Where would YOU serve in WW2?

Gunner's Mate with the USS Wolverine.

 

1st British Airborne looks like fun.

 

If you want to be killed, wounded, or captured. The latter two will give you "stories to tell your grandchildren, and mighty bored they'll be!"

/A Bridge too Far

 

US Marines or RAF.

 

A Soviet soldier just recruited towards the end of war so I could fight in berlin, & perhaps even fight in the Reichstag.

 

i would be in on one of the big turrets on the USS missouri because all it ever did was shell some random islands and i would be able to watch the japanese surrender.

 

It did a hell of alot more then just that. And the islands were not "random"

"Shakedown and service with Task Force 58, Admiral Mitscher

After trials off New York and shakedown and battle practice in the Chesapeake Bay, Missouri departed Norfolk, Virginia on 11 November 1944, transited the Panama Canal on 18 November and steamed to San Francisco for final fitting out as fleet flagship. She stood out of San Francisco Bay on 14 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 24 December 1944. She departed Hawaii on 2 January 1945 and arrived in Ulithi, West Caroline Islands, on 13 January 1945. There she was temporary headquarters ship for Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher. The battleship put to sea on 27 January to serve in the screen of the Lexington carrier task group of Mitscher's TF 58, and on 16 February her aircraft carriers launched the first air strikes against Japan since the famed Doolittle raid, which had been launched from the carrier USS Hornet in April 1942.[4]
Missouri then steamed with the carriers to Iwo Jima where her main guns provided direct and continuous support to the invasion landings begun on 19 February. After TF 58 returned to Ulithi on 5 March, Missouri was assigned to the Yorktown carrier task group. On 14 March Missouri departed Ulithi in the screen of the fast carriers and steamed to the Japanese mainland. During strikes against targets along the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan beginning on 18 March, Missouri shot down four Japanese aircraft.[4]
Raids against airfields and naval bases near the Inland Sea and southwestern Honshū continued. During a Japanese attack, two bombs penetrated the hangar deck and decks aft of the carrier Franklin, leaving her dead in the water within 50 miles (90 km) of the Japanese mainland. The cruiser USS Pittsburgh took Franklin in tow until she gained speed to 14 knots (26 km/h). Missouri’s carrier task group provided cover for Franklin’s retirement toward Ulithi until 22 March, then set course for pre-invasion strikes and bombardment of Okinawa.[4]
Missouri joined the fast battleships of TF 58 in bombarding the southeast coast of Okinawa on 24 March 1945, an action intended to draw enemy strength from the west coast beaches that would be the actual site of invasion landings. Missouri rejoined the screen of the carriers as Marine and Army units stormed the shores of Okinawa on the morning of 1 April. Planes from the carriers shattered a special Japanese attacking force led by the battleship Yamato on 7 April. Yamato, the world's largest battleship, was sunk, as were a cruiser and a destroyer. Three other enemy destroyers were heavily damaged and scuttled. Four remaining destroyers, sole survivors of the attacking fleet, were damaged and retired to Sasebo.[4]

On 11 April a low-flying kamikaze, although fired on, crashed on Missouri's starboard side just below her main deck level. The starboard wing of the plane was thrown far forward, starting a gasoline fire at 5 inch (127 mm) Gun Mount No. 3. The battleship suffered only superficial damage, and the fire was brought quickly under control.[4] The remains of the pilot's body were recovered on board the ship just aft of one of the 40 mm gun tubs. Captain William M. Callaghan decided that the young Japanese pilot had done his job to the best of his ability and with honor, and that he should be given a military funeral. Not all of the crew agreed with that decision—the pilot was their enemy and had tried to kill them—but the following day he was buried at sea with military honors.[7] The dent in the side of the ship remains to this day.
About 23:05 on 17 April 1945 Missouri detected an enemy submarine 12 miles (22 km) from her formation. Her report set off a hunter-killer operation by the light carrier USS Bataan and four destroyers, which sank the Japanese submarine I-56.[4]
Missouri was detached from the carrier task force off Okinawa on 5 May and sailed for Ulithi. During the Okinawa campaign she had shot down five enemy planes, assisted in the destruction of six others, and scored one probable kill. She helped repel 12 daylight attacks of enemy raiders and fought off four night attacks on her carrier task group. Her shore bombardment destroyed several gun emplacements and many other military, governmental, and industrial structures.[4]

