Your relatives who went to war

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My four Great Uncles were in WWII. My Grandfather, the youngest, got the job of staying home and tending the cows. However, one of my great uncles (according to the stories*) was at Pearl Harbor during the attack, and actually drove a jeep across Hickam Field during the strafing. He was later taken prisoner by the Japs, and survived a multi-month death-march. I believe he passed away just last year, and was laid to rest in Arlington.

*This reminds me, I really need to check in with the family historian and see if these stories have been recorded/verified. I certainly hope so, since two other of my great uncles, + plus my grandfather, are still alive I believe. A pretty long-lived bunch of folks, who've passed down some good genes.

I also heard, like some of you have mentioned, that they didn't like to talk about their experiences much. Which is a real shame.
 
I've read a letter sent to my grand-grandmother by her brother's NCO, in which he informed her of how he died in the Dolomites front in 1915. Differently from what you see in movies, this NCO didn't felt to lie too much to make it easier for my grand-grandmother.

This grand-uncle of mine was very young and died miserably, I don't remember if it was because of artillery or machineguns, after days of agony.  The letter is three papers long, and describes the last few days before the incident. Sometimes it reads more like he hoped to get some comfort himself from writing to someone. It was a really an heartbreaking document. Sadly, I couldn't read the NCO surname properly (although the calligraphy was really top notch, like it used to). I'll have to search it for read it again.

 
My greatfather fought in the Trench as a member of the Canadian expeditionary force in WW1.
He survived the war and founded a fruit company named Dufour & fils (Dufour and sons).

He was an abusive drunk that mercilessly beat his children and treated them like complete ****.
According to my grandfather and his brothers, their father took great pleasure into torturing them.

yet my granddad is fond of his dad. (I blame him always wanting his approval but never getting it as the reason why he still like his dad)

My granddad was too young to fight in WW2 but his brothers did.
They were airplane pillots.

They once destroyed a German dam.
I heard they were good peoples, unlike their dad.

May the soul of my greatfather burn in hell.
 
Some uncle n times removed was a Major in WW2, but I have no name nor idea how the actual relation goes.
No one else, everyone was too young or too old or crippled from WW1.

Which leads me to:
One of my father's granddad's was in the artillery in WW1. Got a medal for destroying Allied artillery from a reverse slope and later was the only survivor when during a gas attack he was the only one to run into the opposite direction from everyone else. Which left him with permanent lung problems.
 
Interesting. Wellen, my great-grandfather was a gunner in the British artillery during WW1 and his gun was destroyed by Germans, leaving him as the only survivor. After that he was gassed and survived, leaving our family with a genetic defect in which some of our toes are a bit malformed and in some cases our hands are missing some knuckles. Well, I've been told that it's due to the gas.

Did your great-grandfather blow up my great-grandfather's gun? For sure.
 
Uhhh where to start. First, my great-great-grandfather fought in ww1, but i do not know much about it personally except that he survived that war. Two of my great grandfathers fought in ww2, one survived, other died on Sremski front during the latest stages of war. His grave is still unknown. My father fought in Balkan wars during 1992 as a member of the Yugosiavian People's Army with a rank of 1st Lt. My uncle and godfather fought during Balkan wars 1992=1995 as well. My uncle was stationed in Sid during the NATO aggression on SR Yugoslavia during 1999, it was thought that he died there, but thankfully he survived. My godfather was stationed in Mostar.  And on that, when i finish my uni i will try to go to the military academy for reserve officer training. If not that, then became conscript.
 
Knezevic said:
NATO aggression on SR Yugoslavia during 1999,
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Unfortunately I can't trace my family history back before the second half of the 19th century. My family is from Warsaw and everything got destroyed, some photos survived, but only one wall of the apartment of my parental great grandparents survived which had a portrait of the Virgin Mary with a 9mm bullet hole in the frame (we still own this).
I had a maternal grandad who was a bombardier in Polish artillery in ww2 and a parental grandad who was a heavy machine gunner in a motorised uhlan unit also in ww2. He was captured and escaped from a pow camp on skis one winter (he was trained to carry a hmg on skis) and was almost executed (mix up as Germans thought he killed a prison guard, but a cook confessed his innocence) then he managed to escape from the train to Auschwitz.

My dad served in the Polish communist army as a conscript as a medic/doctor (Warsaw medical school students underwent medic training for army). Ironic as he like many Poles wanted the fall of the communist regime.

I have photos of other relatives in military uniform (inter-war) which I'll have to look into. I'd love to map out a family tree and see who my more distant relatives were.

Edit- non-military, but also lost a great-grandfather along with his brother in Auschwitz (civilians).
 
There's members of my family in West Virginia who still claim that Davy Crockett married into our extended family  :lol:, which according to the family tree is correct but yano. Hollers.
 
