so... figuired someone should start this... lets hear all of your WWII stories... be it from a relative... from word-of-mouth or some other source....

i would love to hear what everyone has to say

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----Savour Since 1982----

So, are you saing that the nazis are good? We all know that the soldiers were fighting for their country and they were not part of the nazi party but wouldn't they still support and agree with nazi ideology? I say yes they would!

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[This message has been edited by Recycled Spooge (edited July 18, 2001).]

Getting back to stories. My Uncle was in the Pacific(not sure where this happened). He was with a squad of guys on patrol when they quielty came up to some Japanese in a house or hut. My Uncle snuck under the house while his buddies took perimeter around the house surrounding it. They then proceeded to fire shots in the air. When the Japanese troops ran out my Uncle got them out right after they ran out.

Another one of my Uncles was leading a patrol when he lead them into a ambush. He saw the ambush at the last second and tried to run away to warn his buddies. He was shot 4 times in the back by a machine gun and lived. He was captured and spent 6-8 months as prisoner. He was tortured and hung by his thumbs before he escaped. I still can't believe today that he lived through that and lived being shot four times in the back by a machine gun. I always enjoy talking about the war with him.

RS,

It is like if I were to say, "everyone in this country supported George W Bush durring the election, because he's presedent isn't he?"
Yes, quite a few supported the acts that the high command took, but just as many, if not more, did not agree with them. Many, many great german officers including Rommel and Peiper, denounced the nurumberg laws and their outcome, and refused to belong to the nazi party. They were just professionals doing a job, and both Rommel and Peiper did a damn good job!

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bürgen:
RS,

It is like if I were to say, "everyone in this country supported George W Bush durring the election, because he's presedent isn't he?"
Yes, quite a few supported the acts that the high command took, but just as many, if not more, did not agree with them. Many, many great german officers including Rommel and Peiper, denounced the nurumberg laws and their outcome, and refused to belong to the nazi party. They were just professionals doing a job, and both Rommel and Peiper did a damn good job!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>So, you say that about 50% supported the nazis, which is a lot more than what you said which was 0.001%. I would still say that it was probably more than 50% since the nazis took Germany out of a great depression.



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It's a dictatorship, it's not perfect.

I agree with Recycled Spooge. Burgen, as you said many officers and soldiers disagreed with Hitler, but majority didn't. It wasn't just Hitler and few of his supporters that invaded Poland, Czechoslovakia, France,etc., for that he needed support of whole population. And on the topic of Nuremberg laws, if many didn't support it why didn't they stand up and say something about it? Of course many were afraid, but one of the first rules of fascism is that dictator needs popular support to come to power and stay in it ( this is not me rumbling but stuff I learned at University). Hence majority( large one) agreed with Hitler ideas and methods!


P.S. Burgen don't be offended by you 'lean' too much to Nazy side ( all those signatures and pictures, like an old Nazy propaganda movie).
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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

[This message has been edited by Partisan (edited July 18, 2001).]

You can't base an entire country off of the 1% that is in power. Did EVERY american before 1865 support slavery? By your logic, RS, certainly at least 51% did. Eventhough more than 65% of the US's population lived in the abolishonist north. I do not support or condone the 'holocaust', I just mean to say that it wasn't the #1 thing that dominated all of germany's soldiers' minds during WW2, most weren't even aware that it was going on! the same way that the nuclear-weapons program in the late 40's in the US was kept away from the public view (at least believe me on that one, a have a good friend who was in the US army at the time).

My gaud, talk to ANY german veteran and they'll tell you the same thing:
You can't protest something that you don't know is going on!

AND, Poland and czechoslovakia wouldn't even exist if it weren't for that TERRIBLE document called the Treaty of Versilles. The underlying reason for hitler comming into power and remaining supported was his and the NSDAP's disreguard for that piece of crap that germany didn't even have a say in. The conquest of these countries was just reclaiming land lost, illegaly, to germany and her allies after WWI. As for france, they rattled the saber first, they declared war first, germany just responded to the threat growing to their west the way they always had.

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

I'm not talking about the holocaust, I was reffering to the Germans thinking that they were superior to slavs and the Jews. This would have been part of nazi ideology. The Germans knew what was going on. They knew that synagogues were being burned, and they knew about the Krystallnacht. They saw propaganda movies and posters, and many of them agreed with it.

