I start this thread because i think it is very important that we know our relative who fought in the WW1 or WW2.
Im always intrerested in this subject.
So come on guys,if you have got some pictures about your relative(s) pls
share with our community.
At first here is my two great grandfather. Rudolf Molnár: He served in Royal Hungarian Army (i dont know ,which army corps yet :S )
In this picture you can see his 3 bar of medal.
The first is the Hungarian Bravery Award
The second is the Tűzkereszt (if i translated to english itis Firecross )
The Third is the the Commemorative Medal for the Return of South Hungary
(when Hungary got back the old border-line soldiers got this medal,if they take part in operations)
My second great-grandfather: Imre Guba: I havent got too much picture about him :S
He served in Royal Hungarian Army .If i know good he served in the 53/III battalion as a mortarman.He fought near the Don river (Russia).
My great-grandmother's brother died in 1944 when american bombers attack Debrecen's railway station,he just came back from the front line.
I haven got any photos about him on my computer :S
My father served during the Korean war, but as a US Navy housing officer in Hawaii. Talk about an easy assignment.
My Grandfather, much to his disappointment, was to young for WW1 and too old for WW2 but he served in civil defense unit.
My Mother's father (no pictures as of yet) was in the USAAF, air transport during, WW2, stationed in Tunisia. Unfortunately he died of head injuries after a Jeep accident. I gather there were a great many Jeep accidents that resulted in death during WW2. Not the most stable vehicle if driven fast over rough roads.
The only photo I have my hands on now is my Great Grandfather who enlisted underage and with a false name in the American Civil War in an Ohio regiment-
He's the one on the right with the large mustache. You'll notice thos glass plate negative hasn't aged very well.
He did survive the war but he evidently didn't like to talk about it and no one in the family even knows what false name he used.
I'll see if I can dig up a photo of my Mother's father.
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Re: Relatives in War
Interesting thread. Just noticed it!
Hope a little of my families Wartime experiences is of interest to you guys.
This is my paternal Grandfather Alec going 'native' someplace in Nth Africa..
He served as a sapper (combat engineer) with the Royal Australian Engineers 9th DIV seeing action from the very beginning of WWII, from Palestine to the siege of Tobruk and finally to El Alamein where when on a combat patrol he was shot in the stomach and unwittingly left behind. He managed to make his way back to his own lines an estimated 2 km's, with much of his intestine dragging in the sand.
That as they say was the end of the war for him, he spent the next 18 months in a series of hospitals before finally being repatriated home, where the crazy bastard returned to his first love playing Australian Rules Football. For those unfamiliar with the sport, its a sometimes brutal full-contact game.
My maternal Granfather (no photo) served in the British Merchant Marine, before having his ship torpedoed out from under him. Unfortunately other than him obviously surviving the war, that's pretty much all I know about his service. Never spoke of this time ever.
Last edited by GiantFlyingRobots; 12th November 2010 at 15:40.
A great uncle of mine was imprisoned in the war. First at Camp Amersfoort. Later he was forced to work at an airbase in Germany, doing repairs after bombing raids.
He does not tell much about it, only that his time at the airbase was worse then in Camp Amersfoort. And after seeing things (with one of his sons) and reading about Camp Amersfoort, that brings up the worst nightmares. He has some scars, and no flesh left under his feet from the beating he got.
I only know a story where he told that he was chained together wih two other prisoners, him being the man in the middle. They were doing repairs at the airfield when they were strafed by a fighter. The other two prisoners, got killed, he was unharmed.
My maternal grandmother's father (aka my great-grand-father) was the mayor of his village near Paris at the beginning of the first World War. He joined the army and was forced to retreat along with his unit back to his hometown, where he was killed by a "lost bullet" (if there ever was such a thing).
He was buried where he died and his dog, which had stayed at his home, ran away, found his tomb and let himself die there.
Every French town has a monument to its dead from WW1 and/or WW2. From what I've been told, on one side of the monument are the names of those who left the town and were killed somewhere else and on the other side are the names of those who were killed inside the town. My great-grandfather is said to be the only one to be on both sides of a monument aux morts. I don't know if it's true, as I would imagine that other people suffered a similar fate. I do know that the times when we've been to the village in question (Saint-Soupplets), his name was read twice during the ceremony. Once for each side of the monument.
My Uncle Roland (on the right) and another member of the the 389th Bomb Group in North Africa in 1942. The last time I saw him was at his home in the 1950s. I was about 12 years old and had begun to be interested in aviation history. When I went into his living room during that visit, he had a large framed painting of the low-level raid of B-24 bombers on the Ploesti oil fields in 1943.
Roland was part of a ground crew in Tidal Wave (don't know which airplane)and did not fly the catastrophic Black Sunday mission, but he was mentally affected by the loss of so many friends the rest of his life. He became an alcoholic and died in poverty, an example of the worst effects of warfare.
His memorabilia includes photos of the nose art on B-24s that participated in the mission.
One of my grandfathers served in Burma during the first world war, the other was in North Africa doing something with communications during the second one and my uncle flew Argosy during the Aden crisis and Hercs into Belize when that didn't get nasty.
The oldest story comes from the Napoleon wars.
My 5 x great-grandfather Isidoro Panduro was a Spanish dragon who came to Denmark with Spanish troops under the commander Marquis de la Romana in 1807.
Unfortunatly for my ancestor he was kicked by a danish dragons horse and broke his leg. So he was left behind when the British Navy sailed the whole Spanish contigent home. He never returned to Spain agin.
My 3 x great-grandfather Jacob Christensen patisipated in the Battle of Isted.
The Battle of Isted took place on July 25, 1850, near the village of Idstedt, today Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The battle was part of the First Schleswig War.
The battle began early in the morning at around 2:00 and lasted until 19:00. The Danish took 1072 unwounded and 411 wounded prisoners. The Danish victory broke the Holstein army for good.
The final word I have of him, is that he in 1880 is a Clogsmaker, divorced with 3 children.
My 2 x great-grandfather Peter Christian Voigt have also served in the army. At sometime during his carrier he were deployed to Danish West Indies, today US. virgin Islands. Not tracked down yet which excact time.
My Grandfather on my mothers side, were not a soldier during WW2. He was unemployed and in 1944 he was given the option of being send to Jutland to dig browncoal or be send to Hamburg to work in his profession as a barbér.
He chose the last as the browncoal camps in Jutland were close to be hell on earth.
But Hamburg in December 1944 can't have been much different. He never told anyone of his time there, and he died in 1981 from a heartattack.
The picture of him is taken shortly after the war were he work for a short period in "Vagtværnet" an army of guards, which were created in 1944 due to the absence of police.
The next family member who have done military service is my uncle, who were on Cyprus in 1973 as UN-Soldier.
The final one is my self.
Veteran from Cyprus 1990-91 and Iraq 1991-92.
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