I just read the most INCREDIBLE thing!!!! Absolutely unreal!!

Would certainly love to see all that you have, perhaps as an online scrap-book.

Sure would be fun, and a boon to history buffs everywhere!

You should posts some pics that would be amazing to see.

Great find, and what a wonderful way to remember your dad bud

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: Starcrossd

In the bottom of this same steamer trunk was a newspaper lining on the bottom. Just for a bottom liner.

The date is...May 16, 1929.

A month from now it will be 90 year old paper. Thanks for sharing the story, post some photos!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

He said..."They told us, point blank, we're going to put more soldiers on the beach than the Germans have bullets to shoot. Your mission is to take out as many German reinforcements as possible to keep those casualties to a minimum." 

This is real. I've heard this time and time again. Flood them!

Sorry for your loss.
It must be difficult and fascinating at the same time to find all this history, take some time to soak it in.
Both my grandfathers were in the air force..one flew Lanc's over Germany, I wish I'd had the opportunity to learn more of their history..you have a rare gift.

a reply to: slider1982

I think I might be able to write the book. I would only hope I could do justice to it all.

Just the sheer inhumanity of it all, the value of a life being measured in a number...and somehow people understood and accepted this. People just have no idea, and when you see pictures, not propaganda pictures, but the real deal...unedited, raw, pictures. It's just mind blowing. To actually hold the actual letters from a parent to another asking about their son, just pleading for any information at all.

Here's an excerpt...

"Dearest Barbara and Harold,

We have received information from the War Department that our son was shot down behind enemy lines in Germany. Our son has spoken often of your son and we are aware he was a crew member of your son's B-17. We are eternally sorry for this incident, and while we realize that they likely have been taken prisoner we would wish to inquire if you have heard from your son, and if he has given you any information of Andrew. We have not heard anything at all and would be ever grateful if you had any information about them. ... "

It just yanks my heart right out of my chest to read something like this. A completely unsolicited letter from a complete stranger...just asking for a simple update on their son.

Sadly, I have not found any sort of a response, nor do I recall Dad ever talking about an "Andrew", so I don't know what happened to him. I wish I could say, but I cannot. I remember him talking about that day, and it wasn't good. Many of the crew were killed before they had to bail out (his 3rd time). I only remember him talking about a "flak-happy" tail gunner who they had to deal with (and who was ultimately killed by the very flak he feared so much)...and (God this is hard) blood mixed with expended shells inside the plane trying to make his way to bail out.

a reply to: vonclod

A very rare gift indeed!

Thank you.

a reply to: SailorJerry

Gosh, it would take weeks to photograph this book in a way where people could actually read it all. It's huge. Just stuffed with all sorts of things; envelopes with multiple letters inside, pages pasted over pages...it's just endless. Orders, passes, training certificates, letters from the War Dept, postcards, news clippings, written pages, journal pages, actual flight logs, flight rosters, navigation reports of actual flights, full size bomb sight photos (folded up), BDA's, commendation letters...I'm not kidding...this is just un-freaking-believable!!!

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this. I'm just shocked anything like this even existed!!

Cool. Quite a life!

My father had me later in life and was in the 303rd heavy bombardment group (Hell's Angels) out of Molesworth AFB. He did 25 missions for Canada and the Royal Air Force before he was of legal age with forged papers, and then switched to the USA Army Air Force in WWII and did a full tour, so 50+ mission. He didn't like Nazis.

He didn't talk too much about it, but I understand how it seems like BS compared to our cushy lives, now. The handful of stories I pried out of him where utterly amazing and sounded like a bad, overblown action movie.

The casualties in those early years were closer to 33% , but that's a slaughter.

You have a treasure trove, there... there are organizations dedicated to keeping the memories alive.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It exist. And so do you👍

It's completely your choice to share.
Honestly I'm so intrigued by what you did share. I feel blessed.

I have 3 sets of George Ade books 1st addition mint quality i just inherited. Wondered too if to just give to the Smithsonian. Plus hand written notes from Mark Twain interviews.

Again.. I'm happy you found time to share this.👍

a reply to: Baddogma

Oh believe me, even before finding this I was already in contact with the 381st, 533rd, commemorative group. Before Dad passed they helped me get pictures of some of his planes, some of which I found out are actually quite famous, history on crews and missions.

I haven't had a chance yet to tell them about this find. (I'm sure they'll completely freak out when I do...they don't have anything like this, nothing even close!)

