Photos From My Uncle

Amazing photos! What a great tribute and memory of your uncle. Your caption "note the sailor with the thompson" brought back a memory. I used to eat in a local family run cafe. One day the "old man" was telling a war story. He was a sailor guarding Japanese prisoners one day (where, when, what ship is unknown). He had a Thompson. He was standing on an upper deck, and the prisoners were below him on a lower deck. Meanwhile, enemy mines were floating close by. A detail of sailors were shooting rifles at the mines trying to detonate them. So he figured he would try to fire a few bursts at the mines with his Thompson. All of a sudden, he hears the Japanese prisoners making one hell of a commotion. His hot spent shells were ejecting from the Thompson, and falling down on the prisoners, many of whom wore no shirts. The old guy thought this was hilarious. That was one "war story" I almost forgot, although I try to make a habit of remembering them all. Your photo brought it right back. Thanks for posting.

Greg C.

 

Grom

thanks for the personal pics of your uncles service, what a suck way to go at night landing............very sad to hear of this.

just really had time to look over this thread, thank you and a salute to you. yes the U-Boot in one of the pics with the shielded 2cm Zwilling pointed the wrong direction is known will have to check further.

 

Thank you Erich. I've found some of the names of the boats:

Pic #6 - U-569, sunk May 22, 1943
Pic #7 - U-172, sunk Dec. 13, 1942

 

To Gromit801... I am the grandson of the Gunner... please contact me.

 

To Gromit801... I am the grandson of the Gunner... please contact me.

 

Thank you Gromit801 for sharing these great photos from your uncle John. I like ww2 airplanes very much.

 

Pyrate, sent you a message.

 

Being new to this site, I just saw this as well. Amazing photo of your uncle, and your grandfather, Pyrate. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks Clementine. I about fell off my chair when I logged in after being absent for awhile, and saw Pyrate's posts!

 

I can imagine. I was excited and it's not even my uncle! So happy for you both.

 

As soon as I get my main computer up and running (power supply blew after six years of almost non-stop running), I'll be able to do more as far as better quality photos for Pyrate. I think I only have the one of his grandfather, but going to look a little more carefully now.

 

Looking forward to updates! Glad Gromit and Pyrate have connected.

 

I forwarded a large file of PDF's to Py that was something of a history of VC-19.

 

Some stuff I just sent to Pyrate....

 

Those are great! Love photos like that.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos and article.

I know I get a little emotional about this kind of thing, but it just chokes me up to see photos like this. I look at all of those men, those boys, and wonder what happened to them all......

 

A bit more interesting tidbits. Going through a box of stuff, I came across my grandmother's old address book, and it seemed she kept in touch with my uncle's (her son) squadron mates, including Ray and Elaine Monia. What a trip coming across this stuff. To regress, Ray Monia was the gunner on Uncle John's TBF, and only survivor of the crew.