20th Century Stories about WW1 or WW2 you have been told about your grandparents or great-grandparents

[Rotayjay]

There is a reason why there is an almost pathological need for Russian government to install buffer states- and why Putin (or any Russian President) ain't ever going to let Ukraine join NATO

This comment aged well, and I don't mean that sarcastically.

 

[D Mitchell]

A school mate of my father was a guard at Cowra who boasted about machine gunning escaping prisoners. Low life.

Cowra breakout | History & Facts | Britannica

History of the Cowra breakout, a mass escape of prisoners of war during World War II.

www.britannica.com

Assuming it's the guard who you call low life, perhaps he knew a bit about about Japanese POW camps, Nanking or even how Hardy and Jones died. Strong anti-Japanese sentiment was not uncommon among that generation. My unkle was in Changi. "Don't ever approach unkle Laurie from behind" was our warning. A bloke I ran into in London, a former car mechanic, told me he would never work on a Japanese car after his brother was used for bayonet practice in a Japanese POW camp. According to that generation, the NAZIs were gentlemen compared to the Japanese.

 

[Crimson Azure]

My grandfather fought in Egypt/North Africa then came back to Australia, got married and was then sent to New Guinea.

He would not talk about it. As a child I would ask about it a lot but he would be vague and only talk about things like rest days and the fun things like swimming in the Mediterranean sea. Never said anything about fighting the Japanese.

 

[_Mike_]

My grandfather fought in Egypt/North Africa then came back to Australia, got married and was then sent to New Guinea.

He would not talk about it

Similar, one of mine was in the British 2nd armored brigade in a Sherman at the second battle of El Alamein in 42. Never spoke of it either. He would simply say it was pure carnage and he hoped the world would never see that again

 

[brutus76]

Pa served in Darwin until the end of the war and he and his brother signed up at the same time (he was 19) and he didn't want to be on the family farm alone. He was in Darwin for his duration working in the Supply Depot and was very busy especially as Darwin was bombed 60+ times.

Poppy was a despatch rider. He had just turned 20 when he enlisted. Despatch riders were used by armed forces to deliver urgent orders and messages between headquarters and military units. They had a vital role at a time when telecommunications were limited and insecure and taking messages to key bases or to and from the front. Got shot at a lot. The odd booby trap in the road. Very seldom talked about it. He was everywhere. First assignment was Gaza Ridge, then Greece, then Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and then PNG before coming back to Australia. Ran a bike shop when he returned and was 3 time Australian scramble champion in the 50s (scramble was motorcross before lighter bikes with better and more flexible suspension, forks and rear ends were introduced)

 

[StingBitten]

Here's a family story about my great-grandad in relation to WW1 and a very early-Blues musician known as Henry Thomas:

'My great-grandfather fought in WW1 for Great Britain (he was Scottish), in 1918 he befriended an American soldier who offered him work on his family's cattle farm in Huntsville after the war. Great grandad was lost mentally and craved a sea change, so he accepted the offer. In the mid 1920s he wrote in his diary about seeing an amazing black musician called 'Rag Rhyme Texas'. His music reached him in ways no other white music had before, and it transformed his outlook forever.


He returned to Scotland in the Great Depression, and in 1968 his nephew played the Canned Heat version on his record player. Great grandad nearly had a heart attack and broke down in tears, that panpipe chorus was unforgettable he said. After much research my uncle found the record of Henry Thomas in the 70s, and we learned that his nickname was actually 'Ragtime Texas'.


This is a story our family passes down from generation to generation, and we owe Henry Thomas so much in helping our family out of a very dark place.'

Here's the YouTube video of the song with my comment included:

 

[LanceRomance]

StingBitten that is a great story!

 

[kaiserchief13]

One of my grandfathers fought for the Nazis and when the war ended he was coming back from Eastern Europe on the train, but got stopped by some Soviets and spent the next 10 years in Siberia in the gulags. Many people around him died but he went home around early 1950's

 

[raskolnikov]

My mum grew up in a house boat in Essex during WWII.

My dad's brother fought in Korea and survived but was killed in a car accident the day after he returned.

