NationStates Jolt Archive

The 8th of May will mark 60 years since the end of World War II in Europe.

I saw a vet taking donations at the local supermarket yesterday (the 1st) and thanked him. I encourage anyone out there who sees one to do the same. (And put $5 in the jar, eh?)
Funnily enough, his name WAS Joe, and he was in some enginering unit in Italy.

Anybody have any parents/grandparents/friends of the family that were there?

_________________________
ACT OF MILITARY SURRENDER

1. We the undersigned, acting by authority of the German High Command, hereby surrender unconditionally to the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army all forces on land, at sea, and in the air who are at this date under German control.

2. The German High Command will at once issue order to all German military, naval and air authorities and to all forces under German control to cease active operations at 2301 hours Central European time on 8th May 1945, to remain in all positions occupied at that time and to disarm completely, handing over their weapons and equipment to the local allied commanders or officers designated by Representatives of the Allied Supreme Commands. No ship, vessel, or aircraft is to be scuttled, or any damage done to their hull, machinery or equipment, and also to machines of all kinds, armament, apparatus, and all the technical means of prosecution of war in general.

3. The German High Command will at once issue to the appropriate commanders, and ensure the carrying out of any further orders issued by the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and by the Supreme Command of the Red Army.

4. This act of military surrender is without prejudice to, and will be superseded by any general instrument of surrender imposed by, or on behalf of the United Nations and applicable to GERMANY and the German armed forces as a whole.

5. In the event of the German High Command or any of the forces under their control failing to act in accordance with this Act of Surrender, the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force and the Supreme High Command of the Red Army will take such punitive or other action as they deem appropriate.

6. This Act is drawn up in the English, Russian and German languages. The English and Russian are the only authentic texts.

Signed at Berlin on the 8 day of May, 1945

Von Friedeburg Keitel Stumpff


On behalf of the German High Command IN THE PRESENCE OF:

A.W.Tedder On behalf of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force

Georgi Zhukov On behalf of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army

At the signing also were present as witnesses:

F. de Lattre-Tassigny General Commanding in Chief First French Army

Carl Spaatz General, Commanding United States Strategic Air Force

Anybody have any parents/grandparents/friends of the family that were there?

My grandpa was the radio guy in a B-17 "flying fortress" bomber. He is a little senile now though. He wears a hat which says B-24, he thinks it is the "same thing".

My grandpa was the radio guy in a B-17 "flying fortress" bomber. He is a little senile now though. He wears a hat which says B-24, he thinks it is the "same thing".

Pretty cool!

My grandfather died somewhere on the Eastern Front. Sadly, the Polish Home Army didn't really have a chance to keep detailed records. :(

My granmother was a codery person for the Navy. She had to look after code books, make sure they were transferred onto ships and stuff, and that the old ones were destroyed, and she had to fly them about the place. She went onto all the ships that came into Belfast port when she was here, and all the ones that went into Derry as well, and she was stationed at some code place in Scotland for a while as well. All very top secret at the time, but she can talk about it now, she has some great stories.

There's this old guy in a small group I go to that was a code-cracker in WWII... I guess everyday he had to carry a pistol and a leathal pill to work "just in case" crazy. he did that for four years. That might be a high stress job, imagine going into your job everyday with a little dose of deadly toxins that were for "just in case".

Here's a little known secret. The war was won entirely by my grandmother, and a plough. Presumably, if it wasn't for her mighty agricultural effort, we would all be speaking german. She admits that RAF may have done some other stuff while she was busy.

Good thread-thanks for bringing this up to our attention.
My late grandfather was at D Day in Normandy, as was a close friend of the family.

These people were heros and a a breed apart. They have my respect and gratitude.

My granmother was a codery person for the Navy. She had to look after code books, make sure they were transferred onto ships and stuff, and that the old ones were destroyed, and she had to fly them about the place. She went onto all the ships that came into Belfast port when she was here, and all the ones that went into Derry as well, and she was stationed at some code place in Scotland for a while as well. All very top secret at the time, but she can talk about it now, she has some great stories.

You should write some of her stories down. Imagine what she lived through? these are stories for your future generations to share.

Good thread-thanks for bringing this up to our attention.
My late grandfather was at D Day in Normandy, as was a close friend of the family.

