just got back from a vets home
 

Full o ww2 vets, one of the guys who passed away a few years before had fought at Jutland ed: ed: ed: ed: ed:

Just to put this into American perspective, thats like some guy in 1950 talking to a guy who had fought in the American Civil war, for the Aussies this would be like talking to some guy who fought at Gallipoli.

Some of them had a few interesting stories to tell, one of the guys there had a brother who served on HMS Barham, this is HMS Barham
[img]http://www.ruble.org/hmsbarham.jpg[/img]

and this was HMS Barham.

[img]http://www.cnw.mk.ua/weapons/navy/ww2/image/barham1.jpg[/img]

They had a very extensive library, full of world war two books, I was kindly invited back there & I plan to interview some of the guys there about their stories. If I do find anything interesting I'll post it.

Have any of you guys done anything like this before?

Well ive wanted to do something similar, but never got around to it...only got around to talking to my grandma about her brothers in WW2...

[img]http://24.58.163.208/mf_02.jpg[/img]
[img]http://24.58.163.208/mf_03.jpg[/img]

...and one of them is coming over to stay with my grandma and grandpa for a while. Needless to say...im going to go over there and talk to him about his time with the german army. Thats really cool though...post more pictures if you have them happy:

Sort of. I saw a guy at Barnes and Noble Booksellers with a WW2 hat, so I went up to him and thanked him for what he did. He told me he was in the 5th Marines Division and fought at Iwo Jima, and then started telling several stories from the war. The man knew this guy who dove on a grenade to save his friends. He actually lived, and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

how did you meet this guy?

My grandpa fought at D-Day. Dont know the basics really, he had a stroke a few years back. And isnt coherant anymore, so i cant talk to him about it

[quote="Old Reliable":9f713]how did you meet this guy?[/quote:9f713]

I'm in the Royal Navy Reserve and our unit went down to the old RN vets home.

my dad's dad served in WW1, he is dead now. my other grandfather served the army days after ww2.

my great-grandfather was a field marshall in the Russian Army during WW1 and WW2. My dad served in the Russian Army from 18 to 21 years old.

See back in the day in Lithuania, males were supposed to go to the russian army or get sent to siberia or killed on the spot. So my great grandfather went and advanced in ranks. His jacket is full of medals. If i get a digital camera i will show you it.

I interviewed a WWII veteran not to long ago. He was in the US NAVY and served on the USS AUGUSTA... the AUGUSTA transported President Harry Truman to the Potsdam conference in '45.

Interesting stories the guy had, but I'd rather talk with a grunt.

my grandfathers brother was on ruben james....sunk by nazis weeks before ww2...

My grand father was in ww2.....both of them...

Thats very interesting, it's not often you get to hear of the german/russian viewpoint of the war through peoples family relatives. I suppose that was after the commies took power?

for my Post WW2 history class we had to interview someone born pre 1945. My guy was in ww2 and was sent to japan. right after the war ended. the ship he sailed over on got trapped in a minefield adn the ytook 3 days ot get out. then when he had been in japan for liek a week he read in the papers that the ship blew up on te way back home and lots of people died on it.

my grandpa was a postalman in ww2
my grandpas brother was a engineer on juno beach, he had some interesting stories

[quote="Fluffy_Bunny":f895d]Thats very interesting, it's not often you get to hear of the german/russian viewpoint of the war through peoples family relatives. I suppose that was after the commies took power?[/quote:f895d]

Commies took power around 1912 in the baltic states. i mean absolute power. people were only allowed to real Russian Literature, broadcast russian news, speak only russian, and be loyal to the tsar. The communists came to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, so the Lithuanians moved the capital to Kaunas, where i was born many years later. Anyone caught speaking Lithuanian was imprisoned for treason. Soldiers came and told that every man in the house, 18 and over has to join the military. Refusal will cause you to be jailed. Some families were even shipped off to Siberia. My Grandfather told me he was like 15 at the time, and their family packed their things and waited for the train for Siberia, but luckily it never came, but after a few months, his father, my great grandfather was drafted into the Red Army. There he earned great respect because he was a brave man, he earned many great symbols of honour that i cannot pronounce (because i cant speak russian), and he fought in stalingrad where he was wounded. He heard of Vassili but never saw him in person. Then after the war he was promoted to Field Marshall, and retired to Lithuania, then simply known as Baltic U.S.S.R. He saw me once before his death in 1988. My mom tells me he held me in his arms and said i was a strong baby. About 6-7 months later (i was born in May), he died.

I remember another person on this forum posting about how their German grandfather fought at Stalingrand, I wonder what they would have thought if they knew their grandchildren would go on the internet and post about what they did.

life is strange

Back when I posted those pictures above a while back, I said that -- in the first pic -- he is receiving a medal for hand to hand combat in Russia. Im not quite sure what he would think about me telling a 'forum crowd' this..but all I know is he had to do what he had to do to survive and return back home.

[quote="Fluffy_Bunny":1a6a7]I remember another person on this forum posting about how their German grandfather fought at Stalingrand, I wonder what they would have thought if they knew their grandchildren would go on the internet and post about what they did.

life is strange[/quote:1a6a7]

lmfao that's pretty wierd.