Grandparent's/Parent's Military Profession/Occupation During WW2

World War II General WWII Discussion
#141

Well I think it was a series of traumatic events during 1940 that led to him cracking under the strain. We never really found out the whole truth but we know he shot unarmed prisoners, endured heavy fighting and air attack and eventually returned to England carrying his best friends head which had been severed in an air raid on Dunkirk beach. After that, Im not surprised he went a little nuts.

He was released but was clearly not suitable to go back to war. From what my Grandmother told us before she died, he had an utterly fatalistic attitude when he returned to service. I think he wanted to do his duty and didnt really seem to care if he lived or died.

After the war he became very bitter that he had been sent back to fight, and subsequently paralysed. Made him very bitter and he never got over that and it sadly effected everyones relationship with him. I think all the grandchildren dreaded going to the house. I know I did but he seemed to be different with me as I was fascinated by all his war memorabilia. He had a vast collection of medals that we used to spend alot of time looking through and talking about. I guess I was lucky to have an interest in the war and this allowed him to forget things for a while when we spent time together.

He stilled scared the crap outta me though! LOL!

#142

My father enlisted in the Navy in on Mother’s day 1942. He turned 18 in February of '42. He was on a couple of different destroyers. The one I remember was the Madison DD-425. He was all over the world on that one. He spent time as a pharmecist’s mate and he battle station was on one of the .50 cal mounts.

#143

Grandfather was a sniper-17 years old when he went to the front,2nd Grandfather was a captain,Great Grandfather a rank and file rifleman and was killed in 1942. Grandmother was a nurse. All in Soviet Army…

#144

My mother was a housewife in Holland. My father ferried downed US and British pilots from Holland to Spain. This was a hazardous occupation. My father rarely spoke of his wartime experiences. We had to pry it out with a jackhammer. He had a few close calls.That we do know. My Father-in-Law served on the Tahoma, a US Coast Guard Cutter during the war. At some point early on, the Coast Guard came under the orders of the Navy until after the war. He started the war in the Great Lakes and his ship served as a convoy escort to Greenland. Later he took part in the invasion of North Africa escorting troop ships. No wonder this generation counts WW2 as the most important time of their lives.

#145

my dad went into the Royal Hampshire regiment, with which he saw action in North Africa, Sicily & Italy.

The “Terbouba Tigers” / Hamps!

#146

They changed from casein based glues to epoxy resins.

I believe Mosquitos were made in Aussie during the war. DeHav’s had a big presence here thereafter.

#147

DH fully intended producing Mosquitos in Australia.
They were set for full scale production in late 1944 going into 1946.

From memory, no more than about 100 Mosquitos were produced in Australia before the war ended, from an intended initial production run of some 240 aircraft. Of those, less than 12 survive as far as 1960, and five of those were T19 trainers, as sold to Israel in 1951/52.

In some cases, Packard Merlins would have powered the Australian produced Mosquitos, just as Packard Merlins would have powered Australian produced P51s. (Ironically: most of the surviving P51s in Australia are currently running RR Merlins.)

Respectful Regards, Uyraell.

#148

My Dad was in the Pacific Theater, and was in something called the “Tokyo Trolley” he said only that he had something to do with radio, radar, and the throwing of chaff from planes on occasion. His Father was in the Austro-Hungarian Army, sometime around the turn of the last Century, as he came to the U.S. 1906. I have no info as to what his job in the military was.

#149

If you’re interested in the Austro-Hungarian army I highly suggest this place

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heeresgeschichtliches_Museum

#150

Maybe related to his training period at Wendover Field?

A mock enemy city was constructed near the mountains on the base using salt from the nearby Bonneville Salt Flats. This made a fine practice target for the many bomber crews, as did the life-sized enemy battleships and other targets elsewhere on the range. Many of the targets were even electrically illuminated for night practice.

Various machine gun ranges allowed gunners to either fire at moving targets from stationary gun emplacements or fire at stationary targets from three machine guns mounted on a railroad car moving along a section of track at up to 40 miles per hour (Wendover’s famous “Tokyo Trolley”). Wendover’s realistic challenges for aerial gunners and bombardiers caused them to become the best trained in the world.
http://www.hill.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=5955

#151

He only ever mentioned being posted to Truax Field, located near Madison Wisconsin ,(where he met my mom,) and also being posted in Japan (I’m guessing after the capitulation) There are only a few small photos of him in Japan, as there was a fire, and his barracks were destroyed. He never would speak of it much ,beyond the foregoing, and showing me his patch which had a trolley on it.

#152

Could that be a trolley used to carry the bombs to the planes for loading?

But it seems a bit unlikely that ground crew would have specialised patches for their specific tasks rather than their rank or unit.

Or maybe a patch that the crew or group had made up as their own insignia, like the designs which some painted on their planes?

#153

http://philcrowther.com/6thBG/6bgplane26A.html

Probably just a coincidence.

#154

Its been maybe 50 yrs since I’ve seen the patch, but it had a stylized image of a street car, on rails, and was embroidered, said Tokyo Trolley among other things. Thats about all I remember about it. If it turns up sometime, I’ll get a pic of it. I’m no expert on official patches, so it might have been something his unit, squadron, section, whatever made for themselves. He was very proud of it in any event, seldom brought it out of its box.

#155

Maybe there’s a lead somewhere in the following.

