Remembering Family Heros

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ViperGTS
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by ViperGTS » Thu May 02, 2019 2:39 pm

Wow, great story. When Germany turned on Russia, it sealed their defeat, in my opinion. Getting smacked from all sides guarenteed a loss.
Rough estimate is that 11 million Russian soldiers died in ww2, countless millions of civilians too.
In the US, ww2 is considered and American and British (and their territories) victory, but we would not have won without Russia. We may have won without Russia, but the war would have lasted many more years.

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prado67
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by prado67 » Thu May 02, 2019 6:37 pm

11 million? This is not the correct data. During the war the Soviet Union lost 8.668.400 soldiers and 17.931.600 civilians. In the total number of 26.600.000. This data is from 2011. The exact number is still not known as the search teams work from spring to autumn every year. And every year they find hundreds of dead, pull equipment from the swamps, tanks, planes, etc...
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ViperGTS
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by ViperGTS » Thu May 02, 2019 9:56 pm

Looks like the estimated numbers i read about were way off. Either way, that number is massive.

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rareauldmealtimes
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by rareauldmealtimes » Fri May 03, 2019 8:39 pm

Here's a few of my family uniforms from WW2. Your browser should "right them" the correct way when opening the attachment.

The first photo with the USARPAC insignia (blue background, stars and red arrow) is of my grandfathers. He was an enlisted man that served in the 8th service command in the US before being transferred into the US Army Pacific Theater, USARPAC HQ&HQ Company Army Garrison Force APO 086 which was stationed on IWO JIMA to establish the base during and after capture. Parts of his outfit landed just days after the marines established an small area of control on the island. The jacket has the red/white good conduct metal, the yellow Asiatic pacific ribbon bar w/ a bronze battle star and the blue ribbon bar for the "American Campaign" which was for service during ww2 within the US. The Ruptured Duck Lapel indicating a honorable discharge. He also had the marskman certification with the 1903 on his discharge paperwork and discharged the army as a pfc. Learning about his service is a real passion of mine and I hope to do it justice by making a website to document their unit for others to learn about their family heroes and hopefully submit their own family photos and histories. I was super lucky to be able to find a personal biography written by the unit itself in october of 1945 just after the end of the war. It is a literal treasure trove of information and even has my grandfathers name and address in it that will supply the majority of the information for the website besides my personal research. Currently reading a book about fort Kamehameha on hawaii where they staged and formed before they went to saipan and eventually iwo.

The second photo with the US Army Airforce insignia is that of a great uncle. I have unfortunately have not been able to track down too much info just yet.
Attachments
20190503_191923.jpg
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rareauldmealtimes
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by rareauldmealtimes » Sat May 04, 2019 7:51 am

prado67 wrote:
Thu May 02, 2019 12:41 pm
In Russia every year there is a procession or action "Immortal regiment". People come there with portraits of their dead relatives who fought, then all go to the laying of flowers at the monuments.These processions are held in almost every city.
Prado thanks for sharing all your history. That parade is something very unique and beautiful, never have heard of anything like that before.

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BTemple
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by BTemple » Sat May 04, 2019 8:46 am

My Grandfather, on my mothers side, served in the Royal Navy (British) from early 1940 until mid 1946. He served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres, stationed at Portsmouth, Derry and Gibraltar, as well as several months spent in Norfolk, Virginia waiting for the ship he was serving on to be repaired. He always told stories about meeting JFK while there (I always found it strange as a child to see pictures of JFK in my grandparents home... in Newfoundland) and my mother backed up the stories saying it was something he always spoke about for as long as she remembers.
He served either on convoy escort duty back and forth across the Atlantic, and patrolling the Gibraltar area (where the vessel he was on fired upon an American ship that was flying no flag) or as a labourer helping repair ships in port. While at Portsmouth he is said to have met King George VI who came aboard the vessel for some undetermined reason.
After his death I received his war records and was able to piece together more of his time in service. He was a man who suffered horribly from PTSD and years of alcoholism to cope with it, so he spoke about the war rarely. I do know that he was at least torpedoed and mined at least once and received wounds to his leg during one of those incidents.
He also spent a week in the brig at some point in 1942... his service comments say "very good" for every year except for 1942. Haha. Knowing what he was like later in life, he probably got into a fight.
After his death his medals were spread amongst his grandchildren... I am proud to be the owner of his Newfoundland Volunteer Service Medal.

