Your relatives who went to war

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A greatgrandfather was fighting on the eastern front against the Russian Empire, got captured, later joined the Czechoslovak legions and fought the Soviets in the Siberia. Other greatgrandfather fought the Italians on Piave. One of them got into a concentration camp later in ww2 for allegedly organising sabotages in a gun factory. Grandfather was a military adviser to Egypt in the 60s when everyone was fighting Israel. I think my father once mentioned we also had someone in k.u.k. Kriegsmarine, but I cannot recall who that was. Definitely not a direct relative though.
 
I had a great uncle on my mothers side who I believe was an RAF radio operator stationed in Burma during WW2. He ended up getting the Burma star, along with another star medal which I can't remember is.
I also had a great grandfather on my mothers side who was part of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers during WW1, who had a job looking after horses as far as i'm aware.

On my dads side, I think I have a great, great, great grandfather who was a boiler stoker on a ship during the first world war. Unfortunately his ship was torpedoed. He didn't make it out.
 
My great-great-uncle (is that even a thing?) was a cavalryman in Polish army in 1939, but as he was stationed in the eastern lands he was among the soldiers that were taken to Siberia (just like pretty much everyone else alive back then on my mother's side of family, being maybe short on soldiers, but full of other kinds of uniformed servicemen that got the free ticket for them and the family) and he didn't return until after the war in 1947, so not sure if he fits the thread.

He did meet with glorious Soviet bureaucracy upon return, though, and received name change without any in-game currency needed, as officer writing papers for him insisted that he can't be named 'Włodzimierz' (Vladimir) cause that's Russian name, Polish one is 'Władysław'.
 
During WW2 my paternal grandfather was a pioneer (my grandmother worked in the manufacturing of battledresses). My maternal grandfather was an infantryman whilst my grandmother was in the ATS. All were stationed in Britain until Normandy.

We have been to the café that is there now.
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Souvenir
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Cool stuff. Good to see so many people have good stories to tell. The furthest back I can probably go is to a relative who was in the New Zealand land wars in the mid 1800s. Not sure the exact family connection though.
 
My family has war pension documents stating we had at least six ancestors in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and we have a Grand Army of the Republic Medal of some sort (Union veterans organization after the Civil War) for my great-grandfather's service in the 7th West Virginia Cavalry. My grandfather was a merchant marine during World War Two and my Father got drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War. He served as a MP in Saigon, finishing his service with a Bronze Star. Never quite told me what that was about though.
 
My paternal grandfather died in Aunus during 1942 but my maternal grandfather (who had been a Captain of Artillery) survived the wars, only to be struck down by a piece of shrapnel that the doctors had not removed, as the removal would have been too dangerous. Over the years the piece slowly moved until it pierced his windpipe while he was working on a field - probably the exercise caused it - and because this was in the middle of nowhere, he suffocated long before he was gotten to the hospital in the late 1960s.

Untitled. said:
My grandpa and his family took Finnish citizenship (he was Norwegian) during the Winter War so they could serve. Because of this, they did not get recompensated by the Norwegian king (unlike other Norwegians who lost property in the Winter/Continuation War), but the Finnish government refused to acknowledge their participation. Rumor has it the precursor to the True Finns party actually made a law named after my grandfather stating basically that they won't be compensated, but I can't find it on FINLEX.

My grandpa has been looking for acknowledgment for himself and his dead brothers pretty much ever since. He doesn't even want money, just for the state to recognize he did something. He did get wounded, and has been paying for the treatment out of his own pocket for his whole life.
Apparently they wrote to him last year saying that they accept now that he was in the war, but the deadline for the application period just passed, so they can't do anything about it *insert trollface here*. We told him we'll put the oak leaves on his grave anyway, but he says it doesn't feel right unless the entity he fought for accepts it.
That's a really ****ty fate. It's weird that they were allowed to take the citizenship but a lot of weird things happened during the war time. In my research, I've come across similar cases and Finland usually was good about pensions and such, though there were times when the unfeeling bureaucracy made a mess of things. If you want to PM me his name and date of birth, plus any details of his military service in Finland, I can check my notes of the archives, see if his case is in there.
 
I maternal Great-Grandfather was called Dr. Edwin Moll, and rode with Lawrence of Arabia into Jerusalem during WWI. My uncle has the saber-belt on his wall, it's a wide leather belt with eyelets on the top for suspenders and eyelets on the left side for a sword.
Quote from one of the links below: "The Grand Sheik, shaking hands with his great friend, Dr. Edwin Moll, director of the Near East Branch of The Lutheran World Federation. Though it was the first day and high feast of Ramadan and no visitors, especially Christians, were supposed to place a foot inside the sacred walls, the Grand Sheik himself welcomed us and said, "We Moslems may not understand why Christians, Greeks, Armenians and Latins will quarrel over the holy places, but the kind of religion that the Lutheran World Federation has brought to our country through Dr. Moll -- this we can understand." "Tell your friends in America," the Sheik told Dr. Michelfelder on his recent visit, "that we shall never forget how you have saved the lives of thousands of Arab refugees."