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BTW, almost all german veterans that I heve had the honour to speak with (that's a lot) have stated that their reason for joining the Heer(army), Kriegsmarine(Navy), Luftwaffe(airforce), or Waffen-SS(basicly the Marines, NOT the guys who ran the camps, that was the Totenkopf-verbande and the SD) was becuase their fathers had in WWI, the only thing that they had read about or heard was of how great and romantic it was to be in the military. They didn't sign up because they wanted to kill innocent people.

Burgen while you on case of slavery in U.S., when did African-American population get full human rights in America? I don't believe it was right after the Civil War, maybe on paper but not in reality. What happened to South after the Civil war, it got integrated into the Union and that was it and African-Americans were treated as before, but on the paper they were not slaves. The point I'm making it is not what politicians are saying or what is official opinion of population, but what it is done in reality, in practice.
And Holocaust wasn't first thing in minds of German soldiers, but thought that all other ethnic and racial groups were inferior and that they deserved to be ruled or exterminated if they were rebelious or too 'unpure' ( eg. Jews, Slavs, Gypsies...).

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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bürgen:
My gaud, talk to ANY german veteran and they'll tell you the same thing:
You can't protest something that you don't know is going on!

AND, Poland and czechoslovakia wouldn't even exist if it weren't for that TERRIBLE document called the Treaty of Versilles. The underlying reason for hitler comming into power and remaining supported was his and the NSDAP's disreguard for that piece of crap that germany didn't even have a say in. The conquest of these countries was just reclaiming land lost, illegaly, to germany and her allies after WWI. As for france, they rattled the saber first, they declared war first, germany just responded to the threat growing to their west the way they always had.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Actually, most of Czechoslovakia and Poland was Russia and Austria Hungary. You lose a war you lose land, and Germany didn't lose a lot of it, even though they lost the war. So consider yourself lucky. http://www.pcgamers.net/ubb/smile.gif

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[This message has been edited by Recycled Spooge (edited July 18, 2001).]

Actually before the WW2 France was trying to please Germany. After the Kristalnacht france was only Western country that didn't criticize it.france was scared of Germany and was trying to avoid the war.

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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

Now, the night of broken glass has been WAY over represented in hisorical documents. It was not formally supported by the government and it was rather isolated. Only in München was it as bad as they show in all those propaganda reels (british press, not german by the way). I know many who were heartbroken to find out that their best friend was being made to move out of his house because he was Jewish, in particular a good friend who was in the Deutschejungvolk (the arm of the Hitler Youth for those between 9 and 14), He said,"Before that I didn't even know what a jew was."

Of course there were some that were sorry, but majority was happy to see jews treated that way, especially because they saw them as rich people who are taking German wealth and jobs, and who are fundamentally different from Germans.

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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

OK, we need to get off this topic before one of us gets a flight over to another's house and beats the crap out of someone. Let's just leave it at:
I am a student of the Human and Military aspects of germany between 1933 and 1945
RS is polish and has his own interests and views the subject at hand differently
And Partisan, where did you come in?

*Hugs for everybody, and passes a Bierstein around as an offering of good faith*

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

By the way, it was czech bier...
(that stuff is quite good I must say)

Well I studied Fascism and Anti-Fascism course at University and my relatives fought against germans in WW2, so I'm interested in this topic. That is why I got involved in your argument. Anyway, it wasn't personal just exchanging of opinions and that is what makes messageboards interesting.

Cheerioo!

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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

Hey, just because I'm Polish doesn't mean you should ignore my opinions, or that I'm going to be automaticaly harsh on the Germans! But when you say that almost nobody agreed with Hitler and the Nazi party(or made it seem like nobody did), I'm gonna disagree with you because it's not true.

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you see, that is why we have differing opinions! you have contact with mostly people who fought against germany, where as I have spoken to mostly german veterans and citizens of the period. (we seem to accumulate them in this area, there was a large Canadian POW camp just across the boarder not too far from here)

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

hey I didn't mean to sound as if a polish person's views aren't accurate, I just meant that your view of history has been influenced, for better or worse, to reflect that polish ethnicity.

