Tell us about a WW2 European Theater vet you know . . .

Much respect to all who posted here and their relatives and friends who served.

Great thread, 579....thank you!

DzynKingRTR said:

My paternal grandfather was stationed at Pearl Harbor (The Oklahoma). He survived that. He was then put on the New Mexico and 3 days later it accidentally rammed a freight and sank it. He survived several kamikaze attacks on his ship. He has quite a few medals including 2 purple hearts. He and the ship were present in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender.

My maternal grandfather survived getting shot and nearly blown up twice. He was an army tech sergeant. He basically lead a bunch of kids. They had come upon an area and were ordered to overtake it. They were supposed to send out a scout first. He did not want to “send a kid to his certain death” so he went first. He was shot and bombs were dropped near him and his platoon. All were killed except my grandfather. He was alive but barely. He was found and enroute to a hospital, bombs were dropped again. Everyone was killed except my grandfather. He laid out there for days. He was finally found. His tags were missing and he didn’t remember who he was. He had already been pronounced dead and my grandmother had received a flag and a visit from the government. Several days later his memory came back and he was sent home. He also has several medals and a purple heart.

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WOW!!! That’s movie material. What an amazing story.

My father died at Iwo Jima in February of 1945, when his carrier, the Bismarck Sea was sunk by kamakazis; the very next day, Marines raised the flag on Mt. Surabachi.

My mother remarried in 1947, to the man I always knew as my father, Oscar Rich. Oscar was with the First Division (Big Red One) and had participated in the landings in North Africa and Sicily. He was an artillery spotter pilot flying a Piper Cub and later an L-5.

On June 6, 1944, he landed on Omaha Beach and, having borrowed a jeep from the beachmaster, towed his airplane up into an apple orchard, exactly as the mock-up had shown it aboard the ship he crossed on. His observer had been wounded on the landing, and so he was assembling the plane by himself. The wings were tied alongside. Infantry troops would stop and ask if they could help, and he would ask them to lift this or hold that for a few minutes before they moved on. He flagged down a bulldozer and asked him to clear a hundred yards along the ridge line for a runway, which he did. He got it fixed and was able to fly the next morning. He was awarded nine air medals, the Silver Star, and various other medals for his Africa and Sicily campaigns.

Oscar had gotten malaria in Africa, and relapsed a few months later. He was sent to New York for treatment. While there, he was approached by an officer recruiting for a War Bond tour (because of the Silver Star, I guess). The guy asked, as a preliminary question, "How do you feel about General Patton?" Oscar said "I hate the SOB!" The man then asked if there was some other job Oscar would like to do.

On the D-Day experience, he told me his greatest fear was being run over by a tank at night. On the beach, he said after about a minute or so you realized that there was no way you were going to live through it, so you just did what you were supposed to do.

He returned to his division around the time of the Aachen offensive.

He was my hero. One of the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to know. Honest, sincere, humble.

Micah 6:8 ...act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

I'll try to make this brief. My dad was a great story teller (as is typical of many southerners). He loved to tell humorous yarns. The stories he told of WWII were funny. Like the time he was in a foxhole and a K9 came up behind him and stuck his wet nose to his neck. My dad soiled himself.

Dad passed in Huntsville Hospital in 1996. After his death I was going through his papers and came upon his 214 (release from service). His theatres of service were Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes (battle of the bulge) and Rhineland (marched into Germany). He had been awarded 4 bronze stars. And I thought I had been bored with every story the old man knew.

Some may be old enough to remember Coach Bryant's famous AT&T ad where he said, "Have you called your mama today ? I sure wish I could call mine.". I sure wish i could be bored with the Old Man's stories again.

Whirleybird said:

I'll try to make this brief. My dad was a great story teller (as is typical of many southerners). He loved to tell humorous yarns. The stories he told of WWII were funny. Like the time he was in a foxhole and a K9 came up behind him and stuck his wet nose to his neck. My dad soiled himself.

Dad passed in Huntsville Hospital in 1996. After his death I was going through his papers and came upon his 214 (release from service). His theatres of service were Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes (battle of the bulge) and Rhineland (marched into Germany). He had been awarded 4 bronze stars. And I thought I had been bored with every story the old man knew.

Some may be old enough to remember Coach Bryant's famous AT&T ad where he said, "Have you called your mama today ? I sure wish I could call mine.". I sure wish i could be bored with the Old Man's stories again.

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Amen to that...

Go Bama said:

When we lived in Loretto, TN my next door neighbor was Mr Henkel. He was in the glider regiment of the 101st Airborne. Until he told me about it I didn’t know gliders we’re used by the military. He said their main job was reconnaissance and they would glide silently over enemy territory at night and either sneak or fight their way back to our side. IIRC, Mr Henkel said the gliders were made of wood. I can’t imagine being in a wooden glider at night behind enemy lines waiting on a crash landing.

Yep, they’re ALL heroes.

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Gliders were used extensively during D-Day. I suppose because there weren't enough DC-3's to carry all of the airborne troops that were to be involved in the operation.

https://www.asme.org/engineering-to...ce-defense/the-flying-coffins-of-world-war-ii

Awesome stories, every one of them.

