doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com June 6th 1944

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My Dad lost a cousin on Anzio. We didn’t talk about it much. Dad scarcely talked about his own service.My gun show buddy Carl had his Jeep carrier blown out from under his ass later in the war, when the Yamato got its guns trained on it, in the battle off Samar. Again, didn’t talk much about it. As I was sitting here it occurred to me that Carl said he had to tread water for a few days after he went through that, but, that is about all I ever heard about it, other than the Navy carrier designation CVE really meant “Combustable, Vulnerable, and Expendable”, to him and his shipmates.

The Greatest Generation also happened to be the quietest. Not many left.
God bless ‘em.

Best,
Ted

Had a great uncle who never spoke about the war at all. Learned at his funeral that he received two bronze stars and had four tanks shot out from under him. Most never survived the first I was told by a fellow who served under him for a few weeks of the war. Replacements tended not to last long and he never forgot my uncle taking care of him. He got wounded when the fourth tank got hit. Only two survived and he was one of the lucky ones. Went to hospital and came out shortly after the war ended. Funny thing was he knew every persons name and where he was from in the tank. Said he had visited each of the families and had talked with my uncle within the last year. Never knew and I was close to my uncle.

He just never spoke about it and if asked gave a short, vague answers like he could not recall or it was not very important. If fact most men I know who served never speak much about what they did or saw. Those who speak volumes are often just full of crap. There are a lot of things men do not want to clearly recall and I respect that in them.

My father was a field medic with the tank division that liberated Dachau. He said his group were liberating the satillite camps. He too never talked much about the war. Though once it was different. I was acting as bar tender once for a cocktail party the folks had. At some point the men gathered together and were telling war stories. It was absolutly amazing, these men were everywhere in the world doing everything imaginable and even things I couldn't imagine.

The greatest day in history .the fate of the world was a stake

The greatest day in history was VJ day.

The senseless killing ended, for the time being.

My dad was saved from being fodder for Olympic.

I exist as a direct result of Little Boy and Fat Man, as do countless others both American and Japanese.

Overlord was a necessary piece of the puzzle to be sure but it gets more fame than others equally important.

There would have been no D-Day for example if Eagle Day (Adlertag - 13 August, 1940) had achieved it's objective.

It was a long, long road from September 1939 to August 1945.

Mankind didn't learn much if anything from it, that's the real tragedy.

Wreath laying ceremony at the WWII Memorial on the Washington DC Mall, 06 Jun 2021, commemorating the sacrifices made by the troops in that great endeavor in Europe. This wreath was laid by the 82nd Airborne Association, and for this go-round remembered my father:

Borderbill,
My uncle was a combat medic in the South Pacific. I believe Combat Medics, Corpsmen, and "Dust Off" crews are extra special and I'm sure all the people they saved feel the same way.

Aldertag was the beginning of the battle of Britton.it would have never stopped america of course there were many important battles my dad was at coral sea and midway my uncle Frank and Edward were at normandy.june 6th was the beginning of the end

Der Ami, Yeh, that's the word "combat" medic. The one thing my Dad said was good about the job was that he had his own jeep. At the end of the war when everyone knew it was over but for the formalities, he always drove in somebody elses tracks. He said when they went for the wounded they picked up everybody, Americans, Brits, Germans and Italians everybody they could and being in a tank division the burns were the worst.

Impressive. Must've been a touching moment for you.

Speaking of impressive, whenever I think of the 82d, I remember the simple urn of earth in their museum at Ft Bragg. Sent by the residents of Ste Mere Eglise--free soil from the first town to be liberated that day.

I was inducted into Army December 15, 1965, I had been told by some of my father's friends that he was a POV during WWII. He never spoke about any of it and I never questioned him but on the day I was inducted he drove me to the induction center and on the way he told me that 24 months wasn't so bad as he was held captive for 28 months in Germany. One of his guards spoke English very well as he was a student in Chicago, he told my dad that if he had known about the war he would have never left the U.S.A. My dad also told me his whole company was captured in Africa. God Bless them all.

It is typical that our illustrious leader would not publicly acknowledge June 6. POS

That had to be one helluva place to realize you were in.
Back then,my dads neighbor lost his son on one of those beaches.
the army actually sent a picture of him ,where fallen,as he lay,to the parents.
I dont know if that was commonplace back then,or the story was BS.

My uncle Frank was a torpedo man on DD619 the Edwards, a destroyer. At the end of the war they where given a cruise book, something like a high school year book. My father read it and said that it was like reading a fiction story. The ship was blessed by not losing one man the entire war. He gave that book to someone lost to time. I wish I had it! Uncle Frank was a happy go lucky guy and also didn't talk about the war. I tried to get some stories out of him but all I got was "Yea I was there". The ship certainly saw a lot of action and received 13 battle stars. A jap plane dropped a torpedo meant for them and as it got close to the ship a wave broke and lifted the torpedo so that it came out of the water went OVER the bow and kept on going. They almost bought it that time. A kamikazi attacked them and the wing hit the radar antenna, broke the wing off leaving it hanging on the antenna. The rest of the plane dropped harmlessly into the ocean. He did tell me that he was lucky to have a dry bunk and good meals and felt bad for the marines that they where supporting during their landings knowing they where sleeping in the mud and eating K rations. I said to him that was true but they where losing people on land as individuals and that could add up to quite a few casualties. When they take a ship out you lose hundreds at one time. They had it rough. The bomber crews, submarine crews, infantry and Marines, and all the rest. If they didn't lose life or limb they all lost their youth with some years of their life stolen from them. God bless them all!

