War Stories

[Logue 1st MRB]

Got any hair raising or interesting war stories? Doesn't matter if they're far fetched. My grandfather had a few passed down through my dad. E.g. He maintained until death that it wasn't a spitfire that killed Rommel but rather indirect plunging fire from a vickers heavy machine gun his mates were manning (you could use them like mini artillery).

Dad also met an old merchant seaman in Scotland who'd been sunk on a convoy run, swallowed engine oil that messed up his guts and was put on a government sponsored pension of Guiness for life because it was the only thing nutritious enough he could digest.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

...Grandpa survived the Death March and was Liberated after years of inhumane treatment.

And he never got his pension until...a year or so before he died.

Thanks America, for forgetting the Filipinos who bled with you.

/downer, but true.

Also Rommel swallowed cyanide...did you mean when he was attacked in N. Africa?

[Logue 1st MRB]

As an addendum, stuff from books or documentaries, interviews is all good too.

Sagittarius Rising - Autobiography of a WW1 pilot. Reveals strange things you wouldn't think of like how, when spotting for artillery, one of his squadron got hit in mid air by one of their own shells and it ripped their plane in half. Apparently, at the right altitude, you could see the howitzer shells reaching to top of their firing arc when they'd seem to be moving at surreal slow speed. Also has great imagery, writing about things like flying through vast cathedrals made of cloud.

Kamikazes - Loads of crazy true stories in this little historical paperback I read way back in the day. Like of one of the only kamikaze pilots to survive a successful attack -tried to ram a superfortress, closed his eyes and ended up chopping off its elevator with his wing (anyone seen Memphis Belle?) There's also a story about an american ace who, way late in the war, found an obsolete Japanese biplane racing up to meet him from an island. After an intense dogfight and running low on fuel, the ace says he barely got away with his life, reckoning it was one of Japan's early-war aces who'd been relegated to training duties for fear of losing the last of their experienced pilots. Then there's Admiral Onishii who implemented the mass kamikaze attack as official strategy: was refused permission to lead an attack himself at war's end and committed ritual suicide -but refused aid from his junior officers (I'm guessing a mercy kill since the samurai used to have a friend chop your head off after you sliced your gut open) and took six hours to die in his office.

Manfred von Richthofen started the war as a cavalry officer, got shifted to a desk job when it turned into trench warfare, got bored and frustrated and joined the flying service as an observer (because observers were officers and piloting was seen as grunt work early in war.) Thing is, you could be OKed to fly a plane if you only had one leg back then as long as you were willing and able. Richthofen's first pilot was a man with a terminal disease and consequently was practically suicidal in his low level attacking runs, screaming profanities at the troops below. It contrasts with Richthofen's own surgical strike tactics but helps explain why he decided to start piloting a plane himself.

[Logue 1st MRB]

...Grandpa survived the Death March and was Liberated after years of inhumane treatment.

And he never got his pension until...a year or so before he died.

Thanks America, for forgetting the Filipinos who bled with you.

/downer, but true.

Also Rommel swallowed cyanide...did you mean when he was attacked in N. Africa?

He was found slumped over dead in his staff car but had been wounded by what's recorded as a strafing run. So the jury's out on whether he'd taken a pill or succumbed to injuries because he was all wound up in the Hitler bomb plot by that point but they didn't want the public to know such a war hero was involved.

That's harsh man, especially considering how much of show MacArthur made of returning to rescue the people he'd left behind in the retreat. If it wasn't for people like your grandpa, the Philippines might not have achieved proper independence after the war.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

According to the History Channel: Germany also had kamikazes.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was more or less done because Russia realized we had missiles pointed at them with allies in the Middle East/Turkey. So they had to return the favor. Many people remember the crisis, few know why it happened.

Rommel also had the respect of most of his opponents.

Japan was dragged into war by its Army, who was buoyed by their successes in Manchuria/China, and earlier, Japan apologized outright for mistakenly attacking an American River Gunboat. The Navy on the other hand, and a handful of foreign-trained/observer officers, knew going to war and provoking the Western Allies would be a tall order. Hence the need for a coordinate assault and victories that'll cripple British, Dutch, French, and American power in the Pacific, allowing them to take the resources they needed. That worked until Coral Sea.

[Logue 1st MRB]

Yep, Pearl Harbor was a coordinated simultaneous attack across the pacific. In a lot of books the various attacks and invasions seem spread out over the course of the day but when you take time zones into account shit kicked off everywhere all at once.

-And that's when you call in the Raiders!

Edited September 19, 2011 by Logue 1st MRB

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

The .45 ACP round and the pistol that fired used from the beginning of the 20th Century to 1980s was in response from Regular Army personnel who found their .38 Cal revolvers did not have sufficient strength to kill or incapacitate a charging Filipino during the Philippine Insurrection. The .45 was chosen after extensive testing in the Thompson-LaGard Tests in which cows and human cadavers were used to determine the lethality of the rounds.

A competitor round in the Tests was none other than the famed .455 Webely rounds, the Mk. III load more famously known as the 'Manstopper' rounds. The .45 ACP round won even though the tests only concluded that nothing less than .45 should be issued. Most likely a result of the rising prominence of John M. Browning and the fact the .455 Webley is a British round.

The Philippine Insurrection had officers who ordered boys 10 years and up to be executed if the village supported the rebels. The phrase 'civilized and Christianize' is also ironic, considering that the Philippines under Spain was a colony slowly being civilized long before America was founded, and was mostly Catholic before the United States acquired it.

