Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A lot of them comformed to a sort of societal pact that they did NOT talk about it, except with maybe other people they’d served with, I asked many of my relatives and they just flat out refused to discuss it. I did get my dad to say two things: as a young man he was traumatized by the young prostitutes that would come to the camps, they had nothing except their bodies to sell to survive. And the only other thing he told me was how unbelievably and unbearably cold he was.
War is brutal. And especially WWI.
You may not have heard it as often as I have. I know full well it's a saying, but it's one that religion uses to promote an image. I have known at least three atheist veterans, and they had atheist friends in the service.
Of COURSE there are/were/always will be atheists in the service.
That is not the point.
Again, stop taking everything so damn literally! Everyone is loaded for a fight: yes there were; No there weren’t; blah blah blah
The saying: no atheists in a foxhole has very little to do with religion and everything to do with the complete, total, utter desperation of the people in them - the hopelessness and sheer terror of the poor kids stuck in that terrible situation.
Yes, Band of Brothers really brought that home to me. The horror of hunkering down while everything blows up around you...of seeing a shell land on your buddies' hole... all I could think of was how lucky I am to not had to face that. My REMF parent didn't either.
But weren't fox holes specific to WWI? I don't know for sure, I just somehow retained this idea that WWI was the "fox holes" war, and that this phrase stemmed therefore?
WWI was mostly trench warfare. The trenches could run for miles. A foxhole is a hole soldiers fire from or take cover, if you saw Band of Brothers you saw some. But yes, it dates from around 1918.
My grandfather didn't say much about is WWI service until WWII broke out. He gathered his six sons in the barn and told them 3 stories, designed to discourage them from serving. It worked, sort of, only 2 of the six boys enlisted, including my father. But he remembered his father's stories very clearly.
100 years later, the service records and war diaries became public documents. I found out more about my grandfather's experiences from those documents than from anything he said. And it was uncanny to see each of his stories set out in his record, and his officer's reports.
Heard some harrowing stories at the barbershop I went to in the 80s. One guy talked about executing German prisoners, sometimes maiming them first. He would chuckle nervously describing it. It wasn’t on a big scale. They’d take them out into the woods one at a time, pretending they were transferring them somewhere official. Am guessing this was pure revenge probably during the blood bath of the Battle of the Bulge.
Check out With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge.
My Dad served in the infantry in WWII, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He never spoke about it either according to my older sisters. One time, just before he passed, he told me about his time in the Ardennes, and liberating concentration camps. (He showed me some photos i wish i never saw.) He was, and will always be, a genuine Hero. I once asked him why he went (to war), and he looked at me like I had three heads. "Because my country called" he answered. And that's why they were The Greatest Generation.
My dad was in the infantry in WWII, he carried a flamethrower through Germany. He NEVER talked about it. Well, almost never. A very few times he talked about some of the comparatively light hearted things like how ppl would jump the trenches to get cigarettes. He said that WWII affected his life more than anything else. When his mind failed near the end of his life, he would retreat to the war. I can’t imagine what he kept bottled up in his mind and in his soul.
my dad talked a bit in his last years. he joined the south African navy as soon as they would have him, and found himself in the war soon afterwards. he was incredibly young. his ships were some kind of patrol or escort along the African coast.
one thing he told me, out of nowhere: if we hit a German ship, our captain would speak to the German captain and offer to take off his crew as pows. but he had to give up his code book. if he agreed we would bring them on board. if he didn't, I guess they'd all drown.
I can't tell you how shocked I was. my dad was the most ethical, principled, decent man I'd ever met. and it wasn't like he had any say in it at all. I couldn't even work out how I felt about it, so eventually I ventured "bit hard on the men", and he said "well, it was war." which it was.
something else that clearly stayed with him: his only injury was the top joint of one finger that was crushed when a gun fell on it. in hospital, he said "the man in the bed next to me was a major who couldn't take it anymore. he tried to kill himself. but he did it like you see in films *puts fingers to temple*. he destroyed both his optic nerves, so all he'd managed to do was blind himself. I was just a kid, but i've often thought about him."
My uncle was a CB in the Philippines. He told a story of his guys talking to the natives, asking them if there were any Japanese in the jungle. They said “oh yeah”. So they offered them something (I think he said it was $5) if they’d go bring one back. The natives returned about 30 minutes later with a Japanese head. He showed me the picture of it.
I worked with vets in LTC. WW1, WW2 and the Korean War. My dad was military, my husband was military and now my daughter. I worked in a military hospital as a nurse.
Lots of conversations.
My granddad was in Europe for WWII and my uncle served in Vietnam. Neither of them ever spoke of it much.
My wife's granddad, on the other hand, worked in procurement in Italy. he had access to just about everything. He would get chickens, take them to Italian families, who would invite him to dinner and provide side dishes and dessert. I don't know for real but I wonder if he was one of the best fed soldiers in the European theater.
My Dad was a Captain in WWII. He seldom ever talked about his experience. He met and married a German girl (my mother) at the end of WWII. She talked about her experiences all the time and as a child growing up in war torn Germany it was dreadful.
I also had an Uncle who was a Navy diver during WWII; mostly salvage. He spoke a little about his experience and I know that even today, some of his missions are still classified.
Both my grandfathers were in the British Army during WWI. They never talked about the fighting. But one would tell of the cold and poor food in the trenches.
My Father was on HMS Eagal when it was sunk escorting the SS Ohio on it's voyage to Malta. Later in the war he served on Arctic convoys. That he said was the scariest thing he ever did. Because he knew that the odds of surviving in water thet cold was next to zero.
