Last surviving veterans of WW-II

[AndyD]

@Jolly said in Last surviving veterans of WW-II:

Only had one in the family, my wife's uncle. 3rd Army during Patton's run to Bastogne. He died a few years ago.

Never heard him say anything about it.

Jolly
Same experience for me.
Interesting that there are many books written by commanders, yet the veterans I talked to avoided answering, even my Dad just went quieter than usual and once looked away when I pressed him about a tank battle he said he got caught up in.

An uncle and a neighbour were in the army, both in the 1943 retaking Italy which, by many accounts was well defended. Would never say anything other than they'd landed and fought up Italy, neighbour mentioned Monte Casino. Both never went abroad again.

Our father was a RAF gunner, in Burma 1944, and Malaya, Singapore. Served 5 years and yet we know almost nothing.
Didn't get back to England until 1946. Never went abroad again. Died aged 89 in 2011.

Any questions got few words in answer. He would tell his happy tale of volunteering delivering some package, flying in an old Dakota across India, seeing the Himalayas, a fun trip. About going for a pee one night and a Jap sniper nearly getting him so he had to stay out on the hill alone till dawn.
Ask him about defending airfields or the tank battle and you'd get nothing. Deaths and injuries still vivid, I'm guessing.
He got and sent Christmas cards from three men he fought alongside, and said a couple of friends in their close group didn't make it back.
He liked General Slim. Regarded the Japanese as cruel, but that was all he'd say. At the age of 23 he'd seen Changi and Death Railway POW survivors.

Only once did he openly talk to me about anything related to Japan, when I was a teenager back in the 1970s. He knew I was keen on studying aikido and he'd seen a short TV programme about a 9th dan. It seemed to impress him that this man was different to the Japs he'd fought; would talk to the attacker, and despite his skill rather avoid a fight and even run away, but if pushed by a gang attacking would be able to look after himself.

Over 30 years since he'd got back from the war, and maybe time to start healing.

[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