"I must ask him sometime." Sooner the better as your opportunity may slip away.

The Emergency (Irish: Ré na Práinne) was an official euphemism used by the Irish Government during the 1940s to refer to its position during World War II. The state was officially neutral during World War II, but declared an official state of emergency on 2 September 1939,[1] and enacted the Emergency Powers Act the following day.[2] This gave sweeping new powers to the government for the duration of the Emergency, such as internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and the government control of the economy. The term has remained in use, for example, as a cultural and historic context in school books. The Emergency Powers Act finally lapsed on 2 September 1946.[3][4] Although the state of emergency itself was not rescinded until 1 September 1976,[5] no emergency legislation was ever in force after 1946 to exploit this anomaly.

The Emergency (Ireland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Thanks for explanation.

I have my own history and experiences with Ireland.

Keep diving in and out of R.F.Fosters Modern Ireland 1600-1972 which is enlightning to say the least.

Thanks again.

My grandfather (pictured below) served in the US Army during WWII as a surgical assistant at the 156th general hospital in England. He arrived there just a few days after D-Day and was obviously very busy during that time. He says as the troops pushed further into France there were fewer troops coming all the way back to England for surgery. However, once the Bulge began there was a huge spike in the injured and so they stayed in England until VE Day. He was brought back to the states as he expected they were preparing to send his group to the Pacific. Fortunately for him that day never happened.

He's currently 84.

Those are some great pics!

The only real story i have from my grandpa about the war is one of his experiences on the day that Japan surrendered, it makes me laugh and cringe at the same time...

He was stationed in the Philippines at the time and was on a transport boat with other members of his company. The other soldiers and him were chatting and listening to the radio when the announcement came that Japan had just surrendered and soldiers were laying down their weapons. The boat burst with excitement and celebration at the announcement that they would all be going home.

Amidst all the excitement one of the soldiers in the company was shouting and grabbing his rifle he tossed it overboard. This brought a chain reaction of nearly every soldier on the boat (grandpa included) launching their rifles into the ocean despite the shouting of their officer to whom they gave a few "choice words".

I loved hearing this story as i could just picture the relief of these soldiers as they tossed their weapons overboard. However it almost made me sick at the thought of all those beautiful M1's lying at the bottom of the ocean right now!

I never did find out from him what punishment they received for disposing of their rifles...

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"If your only opportunity is to be equal then it is not opportunity"

-Margaret Thatcher

nothing from grandparents but my dads godfather drove higgins boats inthe first waves of iwo and okinawa. would always get annoyed with people who would say "i feel so bad for wat thode marines are going thru" and he would come back with " they can get up on the beach and try 2 find a crater or soomethin like that bit i need 2 make 3 or 4 trips to and from the beach doing 5 mph". also had a pet monkey on okinawa and iwo. my dads godfther was playin football with buddies on either iwo or okinawa, not sure, and tojo (the monkey) decided he wanted the ball. so when tony (dads godfather) got the ball he climbed up on hi head and started punching him and pulling his hair. priceless

I enjoyed reading the personal stories. My father's unit was originally an AA/AWB unit that became an infantry unit in the 5th Army. I know he spent time in North Africa and took part in the invasion of Salerno. He continued in the Italian campaign until the end of the war, reaching the Po Valley. Unfortunately, my father was always reluctant to talk about his experiences except when he went to the annual reunion that his company held. I used to attend them, and one of his buddies is my godfather. The guys would gather late into the evening and talk about their experiences, and I only got to hear bits and pieces. Since I was only a child, I really didn't know what they were talking about, although they jokingly talked about winning the war bigger every time they met. My father passed away in 1990, never really having said much to us about what he did. It has only been in the past 5-8 years that I've begun to piece together what he did. Most of the guys in his outfit passed away many years ago, so I can't even talk to them. I feel such a dolt for letting the opportunity pass.

I've put off adding this story, since it isn't one of "heroics" or anything, just a sort-of funny story concerning my Dad and my Grandfather. Dad was a pilot with Transport Command flying C-47s, his last base was Greenham Common outside of London. But after he was rotated home to instruct other pilots in multi-engines in late July, 1944, he was given a short leave to go home and visit his folks (my grandparents) in August of ‘44. My Grandpa was a recent immigrant from Norway in the early twenties, and patriotic to his new country to the Nth degree.

