Remembrance Day

[Steve-o]

Surprised there's no thread for this. It's an important day, and should get more airtime.

I'll share a bit of war history from my family that I'm proud of.

That is a belt buckle that, as far as I know, was the standard issue for the Nazi Army. With a bit of elbow grease it would look like this:

My great-grandfather was the one who brought it back after fighting in WW2 in Northern Africa.

The story goes that he shot a Nazi, and thought he was dead, as he was reaching to take the belt buckle off, I guess as a souvenir, the Nazi tried to pull a fast one and reached for his pistol. My great-grandfather reacted by stabbing the Nazi in the heart with his rifle's bayonet, killing him, and finished off the job by nicking his belt buckle.
I never met him but that is the story that was told and has been passed down with the belt buckle. It now sits in a display cabinet in our house, along with his various medals. Interestingly most of the medals have a springbok on them.
By the end of the war he was a Sergeant Major. His photo now hangs in the Military Museum in Johannesburg.

Another interesting story is when he enlisted to fight 'zee Germans' he had to change his surname from the German looking and sounding 'Dyzell' to a more Afrikaner 'Deysel'. Even got the original paper for this change.

Anybody else got some sort of family war history in light of Remembrance Day?

 

[Sir Speedy]

Ugh. A minute's silence in our school would be much more fulfilling if it was done during an assembly or something, rather than during my statistics session.

Although we had a good assembly on Monday to honour those lost, with a neat video, that poem, and some dude playing the traditional piece on some brass instrument.


I don't know of any war stories from my family, at least none as interesting as that.

Nice belt buckle, also.
Additionally: do you know what the writing translates to?

 

[Bullitt]

My grandfather was in the RAF, no stories as interesting as that however.

 

[aligmacd123]

That is really interesting man!

Last year I went, with my school, to northern France and Belgium. When we were there we visited the WW1 cemetery at Tyne Cot. It was a humbling and amazing experience. However, there is more, I found the name of a relative, David Macdonald. That literally brought me to my knees with emotion.[attachment=182avidMacdonald.jpg]

 

[Steve-o]

Gott mit uns = God with us. Ironic, isn't it.

 

[Sir Speedy]

Extremely.

 

[shtove]

I was in Portsmouth yesterday and stopped off to have another look at the wall of remembrance, make sure the names of my two great great uncles were still there. They served in the navy in WWI and died when their ships hit those giant pineapple-style mines. Awful, sad way to die.

But the bloody place was sealed off with "crime scene" tape!

edit: By "bloody place" I mean the remembrance garden off the main square. But it would be good to see all of Portsmouth sealed off from law abiding society.

 

[Olyy]

My Grandad was in the RAF, but signed up in the closing weeks of the war (as soon as he turned 18), so spent all his time in Egypt at the Suez Canal, he's got a medal for that.
My great-grandad was a doctor/medic/stretcher bearer in WW1, so went out into no mans land, collected wounded, and brought them back. My grandparents have got a couple of medals of his, and a German helmet (one of the ones with a big spike on top)

 

[gingergenius]

One Grandad was an engineer, he fixed all the planes after they came back f***ed from bombing and all that. He died April this year when I was travelling so I missed his funeral, but he got a good send off.

The other was in the Army, fought from 1944 through to the mid 50s I think. He always refused to talk about killing people, but he did tell me once abot punching a 'homo' in his regiment who tried to climb into his bed...

I did my minutes silence in the pub before the Aus game and also on Sunday at 11. Was fast asleep for it today, I'm ashamed to say. As the next generation won't have family involved in the 2 World Wars, I hope the day continues to hold the same significanve for them.

 

[Jer1cho]

I got quite a weird one too!

My dads great grandfather, as well as my moms great grandfather, both died in the Second Anglo Boer War! My dad being British, and my Mom being Afrikaans, so they were actually fighting against one another! How hectic is that!? Other than that, my Grandfather in England was a guard at some outpost in WWII. He said he never killed anyone, but saw his mate fire a 'warning shot' when it blew off a guy's face.

 

[KZNSharksFan]

Some really interesting stories on here. My great grandad was a pilot for South Africa during WW1, flying under the British. He Flew a Sopwith Pup and crashed 3 times but was never seriously hurt :lol:. My grandad on the other side (mothers) fought in North Africa and in Italy(including monte casino) with an artillery regiment.

 

[Nickdnz]

My grandfather was a private named Ryan who was really up against the ropes for a while, however he was saved by several people who came to his rescue. It was a close shave for a while. If it wasn't for a golden globe winning cast then I don't know if he would have made it.

 

[bristol-iain]

As far as I've been told, my great grandfather on my mothers side was a medic and a shell landed underneath the stretcher he and another was carrying but didn't detonate.

 

[gingergenius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nickdnz @ Nov 12 2009, 08:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

My grandfather was a private named Ryan who was really up against the ropes for a while, however he was saved by several people who came to his rescue. It was a close shave for a while. If it wasn't for a golden globe winning cast then I don't know if he would have made it.[/b]

Not really the thread to take the **** on.

 

[shazbooger]

I remember going to my Grand Mothers 100th birthday party and during the specches he spoke of what she had lived through.

I vividly remember looking round at my brothers and sisters when the speaker recounted how her two brothers had died serving in the great war.

Up to that moment we didnt even know they existed.

Not a war story, but a moment I remember.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

My grandad was in the RAF. He was actually a Dambuster, tail gunner in the Lancaster bombers, though in his better days (he's had a stroke and it would have a better quality of life if he died, god bless him) he used to go to GREAT lengths to tell me he wasn't on THE dambusters mission, seeing as it was a total disaster.

He met my nan during the war (she died in 1990) and talking about it used to upset him and make him think of her. He managed to talk about it a lot more lately, telling me stories of how bullets missed his head by inches, how the plane almost had to ditch once because an engine got shot out, about dropping bombs on Berlin and Nuremburg. His favourite story though didn't involve his plane. A Lancaster bomber had gone up fully fuelled and full of munitions, but had to return due to bad weather. As it was landing the landing gear wouldn't come down, so they had to abort the final approach and land with no gears, with the full shebang aboard.

Grandad told me how as it was coming in to land the whole base started retreating away from the runway, including the fire trucks! Thankfully though the plane stayed in one piece, and flew again later that day, complete with working landing gear and full crew.

 

[Nickdnz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gingergenius @ Nov 13 2009, 12:57 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Nickdnz @ Nov 12 2009, 08:28 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My grandfather was a private named Ryan who was really up against the ropes for a while, however he was saved by several people who came to his rescue. It was a close shave for a while. If it wasn't for a golden globe winning cast then I don't know if he would have made it.[/b]

Not really the thread to take the **** on.
[/b][/quote]
Cood call, bad taste joke. Sorry to those who the previous post may have offeneded.