BTW, if I didn't like poles, I wouldn't be dating a girl who's grandmother moved here from Krakau.

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

[This message has been edited by Bürgen (edited July 18, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Bürgen (edited July 18, 2001).]

Why are we still arguing?!? I passed the Beer around!

Here is a story: my grandma and her unit didn't have weapons to fight Germans. So they went to local gorge and pushed large boulders at two German armoured cars. They were stoped in tracks, German soldiers were killed by boulders or by axes and bare hands, and my grandma's unit for the first time got some real weapons.

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"Sloboda ili smrt" ( Death or freedom)

Here's a short story about my Great-Grandfather, who was serving in Nth Africa during Rommels campaign to take Tobruk...

My G-G (great-grandfather) was part of a scouting party, It was getting dark and so they stopped for the night and built fortifications (a small trench and a pit to sleep in...My G-G and he's friend couldn't fit in the pit so they had to sleep in the trench, a few hours after dark they met light fire from a german patrol but were backed up by another Australian patrol and the attack was repulsed, It was during early morn when a Panzer and German Infantry advanced over the position, they drove over the trench and buried my G-G and his friend...luckily for the others they were able to halt the tanks advance by throwing grenades into the tank and destroying the crew, unfortunatley, they knocked the tank out right on top of the trench, and it was 3 hours before they could dig my G-G and his friend out... They were both alive http://www.pcgamers.net/ubb/smile.gif

This story has no "blood and guts" (K, you've probably stopped reading) but my G-Grandmother served as an Australian Army Nurse before and during the War (where she was stationed in the Pacific for around 2 years), then after the war, she took my father and his brother to the Australian War Memorial...They wouldn't let her in because she was wearing pants...She explained that she was a nurse who'd worn pants all her god damn life and was taking her sons to see the memorial...But the door-man replied with "Ladies don't wear pants" and was refused entry... The whole time she was wearing at least 4 of the medals during her time in battle... Cheap Bastards... http://www.pcgamers.net/ubb/frown.gif

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"The Battle of France is over...the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire."
-Winston Churchill, Summer 1940

my grandad was a Gunnery Sgt, USMC in WW2. He was on patrol in okinawa with about 7 or 8 others, on a jungleside path, when suddenly, japanese ambushed and attacked from the jungle. they all took cover in a crater, and they fought, and the radioman was talking to HQ, and he was behind my grandpa. my grandpa peeked his head up, a shot rang out at him, he ducked down. He looked back, and the radioman's head was almost completly hollow fom the head wound. when the fight was over, they counted 6 japanese bodies. my grandpa accounted for 3 of them

There is a german veteran of the panzer korps. He was 17 when he was assigned as the kommanduer of a Panther in 1945. He was then posted to poland during the fighting retreat. While his convoy rested in a small polish town, a massive russian artilery barrage came in. He was standing out of the coupla of the turret when the first rounds hit. A shell from the inital wave hit very near to his tank and a large piece of shrapnell, said to be 10cm in length, punctured his cheek, landing in his mouth. He was thrown down into the body of the tank, saving him from any other wounds. When it was all over he and his crew emerged to see that little of the town was left. He was later just patched up and sent back to the front.

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

In a book Ive been reading, Citizen Soldiers, there was this GI nicknamed Junior, and he killed any german he could find, POW or otherwise. There was about 20 pows rounded up in a secluded area, and when Junior came up with his BAR, he killed all of them. another time, in a bombed out town, they were rounding up POWs, and he was jogging by, and he ran by a german with ihs hands up, bowing, and saying "Kmorade! Komrade!" Junior just kept on jogging, and while he ran by, he pulled his .45 and shot him in the face.

that f*cker deserves to fry

i mean, nazis are pretty bad, but when it comes down to it, they are the same as us.

yes the 'nazis' were bad, but only 10% of the population of germany ever belonged to the NSDAP, what the nazi party was actually called in germany. And of those, very few advocated the nurumberg laws (the ones that took citizenship away from jews and 'undesireables'). So you cant really say that the natzies are bad. 99.999% of the guys out there were fighting for the same reasons as the US, to preserve their homeland.