These people were heros and a a breed apart. They have my respect and gratitude.

Thanks.

!!!

That whole generation was. They didn't live in the world of today, where everything is relative and nothing is right or wrong.

You should write some of her stories down. Imagine what she lived through? these are stories for your future generations to share.
Weve tried, but she seems to be of the opinion that nobody would be interested, and that she doesnt really want to have it written down. I think that as much as she will talk about them if shes asked, she doesnt like it because it always brings back memories of people she knew from ships that ended up sinking in the Atlantic.


She has a story about when they were flying code books from Scotland to Derry and the plane went down in fog over some mountains. Well, they had to do whatever was necessary to protect the books. So, they ended up holed up in some wee cottage somewhere with their radio until the fog lifted drinking poteen.

Its all much more interesting when she tells it, ive forgotten half of it.

My Grandfather was Infantry/Artillary!
2ndNZEF 2nd New Zealand Division 6th Brigade 28th(Maori Battalion)

My other Grandpa wasin The Tank Transport companies.

Whats so great about VE DAY!? :p :rolleyes:

That whole generation was. They didn't live in the world of today, where everything is relative and nothing is right or wrong.
Do you really think that nothing is right or wrong anymore?

My grandfather was a bomb dis-arm expert on the aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn, nerve racking or what!?

Even in his old age, he is still working for the Royal Navy, helping design the new aircraft carriers :)

My granmother was a codery person for the Navy. She had to look after code books, make sure they were transferred onto ships and stuff, and that the old ones were destroyed, and she had to fly them about the place. She went onto all the ships that came into Belfast port when she was here, and all the ones that went into Derry as well, and she was stationed at some code place in Scotland for a while as well. All very top secret at the time, but she can talk about it now, she has some great stories.
My Gran did a similar job, but in Plymouth and Cornwall, though she only told me that a few weeks ago.
My Grandad on the other hand never talked about much else :) was interesting though. He was in the Irish Guards and was in Boulogne when everyone else was evacuating at Dunkirk.
My Grampa was in the RAF working on Lancs and Hurricanes in the Desert, as well as being one of the truck drivers. He used to tell me the (nicer bits) of the war over there as they fought through Egypt/Iraq etc. Was always a fun bed-time story, just wish I could remember it better. One of his colleagues married his sister (so he was my Uncle Bob!). They were dodgy as hell though, proper Dellboys :D
And my Nan worked in a munitions factory!

My Grandad was in the British 6th Airborne division and dropped near Arnhem during Market Garden. Most of you will know that that went pear shaped, he spent an hour fighting then was captured and spent the rest of the war in a german POW camp.

my uncle who died a couple of years ago flew Spitfires in the RAF. He didn't say much about it, but my dad has his log books and things of that nature. :)

Pretty cool!

My grandfather died somewhere on the Eastern Front. Sadly, the Polish Home Army didn't really have a chance to keep detailed records. :(
Thats too bad. Some of the Poles really fought very bravely, the last Calvary charges probably ever in the history of warfare, were carried out by insanely courageous Poles in WWII.

My uncle was a Commando, and was wounded and captured in the 1942 'Operation Chariot' raid on the U-Boat facilities at St Nazaire. It was tantamount to a suicide mission, and he was lucky to survive. He spent the rest of the war in captivity. He was even on a TV documentary about the raid a couple of years ago.

My Grandad was an artillery gunner with the 8th Army. He fought in Egypt, Sicily and Belgium.

My Grandmother was working in a munitions factory.

I know that my great uncle got a bravery medal for landing his bomber after one of the wheels had been shot off. The funny thing was that it only happenend because he forgot to retract his undercarriage!

Do you really think that nothing is right or wrong anymore?

Oh, I do. But it's occurred to me that lots of people on the forum don't. :(

Well, I'm not sure what his exact job was, but my Grandad worked on one of the minesweeper ships that cleared the areas around the Normandy beaches in the run up to the D-day landings.

My grandfather lied to get on one of the ships, and ended up in the Pacific.

My great uncle was a tailgunner.