Since he was a farmer, Oskar received a pretty large gasoline ration budget, and he read and followed the instructions to the letter. When FDR asked him to aid in the "war effort" by using less gasoline, he fired up his old Twin-City "25" steam traction engine and parked his steel wheeled Hart-Parr gas tractor for the duration. Oskar had worked for the Great Northern railway while trying to get his farm up and paying, as well as custom threshing for others (and done other things, see below). The Twin-City could be fueled with straw during the harvest, but it needed coal for the plowing. So, since he knew where to find coal that was being wasted along the lines, he would hitch up a horse and wagon and go "coal" hunting for the fuel. If he didn’t find enough he would re-hitch his team, and still finish the plowing.

Anyway, Dad came home near the change of a month or a ration period or something, and one morning he came out to the kitchen to find Grandpa feeding sheets of gasoline ration stamps into the pot bellied stove. When he asked his Dad what he was up to, he was told; "it says right on the instruction page, if you find you have unused stamps when you receive the new stamps, destroy the excess stamps, and that is what I am doing. I never use ‘em, I just burn ‘em"

When Dad told him how much those would be worth on the "black-market", Gramps just said that would be cheating, you don’t win wars by cheating.

Dad loved telling me that story, and teasing Gramps at the same time for being such a "straight arrow" when it came to the American ration program. This was doubly funny because Oskar was known to be a bit of a "rake", he toured around in a Graham-Paige "Sharknose" in the late thirties with a cougar and a boxer (dog) staging "pit-fights" for extra money. He himself was a prize fighter, and wrestler. Played pool for profit, and did a bit of "bootlegging" as well. But when it came to the war effort, it seems he was as honest as the day was long.

Almost exactly a year later, Dad had been given another leave and was home for his birthday (Aug. 9th), and while he didn’t really hear that the atomic bombing of Nagasaki was on that day until he returned to the base he always maintained that bomb was the "best birthday present" he ever got.

If anybody is interested I have the "proof" glossies that Gramps used for advertising his "animals" in the "fights". Of course they never fought each other, and he told me that he also wouldn't let either his cat or dog kill another animal in the pit. Don't know I totally believe that, but hey he was my Gramps and I thought the world of him. He taught me to fly fish, and to tie flies of my own. What can ya say? Sometimes admiration is blind.

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

My Grandad served aboard HMS Topaze in the RN during WW1. In WW2 he worked at Vickers in Weybridge, Surrey where he was badly wounded during an air raid.

He knew Barnes-Wallis but according to Grandad, BW wasn't a very practical kinda guy so he always had to ask my Grandad to help him fix his car.

Grandads eh?

Why can;t i sulute fricker66 post with his grandfather pictures posted in his post???

I have one report from one of my grand fathers,that he saw inside a captured British tank or an American tank (can;t remember which one) that there was body bits everywhere.

I don;t have much stories to share,sorry.

This is great. thanks for posting!

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-MarineRaider
Carlson's Raiders of 2nd Marine Raider Battalion

My grandF (1911-1994) had a 17 confirmed kills of german soldiers. Plus another member of my family (died at the age close to 90 in 2004) served as soldier and was wounded in to the legs somewhere on the south front in 1942.

My brother (born in 1965) was a tank crew member in afgan's Chagcharan province. I remember his return his was weeping and was afraid of enemy fire at home.

After I read the great stories in this thread I decided to share the wartime experience of my family. I hope some of you find it interesting to hear some German stories.

