WWII Question

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by habernac

I don't know. I do know that he flew these:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazin...wellington.htm

He used to talk about bombing u-boats.

So then he was in coastal command, it would be pretty easy to track him down as there were limited squadrons in coastal command that were issued the Wellington.

The no. 407 which was a strictly Canadian squadron under British Command.

I think the only other one of note was the no 36 far eastern squadron, but they were based in the med.

The rest of the anti-sub squadrons were given Bristol beaufighters (sp?) and Cantalina (sp?) flying boats.

[redforever]

Quote:
Originally Posted by redforever
And then again, maybe you don't

I know you are looking for reasons why your father behaves like he does. Please realize, that period of time was obviously a living he..ll for your father. Is it worth it for you to get your answers knowing full well that it might sink him further into he..ll?

Some people simply can not cope except by locking that he..ll up and they don't want to give the key to open that door to anyone.

[burn_baby_burn]

Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII. One landed at Normandy, the other fought in Burma. Both took two very differant paths to the war.

My Paternal Grandfather was a career soilder, went to RMC and was in the army before the war started. He was in his late 20's before he saw any action. He was seriously wounded in action and was very lucky to survive. He was very quite and didn't talk about the war at all. He would talk about being in the army but not about being in action.

My Maternal Grandfather quit high school to enlist "I was bored in school and thought it would be alot more fun going overseas and fighting the war. Stupidist mistake of my life". He would talk alot about being in the army and his experience's in Europe. But again he never ever talked about being in action. The only thing he ever said to me was that on D day when they boat was coming up to the beach and the bullets were flying he said to his commanding officer. "I've had enough I want to go home now". He allways said that with a laugh.

A fews years before he died, my Mom told me she and a few other family members were having dinner at his house. He told them a story about an experience he had in France. His unit (not sure of the proper military term) was storming up a hill to eliminate a machine gunner in a fox hole. He said the guy beside him got hit and went down. He was screaming for help, but they had a job to do and they were successful in taking out the machine gun. Moments later they came back down the hill to assist their fallen comrade only to find him dead. My mother said he started to cry. She was very surprised that he told that story because he had never ever talked about being in action around her at all.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

So then he was in coastal command, it would be pretty easy to track him down as there were limited squadrons in coastal command that were issued the Wellington.

The no. 407 which was a strictly Canadian squadron under British Command.

I think the only other one of note was the no 36 far eastern squadron, but they were based in the med.

The rest of the anti-sub squadrons were given Bristol beaufighters (sp?) and Cantalina (sp?) flying boats.

the one place near St Andrews is called Leuchars, I believe this is where he spent most of his time (looks like they still have an RAF base there). His rank was Flight Lieutenant.

[icarus]

Hey Captain, I'm still looking at my great-great-uncle's page on Veteran's Affairs and trying to piece together his life in the war:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/s...asualty=535038.

It says he left Canada with the 33rd Battalion as a sargeant, and then it says he "reverted to go to France" and ended up serving and dying with the 26th Battalion. What does that mean?

Also, neither of the clippings say where he died... is there a way to find out where the 26th Battalion was on August 28, 1918?

I'd like to get a sense of the final years of his life, what battles his battalion participated in and the kind of stuff he did.

[Tron_fdc]

My grandfather passed away a few weeks ago, and one thing I wished that he did was talk a little more about his role in the war. He flew search and rescue, and all I really remember was that he never really found anyone. He did talk about bomber pilots/crews every once in a while, and remarked on more than one occasion how it was so common for them to go down, and virtually impossible to find survivors.

Pretty hard to imagine.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by redforever

I know you are looking for reasons why your father behaves like he does. Please realize, that period of time was obviously a living he..ll for your father. Is it worth it for you to get your answers knowing full well that it might sink him further into he..ll?

Some people simply can not cope except by locking that he..ll up and they don't want to give the key to open that door to anyone.

