World War II anyones grandparents....

parky · Kickflip Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3193

hey everyone,

I was just curious did any of your guys grandparents fight in WW2 or Nam?

if they did sare any info you got... this is a topic ive always been interested in and when im done my wakeskating "career" if I ever have one im going to military school to be a pilot.. and fligh canada's 50 year old planes haha jk

heres mine, my grandpa was a flying officer(1st Leutandant now adays) in the RCAF (royal canadian airforce) he was based in Ireland and flew an aircraft called the Short Sunderland, the Short sunderland was a large flying boat, it was the biggest airplane in WW2 (bigger than B-17s, etc.) it also had ten 7.7mm guns, two 12.7mm guns, and up to 2250kg of bombs and depth charges to sink nazi subs

my grandfather sunk one german sub called U-625 commanded by Oblt. Siegfried Straub

el · Backside 180 Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 1739 City: The Sea

Les Watson, my great grandfather, was the tail gunner of a B-29 and flew a lot of successful missions, and I seem to remember hearing they shot down a few 'Fokken' (it's actually Fokke) Wolf fighters, and they also got shot down but landed in one piece. I don't know many details, but yeah, pretty interesting stuff.

Interesting side note: he and my great grandmother got married within 48 hours of meeting each other (this was during the war). They lived happily in Ft Meyers Florida the rest of their lives afterwards. He died of lung cancer before I was born but my great grandmother is alive and still lives in Ft Meyers, I go down there to visit from time to time.

Fun fact: I am a distant cousin of Shawn Watson.

Grouch · Kickflip Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 3146 City: The OC

My Grandpa was in the Navy on a battleship in WWII and fought in the battle of Midway.

Funny story: He recently had a quadruple bypass surgery and when the doctor asked him when his last physical was, his response was "when I joined the Navy during WWII."

parky · Kickflip Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3193

el, sweet, those fokke wolf 190s where bitching planes, terrible performance but would just rip the shizzle out of a bomber whent hey came in....

Grouch, haha thats awesome dude

nick · Posted: Jan 18, 2005 11:57 am Post subject:

My grandpa was in WWII, but he died before I was old enough for him to tell his story Sad

My dad was a ground soldier in vietnam. He's told me his stories, but no funny ones... Parky, being a 15 kid from canada, I don't think you realize that you had to be there in order to call it "nam" Rolling Eyes

senorbueno · Backside 180 Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 1593

My grandfather was a waist gunner on a B17 G bomber, his plane was shot down and he was a POW for a few months at the end of WWII. He doesn't really talk about it much, but recently told me that the Germans were fairly nice to him, and when he finally made it back his commanding officers punished him and the other some of the other POWs for not having their dogtags while they were held captive.

My father and uncle were both Marines in Vietnam. They don't really talk about it that much though, except for the fact that they both are really proud to be Marines.

Morphine · Backside 180 Joined: 03 Jun 2004 Posts: 1207 City: 706omg

My great granddad was in World War II, it's been a while since I talked to him, but I remember one story where he applied for a position on a submarine and they wouldn't let him because he was too tall (6'3)

Mr. Top Hat · Dead Joined: 29 Aug 2004 Posts: 5818

my grandpa fought in the battle of the bulge but he really doesnt talk about it much. my step dad flew helicopeters in vietnam and lost a bunch of his friends. he doesnt talk about it too much but has alot of pictures that explain most of it.

freerider4 · Backside 180 Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 2462

my grandfather flew the transport planes over the route that is called the hump and one night they were flying in a very dense fog and he clipped the top of the mountain which took his landing gear off so he had everyone parachute out of the plane except him cause he didn't want to ditch his plane since it had all of the christmas presents for the officers in it from there families and he landed it on it's belly with no landing gear and they wrote in article in time magazine about it.

TTUFAN24 · Posted: Jan 18, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

EvanPark, canada has a military?

freerider4 · Backside 180 Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 2462

el wo I am from fort myers

senorbueno · Backside 180 Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 1593

TTUFAN24, lmfao

satori* · Posted: Jan 18, 2005 4:52 pm Post subject:

my grandfather was a co pilot on a b-17. 15th squadron. he has some bad memories. he flew his 25 missions and even had to fly 5 extra, but got out, and is alive today.

fun facts:
less than 50% of b-17 crewman completed the designated amount of missions.
less than 20% of b-17 ball turret gunners survived the war.

L.O.W PRIDE · Pop Shuvit Joined: 07 Dec 2004 Posts: 193 City: the hiv

my grandpa is mexican, so he hasn't done shyt.

J/K he actually was in WWII and worked with radio comunications but thats all i know.

Matt_French · Guest

my one grandfather enlisted under-age...and was a combat grunt. he was shot in the back...because of the nature of his injury...he was out of commision until after the war was over.

My other grandfather was a RAF guy...i dont think he was a pilot...but i know he had something to do with Lancaster planes i believe...i never really asked him.

parky · Kickflip Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3193

Nick Taylor, im sorry Im american so I wouldn't know something like that.... senorbueno, thats really cool, B-17s are dope, ive got a computer game where you place as one, you can be in every position on the plane... TTUFAN24, we had a huge military, that was when we were very connected to the English, our military isn't very big anymore, he has very out dated aircraft, our main planes are F-18 and Arora's (in the US there called Orians) we have lots of ships tho..... satori*, sweet dude, thats really suprised looking at those numbers...

I have other people in my family (dead) who where in WWI... my great grandad was a ship captian and rescued the Russian royalty out of russian during the revolution (1917) my great uncle was killed in the battle of the Somme.... and I have a nother great uncle who was in a WWI submarine (scary shizzle)

Michael Manzer · Posted: Jan 18, 2005 9:08 pm Post subject:

my gramps on my dad side was a B-25 pilot/flight instructor.....he got court marshaled and kicked out of the air force cause him and a buddy buzzed the flight control tower when a bunch of the commanding officers were in it. He misses flying a lot to this day and we talk about it a bunch whenever i go and see him.
on a side note, he lives in west palm beach and every single time i go down to visit ive never been able to skate.

parky · Kickflip Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3193

Michael Manzer, haha that is toooooo funny

my grandfather quit the airforce after the war was over and he joined again later but they wouldn't let him be an officer like he was before so he was a non commitioned officer, but he wasn't a privet for long, he rose to the highest rank of Sargent.... he got to fly a CF-104 (starfighter) in the 60's which could go mach 2 ...

nick · Posted: Jan 18, 2005 10:11 pm Post subject:

haha that plane looked all fierce and shizzle, til I saw the canadian flag on the back Smash

parky · Kickflip Joined: 04 Oct 2004 Posts: 3193

Nick Taylor, haha....

ya well go to hell

here is a photo I found on the net of my grandfathers crew, hes the short guy Laughing