Let me tell you guys about my grandfather, who was a sergeant in the Calgary Highlanders during WWII. Growing up I only remember him telling one story about how he got wounded while going house-to-house in Paris as they were clearing out German sniper nests - a grenade he threw inside the doorway hit a newel post and exploded and he took some shrapnel in the wrist. He told that one so long ago, and I was maybe nine years old at the time, so I could have a lot of the details wrong now.
The last couple of times I visited him he's talked about his war-time experiences more. Nothing more about combat, but other things like buying cows from French farmers (whether they wanted to sell or not!) to feed troops in his unit, or before being shipped overseas all the places he was transferred to in western Canada for training, or for guarding German POWs. I think my favourite story was how he was court-martialed while stationed close to Calgary after going AWOL to marry my grandmother!
I could happily listen to him talk for hours, not just for the stories themselves but how he tells them. He's a farm boy and I guess that comes through in his colourful turns of phrase and the gestures he's use.
I'm unashamedly highjacking this thread because I'm very proud of him for answering the call of his country and for the life he had, but also for the timeliness of this thread. Sadly, the Calgary Highlanders lost another WWII vet the day before their birthday.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/cal...3714&fhid=5925
(EDIT: Upon reading the wikipedia article linked by UCB the first story probably didn't take place in Paris. Likely it was my own imagination that filled in that detail.)
(EDIT #2: doubtful this thread will be read again, but should correct myself. Thought he was a sergeant but turns out he got his commission and was a 2nd lieutenant)