|
Quoted:
Got names? You can make a soldier out of a civilian, but you can't take the civilian out of the soldier. Since the American Revoltuion the American soldier has always been an independent thinker. Von Steuben remarked that in an European army, you gave an order and it was obeyed. In the American Army, you had to explain the reasoning for the order before giving the order. This is why we succeed too. Take out the Capt, the Lt takes over. Take out the Lt, the senior sergeant (SMG/FSG/MSG or what not) takes over down to corporal and even senior private. Quoted:
Quoted:
I ran across a memorable World War II after action report from the National Archives a little while back that related a rather humorous interaction between an enlisted man and a general. Apparently, during some heavy ground fighting in Germany, American troops had a bridge wired to explode should Germans threaten to overtake it. A sergeant had his hand on the trigger some distance away while a firefight raged over the bridge. According to the report, the division commander approached the sergeant and watched the action for a few moments. Alarmed at what he thought was a German unit swarming over the bridge, he told the sergeant to trigger the explosives. The sergeant protested, saying, “Sir, those are our men that you see.” The general again told him to blow the bridge. The sergeant refused, insisting that American troops were there. The general turned to the sergeant and with a booming voice ordered the him to ignite the explosives. The sergeant snarled, “Sir, you can go fuck yourself. I’m not blowing it.” The response stunned the general, and he turned and walked to his Jeep and sped away. The after action report was typed, but some concerned officer had penciled in a slight alteration, crossing out “go fuck yourself” and writing in the margin above it “go jump in a lake.” You can make a soldier out of a civilian, but you can't take the civilian out of the soldier. Since the American Revoltuion the American soldier has always been an independent thinker. Von Steuben remarked that in an European army, you gave an order and it was obeyed. In the American Army, you had to explain the reasoning for the order before giving the order. This is why we succeed too. Take out the Capt, the Lt takes over. Take out the Lt, the senior sergeant (SMG/FSG/MSG or what not) takes over down to corporal and even senior private. |
|
Quoted:
The Germans fought side by side with U.S. troops in WWII, once. Not many people know that. Battle for Castle Itter |
|
Quoted:
I believe the story is about red haired giants in Kandahar. Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
In for the sandbox sasquatch stories |
|
Quoted:
Had a WWII vet tell me the Krauts had a "88" in a church steeple. Ummmm... https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6d/a2/a6/6da2a6227e98ee4744b162e6fd0319de--big-guns-north-africa.jpg |
|
My dad was a LRRP in Vietnam only because he was a radioman and a giant who could carry alot of shit. Here are some of his tales.
On his first patrol out his team was sleeping and he was on watch when he heard very clearly "fuck you". He thought he was going crazy and heard it again and then again from a different direction, then a cacophony of "fuck you" all around him. He woke the team leader who told him very nonchalantly those were fuck you lizards and if they were calling there wasn't any vc around. The orangutan, so on one base he was on someone had abandoned their pet orangutan. This big fucker ltook up residence in a tree in from of the mess hall and around meal times would come down and wait outside the mess hall. If you left the mess hall without giving him a piece of fruit or bread or something he would go apeshit and beat your ass. In the few months he was operating out of base he saw a shitload of new guys ignore the orangutan and get fucked up by it. Some plots to shoot it were foiled by higher ups that saud he was the camp mascot and was not to be touched. Some SEALS were on the base and were warned of the orangutan and ignored it. When they came out of chow and attempted to swarm the ape it apparently tossed them around lime fucking ragdolls. These SEALS called in a couple of dog handlers one with a giant German shepherd and one with a giant Doberman. The ape was unperturbed by the dogs, tossed the German by his tail across the area in front of the mess hall, tossed the doberman by a hind leg and didn't get a a scratch. Time went on and the motherfucker was unbeaten by tough guys, college wrestlers, crazy guys etc. Apparently at one point some guts decided to blow it up with a grenade but got ratted out. Not my dad's tale but a friend of a friend below. The Cambodian rock apes. A patrol on the border were engaged by a bunch of gray apes that threw rocks at them and were apparently dead eyes with them. Even after some were shot they still pressed the attack and apparently fucked some guys up pretty good. |
|
This guy lives less than an hour from me. Still gets around, but he's gettin' a little slower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZe2H8nvUAM |
|
Quoted:
While not practical, a steeple can come in many sizes. In Europe some of them are massive, as in huge. Quoted:
Quoted:
Had a WWII vet tell me the Krauts had a "88" in a church steeple. Ummmm... https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6d/a2/a6/6da2a6227e98ee4744b162e6fd0319de--big-guns-north-africa.jpg |
|
Quoted:
This one's more odd or even just humorous but I've waited a long time to tell it to someone. Background: In Viet Nam there's a bird that makes a screech which sounds almost like it's saying RE-UP (called the Reup bird by grunts; slang for re-enlist) and a lizard that makes a truly weird noise which sounds somewhat like it's saying fuckyou (guess what it's called). In the bush at night on ambush, with the bugs, snakes, and various other unpleasant things, soaked by the rain, and waitin' for charlie to come try to kill you, occasionally a reup bird would screech followed by a fuckyou lizard call and there was hardly a man there that didn't chuckle. |
|
Quoted: My grandmother grew up down the road from a German POW camp just east of Jackson, MI. She told of a similar situation: prisoner's would be "hired" out to local farmers, some would be on their own. She would wave as the trucks they were traveling in went past. They were definitely happy to be in Michigan rather than Germany (not that the landscape is much different). More than a few returned to the area after the war. |
| During one of the night battles of Guadal Canal, a Jap cruiser shot at my grandfathers destroyer. Round went through his torpedo shack but didnt detonate. They took a bit of a beating from that bastard and shouldve fired their torpedoes at her but the CO wouldnt let em (target id confusion) |
|
My grandfather was in the Army in WWII, he never spoke about it much but I distinctly remember one story that he told us. He said that he was in France, going door to door in a small town looking for Germans that were hiding out in the town. One of the guys in his company kicks in a door to a house and sure enough, there are a bunch of krauts in there waiting for someone to kick in the door. The guy turns around and runs away while the Germans tried to shoot him. Once he got to safety and the Germans were dealt with the guy noticed that his rain coat was covered with bullet holes but he didn't get shot once. |
| My grandfather was in the Marines and went to the pacific, I know he made the paper because I have the article where it says Marine goes to war and studying birds, I guess you do what you have to to keep your mind right, It's funny because was a avid bird lover. He passed a way when I was 10 from bone marrow cancer in his back, 6' 2" and went he went he was 5'8". My other grandfather was in the Army, He never said much to anyone I would love to see his service record but I only have a name. |
| Great uncle on my mothers side. As a young man I always considered him a giant as I grew I realized he was not far off. As a young man shy of nealrly 6 foot he stood a foot taller even slightly bent hunched over. Learned he landed in Normandy as a radio operator. Someone in the family still has a photo of him radio in tow with a M1 garand. The first time I saw the photo I assumed it was a carbine. He did in fact state that he was issued it saying they figured he could handle it. He was awarded the Purple Heart twice. Once immediately following the Normandy invasion. To paraphrase “ we came in with the third wave all the fighting was over, one random artilerly shell hit the beach and sunk into the soft sand and blew. I got up and shook the dust off. The next day I took my shirt off and noticed a cut on my side went for a bandage and a general insisted I left with a medal” |
|
My dad and a guy named Tice liberated a bank in Holland. It was abandoned by the Germans and dad had explosives training. Dad opened the bank and used the money to start a sweater mill after the war. Dad's war ended after getting hit with fragments from a German hand grenade in Holland, He was also wounded in France shortly after D-day. He died with German grenade fragments in his back. Story 2 which should have been 1. Dad jumped with the 101st on D-day , he got a Luger around Carentan from a dead SS officer who no longer needed it. He stuck it in his musette bag. He was shot in the leg and sent back to an aid station then to a hospital ship and then to England to recover. He knew he could not take the pistol on the ship and gave it to a friend in his unit. The friend used the Luger to kill his CO and dad did not get his Luger back. Story 3 in France dad said Germans would shot at you until they ran out of ammo and surrender. Dad said they shot prisoners because they did not have manpower to guard them. He took being shot at personal. His brother did the entire war in a submarine in the pacific. He never talked about it . |
|
Quoted:
Well, a relative in the Army was in position opposite the Germans. This stalemate went on for a while. He was manning a .50 and swore that if he fired the first half of shave-and-a-haircut with it, the Germans would finish it. |
|
Dad spent his time in New Guinea and The Philippines in an Engineer unit.