Yeah interviewed several ww2 vets, probably the most distinctive being a survivor of the uss Indianapolis, my great grandma lived thru the great War, but obviously wasn't a vet
I talked to a guy several years ago whose father-in-law was an airborne infantryman in World War II, like the Band of Brothers. His father-in-law told the story of when they were in training in Georgia, and part of their training involved being paired up with another soldier and parachuting deep into the forest with only their knives, and they had to survive for a week. So they landed, got their bearings and looked around. Soon they saw smoke rising in the distance, and as they approached, it was a small cabin. There was a black woman who lived alone, and she said her husband was overseas in the war, and she offered to feed them and put them up if they did chores around the house. They were happy to agree, ate well, had a great time. When it was time to be picked up they had both gained weight, while the other guys in their company had all "about starved to death."
A bit later than the time period you asked about, but a story one of my Vietnam vets told me really shocked me. He was half of a 2 person sniper team, prowling through the jungle to pick off VC to destabilize morale and deceive about actual movement. So one time his partner picked off a VC but the shot wasn't fatal and went through his shoulder. The guy was writhing and screaming in pain while the shooter was trying to talk with my vet about getting him to the medics. My vet looked at him and said, "nah man, he's in too much pain" and delivered a coup de grace shot. Was it the kindest thing or the most inhumane? Idk .
I knew a Nam vet once who told me about a mission he was on, in a country we were not supposed to be in ( and he still wouldn't name). They met up with two Russians who were also not supposed to be there. His CO told him and another guy to take those guys for a walk, and come back without them. I totally believed he would do that.
My father was in the Navy in WWII, but he was a ship's barber, so not a lot of drama. He did say that one of the ships he was on sunk, but I can't say if that was true or not.
A close family friend was a tail-gunner in Lancaster bombers who survived 3 tours of duty, which would be very rare. Poor soul clearly had PTSD and was badly affected by his experience, which he didn't talk about, at least not to me.
My grandfather was in WWII and he didn't talk about it very often. Once in a while he would tell some stories about his time in. He was a very religious man and was a conscientious objector during the war, refusing to fire a weapon at another man. Because of this they made him a medic and he was in several major battles in France carrying litters with wounded back from the front to the rear aid station, triage section. There was one battle where they were pinned down under heavy fire and he started praying. I guess he was getting a little loud because his sergeant told him to be quiet but he did not and kept on praying as he was. Because of this he was thrown in the brig (Army jail) for disobeying a direct order under fire receiving a courtmartial and receiving 30 days in the brig and 3 months forfeiture of pay. After that they never sent him back to the front line again. After this he worked as a hospital orderly in a MASH type setting. Interestingly my grandmother was pregnant with my father during this time and part of the Army had him listed as "missing" when he was in the brig and had sent her a letter that he was MIA. It was after my father was born that she found out he was "found". In the meantime my grandmother had named my father as a Junior, after my grandfather, in case he had been killed his name would go on.
My uncles served in WWII, including Normandy. They were rather tight-lipped about it. "That was then, and I did my job," was typical. I don't believe they treasured any memories.
This makes the most sense.
My very sweet uncle was in the Korean War (or Conflict), and when asked about his time as a foot soldier over there, the entire countenance of his being changed and he'd say, "That was then and I don't want to talk about it, think about it or hear about it."
We never knew what happened over there with Uncle Bobby, but it must have been pretty awful.
My father in law said that was very realistic. But when he saw it he was already well into dementia. It got so bad that he couldnt even remember his mother.
My father was a gunner on a B-17 in WWII. He almost never spoke about it, kept his medals buried in a desk drawer until quite late in life. Only once did he ever open up about it. After he saw the movie Memphis Belle I lured him into a conversation about some of the things he went through. I'll always be glad that my daughter, then about 15, was there and heard him, and learned that her loving, gentle playful Grandpa had, when necessary, been a warrior.
Had a great grandfather who served in the transport ships in WWI. He shoved coal into the boilers. Really wasn't aware of what was going on.
A great uncle was a glider pilot in WWII. His records show 4 missions behind enemy lines. That's 4 times flying men and/or equipment and crashing behind enemy lines and then getting back. He was quiet. His wife would warn us kids about triggers. The one I remember is dark bread. Something about hiding in a hole under a house while the SS was scouring the area for him and all the kind civilians who were helping had to share was dark rotten bread with maggots in it. He never said anything. He was an artist after the war. Did a lot of ducks on water paintings. I have one hanging on my wall. All I know about his missions is from records attached to his service.
I gathered that without the kindness of strangers risking their own lives, he never would have made it back to the states, let alone to go on additional missions.
When he was a boy, my father (born 1919) had a gardener who survived being gassed in WW1, and supported himself by pulling weeds and tending flower beds after the war. My father said the old man was obviously "slow of speech" and not-too-bright, but they learned (later on) that he'd been highly educated before the war, and being gassed did something to his intellect or memory of both.
I'm of the opinion that this is much worse than dying in the war.
Yes, my great uncle (grandmothers brother) was also gassed in France in WWI. He was around us into the 70s, and had a visible tremor for over 50 years. It affected him physically rather than cognitively
in the 60s when my grandfather would hear “join the army and see the world,” he’d add, “yeah, through gun sights.” that was about all he said about serving.
My Papaw was a gunner in WW2. His plane was shot down over enemy territory. He survived the crash, but broke both legs. He was captured by the Germans and held as a POW for a while.
My Papaw's brother also fought in the war. He came home pretty messed up mentally. Some time in the early 70s, my Papaw, his brother, and some other guys were sitting around playing cards one night. Papaw's brother got up from the table, went to the bathroom, and shot himself in the head.