It turned him into a drunk for a good portion of his life, I am very well aware of what it did to him. However, he died 4 years ago to lung cancer, so my motivation is not affected by how he will feel but rather what happened to him while he was there that did it to him.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by icarus

Hey Captain, I'm still looking at my great-great-uncle's page on Veteran's Affairs and trying to piece together his life in the war:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/s...asualty=535038.

It says he left Canada with the 33rd Battalion as a sargeant, and then it says he "reverted to go to France" and ended up serving and dying with the 26th Battalion. What does that mean?

Also, neither of the clippings say where he died... is there a way to find out where the 26th Battalion was on August 28, 1918?

I'd like to get a sense of the final years of his life, what battles his battalion participated in and the kind of stuff he did.

The best place to find that information out is in the Battalian diaries, This is the entire diary of the 26th battalion New Brunswick broken by date

http://data4.collectionscanada.ca/ne...e.html&r=1&f=G

They might be a little muffled, but you can probably pin down the entries that you want and request copies..

Hope this helps

[CaptainCrunch]

Just as an add on for the rest of you, that might be looking for information on your family members war history, if you know the specific unit that they served with and the time frame you can use the search engine that I included with the last link that I gave to read up on the unit activities on a day by day basis.

[Russic]

I remember the year leading up to my grandfathers death his tone changed regarding the war. Any sort of weaponry noise on television bothered him, and often times he couldn't even get through an episode of mash (his favorite) without getting choked up.

Personally if his memories are that horrible to him and he did not feel the need to share them with us, then I feel no desire to know them. Not saying anybody else here who feels differently is wrong, just my personal feeling.

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Rathji

It turned him into a drunk for a good portion of his life, I am very well aware of what it did to him. However, he died 4 years ago to lung cancer, so my motivation is not affected by how he will feel but rather what happened to him while he was there that did it to him.

Ok, I understand better now. I was of the impression that your father was still alive and was afraid that whatever you found out would do him further harm.

[driveway]

For everyone who is interested in their ancestors histories as Canadians in warfare, I think I can help. I used to work at the Museum of the Regiments as a researcher and learned a lot about where to go to get the best information on who was where, when.

The first thing that you have to understand about WWII is that, since many of the people involved are still alive, a lot of the documents haven't been released. If you want a good idea of what your particular ancestor did, the best thing to do is figure out which regiment/on which boat/or in which squadron they were with. Once you have that information, you can track down the regimental archives and do some asking there. Calgary holds the archives for the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, The King's Own Calgary Tank, The Lord Strathcona's Horse, and The Calgary Highlander's regiments.

Soon, the legally mandated time period that protects the information of the deceased will expire. I believe that it's seventy years after the last possible conflict casualty, so 2015. After that time we should see, first a casualty list. This already exists for WWI and I know the MOTR has a copy because I spent months buried in it. It's a terrifying document because it's the size of a dictionary and is nothing but a list in 10pt font of the names, numbers, dates of birth, dates of enlistment, names of units, and dates of death of the Canadians who died in the First World War (60 000+ names).

There are also regimental histories that have been published for WWI which are essentially the daily logs of the various officers of the regiments. They are a fantastic resource and, if you can find any for the Second World War, the best place to look for information on your ancestor. They will include dispatches about daily actions, opposition encountered, casualties (which is why I don't think there will be any for WWII, because I think that info is still protected), recommendations for awards or punishment etc. etc.

So yeah... best place to start is find out what unit your particular ancestor was with, that information will help you figure out where they went. If you want any info on a particular battle or action feel free to PM me and I'll give you what I remember and point you towards some better resources.

And always feel free to contact the Museum of the Regiments, there are some great people there and an extensive library (which I counted, accrued, and sorted). Not to mention a couple veterans who are surprisingly willing to share their stories.

