Whats your/families war story?

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I was replying to this thread earlier and it got me thinking about all the WW2 stories I grew up hearing. War doesn't just affect the soldiers but the civilians as well. So no matter what you or your family were doing in times of war it left them some amazing stories. I want to hear stories you have been told growing up (as well as share my personal favorite) I also want to hear first hand stories from anyone who has been affected by war time in their life. I'm in a star giving mood so any stories shared will get a nice shiny star from me....I'll star commentary with valid opinions as well.

To set the mood allow me a second to put you in my grandmother's shoes....Your a young girl, old enough to remember the official start of the war but young enough the dominos have been falling since you were born. Your from a large family 13 siblings though one died at birth and another is simply missing. Your the oldest female. Your family is poor but not quite as bad as some others. Your aryan but not racist. As far as you know you have never heard about the murder of the Jewish community, All you know about that is they are not allowed in the same places you are. The most you understand about them is all the propaganda filling the streets. Being young and impressionable you have your reservations about them but you don't hate them by any means...Simply sort of afraid of the people you don't understand would be a way to put it
There is no forign media your only view of the world outside Germany is that propaganda on the streets...You have your reservations about this too especially when you notice the world around you changing for the worse. Soldiers are occupying the streets, The Russian soldiers have caused the women of your family much greif. Your family is haveing troubles keeping everyone feed. The wall is up and your near it. Prohhabition is in affect. But one thing could help...Your family knows how to make wine.

Now that I've set the scene I'll continue with the story as I heard it.

The family would elect the cutiest of their children. Then they would load them up with homemade wine to sell (this was dangerous) The kids knew they could make better sales on the other side of that wall so they would climb over it. On more than one occasion they were caught by German soldiers (thankfully after makeing that nights sales otherwise I probably wouln't exist today). The German solders were easier to deal with than the Russian soldiers. My grandmother would give them a pity story about how hungry her siblings were and explain they were simply looking for any scraps worth salvage. They would tell her she needs to buy her bus ticket back to where she belongs...This is where she proves how awesome she was...She starts crying explaining she has no money, if she did she wouldn't be here looking in trash cans for food. The soldiers having sympathy for a fellow German would buy her ticket home. Meanwhile her shoes were so full of that nights earnings she could barely walk in them!

In retrospect It's easy to look at the parents sending their kids into a dagerous situation was bad. But in their defense the kids wouldn't be as easy for the authorities to punish and ( as bad as this sounds) it was a choice of risk losing a few, that if they were sucessful you could feed your family VS losing them all to starvation. As far as the parents knew they weren't going over the wall into even more dangerous territory. I know it's hard to look at a story of an aryan family and feel sympathy but they were simply living in a country that was overthrown by an insane man. I guess I wanted to share how hard war is even when your on the wrong side of it...just trying to survive and not sure of what or who to believe.

Good thing you put this out while we still have some folks alive from the draft days.

After that, the amount of Americans with "war stories" is steadily dwindling even though we are fighting a lot more wars.

...just a veteran's point of view

I have a story passed on to me by my Father about his Father - My Grandfather.

It was WW2 - My Grandfather was called John - John was a messenger running the lines.- One day he was given a message/order to deliver to the front lines. He got close everything was choas - heavy loss of life and much carnage - An officer stopped him proceeding futher and told hime to turn back. On returning he was charged with cowardice and was sentenced to firing squad at dawn. On the morning of his execution the officer turned up in the nick of time and he was spared. John was no coward quite the opposite - My Father recalls his great warmth and kindness - John would sit on the doorstep of his humble back to back terraced house and all the kids would come to him with their old shoes which he would sit and repair for them. I never met my Grandfather but feel i know him.

Grampa / Seabee page link here

Family Navy Page Here



Grampa died just before I was born. Dad told me he did not talk much about the war. I know he spent time on Manus and Los Negros Islands with the Seabees. I have a photo of him about half way up a palm tree stringing wires, on the back of the photo he wrote "high as I go". He cut hair and did photography to make extra money to send home. He brought back 2 jap rifles, one still in the crate, in the cosmoline.

In explaining why he had to go he said we can fight them there or fight them here, better to fight them there.

reply to post by artistpoet

Sounds like a good guy...That's why I love these stories. Heck I knew my grandma but her stories reminded me she was more than a little old lady who was so sweet until you forget to mind you P's and Q's lol.
I was even more shocked when she passed, I found a binder full of jokes she wrote down. I'm still thumbing through it and it never fails to shock me how much of a dirty mind she hid from all of us.

reply to post by kawika

Quite the words of wisdom he had.