Family on the East Front?

[Scheer]

Hi all,

interesting thread. Both of my grandfathers served in WW2, one in the german navy on a torpedoboat as a "Bootsmann". He was in Norway when it was occupied. I still have his Portopee ( spelling? ) bayonet.

My other Grandfather fought on the russian front as an infanteryman. He was killed, when he shot down a russian fighter with his MG42, which crashed down on his foxhole. That was in 1944.

Also one of my uncles served in the navy. He was also on a torpedoboat in the mediteran sea, was sunk and captured in egypt. He made it back to germany in 1946. He died a few years ago.

[Boris Balaban]

My uncle fought in one of the German Ukrainian divisions (1 or 2) and he manned a mortar. :cool:

[DrAlimantado]

My grandfather on my mother's side served as a fallschirmsjaeger, from 39/40 until 44 when he was captured. As far as I know he saw action on the eastern front and were wounded there three times.

My grandmother served as a JU-87 mechanic on the eastern front from 42 to 44. She never spoke anything about it, she was a women who liked secrets.

My Danish step-grandfather tried to enlist in the Red Army, but was captured and interned in Sweden.

If I recall correctly, my grandmother's brother also served on the eastern front.

[Sytass]

Blackhorse, my mother was four at the time of the flight from Pommerania, and she had little memory about it. But from my late grandma I know how perilous that flight was.

My father's family was from Braunsberg, Eastern Prussia, and as I said, I know nothing about their flight. My father as well as his parents are dead, and his step-siblings no nothing, either, so no chance of asking.

[audace]

My grandfather (father' side) was stationed in Sicily during 1942 , as a part of the medical staff of the 180th Field Hospital, attached to the "Superga" Inf. Div.

The Superga had to take Malta during that summer, but insted they landed in Tunisia and were sent to the frontline as soon as they reached the theater. He recalled of being strafed by British planes before landing, and the terrific noises of Machine guns firing against them.

The Superga was later almost destroyed, and he and a handful of survivors were captured by the British, then sent to the USS "Vulcan" (I have his POW card with the ship's name) for recognition, and then to Gibraltar, where he worked alongside British pesonnel.

He was under the Red Cross and never ever said anything wrong against the British.

He actually disliked the Germans, as he remembered some bad accounts in North Africa.

Finally he came back in 1950 or so, and died in 1982 when I was just born.

He almost never talked about his war experiences. Sometimes he recalled so many wounded men he saw, British or Italian, and how they suffered.

He said that many times they didn't have sufficient medicinals, so they gave Whiskey to the prisoners as an anestetic (!).

His brother was a Leutenent , and fought in Albania and Greece during 1940/41 and then in Jugoslavia against Tito's partisans. He told us some stories, about how terrible it was, but not a lot too.

He always hated yugoslavians, or communist for that reason. He is still alive and looks younger than me.

A relative was on an Atlantic submarine (have to find in what submarine he was exactly), and survived.

There is a relative who fought in Russia, but he's a far relative and I don't know much about him.

[offtaskagain]

One of my great uncles was in one of glider regiments of the 101st airborne. He joined the division in time for Market Garden and served the rest of the war.

[Shadow 1st Hussars]

I had an Uncle that served in the SS but information on what he did isn't talked about.

[Grazo]

My grandfather fought his Winter War as a 17-year old volunteer in air defense at Turku. In 1941 he joined also as a volunteer in German army with two years contract and fought in 5.SS-division Wiking in Ukraine and Caucasus. He wounded in Malgobek area in Caucasus and came back to Finland in summer 1943 and fought the end of the Finnish Continuation war in Rukajärvi area. He is still alive and I have also met lots of Finnish SS-veterans in their meetings. He has also shown me some nice stuff which he took (and stole )from Germany like his uniform, SS-Camo suit, 50mm mortar grenade, medals, etc.

[PiggDogg]

No one in my family had any WWII experiences of note. However, a friend of mine's dad had WWII experiences worthy of note and almost books stature. Here is the short story.

My friend's dad was a young Polish Jew in 1939. After the Germans invaded Poland, he escaped across the eastern border into Russia. Promptly, the Russians imprisoned him.

When the Germans invaded Old Mother Russia, the Russians saw fit to utilize my friend's dad's services ... as an infantryman in the Russian army.

Few who read the the BTS threads or who play CMBO & BB can doubt the courage and good fortune that it took to survive as a Russian infantryman in WWII. :eek:

The gentleman fought across Russia and into Germany. He survived WWII and thereafter sought out his remaining family. The Germans and the war saw to it that he had no remaining family. During this immediate post WWII time, he met & married his wife in Poland.

Soon thereafter, he and his new wife made it to the USA at Mobile, Alabama. They ended up in New Orleans, where in the uptown New Orleans area, he has run a small retail Kosher deli and store for over 40 years.

Salutes to this man and all (no matter what side) who fought in WWII.

Cheers, Richard

[Hortlund]

I'm Swedish, but my dad is German.

