wars. I can't even fathom what it must've been like for them.
well since we're telling stories, im the guy whos great grandfather lost an eye in the gas attack and got that new glass eye.
>fastforward to world war 2
>no ideas what my grand father was doing at this time, probably a partisan fucking up germans in the french country side cause i know he didnt flee
>my moms side however, is a different story
>malaysia under japanese occupation
>her family ancestors are tribal, like we have native Americans here, theyre called IBAN, go wiki that shit.
>they hate the Japanese, taking their homes, land, and resources
>Iban practiced headhunting for like ever.
>stalk the japs in the jungle, ambush patrols, take war skulls and slink back into the jungle.
>only those who take heads can get ceremonial hand or neck tattoos, if you havent killed you cant get tattoos there.
>war ends, japs fuck off
>when i visit family there, we still have their skulls hanging up in a rope basket attached to the roof for good blessings from the gods.
for this to make sense, iban live in communal long houses, 20-30 apartments for each long house.
>my familys apartment has 1 basket, about 10 skulls
>neighbors basket has 6
>pretty much the next 6 apartments have baskets too.
guess my cultural backgrounds is coo.
>>684605558
Appreciate it man
>>684605829
Woah! That's a really cool historical cultural trait.
>>684605444
This is what happens when we don't have great wars or Drafts, rather.
>>684605797
I had an great-Uncle Beliveau who served in the First World War too. He was shot in the toe, and it became infected so they had to cut it off. Then the foot got infected and was cut off too. Then they cut his leg off at the knee, and then the thigh. By that time it had spread to the other leg too, which also had to be cut off. He spent the rest of his life in a veterans' hospital, making crocheted bunny toilet paper holders for a living.
>>684605829
That's fucking cool dude
It's crazy how many cultures and people all over were affected. I had no idea about this!
>>684606065
Jeez, that must've been excruciating having to go through all those amputations.
>>684605991
Yeah exactly. I'd fight in the next great war if required. Continue my family legacy and actually feel like my life was worth something.
>>684605928
thanks man! i have a picture of the basket somewhere but i gotta dig it out of a photo book.
but heres a pic related off google kinda representative. theyre both wearing ceremonial war dress.
>>684606243
Same
I'm physically fit and willing to go
However, I would not lie that I'd be terrified.
>>684606256
Woah that's so cool! Very interesting culture.
>>684606373
Oh for sure I'd be terrified too, but it'd be worth it.
>>684599123
I read the letters and diaries of Sophie and Hans Scholl (young members of the white rose resistance in Nazi germany who were eventually beheaded) and it made me sad how poetic they were in their letters to each other because it made me think everyone must have been like that back then, and now we don't speak to each other like that.
But now reading your great grandfather's completely dry letter, maybe it's just a german thing...
>>684606256
The thing I get from veterans (like my grandfather) is that there's no "glory" in war. I belong to the IWW, the Wobblies, and it's always been the position of the IWW that all wars are bosses' wars: fought for the benefit of the bosses, by the workers. As a result, I've spent my life fighting the only war which matters: the class war. I'm a community organizer, set up radical unions, and run cop watch programs. You'll be much better off going to war *now* with the reptilian sociopaths who rule our culture than waiting for the bosses to send you out to kill some other boss's workers.
>>684606571
There's more, but he was destined on coming home and telling his wife the details as he didn't want to alarm her too much.
I'm sure there must be some sort of historical organisation that would be interested in copies of these if you haven't already sent them to one?
>>684607081
There probably is. There's over 50 pages of them where he describes training and stuff. Not sure if anyone significant has them. Will try to see who has the originals.