:neutral: I haven't specified my clan name when I last posted... I never thought
I'd have anything interesting to say. Until just recently, research on local
history where meager and lacking. Even my dad used to collect and skim
through countless genealogy volumes to no avail. Thankfully, rekindled
interest and recent efforts have shed light, on a lot of unexpected findings...
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To start, among the Yas tribal alliance, we belonged to the Muhairy
or Al Bu Muhair clan. (translated spelling varies)  :arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Bu_Muhair
:wink: Its in my forum name if you've noticed already!
oh and here are some camel branding symbols from
several clans, including ours in the red box!

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The clan is claimed to have originated from the old
Quda'a clan  :arrow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quda%27a
through Abdah bin Bahraa bin Amro bin Quda'a.

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My Amazon orders arrived today, including the book
"The Hula Arabs of The Shibkuh Coast of Iran "
by Willem Floor, Mage Publishers - 2014

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:shock: I wasn't expecting to find anything concerning
our family's past in any way, which made this
passage extremely shocking and fascinating!

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:wink: here are some more excerpts...

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That's really really cool mat. An interesting read too. I'd be proud to have been descended from such a significant tribe. The farthest I can trace with that is some sort of noble title in Galicia (Spain). Though what exactly it was and if it is even true remains to be discovered. The only real evidence I have is our old ancestral house near Rellas in more or less central Galicia. It's literally a farming town of maybe 6 or 7 families now. But our house there has our seal and coat of arms carved in stone on the front of the house. It's like a raven's claw on the top left and top right and some type of farming tool or symbol I believe though I'd have to look at the pictures again. My grandfather claimed that we were descended from Marquis of the area but we were disinherited during the Spanish Civil War. Its hard to find information mostly because 1. the Spanish government is horrible at record keeping and 2. All the record are still on paper (somewhere dark) and still probably in Gallego. Which is fine because I understand and speak both Castillian and Galician, but finding these records is a different task altogether.
 
DYSTOPIAN said:
That's really really cool mat. An interesting read too. I'd be proud to have been descended from such a significant tribe. The farthest I can trace with that is some sort of noble title in Galicia (Spain). Though what exactly it was and if it is even true remains to be discovered. The only real evidence I have is our old ancestral house near Rellas in more or less central Galicia. It's literally a farming town of maybe 6 or 7 families now. But our house there has our seal and coat of arms carved in stone on the front of the house. It's like a raven's claw on the top left and top right and some type of farming tool or symbol I believe though I'd have to look at the pictures again. My grandfather claimed that we were descended from Marquis of the area but we were disinherited during the Spanish Civil War. Its hard to find information mostly because 1. the Spanish government is horrible at record keeping and 2. All the record are still on paper (somewhere dark) and still probably in Gallego. Which is fine because I understand and speak both Castillian and Galician, but finding these records is a different task altogether.

Intenta buscar información en el censo del pueblo :grin:!

Spain's local record keeping is indeed horrible. You may find relatives of yours from a ****load of time ago, then a huge blank of information, then find your parents xD.
 
My grandpa valiantly protected the California coast from Japanese invaders in the U.S. coast guard during most of WW2. He was from Texas and did not want to be drafted into something dangerous like the marines or some crazy **** like that so he moved to California and tried to enlist in the coast guard's mounted beach patrol. To enroll you had to be "an experienced and trained horseman." My grandpa had never ridden a horse in his life, but he told them he was definitely an experienced horseman because he was from Texas they kind of believed him, but he still had to pass a horsemanship test. He said, "bring on the test!" It turns out the test was just one question. "If your horse starts limping, what do you do." My grandpa said, "dismount and inspect the horse's feet." Apparently he passed, and that is why my aunt was born in California. My great uncle got captured by the Germans during the battle of the bulge. He spent like almost a year in a POW camp and lost 50 lbs. We have some before and after pictures laying around. It's pretty striking, but not necessarily like concentration camp-level scary. He was a big dude.
 
My grandfathers fought on opposite sides in WWII.  My paternal grandfather was in the Pacific theater with the U.S. Navy.  My maternal grandfather (Opa) was in the German Army (Afrika Corps) in North Africa.  Both survived the war. 

My father was a career U.S. soldier who served in combat in Vietnam.

I was a U.S. Army field artillery officer for 6 years during a period that included the Panama invasion and the first Gulf War, neither of which required mass deployment by U.S. forces.  I served stateside except for a tour to Central America in the late 80s.  Although we were fired upon and returned fire on several occasions, my experience was un-exceptional compared to my father's and grandfathers' experiences in war.  And I am grateful for that.

I have been a civilian now since 1993 and as I have gotten older I have appreciated those moments of peace that we sometimes find ourselves in.  Now my only exposure to warfare is playing Warband or Call of Duty! 

Peace to all of you!
 
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