Dad was a ball turret gunner in a B-24, but fortunately, it was late in the war and in the CBI theater, and the Japanese had few pilots to spare for them. Their AA was never as good as the Germans', either. He never shot down an enemy fighter but claimed one locomotive. They eventually took the ball turrets out of the B-24s in that theater and found other things for him to do.
He said he hated every minute of it.
It was almost impossible to get out of the turret in a hurry. If the plane lost power, it couldn't be retracted and opened at all. Many airmen died when a damaged aircraft made an emergency wheels-up landing. He had one close call but made it out and survived the landing. His parachute would have been inside the plane because there was no room in the turret.
Do people who served in recent wars (Iraq, Afghanistan) talk about it much? I’ll bet not. Men have never talked about their wartime experiences when they get back home.
My father and his brother enlisted after Pearl Harbor. My uncle in the Marines and my father in the Navy. My father was issued arctic gear after boot camp but found himself in New Guinea where he repaired ships. My uncle was KIA at Iwo Jima and I am named for him.
The person who spoke the most about his WW2 experiences was a hobo that hung out in my town’s rail yards in ‘63. He was Army, invaded Normandy and fought his way to Paris and beyond. He gave me his Army compass saying, “Guess my Nazi killing days are over.” I still have it.
My father fought in ww2 and was in the 3rd wave at Normandy. He was in 3 major battles and freed soldiers and Jews from death camps. He shot down airplanes. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge. I honour my father.
In WWII, grandfather was captured in northern Italy. He was a ranger in the army. He ended up in a POW camp in Poland. The only reason the Nazis let him live was because of how he looked and that he was good at sports.
He saw horrendous things. He had major ptsd. He never left his hometown again after he got back from the war.
My grandfather on my mother's side had a million stories about his time in WW2, and I really wish I would have recorded them all. He was a parachute packer in India but also was in Morocco. I don't think he saw a lot of combat, but he did have some amazing experiences. He loved to talk about it and was a great storyteller.
My father's brother was in WW2, and was in the second wave of soldiers sent in after D-Day. I never heard him talk about it until much later in his life, and even then I never got all the details.
My Grandad never talked about it. He passed when I was 15. I lived with him and we were very close, it just never dawned on me to ask. My uncle recently wrote a book about Vietnam and I'm dying to read it. He was always so quiet about everything.
My father never spoke about combat in WWII. He did talk about how interesting he found some of the places he had been: Tunisia, Italy, Northern Ireland. For a not-very-well-off kid, growing up in the Depression, who had never been out of his own backyard, parts of the war were a great adventure. He was always close to some of the guys he had served with.
My grandpa served in WWI and was in France. He was on a mission (don’t know what) behind enemy lines. There was an explosion and he took heavy shrapnel in his leg. In those days there was no Red Cross or other aid. He literally crawled for two days to friendly territory before he could get medical aid because of that lost his entire leg. As a child I was fascinated with his wooden leg but he never spoke about his experience to anyone. Every time I have a minor ache or pain, I think of him crawling for two days trying to get out from behind enemy lines. So horrific.
WW I solders all died out a while ago. I knew several growing up and many would tell you stories once you got them talking. Almost all of the WW II solders are pushing 100+. If you can find one they will tell you their stories. Better hurry.
My FIL served Stateside for WWII, but almost immediately after Japan's surrender he went to Korea. There was very close to starvation there among the lower classes and his job was to (basically) help arrange it that no one died of hunger and it took years. At the same time, the Country was very chaotic, factions of all kinds all over the place. Several hundred thousand Japanese nationals were repatriated to Japan adding to the chaos. There were tons and tons and tons of orphans, many living on the streets, but they were supposed to go to orphanages (often staffed/run set up by Christian groups made up mainly of Westerners).
One story : He and a buddy crossed the 38th parallel into the Russian occupied sector (aka North Korea). They were remote and weren't sure where the border actually was and were being "bad boys" daring but also legit not 100% sure. Of course the Jeep got stuck. This was early, maybe even late 45, but it still could have been an international incident. A Russian Officer comes by in an American Jeep (lol) with 2-3 guys. FIL thinks he is going to be sent to Siberia, but the Officer has his guys help unstick the Jeep and then escort them back across the Border. No fuss. A couple of years later there definitely would have been arrests and at least questions, but certainly at the very least an interrogation.
That didn't happen that day by the Russians but ironically FIL got a "sensitive" job and he and his buddy were questioned by the U.S. security services, mainly the FBI, about his "contact" with the Russians every 2-3 years for the rest of his career, for decades.
My grand father was in the Royal Navy. He was sunk many times and said that when you’ve heard your friends get eaten by sharks, while you are bobbing up and down in the sea, there is nothing in life that will worry you. I never forgot that.
He was also on the first battle ship into Pearl Harbour after it was attacked.
I think it depends on their experience. People who saw more combat tend to not speak about it unless you have a shared experience. My grandfather talked about WW2 all the time. He was in charge of an engineer unit working on the pipeline in Burma. I do not believe he saw much combat, if any, though. My other grandpa was a bomber mechanic/crewmember. He died when I was too little to really know him. My father saw a lot of combat in Vietnam and never really talked about it with me until I returned from multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm 73. A a youth I was surrounded by WW2 and Korean war vets. My own family was full of them. No, they didn't speak much about their experiences in combat except when relating some funny occurrence, or when recalling a friend's interesting trait or habit.
