Last surviving veterans of WW-II

[Wim]

My dad almost never told us about his whereabouts during WWII, apart from some anecdotical evidence.
After he died in 1990, it took me twenty years to fully disclose what he had been into.
No wonder that he was haunted in some way.

[Mik]

My FIL was a machine gunner in Korea. I've heard a few stories, and they were grim enough to know why he didn't want to say any more.

[Jolly]

Wife's uncle (same family as her WW2 uncle, just the baby of the family) was Marine Corps and a demolitions guy in Vietnam...Unexploded ordinance, booby traps. Did one tour, volunteered for another. Never heard a word about his time in Nam.

Did hear a pretty funny story about the time he blew himself up at a boot camp demonstration.

One of her first cousins (nephew of the first two) got a Silver Star and a couple of bullet holes in Nam. He never talked about it. I do know he was listed as MIA after a firefight, because they had already told his wife he was missing.

That rocked on for about a week and a half, until she got a call from the hospital in Japan. He had been out of it...Last thing he remembered was somebody throwing him in a helicopter and then he woke up in the hospital. And that's about all I knew about him, until his obituary.

[Copper]

My father has been gone since 1999

35 Missions in a B-24

Mission # Date Target
1 Nov. 2, 1944 Castrop-Rauxel - - (Purple hearts - 2)
2 Nov. 4, 1944 Gelsen-Kirchen
3 Nov. 6, 1944 Minden
4 Nov. 8, 1944 Rheine
5 Nov. 9, 1944 Metz - whiskey
6 Nov. 21, 1944 Hamburg - air medal
7 Nov. 25, 1944 Bingen
8 Nov. 29, 1944 Altenbeken
9 Dec. 4, 1944 Bebra
10 Dec. 11, 1944 Hanau - whiskey
11 Dec. 23, 1944 Junkerauth
12 Dec. 24, 1944 Bitburg - oak leaf cluster
13 Dec. 28, 1944 Neunkirchen
14 Dec. 30, 1944 Euskirchen
15 Jan. 3, 1945 Homburg - whiskey
16 Jan. 7, 1945 Zweibrucken
17 Jan. 14, 1945 Ehmen
18 Jan. 15, 1945 Reutlingen - oak leaf cluster
19 Jan. 28, 1945 Dortmund
20 Jan. 2,9, 1945 Hamm - whiskey - flak leave
21 Feb. 14, 1945 Magdeburg
22 Feb. 1 6, 1945 Rheine
23 Feb 21, 1945 Nuremburg - forced landing
24 Feb. 23, 1945 Salzuflen - oak leaf cluster, diverted to a Limey base
25 Feb. 25, 1945 Giebelstadt
26 Feb. 26, 1945 Berlin
27 Feb. 28, 1-945 Arnsberg - Belgium
28 Mar. 3, 1945 Magdeburg - fighters
29 Mar. 10, 1945 Paderborn
30 Mar. 12, 1945 Wetzlar - oak leaf cluster
31 Mar. 15, 1945 Gardelegen
32 Mar. 19, 1945 Neuberg
33 Mar, 21, 1945 Achmer
34 Mar. 22, 1945 Giebelstadt
35 Mar. 24, 1945 Wesel

[Mik]

35 missions. That’s quite incredible.

[Renauda]

@Mik

That is incredible given that USAAF bomber crews that survived 27 missions had the option to return home and train the next generation of crews.

[Jolly]

25 missions in 1943. With the ascension of the P-51 and the decimation of the Luftwaffe, Crews were rotated home after 30 missions. In late 44 or early 45, that went to 35 missions.

AFAIK, that was a implemented by each theater, so the number may have been different in the Pacific, etc.

[Copper]

That's right, minimums were raised later in the war.

[Renauda]

@Jolly

I stand corrected. Thanks. I don’t know why 27 missions stood out in my mind. 25 makes far more sense.

I don’t think there was any mission ceiling on RAF or RCAF bomber crews. I should ask my friend whose father flew I don’t how many bombing missions as an RCAF navigator on Lancasters. Seems to me he signed up early in the war. So I am curious as to how many he flew. I only know it was a lot.

[Jolly]

I think it was 30 for the RAF, starting in the early 40's. Then six months on other duty, then 20 missions on the second tour.

By the end of the second tour the survival rates were pretty bad.

[Renauda]

@Jolly

I checked and yes the RAF required 30 missions not exceeding 200 flying hours followed by a rest of six months training new crews then a second tour of duty. Oddly, pathfinders required 45 missions before the rest.

RCAF 6th Group would have been the same.

I do remember my mother saying that some of the flight crew officers sent to Calgary to rest were badly shell shocked. They were in no shape to train anyone.

[AndyD]

@Copper

It's hard to imagine the increasing stress of bombing missions over such a time period.

Your father's service brought to mind another American, Billy Fiske, who pretended to be Canadian to join the RAF and so served in the Battle of Britain.

They could be scrambled into action half a dozen times a day. He flew 42 sorties in 27 days. One of the very best fliers of the honoured few who saved us, his memorial is in St Paul's cathedral.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-pilots-who-flew-in-the-battle-of-britain