My grandfather from my mothers side was a WW1 veteran and after surviving Verdun he was pretty much fed up with war and joined the Social Democratic Party. When the Nazis seized power he was arrested several times but wasn't harmed very much because he was no leading member and his brother was in the NSDAP. When the war broke out he wasn't sen t to the front because he was relatively old and he was an engineer and therefore a war-important worker.During the war he worked in the Zitadelle Spandau in Berlin which was a military research facility at that time, where mainly combat gas was developed. When the Eastern Front crumbled he headed to East Prussia to get his family out and fortunately managed to get them on a train to Berlin. When the battle for the city started he simply didn't go to work anymore and hid till the fighting was over. There is a nice story where during the fighting he persuaded some Hitlerboys to lay down their weapons and go home. But we actually don't know if they really stopped fighting or if they rejoined the battle later. He was very bitter for the rest of his life and also was antimilitaristic and pacifistic.He passed away 1981 from a stroke.
The career of his brother turned out to be very different. As mentioned earlier he was in the NSDAP and later joined the SS. He was in the adminstrative personnel and spent a lot of the war in the extermination camp of Majdanek. After the camp was given up he spent the rest of the war in Würzburg. He wasn't captured and after the war he managed to escape punishment. As far as I know he never spoke of his SS time and his children even don't know that he was there. The two brothers never ever spoke a word to each other after the war. My great uncle died 1996.
My grandfather from my fathers side was also not at the front because after an accident he was almost deaf on one ear and therefore served in an Anti-Aircraft unit in Dortmund. His unit surrendered in the Ruhr Pocket without a fight. He was a POW for a short time but returned quite early because his father was a farmer and he was needed for the harvest. He died in 2005.
One of his brothers was a in Army group North and fell during the Siege of Leningrad.
His second brother was in Army group center and was finally captured at Seelow. He was also POW for a short time but was released for the same reason as his brother. He died in 2002.
My fathers family lives in the village near the Möhnetalsperre which was one of the dams which were blown up . Luckily their house was on the hill and not in the valley so nobody from my family drowned.

Grüße
Philipp

Phenomenal stories, Philipp. It's not often we hear such tales from the German side. You certainly had a varied set of grandparents. Thanks for sharing.

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"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

I agree with Lou, great stories and thanks for sharing Philipp.

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Happy Trails,
Clint.

Firstly let me say this is a great thread.
I would like to say a few words about my garndfather. he was a member of the 2/7 2nd A.I.F.(second battalion, 7th division, 2nd Australian Infantry Forces) and an original member of the 39ers.The first A.I.F was the 1st ww. 39ers were men who joined in 1939 once war was declared, and served right thru the war fighting the Germans, Italians and Japenese.He was very quiet about his war time experiences but he told me a few humorous stories. Now as stated in another post I have a few memory probs so unsure of dates but I would like to tell a story of him being sunk, twice?
He was wounded in the Medditeranian campaign,he never told me where, could have been Greece , Crete or the African front, he fought in all these places. He was hit by shrapnel in the face. The shrapnel hit him in the cheek and exited his other cheek , never broke a bone or touched his teeth or tongue...lol. he was evacuted and put on a hospital ship. that ship was sailing somewhere when it was torpedoed. after ship sunk he was picked up and was soon on another ship , dont know if it was another hospital ship, and two days later that ship was torpedoed and once again he found himself in the water. after being rescued again he refused to go on another hospital ship and fought the brass to just go back to his unit , which he did. Apparantly he swore that if he was ever wounded again he would stay at the front with his mates as he thought it was safer...........? The 2/7 was returned to australia and was reformed and sent to New Guinea to fight the Japs.Luckily he was never seriously wounded again. twice very minor.
Note: The 2/7 was selected with a New Zealand unit to delay the axis advance on Crete and only a small number escaped .Most were captured, wounded or killed, thats why it had to be reformed when it returned to Australia. There is a book called "pheonix rising" about the 2/7 but am unable to get a copy. if anyone has a copy and would like to sell,I would be very interested.

My grandfather passed away a number of years back. He was front line officer in the Russian army 1938-1944 and then served on Manchurian border in the 50’s.
In Russia when I was little he told us all of the heroic and funny stories about the war. He could not and would not talk about being scared, hungry and sometimes pissed off and his superiors. That only came later after the end of USSR. He was a member of Communist Party his whole life.
He served mostly with Sniper Recon platoon. Some small anecdotes that I remember:

Sniping at Germans during winter, and they did not know that their comrade was hit. They thought he slipped on ice. Germans were laughing until another one went down.

Sometimes when under sniper fire, Germans would use hooks attached to ropes to pull their wounded back into the trenches.

My first German fraises that I learned were Hande Hoch (hands up) and Hitler Kaput. He was involved in numerous raids in German position with orders to bring back a (Tongue) as Russians used to call a prisoner captured for information. They had to crawl through no mans land at night, and the Germans would shoot flares and fire burst from belt fed weapons now and then. They did that even if they did not see anything. Recon still had to go forward without knowing if they were discovered or not.