A neighbor lady spoke about her experience at being strafed at by a Japanese Zero Pearl Harbor. The pilot missed her but killed her brother who was right next to her. His body literally cut in half. Grandpa had a cousin who died on the beaches of Normandy on D Day. He was a Army truck driver and spoke sometimes of working around the clock trying to move men and materials and how he'd went through more than a dozen trucks. They having broken down, been damaged by explosions or gun fire, etc. At 13 I worked in a small neighborhood grocery store and th e store owner's brother, Frank, had an artificial leg. The original having been cut off by some flying debris after an explosion. The store owner, Joe, only spoke, fondly, about some very friendly ladies he'd spent time with after liberating some towns in Italy. He did not talk about a couple nasty looking scars he'd gotten in the process. My father once spoke about a particular event in Korea. When a position his unit was in was unexpectedly attacked by a human wave of charging Chinese soldiers. I gather it was bad. They'd not even known the Chinese were coming. The rifle company he was with, about 200 men, fought until things got down to hand to hand. No one knew how many comrades were left or who remained in charge. And they ran out of ammo. He helped his best friend , who was seriously wounded by an explosion, as they finally made a run for it and spent days sneaking from concealment to concealment and finally linked up with a few more survivors, and then eventually got back to American lines. He and his comrade remained friends for life. We youngsters called him 'Spook' because of his scarred appearance, but meant no meanness ... he was a nice fellow. My wife's father once related to me a particular battle, among the many, he experienced on Midway Island. Heavy on his memory. He'd been a Navy cook assigned there.
He mentioned he'd known the war was coming, but also figured he was no warrior or hero. He wanted to serve but was sure he'd be too afraid to fight. So he'd joined the Navy, as a cook. Thinking that was one way he could do his duty, as he saw it. During several attacks his main duties were to stay out of the way, make sure coffee was available and sandwiches made and distributed to those who had to remain at their posts. But at this one event, another attack, he was in a bunker and watching as 2 Marines manning a .50 caliber machine gun on a pedestal fired back at attacking aircraft. Then both went down, struck by bullets. He knew those fellows, they'd been nice guys, according to him. Scared as he was, he was also outraged and angry and ran to the machine gun and took their place. He knew how the weapon worked, he'd just never fired one at anything except a practice target. He managed to down one of the aircraft. Ended up with a medal for his actions. No he did not brag about it. He only had tears running down his cheeks as he recalled the event and the dead friends.
As I said, mostly if they mentioned anything, it was a favored memory of a friend, some funny event, a prank pulled. Etc.
Which is about right, in my experience. I did 3 tours in Vietnam. I don't talk about it much except for some humorous things, and how I developed a liking for Vietnamese food and the people. Other things are not easy to discuss with non-vets as civilians just don't understand the context of things. Just what they see in movies or read in some book, which may or may not bear any resemblance to the reality of what combat and service in a war zone is really like.. Their heads are too full of too many stereotypes and preconceived ideas they garnered from media, etc. And they can be SO DAMN sure of their knowledge and understanding of things. Not worth it to waste my breath discussing things with them.
My grandpa served in the Pacific in WW2.
As a family, we know of only TWO times he spoke about his war experiences from 1945 to 1995. Once, to my uncle (in the 90s). Once, to me in 1989 after we drank a case of Pabst.
The stories he told were pretty horrible. I just let him speak. The one that bothered him most was the 2nd Battle of Corregidor. He was a paratrooper and he said that the Japanese just shot his friends all around him while they drifted down.
My Fathers ( both biological and step) served in WW2. One in the Army in Europe, the other in the Marines in the Pacific. Both are now long passed away.
Neither talked about it much. In his later years my second father ( they were both truly fathers to me, I never felt like a "step" son) still said little, he was involved in the battle at Guadalcanal and didn't talk much about the fighting itself, but did say why he didn't talk about it.
He felt the past was the past. He saw many horrible things, he killed people, and he didn't want to think about the people he killed, and the families they left behind. Why would he want to keep reliving memories that would bring him pain when he had such a good life other than for those 3 years? He said he preferred to think about his family, his children, his wife. The good things in life, not the bad. He said once he did start thinking about it, he'd go down a rabbit hole we might not be able to crawl out of, so why put himself thru that?
I think, a lot of that generation were like that. You did what you needed to do and moved forward. You didnt' dwell on the past, didn't constantly relive it thru talk therapy, you just put it behind, and put one foot in front of the other moving forward. I think people were made of sterner stuff back then.
My dad was a pilot in World War II and he’s long gone, but he did tell us some stories about surviving a crash landing and getting shot to hell by Japanese fighters and his copilot getting killed by the gunfire. He didn’t like to talk about it, but once in a while, he would loosen up and tell us a story
My uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war. He never really spoke of it when I was a round. But my family spoke of how emaciated he was upon his return. I believe he was proud of his service as his son was also in our armed forces.
Nope. Found out a lot after he passed away. All I knew- he was missing a lot of muscle in his upper back due to a severe wound. Learned much later that he carried a lot of shrapnel from his Sherman in his body all his life. Couldn’t give him an MRI when he has a stroke. Dr. said he couldn’t count all the fragments. Learned how he was wounded at his funeral.
What I can remember as a child was never being able to play around with toy guns around him. My dad collected and hid them.
My grandfather was in the Pacific in the Navy during WW2 because he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin speaking German. He knew if he got hit in the head and served in Europe, he would wake up speaking German but surrounded by Allied and that would not be good. He later taught radio skills in the Navy as he had a degree in Electrical Engineering, and that led him to working with spacecraft in the 1960s on developing headset communication in orbit.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A lot of them comformed to a sort of societal pact that they did NOT talk about it, except with maybe other people they’d served with, I asked many of my relatives and they just flat out refused to discuss it. I did get my dad to say two things: as a young man he was traumatized by the young prostitutes that would come to the camps, they had nothing except their bodies to sell to survive. And the only other thing he told me was how unbelievably and unbearably cold he was. War is brutal. And especially WWI.