 

[Nugett]

Found a video of a speech my grandfather gave back in 2015. He was the only member of his squadron that was healthy enough to go. He said that he was lucky. As an ex POW at Changi he became a cook, as he realised that if he was going to survive he needed to be around the Tucker. He also told a story of on one of the Death marches the diggers had to do, 1 of the guys in front of him passed out. So he carried him on his shoulders, at some stage during the march, the soldier came to, and begged my grandfather to put him down, so that he could die. My gran father’s response was “If I put you down now, I won’t be able to pick you back up.” He finished his story by saying that he got the soldier to the next base, where the soldier got treatment, but I don’t think the soldier made it. I remember taking Japanese in school, my grandfather could speak Japanese very well.

His brother, was also captured, due to the nature of my great Uncle’s death, his files were sealed for a long time. Only being opened in the past 10 years or so. He was post humourlessly honoured for efforts in the war, with a medal for bravery, which I have locked up in my safe. He and a couple of others were captured in East Timor, sent to a POW camp, where they managed to escape. During their time on the run, they were able to send back reconnaissance messages of potential targets ect. Managed to organise transport, to get back to Australia. The day they were supposed to go back, the local East Timorese, most likely under duress, pressure and torture, told the Japanese soldiers, where they were hiding. They were recaptured, forced to dig their own graves, then beheaded. Rumour in the family has it, that my great grand parents were told that it was my grandfather that was deceased and not my great Uncle. So when my grandfather walked through the door, his parents were like “Your dead” and then realising that they had been mourning the wrong son.

My other Grandfather also served, he was a Rat of Tobruk. I have heard that many of the Rats, developed stomach Cancer later on in life, which is what my grandfather died of. How true that is, I’m unsure. He also served in Europe somewhere, and had an Italian Captains sword as a souvenir, the where abouts of the sword I have no idea. During R&R he spent in Scotland for 48 hours, where he met a girl, then went back to fighting in the war. After the completion of the War, he went back home, found that the girl he was going to marry, was married to someone else. So wrote a letter to the Scottish lass, asking her to marry him. That Scottish lass was my grandmother.

 

[Nugett]

My father was captured on Java on his way back from the Middle East and ended up in Changi for 3 years.

He was "lucky" in that the tropical ulcers he developed on his legs (which hung around and regularly flared up for the rest of his relatively short life) were so bad that he wasn't fit enough to be sent on the Burma Railway. It was actually a toss-up whether I was named after Weary Dunlop or his lesser-known but equally heroic medical colleague Ewan Corlett.

He never spoke about it to us kids, but he did to mum, who would let snippets fall during later years.

She said that the Korean guards were every bit as cruel as the Japanese officers, if not worse; but nothing "Made in Japan" was ever allowed in the house when we were growing up.

The POWs used to have to scavenge themselves in the surrounding jungle to supplement their starvation rations with bushrats and the like. Dad's version of "Nasi Goreng" which we ate as a special treat as kids bore no relationship to the insipid stuff you now get in restaurants. According to mum, the best meal they ever had in the camp occurred about a week after the Japanese Commandant's dog went missing.

Another medic was Roy Mills. He also wrote a book. Doctor’s memoir and Diaries. I think he was the camp doctor my grandfather was in. At another one of my grandfather addressing a dawn service he said he brought the book read three pages, before putting it back down, as it brought back too many memories. This is from a man, who had read all of Weary Dunlop books and others. When ever I visited my grand parents, after he said that, on the book shelf I would see it, and wanted to read it so bad, but out of respect(fear) I never could.

I also heard him mention The Lizard. Something that the author Tim Flannigan also mentions in his books, about his father’s experience during Changi.

Also heard about the Koreans being worse. Was told the Chinese were the best. My grand father also mentioned an American Japanese guard, he said if it wasn’t for that particular guard he would have absolute hatred of the Japanese, opposed to a strong hate. A story that my mum told, was that my grandmother decided to buy a new dinner set. Saved for months and put a lay-by on. Eventually got her new dinner set. Unfortunately it was fine China made in Japan. When my grandfather saw that, he went out to the wood heap and smashed every piece of it. He also received a check, it was twenty pounds from the Japanese government for work done on the railway, he ripped it up. Even in his 70’s he would wake my grandmother up, due to nightmares.

My grandfather was one of the lucky ones, that got invited over to the opening of Hellfire Pass. Because of his age, he needed a chaperone, so one of my uncles went with him. They went to a local restaurant, where my uncle made the comment that the meat tasted funny, my grandfather’s response was it was dog, as he remembered the taste. His trip to Hellfire pass, really opened him up.