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#4484094 - 07/25/19 05:15 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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"Sounds safe, except for the fact that he did at least 3 or 4 Murmansk runs! "
Yeah, nothing safe about being in the Coast Guard during the Second World War. They were right there alongside the Navy.


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#4484095 - 07/25/19 05:17 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: Nixer]  
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Originally Posted by Nixer

My dad was in the Coast Guard in WWII...on a Liberty Ship. Sounds safe, except for the fact that he did at least 3 or 4 Murmansk runs! Scary stuff. He said he saw other ships sank in his convoys.


Did he ever share stories with you about what it was like to meet the Russians? Most of the sources I've read mentioned that the Russians at Murmansk were usually cold and rude to the UK/US convoy personnel.


“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
#4484102 - 07/25/19 05:39 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: Nixer]  
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Originally Posted by Nixer
Grandfather, US Horse Artillery, France WWI.

My dad was in the Coast Guard in WWII...on a Liberty Ship. Sounds safe, except for the fact that he did at least 3 or 4 Murmansk runs! Scary stuff. He said he saw other ships sank in his convoys.


My father's cousin Bill Short was on the Murmansk convoys, his ship was torpedoed and he ended up in an open life raft and getting frost bitten in his legs, he was so bad that the Russian doctors did not think he would survive, they flushed his stomach out with warm tea to defrost him from the inside out. He ended up losing both legs one above and the other below the knee.

Quote
The lifeboat was in the water 175 miles north of the Russian coast for four days. The seas were mountainous and blizzards swept in from the Arctic. The air temperature was an average 10 degrees below freezing. On the first day there were 35 men alive in the boat. By day four, there were 17. They were licking ice to stay alive. Bill Short was one of the survivors. When a Russian minesweeper stumbled across the lifeboat and the men were hauled to safety, they found ice crystals had formed in his stomach. The men who had drunk whisky, believing it would keep them warm, instead felt even colder. Some had fallen asleep as fatigue and cold mixed with the alcohol and died where they sat, knee deep in water. Now 84, Short remembers the day in 1942 the U-boat torpedo hit the SS Induna when he was serving in the Arctic convoys in one of the Merchant Navy ships that kept Russia supplied with a lifeline of aviation fuel, aircraft and kit.

With Germany rampant in Europe, a victory in the east would have allowed Hitler to concentrate all his forces on the western front. Next year is the sixtieth anniversary of the final Arctic convoy and the Government, weeks ahead of the D-Day commemorations, faces embarrassment over what has become known as the forgotten campaign. Russia will hold a commemorative ceremony in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, where the men who served on the convoys are still welcomed as heroes. They will be awarded a medal for their work, the third from the Russian government. From the British Government, there will be nothing. 'I don't consider myself a hero,' Short said. 'I was just one of the many who kept that route open. All we want now is recognition.' Short was so badly infected with gangrene when he made shore in Murmansk that both legs had to be amputated. In a procedure known as a 'guillotine', his legs were sliced from his body with no anaesthetic. Short passed out from the pain and was delirious for three days. He stayed in the stinking hospital, overwhelmed with casualties from the eastern front, for months.


From http://www.39-45war.com/mnrecollections.html about half way down the page


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#4484105 - 07/25/19 05:41 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: PanzerMeyer]  
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Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
Originally Posted by Nixer

My dad was in the Coast Guard in WWII...on a Liberty Ship. Sounds safe, except for the fact that he did at least 3 or 4 Murmansk runs! Scary stuff. He said he saw other ships sank in his convoys.


Did he ever share stories with you about what it was like to meet the Russians? Most of the sources I've read mentioned that the Russians at Murmansk were usually cold and rude to the UK/US convoy personnel.

Not at all PM, from what Bill has said about his time there that they could not have been more open and helpful.

But then again Bill was a very red socialist


Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil
Sons of the hound come here and get flesh
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#4484108 - 07/25/19 05:49 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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I have family members that fought in the; Texas War of Independence, Mexican-American War, U.S. Civil War, WW1, WW2, Korea, Algerian War and Vietnam.

Maybe the sandbox too but its a big far flung family and I haven't had much contact with many of them in the last 20 years.

#4484119 - 07/25/19 07:59 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: Crane Hunter]  
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My grandfather on my father's side was in the navy in WWI,he fought at Jutland. My grandfather on my mother's side drove a Churchill tank through France, Holland and into Germany. He took part in a lot of action including I believe in the Battle of the Bulge. His father - my great grandfather served in the army before WWI, mostly in India. He was due to leave after full service in 1914. You can guess what happened, his discharge was denied and he served through the whole of WWI. He survived unscathed!


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#4484120 - 07/25/19 08:15 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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As I expected I'm seeing a lot more grandfathers in WWII here than fathers, of course that is expected as I was one of the last baby boomers.

My father was US Navy in WWII and 4 of his first cousins served in WWII, 3 in the Army and one Navy (he was killed in action). Two of his sisters had husbands who served in WWII, both Army. My mother had one brother who served in the US Army on Okinawa in WWII.

My father also had a second cousin KIA in the Army in WWII and a third cousin KIA in the Army in WWII (he was awarded the DSC posthumously).

My grandfather (fathers side) was 22 years old, married and a father when the US entered WWI, he had to register for the draft but never served. His grandfather served in the CSA during the Civil War.