Ran a sawmill. Seven hours in the water after abandoning ship from a kamikaze attack. Spent the night under a Holt caterpillar during a typhoon, the only thing not moving. Had a mortar shell come down thru the tent, between his legs, sleeping bag and cot into the dirt. Had the quart jar of gold teeth stolen out of his duffle bag on the way home, never said if he collected them himself. Made the comment that the Japanese,never seemed to figure out the concept of semi auto fire as most of them had bolt guns, not something you got a second chance to get right. Liked the Tommy gun for night guard duty, and was disappointed when the guys who loaned them to his unit, wanted them back after leave. |
|
Papago Park in Phoenix ( near 68th st and Mcdowell ) was the site of a large german u-boat POW camp during world war 2. 100+ of the german sailors tunneled out with improvised rafts ( think of the movie alcatraz) and planned to sail down the salt river to mexico. Problem was the salt river isnt so much a river as a dried up stream.
Most of em surrendered. A few hid in the mountains till the accent gave em away when getting supplies in town. Would make a great Inglorious Bastards style movie. |
|
Quoted: I wanna hear more about this...  Failed To Load Title |
|
My grandfather was a cook aboard the USS Juneau II, CL-119, during the Korean War. A couple of stories he told me:
The ship's kitchen was forward of the head, there was a mechanism through which seawater was taken in forward of the mess somewhere and run through a trough through both areas. The mess sinks emptied into this trough, as did the heads. My grandfather liked to make little boats out of the pasteboard the food was packed in. He'd take used grease and debris - paper, sawdust, anything that would burn - fill the little boats, light them on fire, and drop them in the trough were it flowed out of the mess area. He said as soon as he saw his present leave the mess, he could casually walk out, down the hallway, and into the head. Just as he entered there'd be a row of guys taking a shit that each had to jump up with their pants around their ankles to keep from getting their asses burnt by his little boat. Apparently, this was a common past-time for him. Another time, he was granted shore leave in Manhattan. As he walked down the gangplank, the captain stopped him: "Metcalf! What are you stealing from my ship this time?". "Sir, I've got eight place settings of your silverware taped under my shirt." He said the captain looked at him funny for a second and barked "Get the fuck out of here!" On a related note, the silverware we use during family gathering at my parents' house is marked "USN". Then there was the time a couple of MPs stopped by my grandma's apartment in Manhattan - now, bear in mind, my grandma is a woman who had never so much as questioned authority in her entire life. She was raised in a very traditional Menonite family in Dunbar, OK. When she married my grandpa he moved her to Manhattan and left her there while he sailed away for months at a time. As soon as she saw the MPs, she broke down: "I'm so sorry, I told him not to take those hams! I hasn't any part of it; I didn't know what to do!" Well, as you can probably guess, they had no idea about the dozens of hams he'd managed to smuggle off the ship and bring home to sell on the side. They were there because the US Navy hadn't seen or heard from my grandpa for about six weeks, since he was given shore leave in Honolulu. They had come to ask if she'd heard from him, but they were very happy to go ahead and take down the details of the ham thefts. My grandpa turned up a couple of weeks later. He and another sailor had been shacking up with a local whore on the island. Instead of kicking them out herself, she called the MPs on them when they ran out of money One more thing that springs to mind - he said that he spent about a year based in Yokosuka, Japan. He learned exactly three phrases in Japanese: "pussy", "how much", and "where's the bathroom". The only one he remembered was ososo. |
|
My dad was a Marine in WW2. He always told us his experiences. One time he and a buddy had to go set up the aiming sticks for their 105MM howitzer. The sticks had gone down during a barrage on Saipan. He and his buddy were running back the yards when a large explosion happened close to them. They hit the deck and all of a sudden hundreds of white wooden crosses were raining down around them. He described it as surreal.
