74 years ago today.
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Category: Other Topics
Forum Name: Shops, Barns, Varmints, and Trucks
Forum Description: anything you want to talk about except politics
URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=151073
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Topic: 74 years ago today.
Posted By: klinemar
Subject: 74 years ago today.
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2018 at 6:17pm
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74 years ago today my father was outside of Rome Italy with the U.S. Fifth Army as they were driving the Nazis up the boot of Italy. At the same time men were going ashore at Normandy starting to link up with Paratroops dropped behind enemy lines the night of June 5th.At the same time the Russians were attacking on their drive to Berlin. And 14 days later on the other side in the Pacific the invasion of Saipan began tearing that Island from the grasp of Imperial Japan.In Burma ,Merrills Marauders were finishing their Campaign against the Japanese. The Marauders were so decimated by Disease, Deaths and Fatigue they never again were an effective fighting force.In the Air,Land and Sea Americans were fighting to end tyranny. We can never repay them for what they did. Our only attempt is to remember!
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Replies:
Posted By: steve(ill)
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2018 at 6:47pm
UNBELIEVABLE what was accomplished by the USA in those years......Soldiers overseas faced terrible conditions... Workers in the USA were cranking out equipment at an enormous pace.
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Like them all, but love the "B"s.
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Posted By: LouSWPA
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2018 at 6:54pm
They truly were the greatest generation!
Thanks Mark
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I am still confident of this;
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Ps 27
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Posted By: HD6GTOM
Date Posted: 06 Jun 2018 at 7:45pm
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Uncle Keith had finished his missions as a belly gunner in a bomber over Germany, uncle Don was in a tank with Patton's boys, uncle John was on a Destroyer escort in the Pacific, Dad was with a rifle company somewhere in Europe. Uncle Don had 2 tanks blown out from under him, uncle Johns ship was blown out of the water buy a Kamakazi pilot. Mom worked in a munitions plant making 50 cal ammo, They all came home, raized familys and are now sleeping the long sleep. I'm darn glad they were there when needed.
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Posted By: JohnCO
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 12:27am
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There was an article on the channel 9 news in Denver tonight about two guys who have lived in the same retirement home for several years. A couple years ago they discovered they were both B17 pilots and both got shot down in the fall of 1944 and were in the same POW camp in Germany. At the end of the story, the news guy mentioned there were 17 million GI's in WWII and only a few over 200,000 are still alive! Makes me think about when I was in the Army in Germany in 1968 & 69, the war had only been over 23 years and most of the Vets weren't even in their middle age yet...
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"If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer"
Allis Express participant
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Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 8:29am
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Took a tour of a still flight ready B17 in Palm Springs, CA. The guy giving the tour had a family member who flew them, so he was very thorough, passionate, and sincere giving the tour. Part of the tour was, he said imagine you are in a bomber squadron. Look to the person on your right, and the person on your left, and realize every time you take off you or one of them won't be coming back... My Dad's family was oddly spaced in age for the War years. That branch of the family was WW1 more so than 2. Dad served smack dab between Korea and Viet Nam. Mom's side of the family though there are connections to the Pacific, including a guy not technically related, that was captured only 40 some days into the war in the Philippines. Bataan Death March, the Prison ships, "The Bird", the slave labor, like out of the movie Unbroken, he survived it all. To think the US won a 2 front war 1000's of miles apart, and each 1000's of miles from home in the 1940's!!!! Incredible.
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Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 10:37am
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I grew up listening to war stories from WW2 veterans. As I grew older and so did they the stories switched from the humorous to the deadly serious. One in particular my dad told was to not be around any Tank American or German . He said when they caught on fire when hit and the ammunition blew they would burn for 3 days! All of my Mothers Cousins served. One flew B24's. He was killed over Munich. The other served with Merrils Marauders in Burma. He suffered from Malaria and other Jungle Diseases until the day he died a young man! I like to attend Air Shows and see the WW2 Aircraft still flying. At one Airshow several years ago I stood by a B17 with a ME 109 that was being restored. A man my Dad's age stood there looking at the B17. I made a remark about the two planes being that close and it was good they were not shooting at each other. He looked at me and said "The last time I saw a B17 this close I was falling away from it from 20,000 ft in the air and I spent over a year as a guest of Adolph Hitler in one of his Hotels"! I shook his hand and thanked him!
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Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 10:48am
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One of my mother's cousins Elmer was awarded a Battle Field Commission after a battle in France. Shortly after he was wounded and his left Arm Amputated. He never showed any sign of his loss weakening him. At family reunions he organized the games for us kids to play and participated. I always admired Elmer for not letting his loss weaken him!
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Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 10:56am
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The guy I knew growing up that went through Bataan etc., when he first got home, he told the stories and talked with people. He talked less and less about it as the years went by. By the time I remember him, getting close to 30 years after the war, he rarely spoke of anything about it. Then, by the time the late 90's rolled around, he started talking again. He usually wasn't very calm or pleasant about it when he talked, he was downright bitter. I think he saw people in general forgetting how terrible / remarkable it all was. He didn't get a dang purple heart until just a couple years before he died. No purple heart for all the beatings and blindness and stuff that he went through, but for chemical burns from dumping the fuel as their base was being overrun, because that act was still involved in the fighting. So yeah, he got to go through Bataan death march with chemically burned feet. They were dumping the fuel so that the Japanese wouldn't have it, and the hard clay ground was so dry and compacted it wouldn't soak in and the guys were sloshing in ankle deep fuel dumping the rest, as they were being overrun.
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Posted By: LouSWPA
Date Posted: 07 Jun 2018 at 12:35pm
A close friend of the family was a lead navigator on -17's and -24's, mostly B-24's. They were shot up over Germany, managed to get back over France before bailing out......three of the crew were killed (one 'chute didn't open). Henry was found by locals, hidden, fed and helped along to returning to his base, where he mounted up and was flying missions again within a week!
He kept close ties with the French locals that took care of him until he died couple years ago. To them, he was a hero
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I am still confident of this;
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Ps 27
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