Dr. Edwin A. Moll was born in Australia in 1892. Emigrating to America to attend Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, he was ordained by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1914. During World War I he returned to Australia to enlist in the airforce, and served during most of WWI in the Near East, rising to the rank of major. Part of his duties including acting as a liason officer between British forces and their Arab allies led by T.E. Lawrence, known as "Lawrence of Arabia." After the war he returned to the U.S., where he soon transferred to the United Lutheran Church in America and served congregatioins in Wisconsin, California, and Illinois. In 1940 he became secretary for the Board of Foreign Missions. In 1946 he first went to Jersualem to study a proposed transfer of the Syrian orphanage in Palestine to the ULCA. That year he was loaned to the Lutheran World Federation, and served in British Guinana, India, and Liberia, with headquarters in Palestine as director of the Near East Branch of the LWF. He retired in 1957 and died in 1961 in Madison, Wis."

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=N:4294963828-4294955414&dsRecordDetails=R:IM88025
https://www.flickr.com/photos/elcaarchives/3521705995


My maternal Grandfather enlisted in the US in WWII and taught radar in Florida for the duration. Later in life he felt very badly about never having seen combat. He stayed in the army reserves and became a Colonel.

My paternal great-grandfather hid air-dropped supplies for the Danish Resistance during the occupation of Denmark 1940-1945. My father remembers playing in the barn and finding ammunition.
 
Goulashnikov said:
The only I have to show would be my grandfather's banner from the Swedish Air Force. He volunteered in flying supplies for the Finns' and served in the SAF until 1949 1946.
The bottle is a Wehrmacht model, but the bottle has "IMPORT" engraved on its neck.
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1946 Kungliga Upplands Flygflottilj.
1152 - 8 - 46 Lindell
(Tre Kronor)
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1946 Royal Air Force Wing of Uppsala
1152 - 8 - 46 Lindell
(Three Crowns logo)
F16
 
I don't know any(non-taleworlds)body who is in the military, not even second hand, unless you count the son of the landlord whose B&B I stayed at in China.

My maternal grandma said she remembers the victory party when men from the Jamaican part of the British army were demobbed. They bought chocolate and pasta (!!!) And my grandma ate so much that the spaghetti came out of her nose. She hasn't eaten pasta since.

My maternal grandad was on a cargo liner in the 50s which went to Genoa. He said the city was in a bad state but I don't think he remembers much more than that.
 
I've always been told since my family lived literally on the border of Virginia and modern day West Virginia, (See Bluefield West Virginia/Virginia which incidentally was founded by my ancestors in the early 1700s*.) that my family switched sides multiple during the Civil War. Whenever the Yankees came through they'd be all for the Blue and when the Rebs came it'd be all Grey (or butternut). Having done some research myself some years back the 7th West Virginia Cavalry Regiment that we have a badge for my great-grandfather was raised in 1864. If this tale is true it'd make some sense.

My dad never told me much about combat in Vietnam, but what can you tell a child about war? His story of receiving the letter from the draft office will always remind me of that possibility. He wasn't one who complained though, he never complained about the draft. Nevertheless he told me he ran an Army Bar in Saigon for a while, a specific story I remember was about a night where some Australians and New Zealanders came into the bar and started playing their own music. He also told me since he was an MP he would have to stand for hours outside of General Westmoreland's tent at night, he said it was one of the most torturous experiences of his life. My dad always despised Marines and their self-aggrandizement, to quote him, "I never met a marine in Vietnam."  :lol: We have family members who are Marines so you know its that kind of Military stick em, not actual hatred or anything. I remember my Taekwondo teacher who was an Italian immigrant who arrived in 50s having a conversation with my father about their military service in Vietnam. There is something about seeing older men reminiscence.

*Funny because I was reading about Scotch-Irish immigrants settling the frontier in the Virginia/West-Virginia/Kentucky region in the early 1700s.
 
My grand-pa on my dad side was a pathological liar, but we do know he was a crewman on some sort of plane during WW2, no legit info on his actual position, wether he was a gunner or a pilot. He claimed to have flown through the Arch of Trimumph horizontally, cutting through it, for example. We do know his plane got shot down and he had been stuck with shrapnel ever since, but that's about.

Some grand uncle was an army cook, got arrested for something related to a truck full of beer (or maybe the grand uncle was full of beer, this theory made all my family look at me funny, for some reason), that happened during the occupation of Western Germany.
 
Hmm. I only know of two. My father's mother's father (my great-grandfather) fought in WW2 and survived it. He won an Iron Cross and a Wound Badge for his service. I don't know many details of his service. I would have to ask my grandmother.

My father's father's uncle (my great-uncle) also fought in WW2 and did not survive. He suffered a gunshot to the head in Stalingrad and died.
 
my relatives avoided war by using the dirty trick of being just a bit too old or too young. my dad told me he signed as a volunteer for the malvinas, but no volunteers were taken, had he been 4 years younger he would have been doing the service when the war broke out. my maternal grandpa was a kid during the Guerra del Chaco in Paraguay. he left for Buenos Aires and all his brothers died (of illness i think).
thats all, except for an anecdote about a guy from my maternal side that i heard my uncle tell in passing. Apparently someone in my family took part in the ethnic cleansings of aboriginals during the late 1800s. I have no idea if my uncle is lying or not, and i never asked him to go deeper into it. There supposedly was a saber or some material proof, but that side of my family lives in another province, and we hardly keep any contact with them,because we are kind of bastards or something hehe, so i still have faith in my innocence of these crimes
 
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