[Logue 1st MRB]

Back in the early 1900s, the U.S Army tested a broomhandle against a colt 1900 and the former failed miserably in the rust tests. Needed soaking in oil and disassembly with a mallet afterwards while the colt just needed a sharp whack on the edge of a table to get it going.

So to all you german rockets: Oil your broomhandle for best results.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Logue 1st MRB

[H. Stone 1st MRB]

I was lucky enough to come across my grandfathers Diary/ AKA war journal

He was Marine in the Pacific campaign, Wounded three times, was on two ships sinking, Saved a huge platoon in the Guadalcanal Campaign, Fought and was wounded In the battle of the Solomon Islands, rescued troops in hospitals, ETC ETC.

I will post a more full detailed descriptions once i dont need to use proxy servers to access the forums.

[S. Richards]

Father's friend over at the department told me of a good one between the North Koreans and U.S. Navy. According to him, a U.S. destroyer pulled up to a North Korean trawler in pretty rough seas and attempted to board the ship. One U.S. Navy Sailor made the jump aboard the trawler before the crew of the destroyer had to pull away for fear of a collision. Apparently that U.S. sailor was rushed by a mob of North Koreans with machetes and he pulled out two pistols in an effort to keep them at bay. While killing a few North Koreans it was only a matter of time before the pistols inevitably went *Click Click* and the sailor was hacked to death by the mob. Upon seeing this, the Naval Commander of the destroyer ordered his vessel back around and rammed the trawler in half. Honestly could not tell you a time period and I'm still trying to find facts on this tale.

[B. Crowley]

I have an uncle who was an Lt. in the 82nd Airborne during Vietnam. He was there for three months till he was sent home because of a mission which failed miserably. He and his platoon were scouting, looking for NVA supply depots and calling in artillery strikes on them. At one of the depots, the coordinates were mixed up on the recieving end and there was terrible friendly fire. Most of my uncle's platoon was wiped out. My uncle barely made it out alive and he was very lucky for it.

[Pangilinan 1st MRB]

Father's friend over at the department told me of a good one between the North Koreans and U.S. Navy. According to him, a U.S. destroyer pulled up to a North Korean trawler in pretty rough seas and attempted to board the ship. One U.S. Navy Sailor made the jump aboard the trawler before the crew of the destroyer had to pull away for fear of a collision. Apparently that U.S. sailor was rushed by a mob of North Koreans with machetes and he pulled out two pistols in an effort to keep them at bay. While killing a few North Koreans it was only a matter of time before the pistols inevitably went *Click Click* and the sailor was hacked to death by the mob. Upon seeing this, the Naval Commander of the destroyer ordered his vessel back around and rammed the trawler in half. Honestly could not tell you a time period and I'm still trying to find facts on this tale.

If such an event took place you'd probably need a FOIA request.

[Logue 1st MRB]

I can believe that North Korean incident -sounds like something that would be kept under official wraps. So much never makes it to the news -going by what I've read of how many naval and aircraft incidents were swept under the covers during the cold war. Ever hear about the Russian nuclear-powered satellite that deviated from orbit, splattering all over northern Canada and was clandestinely cleaned up by a massive international effort? Or, going on an tangent, how the Russians had a network of satellite-killer satellites loaded with missiles and how US intelligence officers claim that they'd cracked the network's codes meaning they were actually under their control?

Addendum: Did a bit more research and the satellite was Cosmos 954, and the story eventually did hit the news later on leading to some political fallout (CBC Radio broadcast from 1978): http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/space/clips/12848/

Edited September 22, 2011 by Logue 1st MRB

[Yamagata 1st MRB]

Could have been during the Korean War...

Unfortunately, I don't have any good war stories in my family (that I've heard).

On my mom's side, my grandfather was in Vietnam, but he died before I was born. All I know is from what my grandmother told me, he was a grunt in the Army, they dropped him and a bunch of other grunts in the jungle and told them to kill as many VC as they could until they were picked back up. That and burning ticks off with cigarettes.

On my dad's side of the family, my grandfather was in an Internment Camp in California with his family during WWII. He died when I was a baby, so no stories passed on there either. My aunt said they were making a movie about him, but that was years ago, and I haven't heard anything else about that.

[Takel 1st MRB]

my grandad was a sapper in the royal engineers, he was carrying out surveys behind enemy lines so that the army had maps of the area. A mortar landed near him one time and some shrapnel got in his leg, he had a hole in his leg he used to stick his finger in to gross us out. Also, during one survey, his lookout spotted a panzer on patrol so they hid in a nearby bush until the panzer had passed them on the road about 10 meters away before crawling back to base to stay out of sight, according to him, this kind of thing often happened.

[Maines]

My Uncle was a Lt. Col. in the USMC during Vietnam.

I remember one story he told me during a family reunion a while back. He was a Drill Sergeant

for a while and had drilled over 5,000 men along with his closest friends at a Vietnam Marine Base.

He's the pride of the USMC from what his friends have told me, being so close to a 1-Star General.

Hes my only idol other than my grandfather, who passed away in '06. Me and my mom think of him as

a second grandfather to us. He's the toughest SOB you'd ever know, if you weren't family that was. To

us, hes the nicest ever known. GOD i love my military family

[Englebretson 1st MRB]

My dad told me a few stories about his time in vietnam and the one I liked the most was when he was with the lerps doing 6 man recon teams trying to find divisions of nva and vc with no air support or clear plans for evac