A young girl was driving a horse pulled field kitchen, which got hit by a large Mortar. A boot was all that was found from the girl.

One time there was a pause in fighting. A general doing inspection at the front line asked commanding officer why his company was not firing at the Germans. Officer replied that the Germans were not firing at them at that time. That whole incident almost ended with general shooting that guy on the spot.

I do not know if my grandfather even had to do this, but when German flame throwing tank would park over a trench, you had to quickly cover yourself with your heavy field coat. And when it got hot you would throw it off.

He did not say what kind (I think TB-3), but a formation of Russian bombers was flying over the front line, when only one Messerschmitt attacked them. My grandfather described all of the bombers igniting like matches in a matter of minutes. Nothing but smoke and a couple of parachutes floating in the sky.

There are many more stories that I remember and maybe I will post them at a later time.

I will always remember him as strict but loving and fair man.

My grandpa was part of the 28th armored infantry division.. i rode on those half tracks and fired a .30 cal most of the time. He was part of the crossing of the Rhine. His group was one of the first over the Rammagen bridge. They got as many over as possible before the bridge collapsed soon after. He never talked about the war much but one story he told was about him and his squad were in a quiet pub in a basement in Germany. The people there were nice and fed them, but it was illegal for them to because of course, Americans were the enemy there. Suddenly, a small team of Germans walked in and saw them. My Grandpa's squad's guns were all leaned up on the wall near the door so they were defenseless. Fortunately, my grandpa had grown up in a family of Germans so he was fluent in the language. At that point in the war, both sides were just tired and knew it was over so he said something like "hey its okay, the wars over, come over and take a break." They drank a bit, and then my Grandpa told them they had to leave so they got there stuff and as soon as they were out, they made a beeline back to their camp, which was only probably 300 meters from the German camp.

hah well thats his story. He died a few years ago but im happy someone can read it and know-

Great stuff. Thanks

This thread made me join the forum. Really great stories, so thanks to all previous posters! Some of them were really epic reading. I noticed that there isn't that many stories from the axis side but maybe I can chance that.

So I shall also share the few little stories that my grandfather told about his experiences in the war. Naturally, as being Finnish, he served in the Finnish army. Sadly I never met him myself so I must rely on what I have heard from my grandmother, parents and other relatives.

My grandfathers name was Totti Aleksanteri Marttala. He served as a private in both Winter and Continuation wars, and only as a private because he apparently didn't want the resposibility of the lifes of other men in his shoulders, something we all can relate to.

When the Winter war began in 30th of November 1939 Totti was already in arms. He had been called to military refresher course as had many others when Soviet aggression increased on our border. First the unit in which he served (Independent infantry regiment 40 or JR.40) was kept in reserve for couple of weeks, to pinpoint the main Soviet thrust in the area, and then placed to stop the red wave. In December the regiment was finally moved to face the Russian attack along the arctic circle in Salla region of the front. According to my father, Totti had once told him about his first assignment in the front. To gather frozensolid russian corpses which had their arms stretched out. This was due temperature of up to -45 degree celsius which made wood to crack so the JR.40 and other units in the area used russian corpses as road sings.
The JR.40 was able to stop the Soviet offensive in treeless fjelds of Salla. Totti used to say that they felt pity for their Russian counterparts. He said that they always attacked in daylight, running in meter high snowdrifts in treeless terrain. They killed them by companies at a time (one Finnish regiment and two separate battalions was facing two full Russian divisions supported by 3 independent brigades and still stopped their advance). Totti also said that they often tried to shoot the enemy officers and comisars first as they were the only motivator behind these crazy human wave attacks.
After the initial offensive had been stopped in December the fight became a ww1 style stalemate for the rest of the war as neither side had the force or will to attack against the opponent. Totti, who was originally a runner, had been made a spotter to a sniper and mortar team during this trench war as there wasn't that much need for runners. He told how they used to dig holes through their trenches and snow at night and then place white steel cover on it. When the day came they aimed rifles on presighted targets behind the cover and someone quickly pulled the cover away and they would fire their weapons and then the cover was put back on its place. This way they could shoot the enemy without them being able to shoot back. The Winter war ended in 13th of March 1940. Totti returned home unharmed. In June 1941 he would be called to arms yet again but before that he would marry my grandmother and they would build their own house, not far from where I'm sitting right now.