Another thing he told us was they were walking to a supply area and they saw a Japanese soldier standing and eating raw flour from some sacks. My dad screamed for the guy to stop and stay still, but the Japanese soldier ran over a small hill right where other marines were dug in. He heard a lot of rifle fire and found out they shot the enemy about 30 times. He lived through all the Banzai charges on Saipan. He was also on Tarawa, Saipan , tinian , and Okinawa. He was also in Nagasaki after they dropped the bomb. He saw really badly burned people and told of a lady who the clothing had burned onto her skin the flower patterns. My time in the Navy was like pre-school compared to what he did. |
|
I remember reading this one specifically at the barber shop when I was little:
Attached File |
|
My grandfather didn't like to tell most of his stories from the Marines. He was in Korea from Pusan to the punchbowl and didn't have the best time ever. He did say it was cool at Inchon to be calling in fire from cruisers. Anyway, he did have a couple good ones. I'm going off my poor memory here, as he's been dead a while. One was when he returned from Korea he and a bunch of other guys got lost by the Marines at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. They got there, got billeted on one floor of the barracks, and were told to stand by and somebody would come and get them. And nobody ever did. Nor the next day. So they went out on the town. And nobody came the next day. This went on for like two weeks. Finally guys started to get nervous so my grandfather, being the ranking NCO of CPL was volunteered to go figure this out as it was currently too good to be true and would they get paid? So he went down and found a gunnery sgt who, I suppose, was in charge of such things and introduced himself. The gunny replied with "who the fuck are you?". My grandfather replied with, "Gunny, you've had a bunch of Marines on the 3rd deck for weeks now. Didn't you know?" He said the gunny looked very concerned and confused about this, so he said, "Should I go see the Captain about this?" The gunny felt there was no need to involve officers, so all of them got another week of no duty and all day and evening spent on the town while it was sorted out. Also, he was once involved in the temporary theft of an officers club. Another weird story: my grandfather got a call from a Marine recruiter in the late 90s. The recruiter asked for him by name, and when he said it was him, the recruiter went into his speech. My grandfather cut him off with, "this is Staff Sgt [name] and you're about 50 years too late." No idea how that happened. |
|
Quoted: -Raiding a German payroll train and only grabbing a few D-Marks because they'd be worthless while the other guys stuffed their pockets. A 'damnit' moment in hindsight I guess. |
|
Quoted:
Ali Al Salem, Kuwait, 1991. Iraqi’s had just been pushed out when I came through the base, UXOs everywhere with CEMs still exploding randomly. I saw a Mosque and decided to take a quick looksee. Damn if they hadn’t taken a crap on every available square inch of that mosque floor. Graffiti on the walls and that mosque was just plain savaged. What kind of person craps all over their holy place? Writes graffiti on the walls? My first introduction to Muslim hate. Very surreal. |
|
Quoted:
My grandfather didn't like to tell most of his stories from the Marines. He was in Korea from Pusan to the punchbowl and didn't have the best time ever. He did say it was cool at Inchon to be calling in fire from cruisers. Dad said he only saw one casualty during the war. They were tied up and the sailor assigned to guard the gangway was doing some D&C to pass the time. Sailor dropped the rifle and shot himself in the ass. One time dad and I were going through some stuff and he showed me a box of slides. He said "This is a part of the world you'll never see. At least I hope you don't". It was the coast of North Korea. Dad passed long ago and I have those slides. No one else in the family knew what they were. Speaking of photos, wife's grandfather was a Seabee in WWII. He did the whole island hopping airfield building bit. FIL has a pile of pictures his dad took, and going through them I found a picture he took of a Japanese tank. I about fell out of my chair. Japanese armor pictures aren't very common, and this is (obviously) unpublished. Unfortunately no comments about date or name of island were on the back of it, so it's just a random pic of a Japanese tank. |