Weve tried, but she seems to be of the opinion that nobody would be interested, and that she doesnt really want to have it written down. I think that as much as she will talk about them if shes asked, she doesnt like it because it always brings back memories of people she knew from ships that ended up sinking in the Atlantic.


She has a story about when they were flying code books from Scotland to Derry and the plane went down in fog over some mountains. Well, they had to do whatever was necessary to protect the books. So, they ended up holed up in some wee cottage somewhere with their radio until the fog lifted drinking poteen.

Its all much more interesting when she tells it, ive forgotten half of it.


Well-they are her stories, so she has a right. I would be interested. I'm sure many, many people would be interested. On both sides of the pond. These first hand accounts of the people behind the scenes are often fascinating. We've heard the big stories of the well known famous heros, but for every well known, there are hundreds, if not thousands of lesser known pieces of the overall victory.

My great-uncle was an Allied (Republic of China) soldier in southern China. All my grandparents were about 10 years old in 1945.

Thats too bad. Some of the Poles really fought very bravely, the last Calvary charges probably ever in the history of warfare, where carried out by insanely courageous Poles in WWII.

Thanks.

My grandfather was the head of a naval engineering division that used to degauss ships in the war. (Degaussing, or demagnetizing, being crucial in the navy at that time as steel ships develop magnetic poles during their construction. Sea-mines would be attracted to the magnetic hulls, thereby increasing the risk of a deadly mine-encounter.) In addition, and this is true, as a brilliant electrical engineer, the he was asked to be a part of "the Manhattan Project", but since he was so valuable to the navy at the time, they didn't allow him leave. Crazy huh?

My great uncle was a tailgunner.

Tailgunner? :eek: That's the worst spot to be in a bomber! (Unless there's a ball turret... then there's a debate...)

Well, I have an aunt who is married to a guy of Finnish descent. His uncles fought in the Winter War. I've heard some crazy stuff about how they ran out of bullets before the Soviets ran out of men.

My grandpa was conscripted into the Nazi Hitler's youth and saw battle on Normandy. Basically he was guarding an airstrip when the Americans got to him and a man with a flamethrower chased him and his pal into a bunker. They surrendered after they were warend grenades would be used to clear them out.

Funny enough, while he was coming home after being in a POW camp, some Soviets picked him up and were presumably (he wasn't sure) going to bring him to their POW camp (something you don't want to be in). Lucky for him the car broke down, so he offered to fix it for them and while they stood around having a smoke, he fixed the car and drove off.

My grandad served with the 920th Field Artillery Batallion, in the 95 infantry under Patton's 3rd Army, as a lieutenant, and alternately the Forward Observer and the Execuative Officer for his battery.

Anybody have any parents/grandparents/friends of the family that were there?

my grandpa stanley was in the war and survived, but later he died of cancer. :(

My Grandfather was Infantry/Artillary!
2ndNZEF 2nd New Zealand Division 6th Brigade 28th(Maori Battalion)

My other Grandpa was in The Tank Transport companies.

Whats so great about VE DAY!? :p :rolleyes:
Also my Great uncle was in 22nd Battalion and got shot up by a Spandau he thought it was a good idea to get up again and got another burst.-Everytime he went through a Metal Detector he would set them off because he had bullets still in him that they couldnt extract!

My Other Great Uncle was New Zealand Cavalry Regiment and was on a Bren Gun Carrier the oddest and neatist things ever!

I probably had 10 Grandparents and their siblings that served.
All through Egypt,Greece,Crete,Egypt,Libya,Tunisia,Italy up to Trieste which was Liberated by the 2ndNZ today 60 years ago today should have thumped those Yugoslavs!

It didn't have anything directly to do with Europe, but my Grandpa served in the Navy in the Pacific. He was at Pearl Harbor on a destroyer (luckily it was one of many destroyers that went nearly untouched)...then another destroyer, and finally an Aircraft Carrier (I believe it was the Langley).

Sadly, he died about three weeks before I was born, so I never got to hear anything about it from him.

My grandpa fought against Russians (around Ladoga), injured, went back, injured again (this time in Syväri). Got two bravery medals and carried a piece of Russian grenade in his arse til he died (at 84 or so).

My other grandpa was a journalist and never had to fight.

Anybody have any parents/grandparents/friends of the family that were there?

