When history mixes with personal stuff

[derspiess]

My family skipped most 20th century wars. 

Same here.  Actually, last direct ancestor that was involved in any fighting was my great-great-grandfather who was named after Sherman.  He fought in the Spanish-American War.  We found a couple of his letters and they're a hoot: Ohio farmboy in Florida for the first time and then Cuba.

[Syt]

I know the names of my grandparents, but not their life data (birth place, birth/death dates), and I couldn't tell you even the names of my great grand parents.

[Valmy]

Well he was 43 :p my other two ww1 veteran family members were great-grandpas, so this guy was sort of the exception generationally I guess.

Well Austria-Hungary mobilized over 7.5 million soldiers out of a population of only 50 million so you had to figure anybody male under 60 and over 15 was considered available.

[Razgovory]

I tracked my Great Grand father's regiment across in WWI so I knew where he was was wounded.  He was actually wounded by gun fire an hour after the war.  He went on to become county Sheriff and then came to Jefferson City to be a prison warden.  Died in the 1950's.

[Tamas]

The significance of the day of his death due to the gas attack thing lets you actually read a fairly detailed account of the day.

In summary, after much preparation, the gas attack mostly achieved what was expected, but the unaffected portions of the Italian trenches did not rout. After savage fighting the A-H troops (vast majority Hungarian reservists) captured the Italian 1st trenchline, but due to the terrain were under flanking fire there, and with their rear communication and supply lines out in the open of course, and under constant and heavy enemy fire, plus the Italian trench itself being in a shitty state, they decided to just wreck everything there and retreat to their own trenches.

So, a typical WW1 story really: much preparation, horrors of gas attack, vicious fighting, 4000 dead on the A-H side alone on one day and one hilltop, and zero meters of advance at the end of the day. Yet it was considered a success those days because it bought the survivors some time of relative calm due to wrecking the Italian first line.

I am seeculating that poor grandpa had to be among the parts of his unit which got pinned by an untouched part of the Italian line in front of them. Those guys suffered heavy casualties as soon as they tried to assault undamaged and unaffected trenches, and so their attack quickly collapsed. My reasoning is that if he died in the attack that actually reached the Italian trenches, his body would not had been recovered to be buried in the A-H cemetery he ended up in a couple of days later.


Sorry for the long-windedness, but this personal family story really helps putting things into perspective for me. I mean, he was just one of 4000 on his side only, and only on that part of the front on that day, and I know (vaguely) how his wife was left alone to raise 3 boys, and arguably failing at it, at least two of them (including my great-grandpa on that line) becoming alcoholics and drinking away the little farm poor great-great-grandpa managed to save together before dying in Italy for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

[derspiess]

I know what you mean.  My great-great grandfather was wounded and captured at Monocacy in 1864.  Obviously makes that battle more meaningful to me.  My dad and I stopped by there and pinpointed the spot in the field where he was shot, based upon his account.  Old dude lived to the age of 90.

[Tonitrus]

My family skipped most 20th century wars. 

Same here.  Actually, last direct ancestor that was involved in any fighting was my great-great-grandfather who was named after Sherman.  He fought in the Spanish-American War.  We found a couple of his letters and they're a hoot: Ohio farmboy in Florida for the first time and then Cuba.

Those belong in a museum.  

[Caliga]

Sorry for the long-windedness, but this personal family story really helps putting things into perspective for me. I mean, he was just one of 4000 on his side only, and only on that part of the front on that day, and I know (vaguely) how his wife was left alone to raise 3 boys, and arguably failing at it, at least two of them (including my great-grandpa on that line) becoming alcoholics and drinking away the little farm poor great-great-grandpa managed to save together before dying in Italy for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Did you ever stop to think how weird it is that you can just go to Italy any time you like with no problems now, but back then you would have been shot?

I sometimes think that when travelling between South and North here, though usually I do that between Kentucky and Indiana and it was by no means a black and white thing like that during the Civil War around here.

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think the CSA ever controlled Kentucky all the way to the Indiana border.

[Tamas]

Sorry for the long-windedness, but this personal family story really helps putting things into perspective for me. I mean, he was just one of 4000 on his side only, and only on that part of the front on that day, and I know (vaguely) how his wife was left alone to raise 3 boys, and arguably failing at it, at least two of them (including my great-grandpa on that line) becoming alcoholics and drinking away the little farm poor great-great-grandpa managed to save together before dying in Italy for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Did you ever stop to think how weird it is that you can just go to Italy any time you like with no problems now, but back then you would have been shot?

I sometimes think that when travelling between South and North here, though usually I do that between Kentucky and Indiana and it was by no means a black and white thing like that during the Civil War around here.

For sure. Also I have a few Italian colleagues. It is perfectly conceivable that our great grandpas were shooting at each other merely a hundred years ago, and here we are now.

[Caliga]

I don't think the CSA ever controlled Kentucky all the way to the Indiana border.

Did you not read the second part of my second sentence?

[derspiess]

I think in Kentucky it was a town by town thing as far as loyalty went.  Towns in Northern Kentucky were staunchly pro-union, as one might imagine.

[Caliga]

I think in Kentucky it was a town by town thing as far as loyalty went.  Towns in Northern Kentucky were staunchly pro-union, as one might imagine.

Both the town I live in now and the town I will be moving to shortly were pro-Union and were attacked by Confederate guerrillas.  Quantrill was killed in the town I now live in, in a Union ambush.

I believe southern and western Kentucky was more closely aligned with the Confederacy, which makes sense as that's where the state's large plantations were.

[KRonn]

It's pretty good that you got the info about your great, great grandfather in WWI. I had one grandfather who served there, a step-grandfather. My others I don't know if they served; they had come from Italy in the early 1900s so were probably too young.

Good to see others have some info on what their ancestors did, what they went through even though some of it is hard to talk about.

I do have a lot of information from my father, uncles and great uncle who served in WW2. Some amazing stories came out of it and I'm glad they were able to tell about it, tell us the history of what they went through, even though some of it is rough stuff.

[Caliga]

Yeah... in addition to my grandfather's WWII experiences which I mentioned earlier, his identical twin Nelson served as well, and was a PBY Catalina pilot in the Pacific.  He was shot down by the Japanese off New Guinea but managed to land (lucky he was in a Catalina I guess) and got to shore and was rescued by the Australians.