Amazing stories...

Thank You!

All great stories, loved reading them.

Below, my grandfathers letter he received just before the D-Day Landings. I think everyone involved got one. Almost 75 years old.

Fascinating stories and artifacts. I've come across some long stored and forgotten items and documents from my wife's military family past which i must scan and present. On asking her father and grandfather about their experiences in both World Wars, all I got was 'it was a long time ago old boy' and the subject deferred
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Docjonel, we don't often see items and stories from the Axis point of view. Your wife's Grandfather was a lucky man to survive the conflict; 75% of U-boat crews didn't.

I wish I had some interesting historical item from my family to share but I don't!


Thanks to everyone in this thread who have posted pics so far. It's really been a great read.

I do have a set of Luftwaffe pilots wings from a Heinkel 111 bomber pilot that was shot down and captured somewhere near Coldingham / St. Abbs near the Scottish border, he was captured by my father's uncle. Allegedly it was the first German aircraft to be shot down over Scotland, well that was the story I was told.

I'll see if I can find them when I go home next week, they should be in the filing cabinet in the garage

The Forth Bridge Raid of October 16 1939 can lay claim to a number of firsts of World War Two: it was the first bomber raid by the Luftwaffe over British skies, it was the first instance of an enemy plane being shot down by a Spitfire and it was the first time German personnel became prisoners of war on British turf.

Coldingham is a little east of Edinburgh, about 50 miles/80km, and just about on a direct line from Hamburg to the Forth bridges

I have some interesting history from my Mother's side of the family.
This is a picture of boxing gloves given to me as a child, by my mother's uncle (her Mom's brother). I am not sure how many times they were handed down. I received them in the late 70's. Put it this way, they are so old, they are stuffed with horse hair.

Any way. My Mothers's uncle was Canadian Heavyweight Champion in 1932,34 and 37. He is in the Brantford Ontario Sports Hall of Fame. (Yes the Brantford Gretzky is from).
Uncle Bill Brantford Sports Hall of Fame

Uncle Bill's brother Joe, was a Professional Wrestler. Also in the BSHOF.

Uncle Joe BSHOF

My Mother's Mom's family was from the Ukraine.

WT.

You reminded me that I have an old Ottawa Rough Rider helmet. It is red leather and has about 1/2" thick padding.

Very interesting, like my great grandfather he was a wrestler too, and was the champion of Scotland, tho not many folk have heard of him they have heard of the man he beat 3 times, Donald Dinnie, so much so that Donald refused to fight him after that.

Great Grandfather Currie:


He was a great believer in sports and exercise and he was an accomplished sprinter winning many races at Highland Games he went on to become the sports director of the local council, sadly he passed away at a relatively early age from complications from diabetes

Great stuff !

Allicat, the picture says he was a wrestler and a clogger. What is a clogger ?

Clogging is a type of folk dance in which the dancer's footwear is used percussively by striking the heel, the toe, or both against a floor or each other to create audible rhythms, usually to the downbeat with the heel keeping the rhythm.

The link below is to a website containing a large number of letters (scans of the originals as well as transcripts) written during the Civil War, most of them by Leander Francis Crumley to his wife Nancy Crumley. They were my wifes great-great grandparents. He died of chronic dysentery during the war. An additional link is to his gravestone.

http://www.thegagenweb.com/gamadison/bios/crumley/letters/letters.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/88434241/leander-francis-crumley


Note: the "General" Jackson listed is a man whose first name was General. My wife's uncle is also named General and is a retired US Marine, a Gunnery Sergeant. "Gunney General"

A picture would be cool.
Yes I'm 52 and still say "cool".

I read a couple of the letters. Fascinating stuff indeed. It was interesting to see just how different the grammar and spelling was for certain words in 1860's America.

I'm not quite sure that Leander was using proper grammar or spelling, even for 1863