|
Quoted:
This guy lives less than an hour from me. Still gets around, but he's gettin' a little slower. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZe2H8nvUAM |
|
Quoted:
. I heard about that exact same guy being a POW on the USS Kurtz from a buddy who was a gas turbine mechanic on that frigate. Starting to sound liks a story that went around and embelished  Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Friend of mine was in Gulf War I. As they approached the Kuwaiti border a guy dressed in Hawaiian Shorts, a T Shirt and flip flops jumps out of a foxhole and comes running at them waiving his arms wildly and screaming something..... They think he could be a suicide bomber etc.....They lay down a line of automatic fire in the sand in front of him and the guy hits the deck. As they cautiously approach the guy keeps saying in perfect American English- "Where the hell have you guys been?" "Thank God, You're finally here" "I've been waiting in that fucking hole for a month now"... etc.... Turns out the poor bastard was a Medical Student at the University of Chicago. He has gone home to see his family in Iraq and got press ganged into the military off the street...He had been sitting in the foxhole out in the middle of nowhere with a rifle, couple bottles of water, some tins of food etc...for a long time! I heard about that exact same guy being a POW on the USS Kurtz from a buddy who was a gas turbine mechanic on that frigate. Starting to sound liks a story that went around and embelished Some stories from that time: I go down to do sick call, at the first enclosure I ask if any one speaks english. A kid about my age comes out from the back of the crowd and says I do in a British accent. He was wearing a neon pink and green wind breaker with a public enemy t-shirt on. Good kid, going to school in England went home for the summer and was "drafted" before he could leave. At lunch I started to give him my MRE and stopped because it was a ham slice. He asked what was up and I told him. His response was Ham is good bacon is gooooood, things guys are fucking idiots! So he had ham slice and I had a german field rat. We also had an entire wedding party still in their tuxes. IRG showed up, waited for the ceremony to end and then loaded every male in the place over 15 or 16 into trucks and sent them to the front. Or that was what I was told when I said what the fuck is up with the guys wearing tuxedos. At first our supplies were very limited, especially meds. So for a while, the pharmacy guys were sorting skittles by color and we used them as placebos for the guys looking for a fix, usually valium. After a short time the supply situation improved and for the guys wanting a fix we would give them multivitamins. The insistent ones got prenatals. They would come back the next day freaked because the prenatals generally turned their shit black. We had two guys go into a compound and start a riot. They went in with a couple boxes of shower shoes to give to the prisoners without shoes or shoes that were falling apart but did not have enough for everyone. They got mobbed and the prisoners started fighting over them as they ran for the gate. We had Iraqi docs helping us in the hospital portion. Some knew less than our medics. SOme were good. One who went to medical school in Dublin was fucking awesome. |
|
Quoted:
Ali Al Salem, Kuwait, 1991. Iraqi’s had just been pushed out when I came through the base, UXOs everywhere with CEMs still exploding randomly. I saw a Mosque and decided to take a quick looksee. Damn if they hadn’t taken a crap on every available square inch of that mosque floor. Graffiti on the walls and that mosque was just plain savaged. What kind of person craps all over their holy place? Writes graffiti on the walls? My first introduction to Muslim hate. Very surreal. |
|
Quoted:
Got a few from my grandmother - and she was a civilian. She told me about her class at school waving the troops off to the Great War, as they marched out of the local barracks past the school. One of the soldiers broke rank to give her a sweetheart souvenir (a handkerchief) - even though she was a young girl & he was a serving soldier. He survived the war, being gassed in the trenches & also spending time as a PoW in Germany. A few years after his return they were married. She was lucky herself to survive WW1 as the house she was in was bombed in Zeppelin raids. Not content with this lack of success, she was also bombed in WW2 as well; a wardrobe falling over the bed stopped her being killed by flying glass. Her son (my uncle) has lived since 1942 or so with the results of travelling home from school during an air raid. A bomb landed close, but outside shrapnel/blast radius. It was however close enough for the flash to burn out his retina = instant loss of sight from then on in that eye. Never stopped him serving in the army in the 50's or being one of the best woodworkers out there. Grandad was most annoyed with WW2 breaking out - as he'd not long spent a lot of money on a new TV set - and outbreak of war meant no more TV service from the BBC for the duration. They had a lot of funny stories about the war - like being accused of signalling U-Boats. Two young children in the house, not really aware of the real danger posed, were doing what children do, and messing around in the kitchen. Being near the coast, a lot of care was taken to monitor the blackout. It turned out that a wool blanket in a door frame was only a partially successful means of blocking light....and quite poor if said small folk were racing in & out of the house like idiots. A local ARP post monitored the "morse code" that resulted, with the Police being sent to investigate, as they took the flashing as an attempt to signal U-Boats!! They also had a "guest" in the war. A Norwegian sailor - Haftan Jensen, plus his son. They'd been stranded outside of Norway by the German invasion. The benefits of said guests were sometimes not too obvious; but one was when the free sale of un-rationed whale meat was seen as a solution to the problem of lack of protein in the diet. Whale meat when correctly prepared is supposed to be as good as the best steak you'll ever eat...the problem is the official methodology was totally inadequate. The Norwegians told them how to prepare the meat...so they were one of the few families to benefit from this addition to the diet. The Jensen family back home in Norway had a busy war. Mrs Jensen, it seems, used to invite all the local German officers back to her house for tea/cakes & to listen to music, etc.. The town hated her with a passion as she was seen as a big time collaborator. One of the local Norwegian Nazi party officials paid her a visit one day, demanding a large cash payment. She shot him dead. Seems that the spot on the lawn where she entertained the Germans was the very place where the Norwegian resistance arms dump was buried, and this local Nazi had found out her secret. After the war she was given a medal from the King on his return to Norway. Another relative was a young lad. Being too young for the army he was in the Home Guard. Being a young lad he was not too keen on following orders to the letter and got into trouble on a night exercise, as he decided the route he was told to follow was not as good as one he had in mind. He ended up back at base with his mate for a couple of hours to spare while everyone else was out in ambush positions as not everyone had been captured!! He was later Court Martialled & kicked out for falling asleep at his guard post. His older brother was blown out of the sky over Holland on an RAF bombing run...something he never really got over & I only heard him talk about it once when I was about to go off to RAF basic training. ETA: A classmate of my grandmother had a notorious war, with a couple of movies being made about his escapades. He was a famous spy, for the Germans! Agent Zig Zag...actually a double agent, working for British Intelligence. @p2tharizo Ken who? I knew a lot of the 505PIR guys, happy times drinking beer with them in StMereEglise. OB Hill, Howard Manion, Bob Murphy, etc. Tried to IM you, but your inbox is full... |
|
Quoted:
I would love to see that movie made. Make Adam Baldwin one of the American commanding officers. Now who is on our side that could play the defecting kraut commander? |
|
Quoted:
My grandfather was in the Army in WWII, he never spoke about it much but I distinctly remember one story that he told us. He said that he was in France, going door to door in a small town looking for Germans that were hiding out in the town. One of the guys in his company kicks in a door to a house and sure enough, there are a bunch of krauts in there waiting for someone to kick in the door. The guy turns around and runs away while the Germans tried to shoot him. Once he got to safety and the Germans were dealt with the guy noticed that his rain coat was covered with bullet holes but he didn't get shot once. |
