War Stories

Im not sure if anything like this has been posted before couldnt find anything.


I was wondering does anyone have any interesting war stories from relatives or those who have served in wars from the funny to the shocking. My great greandfather before he died told my family many stories some he found easy to tell, others he found very difficult.

He was with the british forces who landed in Italy during World War 2, and what would commonly occur is the nazi forces would leave mines behind doors, so he was about to go into this building by means of an open window. He had rosemary beads wrapped around his enfield rifle as many did at the time, Im not certain of exactly what they are but I think its something todo with catholosism anyway, as he climbed into this window, he caught his foot and fell into the room, when he looked up there was a nazi soldier looking down at him, he could of easily killed my granfather but instead he pointed to the rosemary beads and simply walked away.

I have other sotries too if anyone is interested .

Vorta

[edit on 31-8-2005 by Vorta]

WWII - My Grand Uncle; In the south Pacific. His ship engaged in combat with a Japanese Sub. The ship took a hit, the lights went out, and he thought he was being sprayed with warm oil from a pipe breaking, when the lights returned, he was covered in blood from one of his shipmates!

Viet-Nam - My Uncle; Penned down under enemy fire in a sewage filled rice paddy for two whole days!

Korea - Mother's Friend's brother: 1952. He survived the frozen hell of Korea, but died the very same day he got back from the war, he was drinking and driving and ran into a telephone pole in Long Beach, Ca.

Originally posted by Godzilla1985
WWII - My Grand Uncle; In the south Pacific. His ship engaged in combat with a Japanese Sub. The ship took a hit, the lights went out, and he thought he was being sprayed with warm oil from a pipe breaking, when the lights returned, he was covered in blood from one of his shipmates!

Damn, it must really have a hardening effect on the survivors I never heard any stories from my granfather being under enemy fire, I guess he just got lucky.

Although he did feel great guilt during and after the war. Him and his friend were sent into the front, again in Italy and saw a staff car coming down the road, they were in the middle of a field of tall grass, they waited for it to come into range and both stepped out and lets say kept the hammer down after killing the driver and a nazi major they waited till the car stopped and began going through there pockets and looking at anything else they could find in the car, not exactly sure why. As I remember they found a case of medals and thats about it. When my granfather looked through one of the dead mens wallet, there was a picture of him and his family, and from then on till the day he died at age 89 the war troubled him. That was admittedly the only time he regretted what he did in war. I guess because of the picture.

Viet-Nam - My Uncle; Penned down under enemy fire in a sewage filled rice paddy for two whole days!

lol, ouch, havn't got any stories that come close to that!

did he come out ok?

Vorta

My dad was a B-52 crew chief during Vietnam. He had three or four stories that always made me laugh.

A tailgunner over Hanoi looked out the window, on one side, he saw a Mig, on the other he saw a SAM, and straight behind them he saw gun tracers, all coming towards them. He closed his eyes, pulled the triggers, and just sprayed bullets all over the sky. When he opened them, the sky behind them was clear and they were flying along untouched.

A fellow crew chief was a short timer, 8 days until he went home. He went out to service a BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow is the polite term), and heard a noise above him. He looked up and the four .50 cal guns in the tail were tracking him. They could be set to heat seek, and automatically fire. He took off running, and heard "BANGBANGBANGBANGCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK". They had safetied the guns, and removed all the ammo, except the four in the barrels. He marched into his commanders office and said "Sir, there ain't NO WAY I'm going back on that ramp until it's time for me to get on that plane to go home. And he didn't.

Another tailgunner was on a mission, and heard a hissing sound by his feet. He looked down and there was a giant rat about to take a chunk out of his boot. He jumped up and spent the rest of the mission squatting on his seat. When they asked him why he didn't just depressurize his section and kill the rat, he told them "I thought about it, but I was afraid that it wouldn't repressurize, and I'd be stuck there with the body.


He's told me a few more that weren't war stories but just as funny.

lol, thats crazy Zaphod.