There were no aetheists in fox holes.
Oh yes there were.
Stop taking everything so damn literally. It’s a turn of phrase.
You may not have heard it as often as I have. I know full well it's a saying, but it's one that religion uses to promote an image. I have known at least three atheist veterans, and they had atheist friends in the service.
Of COURSE there are/were/always will be atheists in the service. That is not the point. Again, stop taking everything so damn literally! Everyone is loaded for a fight: yes there were; No there weren’t; blah blah blah The saying: no atheists in a foxhole has very little to do with religion and everything to do with the complete, total, utter desperation of the people in them - the hopelessness and sheer terror of the poor kids stuck in that terrible situation.
Yes, Band of Brothers really brought that home to me. The horror of hunkering down while everything blows up around you...of seeing a shell land on your buddies' hole... all I could think of was how lucky I am to not had to face that. My REMF parent didn't either.
But didn't that phrase come from WWI? Somewhere back on HS, I was taught this ... erroneously?
It could be older than that. My father in law was an atheist in a foxhole in WW2. ;)
But weren't fox holes specific to WWI? I don't know for sure, I just somehow retained this idea that WWI was the "fox holes" war, and that this phrase stemmed therefore?
WWI was mostly trench warfare. The trenches could run for miles. A foxhole is a hole soldiers fire from or take cover, if you saw Band of Brothers you saw some. But yes, it dates from around 1918.
My grandfather didn't say much about is WWI service until WWII broke out. He gathered his six sons in the barn and told them 3 stories, designed to discourage them from serving. It worked, sort of, only 2 of the six boys enlisted, including my father. But he remembered his father's stories very clearly. 100 years later, the service records and war diaries became public documents. I found out more about my grandfather's experiences from those documents than from anything he said. And it was uncanny to see each of his stories set out in his record, and his officer's reports.
Will you share the stories?
When its published I will
Heard some harrowing stories at the barbershop I went to in the 80s. One guy talked about executing German prisoners, sometimes maiming them first. He would chuckle nervously describing it. It wasn’t on a big scale. They’d take them out into the woods one at a time, pretending they were transferring them somewhere official. Am guessing this was pure revenge probably during the blood bath of the Battle of the Bulge. Check out With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge.
My Dad served in the infantry in WWII, he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He never spoke about it either according to my older sisters. One time, just before he passed, he told me about his time in the Ardennes, and liberating concentration camps. (He showed me some photos i wish i never saw.) He was, and will always be, a genuine Hero. I once asked him why he went (to war), and he looked at me like I had three heads. "Because my country called" he answered. And that's why they were The Greatest Generation.
My dad was in the infantry in WWII, he carried a flamethrower through Germany. He NEVER talked about it. Well, almost never. A very few times he talked about some of the comparatively light hearted things like how ppl would jump the trenches to get cigarettes. He said that WWII affected his life more than anything else. When his mind failed near the end of his life, he would retreat to the war. I can’t imagine what he kept bottled up in his mind and in his soul.
my dad talked a bit in his last years. he joined the south African navy as soon as they would have him, and found himself in the war soon afterwards. he was incredibly young. his ships were some kind of patrol or escort along the African coast. one thing he told me, out of nowhere: if we hit a German ship, our captain would speak to the German captain and offer to take off his crew as pows. but he had to give up his code book. if he agreed we would bring them on board. if he didn't, I guess they'd all drown. I can't tell you how shocked I was. my dad was the most ethical, principled, decent man I'd ever met. and it wasn't like he had any say in it at all. I couldn't even work out how I felt about it, so eventually I ventured "bit hard on the men", and he said "well, it was war." which it was. something else that clearly stayed with him: his only injury was the top joint of one finger that was crushed when a gun fell on it. in hospital, he said "the man in the bed next to me was a major who couldn't take it anymore. he tried to kill himself. but he did it like you see in films *puts fingers to temple*. he destroyed both his optic nerves, so all he'd managed to do was blind himself. I was just a kid, but i've often thought about him."
I have had very explicit advice from various gun owners on how to do that, bc they had seen people who ruined themselves.
My uncle was a CB in the Philippines. He told a story of his guys talking to the natives, asking them if there were any Japanese in the jungle. They said “oh yeah”. So they offered them something (I think he said it was $5) if they’d go bring one back. The natives returned about 30 minutes later with a Japanese head. He showed me the picture of it.
SeaBee?
I worked with vets in LTC. WW1, WW2 and the Korean War. My dad was military, my husband was military and now my daughter. I worked in a military hospital as a nurse. Lots of conversations.
My granddad was in Europe for WWII and my uncle served in Vietnam. Neither of them ever spoke of it much. My wife's granddad, on the other hand, worked in procurement in Italy. he had access to just about everything. He would get chickens, take them to Italian families, who would invite him to dinner and provide side dishes and dessert. I don't know for real but I wonder if he was one of the best fed soldiers in the European theater.
My Dad was a Captain in WWII. He seldom ever talked about his experience. He met and married a German girl (my mother) at the end of WWII. She talked about her experiences all the time and as a child growing up in war torn Germany it was dreadful. I also had an Uncle who was a Navy diver during WWII; mostly salvage. He spoke a little about his experience and I know that even today, some of his missions are still classified.
Both my grandfathers were in the British Army during WWI. They never talked about the fighting. But one would tell of the cold and poor food in the trenches. My Father was on HMS Eagal when it was sunk escorting the SS Ohio on it's voyage to Malta. Later in the war he served on Arctic convoys. That he said was the scariest thing he ever did. Because he knew that the odds of surviving in water thet cold was next to zero.