My grandad on my mums side was in the Royal Navy on a MTB (motor torpedo boat as an enlisted comms seaman for the first few years of the war. During that time he was on various assignments inc. ferrying commados across the Chanel, trying to get away from german e-boats (they were faster and better armed so the rule was run until you got help), helped the evac from Norway, spent christmas 1941 in a cave on the french coast after his MTB was sunk (you guessed it, by an e-boat), after that he was in eygpt for a short time (including a short time on a greek island where he took part in his only land action, in which not one shot was fired and no one died on either side). He then took part in D-day as part of the protection fleet, before being moved on to india (my grandma didn't see him in a hell of a long time) where he was promoted and trained in soldiers in communications. At some point along the line (he never talked about it but we think it was late 44 early 45) he was captured by the Japanese. He spent the best part of a year in the camps by the burma railway before being rescued. He doesn't remember how, all he knew was that at one point he fell asleep and the next thing he knew he was surrounded by nuns LOL! After that he was nursed back to health before being demobbed in early 46. So he had an event filled war to put it mildly.

My other grandad was one of the engineers (not military but R&D based) who was part of the design team who helped build operation pluto (the pipe line under the channel to supply the allied invasion with oil.

RIP to both of them. :(

My maternal grandfather was a fireman in Liverpool during the blitz. He wrote me a letter when I was 7 to take into my school class. We were doing the blitz at the time.

Sadly he died in January :( I wish I had talked to him about it more, we are losing a VERY important generation.

My Grandad used to get into Boxing matches with one of the Battalion Commanders!(The guy was a Prick) :D

My great-grandfather on my dad's mum's side signed up, but because he was a baker he ended up cooking bread for soldiers at the bases in North-Western Australia. Still, I think that he did his part and shouldn't be undervalued.

My relatives on my oma's (read grandmother's) side of the family had a considerably worse time.

My great-grandfather was a key member of the Communist Party in the Netherlands before the war. When the nazis came and invaded, he and his wife were thrown into prison and threatened with a mockery of a trial and likely excecution. However, my grand-uncle, their son, Joop, volunteered instead to join the Wehrmacht, which in lighter cases like communism, absolved family members of imprisonment and death. He went to fight on the Eastern Front and died in Stanlingrad.

My great-grandparents were deported to the labour camps, but no longer threatened with death. Their five children were sent to an orphanage in germany, one of whom was my oma. They remained there until the soviets began to push on through germany. Following the bombing of the town they were staying in, my oma rounded up her siblings and began a massive trek through the german countryside, depending on strangers and scavaging what they could find left over from russian raids on farms.

One night, they all hid in a small village, staying in a barn. Then the russians came. They got drunk and started to go on a rampage, shooting the men and raping women. My grandmother and her siblings spent the whole night hiding in the pig pens, covered in hay and faeces, listening to the screams.

Finally, half-starved from malnutrition and utterly exhausted, they crossed over into Allied Territory and made it home. They stayed with an aunt for a while before their parents were finally released and came together once more. Unfortunately, they were in for more trouble. Because his son had joined the Wehrmacht, my great-grandfather and his family were spat upon, had their heads shaven, swatsikas painted on their heads and were paraded around town.

After that my oma's side of the family swore off politics.

My grandpa was in the German Wehrmacht. He has awesome stories to tell :D

I've gotta say -- there are some great stories in this thread!

Thanks to everyone so far!

My one grandfather was color-blind, so the navy made him a cook. Scariest thing he saw was when he was one a tanker of aviation gas (VERY high octane petrol) the tanker next to his got hit by a bomb and exploded. Semi-famous, as a picture was taken while it was still a fireball. Uluthi atol or somethig like that. cool bit is my cousin who's now a salvage diver for the navy went there about a year ago to take some oil out of the wreck that had started leaking again.

My other grandfather was a supply officer in Pearl Harbor. He had more fun in the war than just about anyone, as his job for much of the war was running an officers club. :) Made more money from the rusted out slot machines he found. Kept the motor pool guys supplied with liquor in return for fixing em up. but one of the cooler stories is that one of his best friends there was one of the translators for the Japanese codes we'd broken, and had helped piece together the intel for Midway.