I even had the curator of the 381st, 533rd museum at Ridgewell, England send me a piece of the original runway which I have displayed in my office. This has not been a short journey for me, historically. Even as a kid I've always tried to pay attention and take notes.

The legends of the "Mighty 381st", the 'forts' and the legendary 'triangle L', one of the most feared bomb groups in all of Nazi Germany is not something I've ever thought trivial.

I sure wish posting pictures here was easier, but here's a link to just one...the famed 'triangle L' of the 381st. This aircraft is from the 568th squadron, but still 381st.

Triangle L

a reply to: Bigburgh

I will try my best to share this fantastic thing. It would be a shame to not try to do so, after saying all I have. If for no other reason than to share this magnificent piece of history with everyone here on ATS.

I will need to figure out how best to do that, and I do have some ideas. In any case, just photographing it all will take some time. It will be worth it, but the more I think about it, it's probably the best thing to do. I will probably need to set up a dedicated 'photo booth' (I don't know) type thing. The book itself is actually fairly large physically, probably about 18" x 14" pages, and I would guess about 150 pages front and back (I didn't count them all exactly, I was just gobsmacked even looking at it all).

But I will try. It's the right thing to do.

Super awesome FCD. If it were me, I'd do what Phoenix suggested and at least get it all digitalized.

My dad served in Vietnam and I have some audio tapes he sent home that my grandparents finally gave us that include live fire fights during the tet offensive. My great uncle was in WWII but aside from ancestry.Com documents proving he was there, there's nothing else on record.

The Smithsonian is notorious for locking things away never to see the daylight again. ( think Indiana Jones lol) and I'm sure many other museums neglect important findings such as these as well.

Hell, I'd prolly hang on to them till I was on my deathbed. Then the kids and grandkids could figure out what to do next.

Thanks for sharing.

a reply to: Wookiep

I've actually found quite a number of contacts for research into WWII records. I was really surprised some of the stuff I could track down even with fragments of information. I don't know a lot about ground or naval forces, but if your grandfather was in the Army Air Corps I may be able to help you get some info. I may be able to help even in other areas, but I haven't done nearly as much research in these areas.

Feel free to PM me some info and I can do some research if you like. A lot of these guys I've found have all sorts of contacts in all manner of WWII military stuff. Sadly though, we have to hurry...there's not many of them around anymore. Very few actually.

I'm glad I did the research when I did. There's still a lot of historians out there, but many of the real-deal have passed on now, so the information is only second hand. Much of what I was able to get is first hand, Dad being prime among these.

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: anotherside

I would love to go there someday and pay my respects.

Dad always talked about that day. He talked about how unfair he thought it was he was way "up there" when all those guys were fighting it out on the beach. He told me a chilling story about their briefing on the eve before D-Day, I'll never forget what he said.

He said..."They told us, point blank, we're going to put more soldiers on the beach than the Germans have bullets to shoot. Your mission is to take out as many German reinforcements as possible to keep those casualties to a minimum."

He would always choke up about how 'matter of fact' that briefing was. Just the sheer scale of what it was going to take to defeat Hitler, and the absolute colossal loss of life which would ensue the very next day. I can't even imagine it. He said he couldn't either, and it took weeks for them to hear the real toll. In many ways he always felt somehow guilty about that day (I can't imagine why, after all he did, but he still did).

Our younger generations will never know, or even begin to understand, the sacrifice these heroes made to preserve the world as we know it today!

and now we have neo nazis in our country and what will that take?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I could provide his name to you, and tell you that I believe he was army but that's all I know. He and my grandfather were adopted so it's unclear what the actual last name was, tho we have an idea of what it was due to tons of research on ancestry.Com.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

That's an amazing find. You should certainly work on cataloguing and creating a database of as much of this material as you can. Perhaps a museum curator could help you with it. Honestly the story would be quite a book and it would mean a lot to the world...as personal histories convey the human experience much more than anything else.

It reminds me of this person who made a blog about his/her father's experiences told by his letters home...

WW2 Navy Dentist

It just gives a very personal intimate look at the war.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Pretty amazing.

You should scan that and put it on a website somewhere.

I bet it would be hella interesting.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I'm speechless just reading this! I can't begin to even imagine how proud you must be right now to be your fathers son. Incredible story!

Such a rare chance for you to feel and almost live history. Times were different, history for people wasn't some text on a computer or phone. Seeing how grand parents and parents from that time saved history and memories is fascinating.

I had an uncle who was a B-17 pilot, 385th group. A tough task, but in a war most tasks are.