My Grandmother had 7 brothers who all died in the war. She never *ever* talks about it, but dad has told me a little about them (he really doesnt like to talk about it either). I know that one was a 109 pilot who got killed in the east, and two were infantrymen, also in the east. My grandmother was at Dresden that night in April 45, and she lost two of her brothers there, the youngest one was 4. I think Grandmom was something like 13-14 at the time. She is still around.

My great-grandfather fought in both wars. In ww1 he was a captain in the cavalry, but since there were little use for cavalry in the trenches, he spent most of his the time in various French villages behind the front. He was stripped of rank twice for his excessive partying (apparently he and his drinking escapades were something like a legend in his division). In ww2 he was a officer in a cavalry unit, but I dont know which one.

[V]

I really did not expect this kind of response.

Thanks for sharing your stories, again, guys.

Please, keep them coming...

[ParaBellum]

Completely forgot my other grandfather. I don't know much about him, since he died in the 50's.

All I know is he served as an infantryman on the eastern front 'til 1945 and spent some time in russian captivity after the war. He never recuperated from that time and AFAIK he never talked about that time.

My father has kept his decorations and, what's really interesting, his walking stick from Russia.

It seems that it was common practice for soldiers on the russian front to make these sticks during the long winter nights, often plentifully decorated with ornaments like national emblems, regimental insignia, place and date of where and when it was fabricated and sometimes very personal things like carved faces of wives or kids.

Interesting is that there's no reference to the "Führer" or even a swastika on it but instead the old motto "Gott mit uns!".

[Kallimakhos]

From father's side my grandpa fought in artillery in Continuation war and survived. From mothers side grandpa fought in Winter war, was badly wounded in the head and freed from service. He had three brothers. Two of them fought through Winter. In Continuation war they were both company commanders on the Kannas front. When one of them fell in summer 1941, the other one had to fetch the body from between frontlines and fell himself two days after that. The fourth brother was too young to participate.

Grandma served organizing Lotta Svärd in her hometown in both wars. Once, while pregnant, when running to the shelter during air bombing she fell causing internal bleeding in the woomb. Luckily the child survived and became my mother.

[Sniper Fodder]

Mother's side, my grandfather was 4th PLDG (Princess Louise Dragoon Guards) "the Plugs", armour recon. Sicily, Italy, France, Holland. After the first day of advance combat training (not official name of training) in England, he said "F&@K! a guy could get killed doing this!" So after that he always snuck off and drank coffee in the canteen.

Once in italy, he spend the night in an old barn with his officer (he was wireless operator). In the morning when they went out, all the guys (about 8 men he thinks) on guard duty right outside the barn where gone. Nabbed by the Germans in the night!! During a big fight in Holland he had another officer (a young new guy) order him to hold his position in the armoured car while the officer went to check with their commander. Again, he said "f@#K this" and hopped out and took cover. The amoured car was immiadiatly blowed up, blowed up good.

His brother was 82 Airborne. With the regiment that got detached and sent to Italy (I don't know too much about it). When they compared stories it turned out that they "passed" each other with out knowing it.

Great Uncle,(grandmothers brother) was Lake Superior Regiment. Shermans tanks.

Grandmother worked one of those decoder things in New York. All hush hush. They had a list of bars that they where not to go to because "know Nazi's and possible Nazi spyies fequented them". I ask her stuff and she is still tight lipped.

Paternal grandfather got sucked up and put in a forced labour camp in the eastern Europe.

There are a bunch more, but most of them either pushed paper, or due to age had jobs training others, ie one of the brother was with artillery but he never left Canada.

[Bullethead]

Going back a bit further than WW2...

One of my granddaddy's brothers was in the US expeditionary force fighting the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Way up north around Arkangelsk. (How many US citizens today even know this happened?) Besides freezing his ass off, the only story he told was how one time his platoon got surrounded and things looked grim. But then the revolutionary Russians had a "change of command ceremony"--they shot their officers and elected new ones. There was a lot of arguing in the latter phase and while the Russians were thus distracted, my great uncle and his boys snuck away.

[ October 14, 2002, 01:52 AM: Message edited by: Bullethead ]

[Nick Schieben]

I'd better chip in - On my German side, 3 uncles who fought in the Wehrmacht, 2 in the east:

1, Artillery, motorcycle, bad back from cold winters and long stay in Siberia, still going strong.

2, Volksturm, captured by soviets at 16, still going strong.

3, Artillery, captured in South France during allied liberation of Marseilles/Toulon. Health problems from imprisonment in North Africa were detrimental to longevity.

Sorry, but I can't pinpoint units, etc.

Their sister, my mother who at 16 was helping with telegraphs and phones, was fortunate to have had asssistance in evacuating from their homeland of East Prussia, where they lived on a farm in the region of Koenigsburg. Most of the family wasn't so fortunate.