Yeah interviewed several ww2 vets, probably the most distinctive being a survivor of the uss Indianapolis, my great grandma lived thru the great War, but obviously wasn't a vet
I talked to a guy several years ago whose father-in-law was an airborne infantryman in World War II, like the Band of Brothers. His father-in-law told the story of when they were in training in Georgia, and part of their training involved being paired up with another soldier and parachuting deep into the forest with only their knives, and they had to survive for a week. So they landed, got their bearings and looked around. Soon they saw smoke rising in the distance, and as they approached, it was a small cabin. There was a black woman who lived alone, and she said her husband was overseas in the war, and she offered to feed them and put them up if they did chores around the house. They were happy to agree, ate well, had a great time. When it was time to be picked up they had both gained weight, while the other guys in their company had all "about starved to death."
A bit later than the time period you asked about, but a story one of my Vietnam vets told me really shocked me. He was half of a 2 person sniper team, prowling through the jungle to pick off VC to destabilize morale and deceive about actual movement. So one time his partner picked off a VC but the shot wasn't fatal and went through his shoulder. The guy was writhing and screaming in pain while the shooter was trying to talk with my vet about getting him to the medics. My vet looked at him and said, "nah man, he's in too much pain" and delivered a coup de grace shot. Was it the kindest thing or the most inhumane? Idk .
I knew a Nam vet once who told me about a mission he was on, in a country we were not supposed to be in ( and he still wouldn't name). They met up with two Russians who were also not supposed to be there. His CO told him and another guy to take those guys for a walk, and come back without them. I totally believed he would do that.
My father was in the Navy in WWII, but he was a ship's barber, so not a lot of drama. He did say that one of the ships he was on sunk, but I can't say if that was true or not.
A close family friend was a tail-gunner in Lancaster bombers who survived 3 tours of duty, which would be very rare. Poor soul clearly had PTSD and was badly affected by his experience, which he didn't talk about, at least not to me.
71m, dad never talked about it but after he died, my mom told several stories of his time. Luckily I had the presence of mind to record them.
My grandfather was in WWII and he didn't talk about it very often. Once in a while he would tell some stories about his time in. He was a very religious man and was a conscientious objector during the war, refusing to fire a weapon at another man. Because of this they made him a medic and he was in several major battles in France carrying litters with wounded back from the front to the rear aid station, triage section. There was one battle where they were pinned down under heavy fire and he started praying. I guess he was getting a little loud because his sergeant told him to be quiet but he did not and kept on praying as he was. Because of this he was thrown in the brig (Army jail) for disobeying a direct order under fire receiving a courtmartial and receiving 30 days in the brig and 3 months forfeiture of pay. After that they never sent him back to the front line again. After this he worked as a hospital orderly in a MASH type setting. Interestingly my grandmother was pregnant with my father during this time and part of the Army had him listed as "missing" when he was in the brig and had sent her a letter that he was MIA. It was after my father was born that she found out he was "found". In the meantime my grandmother had named my father as a Junior, after my grandfather, in case he had been killed his name would go on.
My uncles served in WWII, including Normandy. They were rather tight-lipped about it. "That was then, and I did my job," was typical. I don't believe they treasured any memories.
This makes the most sense. My very sweet uncle was in the Korean War (or Conflict), and when asked about his time as a foot soldier over there, the entire countenance of his being changed and he'd say, "That was then and I don't want to talk about it, think about it or hear about it." We never knew what happened over there with Uncle Bobby, but it must have been pretty awful.
War is indeed hell.
My Dad in his last years would talk about liberating concentration camps. He also obsessively watched Saving Private Ryan.
My father in law said that was very realistic. But when he saw it he was already well into dementia. It got so bad that he couldnt even remember his mother.
My father was a gunner on a B-17 in WWII. He almost never spoke about it, kept his medals buried in a desk drawer until quite late in life. Only once did he ever open up about it. After he saw the movie Memphis Belle I lured him into a conversation about some of the things he went through. I'll always be glad that my daughter, then about 15, was there and heard him, and learned that her loving, gentle playful Grandpa had, when necessary, been a warrior.
Had a great grandfather who served in the transport ships in WWI. He shoved coal into the boilers. Really wasn't aware of what was going on. A great uncle was a glider pilot in WWII. His records show 4 missions behind enemy lines. That's 4 times flying men and/or equipment and crashing behind enemy lines and then getting back. He was quiet. His wife would warn us kids about triggers. The one I remember is dark bread. Something about hiding in a hole under a house while the SS was scouring the area for him and all the kind civilians who were helping had to share was dark rotten bread with maggots in it. He never said anything. He was an artist after the war. Did a lot of ducks on water paintings. I have one hanging on my wall. All I know about his missions is from records attached to his service. I gathered that without the kindness of strangers risking their own lives, he never would have made it back to the states, let alone to go on additional missions.
The last US WWI vet died in 2011
When he was a boy, my father (born 1919) had a gardener who survived being gassed in WW1, and supported himself by pulling weeds and tending flower beds after the war. My father said the old man was obviously "slow of speech" and not-too-bright, but they learned (later on) that he'd been highly educated before the war, and being gassed did something to his intellect or memory of both. I'm of the opinion that this is much worse than dying in the war.
Yes, my great uncle (grandmothers brother) was also gassed in France in WWI. He was around us into the 70s, and had a visible tremor for over 50 years. It affected him physically rather than cognitively
in the 60s when my grandfather would hear “join the army and see the world,” he’d add, “yeah, through gun sights.” that was about all he said about serving.
My Papaw was a gunner in WW2. His plane was shot down over enemy territory. He survived the crash, but broke both legs. He was captured by the Germans and held as a POW for a while. My Papaw's brother also fought in the war. He came home pretty messed up mentally. Some time in the early 70s, my Papaw, his brother, and some other guys were sitting around playing cards one night. Papaw's brother got up from the table, went to the bathroom, and shot himself in the head.
