What did your relatives do in the war, Daddy?

On my father’s side, he had an older brother who was a tac-officer at USMA for the entire war. Didn’t hurt his career any, though; he retired as a Major General. My father also had two younger brothers, one was commissioned out of ROTC in 1940 and spent the war with the 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Division in the ETO; winding up the war as a battalion commander. He retired as a Colonel in 1970. The youngest brother was USMA ’42 and went in the AAF. A P-47 squadron commander and a Lieutenant Colonel, he was shot down and killed in January 1945 near Hamburg. My father’s sister’s were also married to service members. Don’t know much about his older sister’s husband (she was some 11 years older than my father) except he was also a career officer who retired in the late 1950’s as a Colonel. His younger sister married a naval officer who served in destroyers in the Pacific. He retired as a Captain in the 1970’s. My father was a naval aviator, commissioned in June 1938, spent the requisite two years in the fleet, and earning his wings in November 1940. A fighter pilot, he flew the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway and in the Solomons Campaign, credited with a total of 6 aerial victories (some web sources will say 8, but he says 6). After a year’s stint as a training officer in the FleetAirWest advance fighter training machine, he went back out in the fall of 1944 as an assistant operations officer on the TF-38 staff and served out the war there. He retired in 1971, a Rear Admiral. Oh yeah, all these guys in the service … my grandfather was an Army officer. Served as an enlisted man in the Spanish War, was commissioned in 1901, served in the Philippines, was 5th Div Comm Officer in the Great War, and retired a Colonel in 1935. At one time, around 1928 or so, he commanded the same 13th Infantry Regiment in which his son, my uncle, later served in the ETO.
On my mother’s side there were only two boys. Both were in the army. The oldest was in the QM corps, a sergeant, and served in the ETO. He came back and went to OCS, finished college and stayed in the Army, retiring a Lieutenant Colonel in the mid 1960s. The youngest served in the South Pacific as a sergeant in the amphibious engineers. He left the army after the war and embarked on a successful sales career. Of all these folks only my father and his older brother are still with us.

 

I was a cadet and infantry. My brother was 101st Air Borne. He got the Puple Heart for Bastogne but was K.I.A. crossing Rhine River.
You may have seen this but it is a funny one

Kellogg’s All-Bran and WW2
I have a friend who was WW2 tail gunner in a B-24 in England. He had a hearty breakfast of Kellogg's All-Bran before a mission over Germany. On the mission the All-Bran started to work. He was not going to fill his pants so he left his tailgunner position and went to the bomb bay doors and relieved himself. When they got back to their base he really got chewed out by the pilot. All I can think about is the German soldier looking up and plop! he gets it right in the face and said American secret weapon but it stinks.

 

My old man, his oldest brother and my grandfather were all pre-war Territorials when war broke out. Grandad, a WW1 vet, was dying of cancer,uncle Alan was called up but dad was too young.
He enlisted as a War Reserve Constable at the local Police HQ, working in the radio room (he was a wireless op. in the terries anyway).
The night Clydebank got blitzed, dad was among reinforcements sent through there to help the swamped ARP services, and spent his time looking for German aircrew seen to bail out over Lennoxtown. They found one-buried up to his waist in the woods, as the poor sod's 'chute never opened.
Dad resigned from the local police when he turned 19, went to enquire where his call-up papers were and was told he was now in a reserved occupation... He joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and landed in North Africa in Operation Torch, having narrowly avoided going to the bottom of the Med when his ship was bombed off Bougie. He fought all through Africa and Italy with the British 78th (Battleaxe) Infantry Division, before demob. in 1946. He went back into the Territorial Army post-war, as a Sergeant in the Royal Corps of Signals until I arrived in the summer of '62.
His brother Alan served with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, 51st Highland Division in North Africa and later NW Europe, also as a wireless operator. Uncle Alan always told the story of walking along the front in Tripoli when an LRDG patrol passed and someone shouted "Hey Bannockburn". Obviously someone from the same village, but he never did find out who.
His youngest brother, Robert, qualified as an RAF wireless op. and served with Transport Command in India, having been trained in Canada under the Empire Training scheme.
None of them ever speak about it much, having had to pick up where Grandad and his brothers left off in 1919...

Regards,

Gordon

 

I had a brother-in-law a Marine Officer tell of Marine tradition when crossing the Equator ,the enlisted men were in charge and officers had to do what-ever the enlisted men told them to do.This was in Pacific 1944

Art

 

schofield barraks? where's that ? cause i live in Schofield Wisconsin lol

 

Grandpa was "one of the black-out people" in Hampton Roads, a few miles from Norfolk ship building.Heard a few stories about alleged sub siteings along Atlantic coast.