If you wanna see bad, check out what stalin did to his people.

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"Victory at any Price!"

SS-Panzergrenadier

here's a story or two. My dad has a freind who's dad was in the infantry. He said one time he and a sniper and the rest of a squad were watching two germans carrying messages back and forth between two german squads in a field. About the fifth time they crossed the field the sniper saw they were carrying an mg-42 and ammo. The sniper shot one nazi and then all of the sudden a panzerfaust rocket exploded about two feet in front of the sniper and blew him apart. during all this he had his binocculers out watching so when he put them back in his pocket he felt something in his pocket. He reached in and found the snipers hand in there.

here's a story or two. My dad has a freind who's dad was in the infantry. He said one time he and a sniper and the rest of a squad were watching two germans carrying messages back and forth between two german squads in a field. About the fifth time they crossed the field the sniper saw they were carrying an mg-42 and ammo. The sniper shot one nazi and then all of the sudden a panzerfaust rocket exploded about two feet in front of the sniper and blew him apart. during all this he had his binocculers out watching so when he put them back in his pocket he felt something in his pocket. He reached in and found the snipers hand in there.

I also got another story. My grand-uncle charlie flew a b-17 flying fortress during the war. On one of his missions his plane lost its wing so he and his crew had to bail out. He and all his crew was captured. While he and thausends of other captors were being marched through an abandoned town the polish resistance rescued him. What they did was they quickly whipped the door open of a house as the captured allies were marching passed and grabbed a bunch of the and brought the inside the house were the resistance was staying. Charlie and some of his crew were brought back into allied terratory and he was back flying in a new plane within the week.

My grandmas brothers both were in ww2 and so was my grandpa.. My great Uncle Alfonso was on the USS Missouri i think.. I dunno.. he was an AA gun feeder.. Anyway they told him never too look up, and during a Kamikazi attack he decided to look up. He must have seen planes comming right for him becuzz he abandoned his post and ran, about 15 seconds later the plane had hit the AA gun where he was.. He never forgave himself for that, so he went nutz.. He never talked at all to any1.. NEVER after he came home.. When i was at a family renunion a plane had flew overhead and my grandpa covered her ears and ducked a lil bit.. Uncle Alfonso turned to her with a blind look and said "You should have been were i was" and never said anything again...

My other Uncle went AWOL after a battle in New Guienea and moved to Australia.. LOL he had about 6 beautiful Australian women on his nutz too. When he came home he was pretty normal. He showed me some of the chics pictures but never spoke of the battle

My Grandpa was an MP.. It was pretty fun from wut he told me. His freind went to Omaha and survived but was wounded. When he got wounded they transfered him to where my Grandpa was staying back here in the States.. He told him about the landing.. "I remember getting off the boat.. Trippin over a leg (dont know if it was attached or not) The Sergeant yelling something.. A guy getting his stomach shot and his bowels pouring out, then heat in his leg and passing out..

This isn't WW2, but a guy my dad went to scouts with went to Vietnam, he was a gunner in a "Crusader" or "Centurion" tank (or something like that), they came under fire, and ran out of ammo quickly for the main gun (beer took up quite alot of space), so his friend was pegging at Viet Cong with their Machinegun while the others tried to get more ammo (this tank was designed so that the turret had to be on a 90' angle to be able to access the emergency ammunition), but, when he eventually got the ammo, a Viet Cong AT rocket exploded into the side of the tank, metal flew everywhere, killing the driver and most of the crew, While filling dad's friends back with so much shrapnel you wouldn't believe, but he survived, and was able to stay alive until a rescue party came 2 hours later...Unfortunatley, his left arm needed to be amputated, he died about 2 years later.....

my grandfather was in the 2nd Ranger Batalion in France in the Middle of the war......

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I believe it was during Winter War between Russia and Finland, when a Finnish soldier and his squad took over a Russian AT-gun. The optics of the gun were broken, but this guy figures out that he can aim the gun by looking through the barrel of the gun and then quickly reloading and firing. Although this sound very unreliable, they took out five Russian tanks in an hour or so with that broken AT-gun. I believe he received a Mannerheim cross (which is the highest Finnish recommendation in the army) after that day.

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"In God we trust, all others are suspects"