Here’s another plane called Tokyo Trolley http://www.flickr.com/photos/keleivis/4195895195/

And another http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/wwii-aaf-western-pacific-pilot-log-book-tokyo

375th TCG, 58th TCS—No reunions, but their scribe, Bill Woznek, keeps the members informed. In his last Newsletter he sent a copy of the front page of the “Tokyo Trolley” dated 30 August 1945. The various flight crewmembers describe their first sighting of Mt. Fujiyama, which made them realize that they were at last reaching home stretch. The many Japanese they saw were friendly and curious. One asked what “Tokyo Trolley” meant on the planes. Capt. Ringo answered, “It means that we’ve been on the way up here and this is the end of the line.” http://www.gregssandbox.com/54th/newsletter/dec04.htm

He was a pilot of the 58th Troop Carrier Squadron, 375th Troop Carrier Group, and 54th Wing known as the “Tokyo Trolleys”. His tour of duty included the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of Operations with the mission of transporting troops, wounded soldiers, and cargo. His Curtiss-Wright C46 was the first allied aircraft onto Japanese soil at Atsugi air base the day after Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech on August 15, 1945, thus beginning his mission to transport the released POWs out of Japan. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=charles-robert-magadini&pid=146438377&fhid=6532

http://books.stonebooks.com/book/1004524/ http://books.stonebooks.com/book/1004524/

My father served in the 375th Troop Carrier Group (the “Tokyo Trolley”), where he flew C-46s and C-47s. He always told us “I was the smart one, the paratroopers jumped out of a perfectly good airplane!”. Most of the time though he flew supplies around the different airfields from New Guinea, Biak, the Phillipines and Okinawa. after VJ day he spent almost a year flying supplies to areas of Japan that were no longer accessible by road or rail http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/summary/thing/912/page/3

#156

Hi.
My father was with Royal Engineers based in Holland and he was in charge of one of the railway marshalling yards in 1944/5

Ken

#157

My maternal Grandfather served in 1st Division 3rd Brigade starting with the RCASC, then RCOC, and from 1944 to war’s end with the RCEME. He started as a MT driver then moved on to mechanic/driver mechanic. Also did some work as a fitter. He served from 1941 to 1945 and was active in the U.K., Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Grandma was a stay at home mom. He is shown in my avatar.

My paternal Grandfather was active with the resistance in Holland. Like many adult males in Holland at that time, forced labor was the norm. They lived close to the German border and he spent large periods of time working in a Bonn munitions plant. He smuggled what he could out of Germany(said he made lots of extra money doing this) and also supplied information to resistance on activities in the area of Bonn. He was strafed on two different occasions by allied aircraft while riding his bicycle cart into the surrounding towns to deliver chickens and other foods. One was a typhoon that shot a couple rockets at him…he said he was just blown off his bike that time by the blast concussion. The other plane that strafed him missed but he was injured by shards of rocks thrown up by the bullet impacts. He had the scars all over him to prove it. He always seemed to be more perturbed that some of his chickens were killed during that episode. Apparently the Germans moved ammunition and the like in non-military transport. Most pilots had orders to shoot up whatever they deemed suspicious.

Grandma was a stay at home mom…had to take care of my dad and his six siblings who did their fair share of irritating the Germans at times.

There is lots more family history, but this is it in a nutshell.

Dale

#158

My dad was a radioman. He was part of a team that went in prior to the invasions of both Okinawa and Iwo Jima, breaking a code based on the Japanese language, called Katakana. He worked aboard submarines but when the communications was flooded at Oki, he was transfered to a ship where he broke the code on the deck. He is 89 and going strong. I’m so pleased to have found this board! ~Karen

#159

My maternal grandfather handled communications (morse code) as part of a team that flew planes from Montana to Alaska, where the Soviets would pick them up. His brother (my great uncle) served under Patton and being awarded the bronze star (he didn’t talk about serving under Patton until the last year of his life, where he told my grandfather, who later relayed them to me, some horrific stories). I had another great uncle who served in the pacific (I never met him but from what I hear, it had a terrible effect on him for the rest of his life), another great uncle who helped guard ship convoys to Europe and yet another great uncle who was an advocate general (I think) in India.

By the way (this is a long thread so I am not sure if this was mentioned yet), some of your relatives are probably on the WWII registry (http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=registry.asp&subpage=intro). If not, you can add them in.

#160

Both grandfather of mine served in the British Army in the Far East. Both did not serve in the front line, hence did not see much action.

One served as a Medic in Alexander Hospital in Singapore. He was there when the hospital Massacre happened and was detained as a POW for the rest of the Japanese Occupation. I could not find out where he was held, probably Changi Prison? After the war, he settled down on the island for good. For all I remembered, he threw away all of his medals and did not say a single thing about what happened back then. He not only lost his mates, grandma seems to tell me he lost his soul then as well, just kept everything to himself. I remember accompanying him to War Memorials in the early 90’s, he would silently weep every single time.

The other Gramp was an Army Clerk based in Port ****son, Malaya. He used to joke the only enemies he had to deal with was the heat, mosquitoes and boredom. Well, basically when the Japanese invasion starts, he was among the first to retreat. From Port ****son down to Singapore, and from Singapore he took a ship down to Australia. I guess the real fun for him begun when Japan surrendered. He was sent back to Singapore to assist and prepare for the signing of the official surrender documents. That was the first time he met the real enemy proper. He noted that the Japanese Generals had the aura of a murderers while at the same time, conduct themselves as tough soldiers till the very end. I think it was 3 years ago, he went back to Port ****son once again, under the Malaysian Government’s Veteran Day program. He had to opportunity to march in the Freedom Square(sp) and visited his old office once more.