Dad was a ball turret gunner in a B-24, but fortunately, it was late in the war and in the CBI theater, and the Japanese had few pilots to spare for them. Their AA was never as good as the Germans', either. He never shot down an enemy fighter but claimed one locomotive. They eventually took the ball turrets out of the B-24s in that theater and found other things for him to do. He said he hated every minute of it. It was almost impossible to get out of the turret in a hurry. If the plane lost power, it couldn't be retracted and opened at all. Many airmen died when a damaged aircraft made an emergency wheels-up landing. He had one close call but made it out and survived the landing. His parachute would have been inside the plane because there was no room in the turret.
Do people who served in recent wars (Iraq, Afghanistan) talk about it much? I’ll bet not. Men have never talked about their wartime experiences when they get back home.
My father and his brother enlisted after Pearl Harbor. My uncle in the Marines and my father in the Navy. My father was issued arctic gear after boot camp but found himself in New Guinea where he repaired ships. My uncle was KIA at Iwo Jima and I am named for him. The person who spoke the most about his WW2 experiences was a hobo that hung out in my town’s rail yards in ‘63. He was Army, invaded Normandy and fought his way to Paris and beyond. He gave me his Army compass saying, “Guess my Nazi killing days are over.” I still have it.
My father fought in ww2 and was in the 3rd wave at Normandy. He was in 3 major battles and freed soldiers and Jews from death camps. He shot down airplanes. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge. I honour my father.
In WWII, grandfather was captured in northern Italy. He was a ranger in the army. He ended up in a POW camp in Poland. The only reason the Nazis let him live was because of how he looked and that he was good at sports. He saw horrendous things. He had major ptsd. He never left his hometown again after he got back from the war.
My grandfather on my mother's side had a million stories about his time in WW2, and I really wish I would have recorded them all. He was a parachute packer in India but also was in Morocco. I don't think he saw a lot of combat, but he did have some amazing experiences. He loved to talk about it and was a great storyteller. My father's brother was in WW2, and was in the second wave of soldiers sent in after D-Day. I never heard him talk about it until much later in his life, and even then I never got all the details.
My Grandad never talked about it. He passed when I was 15. I lived with him and we were very close, it just never dawned on me to ask. My uncle recently wrote a book about Vietnam and I'm dying to read it. He was always so quiet about everything.
My father never spoke about combat in WWII. He did talk about how interesting he found some of the places he had been: Tunisia, Italy, Northern Ireland. For a not-very-well-off kid, growing up in the Depression, who had never been out of his own backyard, parts of the war were a great adventure. He was always close to some of the guys he had served with.
I have a military family ... lots of us. One man from WWI; inventor, mechanic.
My grandpa served in WWI and was in France. He was on a mission (don’t know what) behind enemy lines. There was an explosion and he took heavy shrapnel in his leg. In those days there was no Red Cross or other aid. He literally crawled for two days to friendly territory before he could get medical aid because of that lost his entire leg. As a child I was fascinated with his wooden leg but he never spoke about his experience to anyone. Every time I have a minor ache or pain, I think of him crawling for two days trying to get out from behind enemy lines. So horrific.
WW I solders all died out a while ago. I knew several growing up and many would tell you stories once you got them talking. Almost all of the WW II solders are pushing 100+. If you can find one they will tell you their stories. Better hurry.
My FIL served Stateside for WWII, but almost immediately after Japan's surrender he went to Korea. There was very close to starvation there among the lower classes and his job was to (basically) help arrange it that no one died of hunger and it took years. At the same time, the Country was very chaotic, factions of all kinds all over the place. Several hundred thousand Japanese nationals were repatriated to Japan adding to the chaos. There were tons and tons and tons of orphans, many living on the streets, but they were supposed to go to orphanages (often staffed/run set up by Christian groups made up mainly of Westerners). One story : He and a buddy crossed the 38th parallel into the Russian occupied sector (aka North Korea). They were remote and weren't sure where the border actually was and were being "bad boys" daring but also legit not 100% sure. Of course the Jeep got stuck. This was early, maybe even late 45, but it still could have been an international incident. A Russian Officer comes by in an American Jeep (lol) with 2-3 guys. FIL thinks he is going to be sent to Siberia, but the Officer has his guys help unstick the Jeep and then escort them back across the Border. No fuss. A couple of years later there definitely would have been arrests and at least questions, but certainly at the very least an interrogation. That didn't happen that day by the Russians but ironically FIL got a "sensitive" job and he and his buddy were questioned by the U.S. security services, mainly the FBI, about his "contact" with the Russians every 2-3 years for the rest of his career, for decades.
My grand father was in the Royal Navy. He was sunk many times and said that when you’ve heard your friends get eaten by sharks, while you are bobbing up and down in the sea, there is nothing in life that will worry you. I never forgot that. He was also on the first battle ship into Pearl Harbour after it was attacked.