No European theatre for me. My Pawpaw forged his birth certificate to join the Air Force at 16 because he literally had nowhere to go. He was a tail gunner and part of the occupation force in Japan. He had to have some serious alcohol to even talk about his time in Japan.


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Its On A Slab said:

Gliders were used extensively during D-Day. I suppose because there weren't enough DC-3's to carry all of the airborne troops that were to be involved in the operation.

https://www.asme.org/engineering-to...ce-defense/the-flying-coffins-of-world-war-ii

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Excellent read! “G” is for guts! Thanks for sharing.

Its On A Slab said:

Gliders were used extensively during D-Day. I suppose because there weren't enough DC-3's to carry all of the airborne troops that were to be involved in the operation.

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Gliders were used to carry heavier equipment to drop zones for the airborne divisions (e.g. jeeps, 75mm pack howitzers) and, in the case of the 327th and 325th Glider Infantry Regiments, infantry. A U.S. airborne division in 1944 had three parachute infantry regiments and a glider infantry regiment. I've never heard of gliders being used to sneak troops behind enemy lines for recon. They were not particularly silent since they had to be towed to the drop zone by C-47s or heavy bombers.

The one exception, I suppose, would be Pegasus Bridge east of Caen. In that case they did rely on the silence of the glider to catch the German guards unaware.
When the allies used gliders, they used hundreds of gliders and stealth had little to do with it.

I am unaware of any occasion during WW II when the allies used a glider to infil a small recon party. It could be, I suppose, but I have never heard of it.

Speaking of gliders, this is still in the brigade headquarters of 1st brigade, 101st (current home of the 1st and 2nd Battalions, 327th Infantry.

The glider troops were a little bit miffed that they did not get jump pay like the guys in the parachute infantry regiments.

AlexanderFan said:

Awesome stories, every one of them.

No European theatre for me. My Pawpaw forged his birth certificate to join the Air Force at 16 because he literally had nowhere to go. He was a tail gunner and part of the occupation force in Japan. He had to have some serious alcohol to even talk about his time in Japan.


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My Dad enlisted as soon as he graduated high school in 1944. He went down to the recruitment station and requested he be given a tail gunner role. They shipped him off to infantry. Entered the theater early 1945.

Looking back today I can count six uncles and my Dad who participated in World War ll in the ETO and Pacific. My Dad's youngest brother was in a rifle company in Europe and was captured and became a POW before his 20th birthday during the Battle of the Bulge. Fortunately he survived, nearly starving and was released during the German retreat.

My Mom's youngest brother served on a destroyer in the Pacific that was hit by a Kamikaze off Okinawa.

I believe it would be an understatement to say that the war shaped all of their lives in different ways. Some struggled with alcohol others had very successful families and jobs.

My Dad died suddenly at 45 before I grew to know him. It has always been a bit of a mystery to me as to how he could go through so much death and destruction and return to a simple quite life in rural Alabama.

On thing I have reflected on lately in the fact that all of these men went away for extended periods and once discharged had to find their own way to rebuild their lives, to support a family, to adjust back to civilian life and perhaps find a way to recapture their lost youth after going through a time where any moment could have been their last on the Earth.

TIDE-HSV said:

My two older brothers, both members of the Army Air Corps. The older, Harvey, was a navigator on a B-17 in the 8th Air Force in SE England. Eddie, the younger was a pilot in a fighter-bomber, doing sub patrol off south FL and trying constantly to get overseas...

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I was hoping you would post about your brothers, Earle. Thanks!

One thing about gliders:

They are relatively inexpensive and more expendable than a plane with an expensive motor and all the gas and oil to boot. Planes with engines could be saved for more effective uses.

Tidewater said:

Gliders were used to carry heavier equipment to drop zones for the airborne divisions (e.g. jeeps, 75mm pack howitzers) and, in the case of the 327th and 325th Glider Infantry Regiments, infantry. A U.S. airborne division in 1944 had three parachute infantry regiments and a glider infantry regiment. I've never heard of gliders being used to sneak troops behind enemy lines for recon. They were not particularly silent since they had to be towed to the drop zone by C-47s or heavy bombers.

The one exception, I suppose, would be Pegasus Bridge east of Caen. In that case they did rely on the silence of the glider to catch the German guards unaware.
When the allies used gliders, they used hundreds of gliders and stealth had little to do with it.

I am unaware of any occasion during WW II when the allies used a glider to infil a small recon party. It could be, I suppose, but I have never heard of it.

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I could easily be misremembering (Reagan?) my neighbor’s story. The conversation took place about 12 years ago. Mr Henkel, my neighbor, died on Thanksgiving Day but I don’t remember the year, probably 2006 or 2007 so it’s been a while.

In the last photo you posted above most of the gliders have the fuselage broken behind the wings. Any idea why? Those don’t look like Waco G-4’s because of the round fuselage.

I suspect under the right conditions a glider could travel many miles after being cut loose. I’m not a pilot but if that’s the case the noise of the tow plane shouldn’t have been a problem.