The JR.40 had lost so much of its strength during the last war, that when Finland started to prepare for Barbarossa in early summer of 1941, the regiment was disbanded and remaining men were placed in 6th Division. As German forces took charge of the northern part of the Finn-Russo border, the 6th was placed under German command in XXXVI Armeekorps. The area would be familiar to Totti, the korps would attack in Salla area which JR.40 had defended two winters ago.
To Totti the Continuation war started in the night of 26th of June in form of a night attack. Their mission was to push through the frontline and keep going for few miles in order to create as big 'motti' as possible before Germans with their artillery and tanks would start to destroy these mottis at dawn. From this particular operation I have quite good info because Totti was wounded during the action and recieved the Order of White Rose. Due to these events I have some official papers from what happened.
As said the attack started at night, it wasn't that dark cause the sun doesn't set at all in Lapland at summer, but still they achieved a supprise cause they overcame the defenders without a single shot being fired. Totti often said that in hand to hand combat, as one like that night witnessed, the only way to tell a difference between a Finnish and a Russian soldier was either so called 'breadbag' or a kinfes sheath both of which all Finns had in their waist. 'When you stumble over a man you crab his belt or shoulder and if there isn't any bag straps then you would try to kill him' he said. Anyways, the assault was succesfull and by morning they had created so big motti that it took whole week for the Germans to clear it and Russian stragglers were found long after the battle. Some of these stragglers involved the instance from which Totti had his medal.
He was on guard duty on an edge of a clearing in the woods. His platoon was sleeping not far from the place he stand on guard in the middle of the night. Then he noticed a group of Russians coming from the other side of the clearing and he started shooting at them after letting them get little closer. He killed three and wounded two others after which two remaining Russians surrendered. This is the official version of the story. After the war Totti said that it did not went like that at all. The man to relieve him from the guard post was late and when he heard someone walking towards him he shouted something like 'about the damn time!'. He was terrified when the answer was yelling in Russia. He then picked up his bolt action rifle and shot towards the sounds. He heard that he had hit something and shot all his 5 cartridges from the magazine. Then suddenly there were two Russians in front of him unarmed and hands up. He thought that 'if I start reloading now they'll jump me' so he took them as prisoners with an empty weapon and recieved a highly appreciated medal for it. A month later Totti was wounded, a rifle bullet went through his right lung.


After a while in military hospital in Oulu and then at home he was called back in the army, but was not fit enough to serve in frontline troops. The years 1942-1944 he drove a horse carriage for supply company. Totti and other old men of the 6th were not allowed to take part in the Lapland war and had to stay behind. When the Lapland war ended in 1945 Totti and my grandmother returned to their home in western Lapland only to find their home burned down by the Germans. They started over and had 7 children before Tottis death in 1967 from pneumonia, which he suffered repeatedly after getting wounded. Totti also had two brothers. The older one was hit in the head by shrapnel during Winter war and died for his wounds in April 1940. The younger was only 17 when the Continuation war ended. Instead he took part in the Lapland war. He stepped on two mines but by some miracle came out unharmed. He died last Autum in the age of 80.

I was planning to write about my other grandfather also but this post came out to be so long that maybe next time. I just hope this isn't 'tl;dr'

Wonderful story, hyde. It's always informative to see and hear from the "other" side. Why not introduce yourself in the new member forum and tell us a little about yourself.

Welcome to the forum.

__________________
"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

Wonderful first post Hyde, welcome to the forum!

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"If you want peace work for justice" -Pope Paul VI

Jon

I missed this post somehow. Again, it's good to get another perspective. Thanks

__________________
"Faint heart never won fair maiden", so I say "Go for it!"

Lou

No worries, we welcome everybody....look at me. My grandfather was in the Waffen SS.

We want to hear it all. Another post would be great.

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Good story Piron! Sorry I didn't see it until now, but really nice.



I've got a friend named Henry Hirshman who was imprisoned in one of the concentration camps (Im sorry to say I cant recall which) for I believe two years, escaped, made his way to America, enlisted in the army and actually liberated one of the camps as a member of the U.S. Army.

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Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow"
~Elie Wiesel~

Before she was evacuated my grandmother was Air Raid Warden in Moscow 1941.
Her job was to be on the roof during air raids with shovels and sand. These people would put out incendiary bombs.