 

Chesterfield County AND a fellow tidewater boy? My, my, my.

 

schofield barraks? where's that ? cause i live in Schofield Wisconsin lol </font>[/QUOTE]Schofield Barracks is in Hawaii.

 

Buckroe Beach to be exact.Still get a kick out of picturing Gramps hollering 'lights out!'.

 

Ocean View

 

Now then, my brother, Robert Morneweck, was in 101st Airborne. He was in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Company A. He received Purple Heart at Bastogne and was killed at Rhine River on a night raid. He was 19.

A letter to a friend:

Berchesgarden, Germany 30 June '45

Dear Virginia,

It leaves me without words when I try to write to you folks. For I know what misery you have gone through waiting for word from Bob.

Now that it finally came I hope you won’t feel as if he is gone forever. For I know that we will all see him again. Somewhere, someday we will be able to talk with him and find out exactly what happened for we are all in doubt of what the real thing was. I am going to try and go see where he was buried. But the army does odd things.

You asked about the Mc Crea boy. Well Bob and I saw him afterwards. He was in a different sector from us but he was lying next to the road as we went by on our way back. He died in an instant after being hit so there was no suffering. A small piece of shrapnel killed him.

As for the Bastogne deal, well it is another long story so I’d best wait till I get home to tell you about that.

The raid Bob lost his life, he was loaded with extra ammunition and grenades. The raid we pulled across the Rhine. It was below Dusseldorf and about five miles from Neinenhiem. Maybe you can find it on a map.

It was at that time of the Rhine pocket so you see what we were up against. We started across about midnight and withdrew about 4:30 am. We captured our objective and caused the German troops to move as was needed.

About the time we started to load in the boast, 3 – 88s opened up and everybody instantly tried to hop into the nearest boat to where they were. As a result, four boats overturned and we lost 18 men. What few did get out said that it was impossible to swim in the current. Our boats picked up some but it was so dark that we couldn’t see over five feet in front of you.

That was about all we know. So perhaps you can draw a picture of it and get some idea of how it happened.

Thanks millions for the stamps, they really came in handy.

As things stand now I’ll be seeing all of you about Christmas time, I hope.

So I’ll try and keep up with my letters.