|
My grandfather was a bombardier on a B-24. he didn't talk a lot about it until he got pretty old, then I guess he figured if he didn't talk about it no one would know. He was shot down twice, and a POW twice. When I asked about how that happened, he told me that near the end of the war, they were being guarded by old german reservists who were not all in on the Nazi ideal, and he and a friend bought their way out by giving the gate guard american cigarettes. He turned his back and let them walk out the gate. They were smart for a few days, staying off the roads, trading cigarettes for food or stealing from farmers. Then they got complacent and were walking down a road when 2 SS officers on bicycles captured them at gunpoint. He thought they were going to kill them, but they seemed to change their mind. they were escorted back to the same camp. Patton later would liberate the same camp. Reportedly, his own personal company rolled right through the fence, he popped the hatch and said something like:
"I'd love to stay and chat with you damn fine sons of bitches, but I've got a date in Berlin and I'm not gonna be late!" He was also on that winter death march, I'd have to look it up again, where a lot of the germans and americans froze to death. He said he kept wanting to quit but another prisoner kept telling him he could see the lights of a town just over the hill, and encouraged him to keep going. He said they would get over the hill and there would be nothing, and he would be angry at the guy, but he kept moving. He said the guy did that to him two or three times, until they finally spent the night in a barn. He never learned the guys name and only saw him one other time, when neither of them spoke of it. said that guy saved his life, that he would have quit and frozen to death if it were not for him. There are many others, but those are two of my favorites. He was not a man given to embellishing a story |
|
Quoted:
Another weird story: my grandfather got a call from a Marine recruiter in the late 90s. The recruiter asked for him by name, and when he said it was him, the recruiter went into his speech. My grandfather cut him off with, "this is Staff Sgt [name] and you're about 50 years too late." No idea how that happened. Good gag. |
|
Quoted:
we've got one here, Camp Sherando Lake/Lyndhurst, Sherando Lake is still a popular tourist attraction in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. info Quoted:
Quoted: My grandmother grew up down the road from a German POW camp just east of Jackson, MI. She told of a similar situation: prisoner's would be "hired" out to local farmers, some would be on their own. She would wave as the trucks they were traveling in went past. They were definitely happy to be in Michigan rather than Germany (not that the landscape is much different). More than a few returned to the area after the war. |
|
Quoted:
That would make a good movie. Quoted:
Quoted:
The Germans fought side by side with U.S. troops in WWII, once. Not many people know that. Battle for Castle Itter |
| My friend Airborne was shot in the foot when we were on ambush, the medic cuts off his boot bandages the wound and gives him a shot of morphine we move him to the LZ and waited for a medivac. He grabs the medic by the arm and says" Doc, Doc give me another hit, I barely copped a buzz after the last one" |
|
Quoted:
That would make a good movie. Quoted:
Quoted:
The Germans fought side by side with U.S. troops in WWII, once. Not many people know that. Battle for Castle Itter |
|
Quoted:
My grandfather was a bombardier on a B-24. he didn't talk a lot about it until he got pretty old, then I guess he figured if he didn't talk about it no one would know. He was shot down twice, and a POW twice. When I asked about how that happened, he told me that near the end of the war, they were being guarded by old german reservists who were not all in on the Nazi ideal, and he and a friend bought their way out by giving the gate guard american cigarettes. He turned his back and let them walk out the gate. They were smart for a few days, staying off the roads, trading cigarettes for food or stealing from farmers. Then they got complacent and were walking down a road when 2 SS officers on bicycles captured them at gunpoint. He thought they were going to kill them, but they seemed to change their mind. they were escorted back to the same camp. Patton later would liberate the same camp. Reportedly, his own personal company rolled right through