I have a friend who was a sgt in the recent Iraq war, they were sent to go blow up some sort of weapons dump. Everyone said to him how they thought he was to close to the dump blow it up yet, he though it would be ok, so he got behind a humv and gave the order to blow it up. Boom, a huge bunch of crap gets thrown at the humv absoloutly peppering it one of the doors also got blown off, and all he said was, "Back it up for the next charge"

....lol

Vorta

[edit on 1-9-2005 by Vorta]

i met Paul Tibbets, the guy who flew the enola gay over japan, and when he was flying agains the germans he wiped out an entire luftwaffe fighter squadron with one bomb....that bomb just happend to land on the chow hall at lunch time!

Originally posted by KrazyIvan
i met Paul Tibbets, the guy who flew the enola gay over japan, and when he was flying agains the germans he wiped out an entire luftwaffe fighter squadron with one bomb....that bomb just happend to land on the chow hall at lunch time!

lol, wow, thats pretty cool Ivan . Was that at like an airshow?

If you ever visit an airbase I highly recommend Duxford airbase just outside Cambridge, England (if you ever happen to goto england). Very cool place didn't see any well known vets but they have a huge variation of aircraft if your interested that includes an SR-71. And a huge collection of WW2 aircraft.

-

I only had one relative fly during a war, in the RAF, he was a gunner on a sunderland flying boat (which duxford also has lol) unfortunatly he went missing over the North sea of England on a mission to norway in 1942 or 3 i think, never seen again, I guess still classed as MIA/KIA.

Sunderland Flying Boat

Vorta

From a WWII Surface Navy Rememberance Ceremony...
Back in 1995, be and a friend asked this very old and very retired Master Chief how he got the Navy Cross... He said, It was During the battle of Midway, His gun crew was firing away at a Kamakazi Japanese Zero, inbound extactly on his position. As the Plane came closer the weapon jammed. He reached inside the gun, seriously burning and breaking his hand to remove the jammed shell, just at it was removed it fired on the plane and sent it crashing just feet short of hitting the ship!
(The Navy Cross Medal is the second highest medal, under the Medal of Honor)

One that I read about while researching the Medal of Honor.....

During the Korean War a B-29 was on a bombing mission. In those days to drop the magnesium flares, they had to stick them in a tube, and let them fall out of the plane. The crewmember responsible for this, dropped one in the tube, but it promptly lit, and bounced back into the airplane. Being that it was burning hot enough to melt holes in the plane, and they had very little time to extinguish it, he simply picked it up, and started walking towards the cockpit carrying it. As he was walking his eyesight began to dim, and his hands literally began to melt from the extreme heat. Once he reached the cockpit, he leaned past the pilot after getting him to open the window, and threw the flare out of the plane before collapsing. IIRC he lost one eye that literally melted in the socket, and most of the use of his hands due to severe damage from the heat of the flare.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
One that I read about while researching the Medal of Honor.....

During the Korean War a B-29 was on a bombing mission. In those days to drop the magnesium flares, they had to stick them in a tube, and let them fall out of the plane. The crewmember responsible for this, dropped one in the tube, but it promptly lit, and bounced back into the airplane. Being that it was burning hot enough to melt holes in the plane, and they had very little time to extinguish it, he simply picked it up, and started walking towards the cockpit carrying it. As he was walking his eyesight began to dim, and his hands literally began to melt from the extreme heat. Once he reached the cockpit, he leaned past the pilot after getting him to open the window, and threw the flare out of the plane before collapsing. IIRC he lost one eye that literally melted in the socket, and most of the use of his hands due to severe damage from the heat of the flare.

All I can say to that is wow, I've never heard of that. Incredible bravery, the pain he must of endured....

After reading what you wrote, I was doing a little research on how many people have received the medal of honor, I came across thisSITE anyone know anything about how people have won the medal of honor in the category "non-combat", and unknown is interesting??

Vorta

If you want to read an amazing story about a Medal of Honor recipient, read the book Into the Mouth of the Cat about Lance Peter Sijan. An absolutely amazing man who unfortunately didn't survive being a POW in Vietnam.

Thanks, Zaphod!

I'll have a look into that, im very interested in millitary history but I've always focused on the battles. I'll look that one up.

Vorta