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#4484128 - 07/25/19 09:11 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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My Dad's father had a heart condition which prevented him from serving in WW2, and my Mom's father served prior to WW2 and was called to serve in the war, but by the time they called him he had injured his trigger finger while working on the flywheel of a car, so he was prevented from re-enlisting. They turned him down.

#4484130 - 07/25/19 09:21 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: KraziKanuK]  
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Originally Posted by KraziKanuK
Nixer, you might find this link of interest, https://warsailors.com/convoys/index.html.



Thanks KK.

LOTS of sunken ships. To this day, many Russians still deny any allied effort to help them. sigh


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#4484134 - 07/25/19 09:44 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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The Fw190A could not fly with the outer cannon removed.
There was no Fw190A-8s flying with the JGs in 1945.
#4484136 - 07/25/19 09:51 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Yes. My father was US Army in the Pacific. An Uncle was US Marines in Pacific.

Then an Uncle US Marines Korea.

Two Grandfathers in WW1, one on each side.


Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

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#4484148 - 07/25/19 11:58 PM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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My pop failed medical because of his vision for WWII, which i always found weird as he went on to fly privately and then for QANTAS in the '50's and '60's. Dad missed out on Vietnam although he was a unit leader in bootcamp/training. He said his birth month/date? was pulled to go over but that it was towards the end and he didn't end up having to go. My memory is a bit fuzzy on the conversation i had with Dad about the subject.


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#4484154 - 07/26/19 12:30 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Yes, my father was RAF servicing B-24s in the Cocos Islands bombing the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. Also two WW1 veterans as grandfathers. One a front-line trench soldier in the Cheshire Regiment and another a horse cavalryman in the Third Dragoon Guards.(converted to machine guns in 1916).


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#4484155 - 07/26/19 12:32 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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My maternal grandfather was wounded in 1916 and invalided out to a hospital in Kent where he met my grandmother, a nurse there. So here I am today, courtesy of a German machine gunner. smile


"You'll never take me alive" said he,
And his ghost may be heard if you pass by that billabong
"Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?"



#4484156 - 07/26/19 12:42 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Father - U.S. Army, W4, served as an administrative assistant and bodyguard for General Eisenhower. In early 50's was stationed at SHAPE (Supreme HQ Allied Powers Europe). Total military time 27 years.


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#4484157 - 07/26/19 12:43 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: Mad Max]  
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Originally Posted by Mad Max
My maternal grandfather was wounded in 1916 and invalided out to a hospital in Kent where he met my grandmother, a nurse there. So here I am today, courtesy of a German machine gunner. smile


Serendipity is funny that way. My father was in Japan, post WWII, when he met my mother (she worked for the War Department, before they started calling it the Department of Defense). Were it not for the war and it's aftermath, they never would have met.


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#4484165 - 07/26/19 04:12 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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I am. B-17 Captain shot down in Europe. The story has been told here. He was 19. At age 48 I think I've caught up to maybe 10% of his legacy...

#4484167 - 07/26/19 06:27 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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My grandfather was in WWII. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, he wanted to join the navy, because he was around boats all his life, so he asked the local draft board liaison if he thought my grandfather would be drafted before Christmas. The guy told him there was no way he would be drafted that quickly, so my grandfather figured he would be home for Christmas and then would enlist in the Navy in the new year. Well, of course he got drafted and spent the war in the European theater. He would tell me funny stories about his times but would almost never talk about the death and destruction of it.

Oddly enough, I also know of my great-grandmother's grandfather who served in the Civil War.


The older I get, the more I realize I don't need to be Han, Luke or Leia. I'm just happy to be rebel scum...
#4484169 - 07/26/19 06:41 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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My family spans across the UK, France, French Algeria and Germany. First half of the 20th century was not easy on family ties.
WWI dented the family tree hardest on all sides.
My French grandfather served on the Western Front from 1916 onwards if I recall, and survived. His younger brother, and a few cousins on either sides did not. The family at large lost five fine young men in 14~18.

WWII was somehow “less” traumatic on the family tree.
My British grandfather served in the Far East in WWII, a stint in Australia / India, and then Burma, or the other way around. Two were nice places, one was not. That’s about all he would ever say about it all.
A German uncle fought on the Eastern Front in WWII. Was eventually taken prisoner in Austria in 45, sent to a POW camp in Southern France working the fields, fell in love with a local girl, got married, and stayed for good. His older brother was not so lucky, killed in Leningrad.

And my French uncle served in the Algerian War in the late 50s. He was born in Algeria, and the war wrecked all the good memories he had of his birthplace. He recently told me that IS had not invented anything new, all methods had been tested back in Algeria by the fellaghas...

No more soldiering in the family that I am aware of !

Cheers,
Slug


"Major Burns isn't saying much of anything, Sir. I think he's formulating the answer..." - Radar - M*A*S*H
#4484170 - 07/26/19 07:03 AM Re: Are You a Descendant of a WWII Veteran? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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You didn't have to be in the services.
my mum used to tell me how you could go to an open space at home in 1941 at night and see both Manchester and Liverpool burning , the sky all red with black clouds. Thank you Mr Goering.


"You'll never take me alive" said he,
And his ghost may be heard if you pass by that billabong
"Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda with me?"



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