the fence, he popped the hatch and said something like: "I'd love to stay and chat with you damn fine sons of bitches, but I've got a date in Berlin and I'm not gonna be late!" He was also on that winter death march, I'd have to look it up again, where a lot of the germans and americans froze to death. He said he kept wanting to quit but another prisoner kept telling him he could see the lights of a town just over the hill, and encouraged him to keep going. He said they would get over the hill and there would be nothing, and he would be angry at the guy, but he kept moving. He said the guy did that to him two or three times, until they finally spent the night in a barn. He never learned the guys name and only saw him one other time, when neither of them spoke of it. said that guy saved his life, that he would have quit and frozen to death if it were not for him. There are many others, but those are two of my favorites. He was not a man given to embellishing a story |
| A friend of mine was in country at a fire base outside of Tuy Hoa, and they come back from a 8 or 9 day patrol. Get back to the bunkers and it starts to rain. So they all strip down to jungle boots and hop onto the bunkers to take showers. Up there about 5 minutes, and there is a lightning strike, which sets off a string of claymores. So they figure it's an attack, everyone jumps back in the bunkers, grab their weapons, and man their positions, wearing steel pots, LBE and boots. Just pots, LBE and boots. Except for the one guy who fell off the front of the bunker and rolled into the concertina wire. And they left him there till the all clear sounded. |
|
Quoted:
Had a WWII vet tell me the Krauts had a "88" in a church steeple. Ummmm... https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6d/a2/a6/6da2a6227e98ee4744b162e6fd0319de--big-guns-north-africa.jpg And like every German tank was a Tiger, every artillery gun was an 88 |
| My Dad always told me he is one of a very few that killed Germans and never stepped foot in Europe. In 1943, my Dad was stationed at Ft. Polk, LA and Ft. Polk also had German POW's and some of these guys were hard core SS. One night my Dad was on guard duty and several of the SS tried to escape, and he and another guard opened up on them with Thompson's they were carrying. The other guard's Thompson jammed after about 3 or 4 shots and my Dad let go with a full mag and killed 3 and wounded a couple of more. After that my Dad said he never did have anymore problems with the SS guys, he figured that they was afraid my Dad would shoot them on the spot. The other German prisoners would look at my Dad and smile and give him a thumbs up for killing the SS. He said he later found out from one of the Germans that spoke English that the SS were trying to get all the Germans to try to escape with them to cause problems, but they knew that they had it good in the camp and didn't want to leave. The Germans that wasn't SS were allowed to work picking cotton and also work on the local farms for money to use in the PX. Then in the latter part of 44 my Dad got orders for the Pacific and was with the occupation forces in Japan. He was stationed in Yokohoma for about a year. |
|
One story that I always laugh when I think about was from a regular at the gun shop when I worked there. Haven't seen the guy in probably 7-8 years, but Sgt. Beard (fuck if I know how to spell it) was good people. Anyhow, he was at FOB Freedom (I think) and whenever he'd try to hit the portajohn he'd get mortared. So he'd be sitting there trying to bolt for cover with his pants down, or deciding if finishing his shit was worth it.
Anyhow, the last time he decided to say fuck it and finish taking the browns to the superbowl, apparently a dud mortar shell came through the roof and pinned his pants to the floor. Apparently, he finished #2 in a hurry, and having EOD between his legs cutting off his pants was really awkward. 
No freaking idea if true, and considering my memory it could have also been another military guy I knew. |
|
Quoted:
In the early months of 1942, a man cooked up the idea to train dogs to only attack people of Japanese ancestry, and then use them in the Pacific theatre. He got several million dollars allocated and they set up a whole island with hundred of kennels, some Nisei volunteers to act as attackees, and set to work. It was an utter failure; the dogs persisted in attacking people without regards to ethnicity. The island it was on was named Cat Island, MS. |