One final interesting point. His hometown, Argentia, was the eventual site of a US Naval Base built in Newfoundland during WW2, the land being given to the US by Britain as part of the Lend-Lease Program. It was always a sad thought to know that he had left home in 1940 to fight for his Empire and home and family, and when he finally returned in 1946 his home no longer existed. That part of the town, including even the graveyards, had been dug up or flattened to build the Naval Base.
In the immortal words of President Harrison Ford, Air Force One: Peace is not the absence of war... it is the presence of justice.

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rareauldmealtimes
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by rareauldmealtimes » Sat May 04, 2019 9:29 am

BTemple wrote:
Sat May 04, 2019 8:46 am
One final interesting point. His hometown, Argentia, was the eventual site of a US Naval Base built in Newfoundland during WW2, the land being given to the US by Britain as part of the Lend-Lease Program. It was always a sad thought to know that he had left home in 1940 to fight for his Empire and home and family, and when he finally returned in 1946 his home no longer existed. That part of the town, including even the graveyards, had been dug up or flattened to build the Naval Base.
Thanks for sharing btemple. It's always so cool to see how nearly everyone was affected and took part in so many ways from "The War" as ken burns titles it. So many parts and pieces to the effort. I never got to talk to my grandfather about his experiences but from family members I also heard that they didn't talk much about his experience. Seems like so many suffered from PTSD and the lingering echos of war. It's very good you got to talk with yours! Also, what a shame about him loosing his hometown on that lend-lease deal. A slap in the face for sure.

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BTemple
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by BTemple » Sat May 04, 2019 9:47 am

rareauldmealtimes wrote:
Sat May 04, 2019 9:29 am
BTemple wrote:
Sat May 04, 2019 8:46 am
One final interesting point. His hometown, Argentia, was the eventual site of a US Naval Base built in Newfoundland during WW2, the land being given to the US by Britain as part of the Lend-Lease Program. It was always a sad thought to know that he had left home in 1940 to fight for his Empire and home and family, and when he finally returned in 1946 his home no longer existed. That part of the town, including even the graveyards, had been dug up or flattened to build the Naval Base.
Thanks for sharing btemple. It's always so cool to see how nearly everyone was affected and took part in so many ways from "The War" as ken burns titles it. So many parts and pieces to the effort. I never got to talk to my grandfather about his experiences but from family members I also heard that they didn't talk much about his experience. Seems like so many suffered from PTSD and the lingering echos of war. It's very good you got to talk with yours! Also, what a shame about him loosing his hometown on that lend-lease deal. A slap in the face for sure.
He was certainly someone who could have availed of psychological help if it had been offered back then. Instead, many were told to man-up and not talk about having nightmares, and just drink and smoke to deal with it. My grandmother told us that for a least a decade after they got married he would wake her up a few nights a week screaming about torpedoes in the water or firing anti-aircraft guns at German planes.

My grandfather on my fathers side was too young to fight in WW1 and then too old to volunteer for WW2, but he actually worked for a time during the War helping to build that Naval base in Argentia. He also worked as a logger cutting timber for the war effort, and a fisherman. A Nazi U-Boat surfaced near his schooner once off tge south coast of Labrador, but luckily did not sink them and simply submerged again.
In the immortal words of President Harrison Ford, Air Force One: Peace is not the absence of war... it is the presence of justice.

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prado67
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by prado67 » Sat May 04, 2019 12:39 pm

Now we are preparing for the annual Victory Parade there are 4 days left...
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ViperGTS
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Re: Remembering Family Heros

Post by ViperGTS » Sat May 04, 2019 2:16 pm

Im with you BTemple...my grandfather never said a word to his 3 kids or to me about his time in the AF. (AAC)
He passed many years ago, and i will never know what happened. I guess once you are done with your service, you never want to remember the horrible things that you saw.

Crazy story about that U-boat encounter.

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