Service with the 3rd Fleet, Admiral Halsey

Missouri arrived at Ulithi on 9 May 1945 and then proceeded to Apra Harbor, Guam, arriving on 18 May. That afternoon Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., Commander 3d Fleet, broke his flag in Missouri.[8] She passed out of the harbor on 21 May, and by 27 May was again conducting shore bombardment against Japanese positions on Okinawa. Missouri now led the 3rd Fleet in strikes on airfields and installations on Kyūshū on 2 June and 3 June. She rode out a fierce storm on 5 June and 6 June that wrenched the bow off the cruiser USS Pittsburgh. Some topside fittings were smashed, but Missouri suffered no major damage. Her fleet again struck Kyūshū on 8 June, then hit hard in a coordinated air-surface bombardment before retiring towards Leyte. She arrived at San Pedro, Leyte, on 13 June 1945, after almost three months of continuous operations in support of the Okinawa campaign.[4]
Here she prepared to lead the powerful 3rd Fleet in strikes at the heart of Japan from within its home waters. The fleet set a northerly course on 8 July to approach the Japanese main island, Honshū. Raids took Tokyo by surprise on 10 July, followed by more devastation at the juncture of Honshū and Hokkaidō, the second-largest Japanese island, on 13 July and 14 July. For the first time naval gunfire destroyed a major installation within the home islands when Missouri joined in a shore bombardment on 15 July that severely damaged the Nihon Steel Co. and the Wanishi Ironworks at Muroran, Hokkaido.[4]
During the nights of 17 July and 18 July Missouri bombarded industrial targets in Honshū. Inland Sea aerial strikes continued through 25 July 1945, and Missouri guarded the carriers as they attacked the Japanese capital. As July ended the Japanese no longer had any home waters. Missouri had led the fleet to gain control of the air and sea approaches to the shores of the Japanese main island.[4]

Signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender

Strikes on Hokkaidō and northern Honshū resumed on 9 August 1945, the day the second atomic bomb was dropped. On 10 August 1945, at 20:54, Missouri's men were electrified by the unofficial news that Japan was ready to surrender, provided that the Emperor's prerogatives as a sovereign ruler were not compromised. Not until 07:45, 15 August, was word received that President Harry S. Truman had announced Japan's acceptance of unconditional surrender.[4]
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser of the Royal Navy, the Commander of the British Pacific Fleet, boarded Missouri on 16 August and conferred the order Knight of the British Empire upon Admiral Halsey. Missouri transferred a landing party of 200 officers and men to the battleship USS Iowa for temporary duty with the initial occupation force for Tokyo on 21 August. Missouri herself entered Tokyo Bay early on 29 August to prepare for the signing by Japan of the official instrument of surrender.[4]
High-ranking military officials of all the Allied Powers were received on board on 2 September, including Chinese General Hsu Yung-Ch'ang, British Admiral-of-the-Fleet Sir Bruce Fraser, Soviet Lieutenant-General Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko, Australian General Sir Thomas Blamey, Canadian Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, French Général d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hautecloque, Netherlands Vice Admiral Conrad Emil Lambert Helfrich, and New Zealand Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt.
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz boarded shortly after 08:00, and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allies, came on board at 08:43. The Japanese representatives, headed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, arrived at 08:56. At 09:02 General MacArthur stepped before a battery of microphones and opened the 23 minute surrender ceremony to the waiting world by stating,[4] "It is my earnest hope—indeed the hope of all mankind—that from the blood and carnage of the past, a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice."[9]
During the surrender ceremony, the deck of the Missouri was decorated with just two American flags. One had been flown from Commodore Perry's flagship in 1853-1854 when his squadron sailed into Tokyo Bay to urge the opening of Japan's ports to foreign trade. This flag was actually displayed with the reverse side showing, i.e., stars in the upper right corner: the historic flag was so fragile that the conservator at the Naval Academy Museum directed that a protective backing be sewn on it, leaving its "wrong side" visible; and this was how Perry's 31-star flag was presented on this unique occasion.[10] The other U.S. flag came from the battleship while anchored in Tokyo Bay; it was "...just a plain ordinary GI-issue flag".[11]
By 09:30 the Japanese emissaries had departed. In the afternoon of 5 September Admiral Halsey transferred his flag to the battleship USS South Dakota, and early the next day Missouri departed Tokyo Bay. As part of the ongoing Operation Magic Carpet she received homeward bound passengers at Guam, then sailed unescorted for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 20 September and flew Admiral Nimitz's flag on the afternoon of 28 September for a reception.[4]"

USS Missouri (BB-63) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Its easy to say what you would do, but to actually do it is much harder, especially since the members on this forum have more of a understanding of war then say tn average person who thinks 'war looks like'. That is why I have trouble understanding some of these posts as to where you would serve, considering that you didn't get a choice for one and two once you were there you wouldn't want to stay.

 

Well said Tomcat i think in posting your choice you need to have an understanding of what it would involve if it were a reality, war is not a xbox game once you die in a real war you stay dead and that affects people in the real world not in a fantasy one.

 

In which battle and which pow camp?

But you did put an eek on the end so we can be forgiving.

I dont think fun came into it though, apart from maybe the pubs in England before postings and realisiation.

 

In the 101st airborne 506 partroop regiment,probably lt.

 

WOW!! Picking a Unit and Rank is so easy. Too bad that didn't happen in real life.

 

Notice how people tend to pick the famous ones eh JC?

 

No kidding. If that was how it happened there would be no other troops LOL.

 

as a german either in the waffen ss or the panzer grenadiers
as a brit in the 8th army or the desert rats
and as an american in the 1st division or the 94th

 

1st proleterian brigade in Tito's partisan forces
high point:breaking out of encirclement at Sutjeska 18000 partisans against 120 000 axis troops(100 000 Germans).Glory would be mine!!!

 

Dear lord! There seems no shortage of people who want to be in the bloodiest war in human history.

Well, Russian rifleman for me. I'd last long and get a medal!

 

It's funny how people are choosing units that suffering huge casualties...

 

I would serve where I am serving now. The 325th Reg. Part of the All American 82nd. Granted they were a glider unit then.