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Armistice Day 2012

Started by Valmy, November 11, 2012, 03:03:21 PM

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Syt

#15
November 13, 2012, 10:56:20 AM
Quote from: Zanza on November 13, 2012, 10:48:23 AM
I know what my grandparents did in WW2, but I honestly couldn't even tell you for sure the names of all my great-grandparents. Can't say whether that's normal or not.

Same here. One grand-dad was a chauffeur in the SS, the other died in Russia. Both my parents' families fled West (from East Prussia/Pommerania, respectively). That's as much as I know about my family history. Supposedly we had family in the former GDR (sister of my paternal grandma?) but no contact with them. Or the remainders of my dad's family (a brother or two and a sister).
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

DGuller

#16
November 13, 2012, 10:59:46 AM
Quote from: Valmy on November 13, 2012, 10:50:54 AM
Quote from: Zanza on November 13, 2012, 10:48:23 AM
I know what my grandparents did in WW2, but I honestly couldn't even tell you for sure the names of all my great-grandparents. Can't say whether that's normal or not.

Ah ok.  Yeah that is pretty normal.  Doing my genealogy stuff I am often amazed at how alot of people do not even know who their grandparents are.
I can think of a reason why some 30-something Germans would not know who their grandfather was.  :hmm:

Zanza

#17
November 13, 2012, 11:01:46 AM
Well, I do know the name of my 103 year old great grandmother who is still alive. ;) She was only five years old at the outbreak of WW1, so I assume that she worked on the farm and attended school.

katmai

#18
November 13, 2012, 11:06:12 AM
My Maternal Grandfather lied about his age and joined the US Army in 1915 (when he was just 16).
Was part of Blackjack Pershing's forces sent into Mexico in search of Pancho Villa in 1916
He then served in 42 Infantry Division in WWI
QuoteIt went overseas in November 1917. The division took part in four major Operations: the Champagne-Marne, the Aisne-Marne, the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. In total, it saw 264 days of combat.
And in WWII....
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Ed Anger

#19
November 13, 2012, 12:06:51 PM
I've got a Luftwaffe dagger that was taken off some sap's corpse.  :)

No, it will not be retuned to his family.
Stay Alive...Let the Man Drive

Martim Silva

#20
November 13, 2012, 07:21:54 PM Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 08:01:21 PM by Martim Silva
In the Great War, my Greatgrandfather (1877-1958) was conductor the band of our expeditionary corps*. During the Lys offensive (April 1918), he camly finished his meal during the preparatory bombardment (while the band hid under the tables), then led them out the building - which took a direct hit soon after.

He led the band to the rear, and in the route he met his cousin, who had fled from the combat line and was trying to hide. He disguised him as a member of the band and took him off to safety.

My other Greatgrandfather Alfredo (1897-1979),  who was also in that battle after serving in the Rovuma campaign in Africa, tried to keep his head down the most he could (especially since he had just seen his best friend lose his). He was smart enough to see there was no way to stop the German stormtroopers and fled to the back with some of his fellows. The English tried to rally them, but they paid them no heed.

My father and grandmother told me the first story. The second was told me by greatgrandpa himself.

*: He had been the conductor of the royal band before the Republic was declared, playing all afternoon for the Queen when she went out to rest in the hills (she disliked gramophones and preferred live music).

We skipped WW2, but in the colonial wars my dad's unit amused themselves by throwing live babies in the air and catching them when they came down... with their bayonets.

That, of course, when there was anyone left alive after the napalm bombardments of the villages. We killed millions of civilians during that war.

Razgovory

#21
November 13, 2012, 07:39:12 PM
This does not increase our respect for you or the Portuguese people.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

garbon

#22
November 13, 2012, 07:46:33 PM
Quote from: Razgovory on November 13, 2012, 07:39:12 PM
This does not increase our respect for you or the Portuguese people.

right?
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

#23
November 13, 2012, 08:01:45 PM
Wadaya mean "right"?
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

garbon

#24
November 13, 2012, 08:03:03 PM
Right as in seriously.
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Razgovory

#25
November 13, 2012, 08:30:40 PM
Quote from: garbon on November 13, 2012, 08:03:03 PM
Right as in seriously.

I am completely serious when I say that stories of cowardice and war crimes fail to engender respect.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

garbon

#26
November 13, 2012, 08:56:23 PM
I was agreeing with you. ;)

I suppose I should have said "right?" as in "seriously."
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Siege

#27
November 14, 2012, 01:29:45 AM
My greatgrandpa was in South Africa during WW1. I'm pretty sure he didn't serve. He would have wrote about in my family's genealogy book.



"All men are created equal, then some become infantry."

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."

"Laissez faire et laissez passer, le monde va de lui même!"

MadImmortalMan

#28
November 14, 2012, 03:39:54 AM
My stepdad would have been 68 on the 11th. He didn't do anything war-related, but I miss him anyway. He died last year. I always remembered Armistice Day because it was his birthday. I hope it doesn't fade away.
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Camerus

#29
November 14, 2012, 05:52:42 AM
I've got one great-grandad who lied about his age to join the Canadian forces being sent to Europe, and another one who was an American pilot who served in Europe.  That's the extent of my knowledge of their war-time doings.
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