My two great uncles were also in the war. One was a PT boat skipper in the south pacific (he just missed meeting JFK, arrived a week or two after he was medevaced after being rescued) and the other was on subchasers in the Atlantic. He didn't like talking about that, so I never heard much, mostly about his time just after the war as an ASW instructor in Key West.

One grandfather was Australian light infantry. He served in New Guinea, but didn't talk about his experiences much. He died several years ago, so I never really got a chance to have a deep conversation with him about it.

The other grandfather was enslaved by the Nazi's. He was Lithuanian, and about 14 at the time. He wasn't able to get back to his homeland after walking across the totally undefended (on the German side) front line to the British towards the end of the war. He then had a choice of living in Britain, Canada, or Australia. He was going to go to Canada, but changed his mind at the last minute. (He was probably drunk.)

He was also in Dresden during the firebombing, but survived because he managed to get into a cellar in time.

EDIT- Oh yeah, my Great Grandfather was in charge of the beer tent in an Egyptian supply base (really just an r&r camp) ran by the Australian army. He was a popular guy, for some reason. :p

Ein Deutscher']My grandpa was in the German Wehrmacht. He has awesome stories to tell :D

A family friend's dad was in the Wehrmacht, then litteraly crawled under the barbed wire to get out of East Germany in the late 40's, with his whole family including small children. Amazing stuff. He died before I got a chance to talk to him about it when I was old enough to really know what was going on. I really wish I'd talked to some of these guys with a tape recorder.

I really wish I'd talked to some of these guys with a tape recorder.

Same here, i wanted to write a biogrpahy of my grandads service, as like many others, they're just seen as normal soldiers/sailors/airmen, but everyone has some stories that defy belief. Now its too late. :(

My granfather was in the Royal New Zealand Navy and as the commander of a motor torpedo boat, he sunk two German submarines with a single torpedo(!), somewhere in the Adriatic I think. Later he became a liason with the partisans fighting in Yugoslavia.

he sunk two German submarines with a single torpedo(!)
Right.. and I'm Santa Claus...

and I'm Santa Claus... Damn you Santa! I really wanted that Lego Castle, but what did I get? A freaking glow-in-the-dark rubber skeleton! I worked hard to be good all that year and you screwed me over! You're an asshole.

Ein Deutscher']My grandpa was in the German Wehrmacht. He has awesome stories to tell :D

I'm sure they're mostly pre-1943, though.

Oh, I do. But it's occurred to me that lots of people on the forum don't. :(
Yeah, I don't like moral relativism. It lets people excuse all manner of atrocities because of circumstances (i.e. torture in Pinochet's Chile, 1973; Red Army genocide in Poland, 1944-5; US Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, 1945).

Yeah, I don't like moral relativism. It lets people excuse all manner of atrocities because of circumstances (i.e. torture in Pinochet's Chile, 1973; Red Army genocide in Poland, 1944-5; US Nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, 1945).

The Canadians not sending troops to Iraq... ;)

Seriously: the Hiroshima thing doesn't fit. There was a state of war between the two nations. This was not true in Chile, nor in the Katyn forest.

(I apologise for going off topic in a thread I created!)

I should chip in with my story.

My grandfather worked in a Belfast factory building military aircraft for the RAF in WWII. Spitfire!

http://www.spyflight.co.uk/images/JPGS/Supermarine%20Spitfire%20FR18/Spitfire%20FR18%20208%20Sqn.jpg

Anybody have any parents/grandparents/friends of the family that were there?

Yes. Both my grandfathers served. :mp5: :sniper:

Good for me they made it through the war alive. :D

Good for you they lost the war - otherwise this thread would be in German :eek:

(Just to preclude any misunderstandings: I'm glad that Germany lost the war they should have never started, otherwise life would really suck and I'd be ironing my uniform right now...)

Yes. Both my grandfathers served. :mp5: :sniper:

Good for me they made it through the war alive. :D

Good for you they lost the war - otherwise this thread would be in German :eek:

(Just to preclude any misunderstandings: I'm glad that Germany lost the war they should have never started, otherwise life would really suck and I'd be ironing my uniform right now...)