I had the chance to visit the Normandy beaches in 2018 it was all very moving. I have lived in Germany now for 19 years and my neighbours father who passed a few years ago at 93 was a medic at Stalingrad and he was on one of the last flights out as he had been wounded, the stories are the same on both sides.
The leaders play their games and the little man always pays the bill bless em all.

It is right that we remember June 6th, 1944 and the sacrifices made there by Americans, British, Canadians and numerous other Allied countries.

However there were other theaters of war that deserve to be remembered as well:

Italy, where Americans (of all colors), British, New Zealanders, Indians, Nepalese, Poles and other Allies fought against determined German resistance as the Allies moved north.

The Chinese, Burma, India (CBI) theater, where British, Indians, Nepalese and Americans fought against the Japanese in the jungles of Burma, while the Chinese also fought against the Japanese in China and Northern Burma. The sacrifices made in the CBI tied up Japanese troops that could have been used against the US Marines, the US Army and the Australians in the Pacific & Southwest Pacific campaigns, two more theaters of war.

My grandfather served in the 97th Infantry Division which was supposed to be the invasion reserve division for Operation Olympic. After the Battle of the Bulge, SHAEF realized that the Germans had more fight in them then SHAEF had thought and the 97th Division (and I presume other US Divisions) was sent to fight in Germany, primarily with Third Army. My Grandfather rarely discussed his service with my father and he passed before I was born. Based on what little he told my Father and my own research, it is likely that my Grandfather either participated in the liberation of a concentration camp or saw the survivors of a camp. My Grandfather did mention killing a SS officer dressed as a priest, something that greatly bothered him.

The bomber air crews faced bad times as well. Some missions had 25-50% losses. Mathematically losses were so high a crew could not fly enough missions to rotate out of combat. Chance and luck did get a few crews through. It must have been hell packing belongings up for buddies who just never returned, shot down, killed, wounded or just missing in action.

Had a shooting buddy who was cursed being small of statue. He ended up in the ball turret, as a gunner. One mission it got so damaged and he could not get out of it when the were forced to land. The right side landing gear had taken damage as well. His fear was it would collapse when landing and the turret would get crushed with him in it. It didn’t but he always said he wished he was six inches taller. They would not have put him in it then. War might seem cool when you are ten but when you hear what some of those guys went through cool is not what I’d call it. My father called it weeks of boredom followed by minutes to hours of intense action was his word. Guess it covered everything from stress to outright terror. God bless the all.

Good site re: 8th Air Force...

https://www.100thbg.com/

Dad had a cousin who was lost in the 350th squadron. Grandma lost a brother, also over Germany.

Few families were not affected in some way.

My wife's father who was a German immigrant circa early 30's lost his ENTIRE family (perhaps 2 dozen individuals) when the Russians overran Breslau.

Hard to imagine.

I suggest you read the dairy from Carborn on the 100thbg. Very moving.

If anyone has the opportunity to travel on I95 through Georgia, the third exit going south from SC, 102, will take you to the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum which is visible from I95. It is well worth the visit. The Mighty 8th was founded in Savannah, Georgia. It has remarkable exhibits from numerous BG's. Gil

My uncle ended his war in a burning tank and was badly injured before he escaped.
He never truly recovered, as he literally couldn’t talk about it and became an alcoholic, which led to his early death at 60.

My Dad was a turret gunner on an A-20G Havoc. I have his flight diary, and it’s full of casual descriptions like “heavy flak damage” or “one man lost”. No details, just the cold, hard truth.

I had the privilege to spend some time in an airplane with an 8th Air Force aircraft commander. Harold was the real deal. Excellent pilot, very soft spoken, modest to a fault. Considering the airplanes he grew up with, he had a very light touch on the controls. He was mentally miles ahead of the airplane. He taught me a great deal, especially about evaluating other airmen. The bigger the mouth, the worse the pilot.

Harold picked his B-24 up at Willow Run, led the entire group to England via the South Atlantic (being the old man of the outfit at age 23) and arrived in the ETO just after D-Day. After 7 missions he drew a 3 day pass to London and when he returned there was a B-17 on his hardstand. The whole group changed equipment while he was gone, and he was an instant B-17 pilot. He did his 25, came home on leave and went back for more. He visited friends in England every year for the rest of his life.

Harold had a great love for aviation and enjoyed sailplanes. As a member of a glider club he had an obligation to share the towing duties. He disliked towing for Eberhard, a Luftwaffe veteran... "I just don't like it when there's a kraut on my tail..."