Regards,

[Da Beginna]

One of my grandpas lost 5 out of his 6 six brothers on the East Front. He self got cripled. As a Social Democrat in Danzig/Gdansk first they put him into a concentration camp then he put him into the Wehrmacht. After returning because crippled he lost his beloved home and had to flee to Northern German.

War sucks.

[bardosy]

My grandfather fought in East. He was a commander of an anti-tank gun. He served in the Hungarian Fast Corps.

They fired to T-34s from very close dictance, but they laughed and he must retreat. This gun was a 50mm...

He injured in Poland 1944, but he survived. He could travel back to Hungary, married with my grandmother (near the austrian border) and they escaped from russians to west Austria and captured by americans. 1945 they went back.

Tomorrow I visit my grandfather...

[Santi]

On my father's side: two Greatuncles (dad's mother brothers') volunteered for the 250th Div, dubbed "The Blue one" one made it back only and was given a position as a subway train driver. Franco's dictatorship gave all the volunteers a living once they had come back...maybe out of remorsement

On my mom's: one of my mom's brother in law worked as one of the assitants to either -sorry I can't recall exactly- the top brass : Gral Muñoz Grandes or Gral Esteban Infantes. Incidentally the latter being my sister in law's Greatuncle...err I agree it sounds convoluted

and last but not least my sister in law's father volunteered as well, fighting in the zapadores (assault engineers) Bn. He never said a word about it , he surely went through hell

[Lou2000]

Slightly OT.

My father was a gunner in the Royal Navy and was involved in escorting merchant shipping up to the Barents ... some of which was carrying US and UK armour for use on the Eastern front....

When asked what he remembers the most .....

........... It was cold and rough !

Lou2000

[Londoner]

Interesting thread.

Does (Andreas) anyone know any English language sources concerning the personal of Waffen SS units on the Eastern front? I'm trying to find out more about my grandad, who apparently served throughout the war. What I do know is that he was a captain in an infantry company and he was captured by a british unit after being transfered to the west in '45.

He died recently and after a falling out, I haven't spoke to my father for a number of years, so I'm a bit stumped. I think I can get hold of the naturalisation card he was given after he was released in '47. Still, I have a feeling I'm gonna have to learn German to find out anything more....

As an interesting sidenote, he was, according to most, a real monster in all senses. 6'4, 18 stone. He was particularly brutal with his family as a young man. He mellowed somewhat in his old age. Still at the age of 73 he was convicted of ABH; he knocked his neighbour (a man in his 30s) around.

[Bogdan]

Hi gentlemen.

My grandfather (mother's side) was hidden in a hospital in Paris during german occupation. Avoiding STO (obligatory work in Germany). As a young resistant, just after the Liberation (summer 1944),i joined the Free French Army and served in an infantry division. He fought in Vosges mountains, during this very cold winter 44-45, against children and old men of the Volksturm. Later, his feet froze and he was also wounded in Alsace. He went back to front in spring 45 and finished war in the Black Forest, in Germany.

My other grandfather had not a military experience, but lived near Lwow (now Lviv in Ukraine) as peasant. He saw WW1 as a child (born in 1908), and then soviet invasion in 1939, Barbarossa in 1941 and he definitly left his home with nothing but his family in summer 1944, during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. Before coming in France, he worked in Pirna near Dresden. He told me that, during the massive raid of the city, it was possible to read a newspaper without any light...

Bye and sorry for my bad english !

[Thin Red Line]

My great-great-great-grand-father was a colonel and charged against the Russians leading his french Cuirassiers regiment ... emmm wait it was in 1805 at Austerlitz, not the same East Front. (Hey, he also charged against the Germans at Iena on year later )

[JRRRT]

I have interviewed 3 Soviet vets now resident in the US. One was a career officer, begining service in the First Finnish War, finally wounded severely during Operation Rumyatsev. 2nd was commanding an AA unit, fought on the fringes of Kursk...His unit was 50% women, says women very good at operating sound-ranging gear and sometimes braver than the men. "Whenever we got ot a place where we were going to stay for a while, we built 4 bunkers. One for officers, one for male soldiers, one for females, and one for dancing?!" Direct quote. Last was ordinary teenage grunt, nearly executed for stealing a "Swinya Tuschanka" (phonetic spelling) which is a whole can of spam-like product, manufactured by Hormel, and eating it himself. Was hungry for the whole war. All were Jews from the area of Kiev, all left USSR during the mass flight of Jews in the 70's. When they left, they all had to turn in their medals. After we interviewed each, and determined what decorations they had been awarded, we found them replacements and made a presentation.

[meldorian]

My one grandfather was a truck driver first on the western front, than on the eastern front. Later in the war (I guess when there were no more trucks and no more fuel to drive the trucks still there), he became a medic. Got captured at some point, but he never ever talked about the war in his late years. Died nearly a decade ago at the age of 93.

My other grandfather served as a bomber pilot. He was shot down in 1940 or '41 over the UK. He is still alive, but only entered a plane again some years ago when he no longer wanted to go to Spain by car.

Both would probably be able to live without their war experiences, and both haver never talked much about them.