You do have to look at it from both sides though. Its most likely the average German soldier was proudly serving his country, as were British, American, Polish, etc... Not really aware of the bigger picture. A friend of ours who was a regular American soldier at DDAY at Normandy said many of them had no idea about the Jews being rounded up and shipped off for the atrocities at concentration camps.

German troops in Holland, Denmark & northwestern Germany surrendered (to Field Marshal Montgomery), which in effect mostly ended combat for non-Soviet troops in Europe.

I'm sure they're mostly pre-1943, though.
Pre-1943 and Post-1943- He tells a lot about how he managed to survive after 1945 and how many jobs he did and how the people suffered in the bombed cities without food etc. He's alive and well, and 78 years old now. I really like my grandpa - he wasn't a Nazi btw, just a normal soldier.

My great uncle was a pilot (who also saw action in Korea and Vietnam; he was shot down twice and retired a Lt. Colonel). Another uncle was a marine in the Pacific who fought in Guadacanal among other locations. A distant counsin (at least I think he's a cousin, if not, he's a close family friend), landed on Omaha Beach. And a relative on my mother's side was a ball turret gunner in a B-17. Most unfortunately, he did not live through the war. Only he who served on Omaha is still alive. I am sincerely proud of them all the sacrifices they gave for their nation and for freedom, itself, in the war against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

Let me see...
Grandfather on dad's side: Joined too late to fight Japan, fought in Korea
Grandfather on mother's side: Fought on Okinawa, lone survivor of an entire company.
Great Uncle: Served on a destroyer in the Atlantic

German Fuehrer Doenitz surrenders.
All U-boats are ordered home and all armies are ordered to cease fire.

The Allies agree to a 9 May date for the end of the war, but it gets leaked and becomes 8 May.

Ein Deutscher']Right.. and I'm Santa Claus...
Hey New Zealanders can do anything!

My Grampa was in the RAF working on Lancs and Hurricanes in the Desert, as well as being one of the truck drivers. He used to tell me the (nicer bits) of the war over there as they fought through Egypt/Iraq etc.

my grandad was a navigator/ bombadier in Lancs over Africa. Unfortunately he died when i was 2, so i never really had a chance to talk to him about it. He gave my dad all his journals though. They have some great stories.

German Fuehrer Doenitz surrenders.
All U-boats are ordered home and all armies are ordered to cease fire.

The Allies agree to a 9 May date for the end of the war, but it gets leaked and becomes 8 May.
You know how long it took to get German soldiers out of e.g. Italy and Romania (after they surrended to Allies)?
Actually, I'll try to google it myself.

last troops expelled
Italy: May 45
Finland: April 45
Romania: Can't find. Earlier than from Hungary or Czechoslovakia

my grandad was a navigator/ bombadier in Lancs over Africa. Unfortunately he died when i was 2, so i never really had a chance to talk to him about it. He gave my dad all his journals though. They have some great stories.
Ive got my Grandfathers paybook etc and a lot of his notes including signals book etc,His Buttons off his Tunis(?)and the Returned Services Association reunion badges.

Hes also in a number of Books and a few pictures of him are about including one with him puffing away on a ciggy(At the Waioru Army Museum).

You know how long it took to get German soldiers out of e.g. Italy and Romania (after they surrended to Allies)?
Actually, I'll try to google it myself.
Rumania i dont know why they would want to stay apart from to get revenge on those Bastards!

Italy sure they had Yugoslavians to kill!

Trieste May 3rd New Zealand forces enter the city to see Yugoslavian forces surrounding the Town Hall buildings with pathetic light tanks.
NZ Shermans rock on up and blast the thing to Dixie.

The Germans also prefered to surrender to NZ forces instead of the Jugheads might have had something to do with the War Crimes!
Anyway that really pissed the Yargos off!
The first stand off of the Cold War happened there!

A friend of the family, called Herman, (or Herman "the German" as we used to call him as kids), was a tank driver on the Eastern front from the age of 17 (he lied about his age to join up) from the beginning of Operation Barbarossa until the Germans began to get hammered back by the Soviets. Lucky for him his unit was transferred to the Western Front after Kursk, (which I don't know how he survived), before he got captured during the end stages of the Bulge offensive in December 1944. Absolutely insane stories, both sad and incredibly funny.