The best one I heard came from a vet from the Cal Highlanders who was already fighting in Italy on his 19th birthday. Since it was his birthday, his mates got him to throw the first of the new batch of grenades they'd received. He ran up to the base of a rocky hill where a group of germans were operating an MG-42. The grenade arced through the air, bounced off a rock and flew back, landing at this poor Canadian grunt's feet.
Of course, since he was telling me the story, it turned out to be a dud. He says he never heard Germans laugh so hard.


edit: those links Captain Crunch gave are great!

[bigtmac19]

My Dad is a WWII vet, still living, he is 86 now.
He was with The Essex Scottish and participated in the Raid On Dieppe on August 18, 1942. He was captured and served the rest of the war in a POW camp. The raid on Dieppe was a disaster and he was pinned down on the beach under fire until the battle was finally over and everyone left living was captured. The only thing he ever said was how when it was over how the water was red with blood. He likes to talk about the stuff that happened in England while they were training over there, but that's about it.

[Berger_4_]

Man, reading all of these stories really is starting to make me wonder if any of my ancestors served in the wars...I'll have to ask the grandparents one of these days...

And it's amazing how heroic some of those guys were. I can't even imagine what life would've been like for them. Sure makes the things we complain about every day seem a lot more insignificant...

[notoepik]

My Dad and my Father In Law are both WW11 vets, both 85 now. United States Army, both served in the Philippines. My Dad was a medic, my FIL infantry. Neither of them talk much about the war. It was horrifying for them both.

My Dad too, cannot watch MASH without having nightmares from the war. Last fall he did talk to me a bit about some of his memories from the war. Without going into a lot details, the memories and horrors of the time he spent in the Philippines tending the wounded and dying still haunt him 65 years later. He cried when he talked about how hatred from that time spills into life today. How he can't like or trust a Japanese person today, from what happened in his life 65 years ago. It makes his feel terrible, he is not a hateful person inside, but war destroys many things we never even realize.

[AC]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

My Grandfather on my dads side was a tail gunner on a Lancaster in WWII. On one hand your right, they couldn't see the bomb damage.

My grandfather piloted a Lancaster. He had some ridiculous successful flight record.

[Buff]

I had a few relatives who served during WWII. Two, maybe three, of my uncles went overseas (can't remember about the third one). They have all passed away within the last 10 years so I can't ask them stories.

My grandpa served in the war too. He is neither my paternal or maternal grandpa, but he is my grandpa. Aside from my mom's dad who passed away when I was 5 or 6, I never new any of my grandparents. My grandparents (quite a few years older) were neighbours and close friend to my parents. When it didn't look like their son was going to get married or have kids they claimed me as their own grandson. Anyways it wasn't until nearly three years ago that I learned that he served during the war. I asked my parents about it, and they said that they were only told that he served in WWII but he never talked about it so I'm a bit afraid to ask him anything... yet I am curious.

[Bobblehead]

My grandfather served in WWI. I never knew him, but there is a picture og him holding me as a baby.

I have found his Attestation Papers online, and know he was initially assigned to the 161st Huron Battalion, but looking at diaries in that link Captain Crunch posted reveals that this batallion appears to have been used for training only, and members were then reassigned to other units.

I recall a place where you could apply for a copy of the military file of a soldier (well, you need to pay for copying and shipping, but that is a paltry sum to pay for this type of info), but I haven't been able to find that website - does anyone have it handy?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

My grandfather served in WWI. I never knew him, but there is a picture og him holding me as a baby.

I have found his Attestation Papers online, and know he was initially assigned to the 161st Huron Battalion, but looking at diaries in that link Captain Crunch posted reveals that this batallion appears to have been used for training only, and members were then reassigned to other units.

I recall a place where you could apply for a copy of the military file of a soldier (well, you need to pay for copying and shipping, but that is a paltry sum to pay for this type of info), but I haven't been able to find that website - does anyone have it handy?

That same site that I posted allows you to request service records.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/g...022-909-e.html

[the crispy badger]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DMy4...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-_c...eature=related

Rare footage of WW2 in color..I bought this box set for 20.00 @ Walmart and is extremely fascinating .