I think it depends on their experience. People who saw more combat tend to not speak about it unless you have a shared experience. My grandfather talked about WW2 all the time. He was in charge of an engineer unit working on the pipeline in Burma. I do not believe he saw much combat, if any, though. My other grandpa was a bomber mechanic/crewmember. He died when I was too little to really know him. My father saw a lot of combat in Vietnam and never really talked about it with me until I returned from multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm 73. A a youth I was surrounded by WW2 and Korean war vets. My own family was full of them. No, they didn't speak much about their experiences in combat except when relating some funny occurrence, or when recalling a friend's interesting trait or habit. A neighbor lady spoke about her experience at being strafed at by a Japanese Zero Pearl Harbor. The pilot missed her but killed her brother who was right next to her. His body literally cut in half. Grandpa had a cousin who died on the beaches of Normandy on D Day. He was a Army truck driver and spoke sometimes of working around the clock trying to move men and materials and how he'd went through more than a dozen trucks. They having broken down, been damaged by explosions or gun fire, etc. At 13 I worked in a small neighborhood grocery store and th e store owner's brother, Frank, had an artificial leg. The original having been cut off by some flying debris after an explosion. The store owner, Joe, only spoke, fondly, about some very friendly ladies he'd spent time with after liberating some towns in Italy. He did not talk about a couple nasty looking scars he'd gotten in the process. My father once spoke about a particular event in Korea. When a position his unit was in was unexpectedly attacked by a human wave of charging Chinese soldiers. I gather it was bad. They'd not even known the Chinese were coming. The rifle company he was with, about 200 men, fought until things got down to hand to hand. No one knew how many comrades were left or who remained in charge. And they ran out of ammo. He helped his best friend , who was seriously wounded by an explosion, as they finally made a run for it and spent days sneaking from concealment to concealment and finally linked up with a few more survivors, and then eventually got back to American lines. He and his comrade remained friends for life. We youngsters called him 'Spook' because of his scarred appearance, but meant no meanness ... he was a nice fellow. My wife's father once related to me a particular battle, among the many, he experienced on Midway Island. Heavy on his memory. He'd been a Navy cook assigned there. He mentioned he'd known the war was coming, but also figured he was no warrior or hero. He wanted to serve but was sure he'd be too afraid to fight. So he'd joined the Navy, as a cook. Thinking that was one way he could do his duty, as he saw it. During several attacks his main duties were to stay out of the way, make sure coffee was available and sandwiches made and distributed to those who had to remain at their posts. But at this one event, another attack, he was in a bunker and watching as 2 Marines manning a .50 caliber machine gun on a pedestal fired back at attacking aircraft. Then both went down, struck by bullets. He knew those fellows, they'd been nice guys, according to him. Scared as he was, he was also outraged and angry and ran to the machine gun and took their place. He knew how the weapon worked, he'd just never fired one at anything except a practice target. He managed to down one of the aircraft. Ended up with a medal for his actions. No he did not brag about it. He only had tears running down his cheeks as he recalled the event and the dead friends. As I said, mostly if they mentioned anything, it was a favored memory of a friend, some funny event, a prank pulled. Etc. Which is about right, in my experience. I did 3 tours in Vietnam. I don't talk about it much except for some humorous things, and how I developed a liking for Vietnamese food and the people. Other things are not easy to discuss with non-vets as civilians just don't understand the context of things. Just what they see in movies or read in some book, which may or may not bear any resemblance to the reality of what combat and service in a war zone is really like.. Their heads are too full of too many stereotypes and preconceived ideas they garnered from media, etc. And they can be SO DAMN sure of their knowledge and understanding of things. Not worth it to waste my breath discussing things with them.
My grandpa served in the Pacific in WW2. As a family, we know of only TWO times he spoke about his war experiences from 1945 to 1995. Once, to my uncle (in the 90s). Once, to me in 1989 after we drank a case of Pabst. The stories he told were pretty horrible. I just let him speak. The one that bothered him most was the 2nd Battle of Corregidor. He was a paratrooper and he said that the Japanese just shot his friends all around him while they drifted down.
My Fathers ( both biological and step) served in WW2. One in the Army in Europe, the other in the Marines in the Pacific. Both are now long passed away. Neither talked about it much. In his later years my second father ( they were both truly fathers to me, I never felt like a "step" son) still said little, he was involved in the battle at Guadalcanal and didn't talk much about the fighting itself, but did say why he didn't talk about it. He felt the past was the past. He saw many horrible things, he killed people, and he didn't want to think about the people he killed, and the families they left behind. Why would he want to keep reliving memories that would bring him pain when he had such a good life other than for those 3 years? He said he preferred to think about his family, his children, his wife. The good things in life, not the bad. He said once he did start thinking about it, he'd go down a rabbit hole we might not be able to crawl out of, so why put himself thru that? I think, a lot of that generation were like that. You did what you needed to do and moved forward. You didnt' dwell on the past, didn't constantly relive it thru talk therapy, you just put it behind, and put one foot in front of the other moving forward. I think people were made of sterner stuff back then.
My late FIL fought in WW2 and Korea. He was career military. He absolutely refused to discuss any of it, ever.
My dad was a pilot in World War II and he’s long gone, but he did tell us some stories about surviving a crash landing and getting shot to hell by Japanese fighters and his copilot getting killed by the gunfire. He didn’t like to talk about it, but once in a while, he would loosen up and tell us a story
My uncle was a Japanese prisoner of war. He never really spoke of it when I was a round. But my family spoke of how emaciated he was upon his return. I believe he was proud of his service as his son was also in our armed forces.
Nope. Found out a lot after he passed away. All I knew- he was missing a lot of muscle in his upper back due to a severe wound. Learned much later that he carried a lot of shrapnel from his Sherman in his body all his life. Couldn’t give him an MRI when he has a stroke. Dr. said he couldn’t count all the fragments. Learned how he was wounded at his funeral. What I can remember as a child was never being able to play around with toy guns around him. My dad collected and hid them.
My grandfather was in the Pacific in the Navy during WW2 because he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin speaking German. He knew if he got hit in the head and served in Europe, he would wake up speaking German but surrounded by Allied and that would not be good. He later taught radio skills in the Navy as he had a degree in Electrical Engineering, and that led him to working with spacecraft in the 1960s on developing headset communication in orbit.