As an additional comment I work for an NGO that had an American lieutenant come in to talk about the events when he commanded his company in Fallujah to combat the uprising in 2004. Some of his stories were just unbelievable, real Hollywood action packed blockbuster stuff. Although I'm not a fan of how the Coalition forces are conducting the military operations in Iraq I have the up most respect for anyone who is willing to put their life on the line for what they believe in.

Rumania i dont know why they would want to stay apart from to get revenge on those Bastards!


hmmm...If I remember correctly most of Romanians (who died during the war) died fighting against Soviet troops (and after summer 44, under Soviet troops). I guess they weren't very eager to fight at all at that point.

My gramps flew a B-24 over Italy and Germany.

You know how long it took to get German soldiers out of e.g. Italy and Romania (after they surrended to Allies)?
Actually, I'll try to google it myself.

last troops expelled
Italy: May 45
Finland: April 45
Romania: Can't find. Earlier than from Hungary or Czechoslovakia

I'd suppose that it would not be as easy to find, as the Communists would have classified it. (Lots of troops ended up in Siberia.)

Ive got my Grandfathers paybook etc and a lot of his notes including signals book etc,His Buttons off his Tunis(?)and the Returned Services Association reunion badges.

Hes also in a number of Books and a few pictures of him are about including one with him puffing away on a ciggy(At the Waioru Army Museum).

Maybe the word was "tunic"?

hmmm...If I remember correctly most of Romanians (who died during the war) died fighting against Soviet troops (and after summer 44, under Soviet troops). I guess they weren't very eager to fight at all at that point.
Ah yes but at some stage they decided to Switch sides and retreated across a large river sealed the bridges from the germans and watched 16 German Divisions cease to exist!

But it gets better Russia didnt like the idea of being all buddy buddy with those who had been trying to extermiate them for the last 3 years and decided to continue their war for a while longer!

Maybe the word was "tunic"?
Damn thats imbarrasing i meant that and thought i had written Tunic so when i put the question mark i meant Tunic(?) not Tunis.

So i was right but still spelt it wrong!

German troops in Norway surrender.

Germany signs the surrender documents again (the second ceremony is to placate Stalin) in Berlin, with General Jodl signing for Germany, General Bedell Smith for the Allied commander, General Ivan Susloparov for Russia and General Francois Sevez for France.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Soviet leader Marshal Joseph Stalin and United States President Harry S Truman have now agreed to make the official announcement of the end of the war at 1500 BST on 8 May 1945.

World War II is over in Europe.



The war in Asia will continue for another four months, until the Japanese are brought to surrender after the dropping of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

In the interim, the last large scale combat, The Battle of Okinawa takes place, it lasts for 82 days (since 1 April).

The US loses 18,900+ killed, 38,000 wounded + 33,096 non combat wounded, 763 planes shot down.
The Japanese lose 76,000+ soldiers killed and 27,000 soldiers civilians killed, 7,455 surrendered/captured (2,300 japanese), 100,000+ civilians killed

So in three months a total death count of quarter of a million people on a piece of land 1199.5 sq. km, or half the size of Luxembourg.

My grandpa was the radio guy in a B-17 "flying fortress" bomber. He is a little senile now though. He wears a hat which says B-24, he thinks it is the "same thing".
They are leaving us at a very high rate now. I am so glad that the WWII Memorial was finally finished last year, but it should have been built many years ago. I think it's a mark of that remarkable generation that they didn't seek to be memorialized. Not only were they among history's bravest, they were also modest about what they accomplished. To hear them talk, they were "just doing what needed to be done."

We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Parliament Hill, Ottawa May 8 1945.

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/content/feature/week2001/Photogalley/secondwar/VEday.jpg

Manhattan, New York City
http://www.zer0.org/ve/ve3-scr.jpg

Picadilly Circus, London
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2/images/dna/site/ve_day_1945_a1057448_hq5955.jpg

(From atop of the) Arc de Triomphe, Paris
http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/pictures/veday/ve5.jpg

...I couldn't find any ANZAC or Russian pictures...

...I couldn't find any ANZAC or Russian pictures...
Actually i wanted be surprised its not like we dont give a shit but as a whole the people Only Care about ANZAC day and a disgusting number of people would believe you if you said the Reason Gallipoli failed was because the Canadians couldnt get their Tanks on to the Beaches!
They think its part of their OE but really have no idea.

