(Military Search) Where do I go?
 

My Grandfather fought in WWII in the South Pacific. He never really talked about his experiences and I would like to look up to see what he did, what unit he was in etc...
All I know is he was a medic. If any of you know of a website or any place I can look up his info please let me know

my greatuncle died mucho weeks before pearl harbor. oOo:

mine landed on +4 and faught in an atrillery company ... he was a radio man ... setup communication lines for the company ... etc ... there is a site where you can do this but im not sure what it is eek:

Here's some good general info on combat medics from that era: http://home.att.net/~steinert/wwii.htm

Thanks Zoner the site is pretty interesting..didn't know everything they had to do

I got one question

what are "shingles" in war terms

like in SPR. Miller yells in the opening scene when they were gonna blew up the seawall he yells "CLEAR THE SHINGLES!"

what is that?

barbwire?

my paps was a canadian engineer he landing on i think it was juno on d-day

"shingle" just means the stones that make up the part of Normandy beaches just before the sea-wall, ie shingle instead of sand.

try http://www.rleeermey.net/mailcallforum,

you need to register but there are many people who know what they're talking about and you can ask them.
I used to hang out there a lot and you can learn a lot from these folks.

yea the shingle is an obstruction on a beach i.e. the sandy hill in SPR or a wall of rocks

Taken from the "Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia":

The seawall at Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach was a four to twelve foot high wood and concrete wall constructed just behind the beach's shingle. Behind the seawall ran a paved road that ran from beach exits code-named Dog One and Dog Three. Although originally designed by the French as a means of protecting parts of the beach from erosion, the seawall also provided attacking American troops with some measure of protection during the D-Day assault. As part of their beach defenses, the Germans reinforced the seawall with barbed wire and mines.

The seawall shown in the film is not accurate, and resembles more of a sand dune than a concrete wall. Although dunes may have been present at certain parts of Omaha Beach, the seawall covered virtually all of Dog Green Sector. The shingle (smooth stones deposited by the tides) and paved road are not depicted in the movie.

Thank you zoner. I didnt think that a little burm of sand was all that made up a "seawall". I kinda wish now knowing a bit more of the real topography of the beach that SPR had put in those little details.

If im not mistaken, and i may be because i havnt watched it in a while. But dosnt The longest day depict the seawall? I could swear they blew a concrete wall to get off the beaches.

Yep, they did do that in "The Longest Day". Mighta been the only historically accurate thing in the damn movie...heh heh.

Robert Mitchum's character still chaps my ass...horrible performance. john Wayne was laughable too. Sorry, but it's true.

here's a great source of information
[url=http://www.movv.com:0e5d8]http://images.google.com/images?q=war+world+war+II+2+south+pacific&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search[/url:0e5d8]
google by thy friend