As Ever, a Friend
~~~~

The trooper killed was Robert Morneweck, my brother. His buddy was Ray Boscom
they were in Company A, 1st Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne.

Art Morneweck

 

my grandfather and great uncle served in the finnish army

 

I know my grandfather on my father's side was in England (where, coincidentally, he met my grandmother - so I guess my existence was dependent on the war going on ) But, I don't know much about what he did - anyone got any research tips for me?

My mother's father - who was from Denmark - skipped town before the war - I think he was playing soccer for some club leagues in St. Louis or something - there are two myths about him ... 1. he was an athletics assistant at Westpoint
2. he played for the Danish national team in the olympics
Then again - he was a bullshit artists - he was probably just drinking all the time

 

Ma mother's father was somewhere around Kiev in 1941 till early 1942 and obtained the Gefrierfleischorden. After that, he had a rather comfortable job as sick bay paymaster in Germany. Twice he was almost killed by a bomb.

 

My Grandfather on my Dad's side worked at Curtiss-Wright in Buffalo, while my Dad's Uncle was in the USAAF towards the tail-end of the war and again during the Korean War.

All I know about the wartime contribution made by my Grandmother on my Mom's side is that she did some small components assembly for radar sets of some sort.


Fade to Black...

 

My mother had 3 brothers and 3 sisters
one brother was too young for WW2 but was conscripted in the RAF after war's end. He served in the middle east during that uneasy time when Israel became independent and unruly
The other brother served in the RAF in WW2 but I know nothing about that.
The 3rd brother left home when he was very young and joined the RN. The rest of the family thought he was crazy because they and everyone they knew joined the RAF.

The 3 sisters.
One married a RAF airframe mechanic on Spitfires. He was sent to Germany in 1945 with a A1 medical certificate. Within a month he was invalided out with TB and had a lung removed. He always blamed the RAF for a poor medical exam. One interesting story was that during the run up to D-Day, many trucks had to be moved from place to place and there was never enough drivers. On one occassion they volunteered anyone who had ever driven anything; a farm tractor or motorcycle for moving a convoy several miles during the blackout. None of the trucks arrived at the destination.

The second husband was a Canadian private in the London Fusiliers. He job was to maintain small arms collecting and fixing discarded weapons and placing them back into service.

My maternal grand father was stationed in a AA battery during the early stages of the German aerial offensive against Britain. He was bombed during an attack on the radar facilities on the south coast and spent the rest of the war in a mental hospital.

Mt paternal grandfather was a WW1 veteran (REME) who detonated one of the mines in the attack at the Somme in 1916. He was gassed twice and wounded twice. I have his spurs.
He served as a ARP in the Blitz and maintained telephone systems at Bletchley Park. He was unable to stay indoors or in a shelter during the bombing and commented that the AA bombardments were nothing much compared to the gunfire of WW1.

His brother, was killed on 20 October 1918. His body was buried in a German cemetary. Apparently he had a habit of going off behind German lines to get info or prisoners. He joined up in August 1914 and almost survived the war. He was 20 years old when he died.

My dad's Sister married an American who served in the RAF as an airframe fiter working on Typhoons and hurricanes. Later in his carrer he service airliners and ended on 747's.

My dad was conscripted to the RAF in April 1945 and served his 3 years. I guess he is still considered a WW2 veteran?

My wifes uncle served on HMS Nelson for the best part of WW2. He was 14 when he enlisted and his first action was sinking the French fleet (as he put it). He was at Normandy on D+6 and in the far east for the surrender of Japan. He retired in the 1960's. He said three wars was enough.

The most interesting member of my family to have a wartime record was my paternal grandmother who was in the IRA before she moved to Britain in 1912. During WW1 she worked at the Vickers plant in Weybridge building aircraft. She worked on the doping line. She said the girls were always very happy and when they were driven home in the army truck they would sing all the way. I wonder why?

 

My uncle worked in the engine room on the New Mexico. A Kamaikaze went straight down the stack & killed everyone exept him as he was on his 15 min break. His brother trained as a gunner on a B-29, but managed to get a typing job stateside. Another uncle served in Korea, & yet another was sent to Germany during Viet Nam, counting truck perts, because his last name began with an M, All M's were sent to Germany, the rest to Viet Nam. No kidding, I'm not making that up.

 

Here you go,my Grandad (Dads,Dad). Second row up,second one in on the right. He volunteered in late '39/early '40. He served a lot in India later in the war. Made it to Sergeant,but refused any further promotions as he wanted to remain "one of the lads". Something he valued more. He was paid extra as a marksman. Stewy

 

Here he is again with my Nan & the second pic's of my Nan & her mate in their N.A.A.F.I uniforms. Stewy

 

My dad lives near Auburn Calif, in a little town called Cool.
He's well into his 90's now, and still drives safely.
Diehard Toyota owner BTW, but that's a different post, perhaps for another forum.

He Joined the Army in 1936, and got his commission by the time America entered the war.

I remember him returning at wars end. He got off the (yellow) street car at Hollywood bl and Highland, dropped his bag and picked me up.
He threw his medals in the drawer and never talked about it.

My mom was a Brit and worked for Walt Disney.
Disney made training films and my mom was a technical writer.

She was on a project that involved the B17 and my dad and her met, and the rest is another thread too.

I visited the UK and France for the 49th anniv of D day, and an aunt took me to a pub that perhaps most, certainly many of the US bomber crews in the area had signed the ceiling.
My dads signature was still there.

I mentioned it to my dad when I returned, and he asked about a few of the local people and I'll be dammed,, they were still there in their proper spots still drinking & chatting too.

Rare that my dad mentioned anything about the war at all.

My family here in Calif and Arizona owned vineyards and farms during WW2. Another family member was a big shot with Pan Am with juice to get bootleg rationed items snuck into the UK,, so the pub was well stocked with sugar, booze, fruit, hams, beef on and on,,,, but that's another thread too.
A few years back my dad was cooking breakfast on his patio one morning during a visit.

I busted out the morning newspaper and saw demo flites were available on the coast in a few different WW2 aircraft.
I told I'd buy expecting to be ignored once again.
But he took me up on the offer.

Off we went. Fantastic day.

We returned home that evening, had dinner,, dad poured some local wine.
And he suddenly opened up.
His crew (and several other) were shot down in the vicinity of the Polesti Oilfields.
By shot down I mean they bailed out "Pall Mall" as he puts it.

Russian troops "captured" them and the were forced to work with them.
Dad described them as war weary, pretty dim witted, illitrate peasants.
They witnessed Russians as they murdered Romainian civilians like your were exterminating your home for ants.

Dad told me the horror stories that I wrote down the next day so I wouldn't forget.

Brutal.