I cant remember any Celebrations here apart from the Russian Ambassador saying we suppled many Sailors in the Artic Convoys.

Actually i wanted be surprised its not like we dont give a shit but as a whole the people Only Care about ANZAC day and a disgusting number of people would believe you if you said the Reason Gallipoli failed was because the Canadians couldnt get their Tanks on to the Beaches!
They think its part of their OE but really have no idea.

I cant remember any Celebrations here apart from the Russian Ambassador saying we suppled many Sailors in the Artic Convoys.

ok, first of all, Gallipoli is World War I, has nothing to do with VE Day
secondly, the Canadians couldn't get their tanks of the beaches at Dieppe (not Gallipoli in 1915) in 1942 because of really bad planning on so many levels that the blame is nearly impossible to pin on anyone

Ironically, my grandfather (father's side) only saw Europe when his baby flattop (USS White Plains) became part of Operation Magic Carpet to bring everyone home after it was all over. He was in the Pacific though along with my other grandfather who was a B-29 pilot.

Of course I'm now engaged to a Japanese girl, go fig. ;)

I think the coolest WWII vet I have had the honor to met is the father of a friend of my mother's. He was one of the Navajo code talker and recently, well, openly, recieved the Congressional Medal of Honor.

My step-great-grandfather was a 'roving' paratrooper. Three jumps in Europe, two more in the Pacific, I believe. His stories are nuts. In the days before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, initial estimates for an invasion of... Honshu? The largest Japanese island? Kyushu, mebbe? Dunno. Whatever, initial estimates were close to one-million American/allied lives would be lost in the taking. He said they were ALL shitting when the word came to suit up and go home. They figured it was time to go and die, instead.

Another story was a couple of Japanese soldiers ran out of ammo, retreated into a stand of trees, and climbed a particularly large one. A few American GI's come along and find them. Well, when he(my step-geat-grandfather) comes up, the GI's are arguing about how to get them down. One suggests that they simply shoot them out of the tree, another suggests they get them down and bayonet them. A coin-toss favors the bayonett guy, so the loser goes and finds an axe. They then proceed to chop down the tree, and bayonett both of the Japanese. Savage.

One more. A couple of Phillipino soldiers were with him and his men. They were scouting the countryside and managed to capture a wandering Japanese soldier. Well, he orders the Phillipinos to watch their captive, and he moves on ahead to the place where the American's were quartered. After about twenty minutes he sees the Phillipinos he left guarding the Jap, alone. Well, he hurries over and asks them where the hell is the prisoner. The reply was 'He seek. No come. He seek.' Seek? No, sick, he finally understands. Sick? Well, he goes to investigate and his Phillipino friends have decapitated this Japanese soldier and spiked his head on a post.

I always thought there was more to it than just that, but most of his stories I heard second-hand from my grandfather, and some may have suffered in the retelling. He was a great man, regardless, and still is. In his early nineties now, but is as sharp minded as ever and is still a dead shot with sidearm or rifle.

ok, first of all, Gallipoli is World War I, has nothing to do with VE Day
secondly, the Canadians couldn't get their tanks of the beaches at Dieppe (not Gallipoli in 1915) in 1942 because of really bad planning on so many levels that the blame is nearly impossible to pin on anyone
See i really dont know what to say to your comments.
Im sure you missed the point!

Both of my grandfathers have passed away. My father's father was a gunner in the US Navy, he was very good at it and they made him an instructor back in California. He taught guys how to shoot down planes.
My mother's father was OSS. He was being trained to go into Japan before the invasion, blowing bridges and sabotage and such. Lucky for him the two bombs got dropped. I have little doubt he would have died. He never spoke of his wartime service until the 90's, he took secrecy oaths that serious. He was a carpenter by trade and helped build the hangers for the U2's.

Both my grandads fought in WW2, one was involved in the normandy landings and got shot in the shoulder and had to go back home. I also had a great-grandfather who had to fight for Germany as he was Austrian and lived in Vienna.
My grandad who was part of the normandy landings never knew his father as he died in world war one before my grandad was born.