NationStates Jolt Archive

We've all heard them, from friends, family members etc. So let's share them.

Here is a few story from my grandpa. My grandpa was in the army during WW II. He was in the North Africa, and European Theathre.

1. He was a part on the invasion of the beaches of Normandy. He was about to get off the boat, but a mortar round hit the land in front of the boat. A piece of metal went flying into my grandpa's legs. That caused him walking problem for the rest of his life. He never got off the boat that day. In the hospital he told one of the nurse "Now that's what I call a bad day."

2. After being release from the hospital he joined up with his troop as they march through France. His mission was to scout the town ahead. He went to this small French town, and they were all waving German flags. However there was no danger, so it was all clear. However, when his troops walk through, they were all waving American Flags. My grandpa thought something was off, so after his troop moved through the town he went back. They went back to the German Flags. I always thought that was strange.

3. After the march through France. His troop was taken on a mission to liberate a concetration camp in Poland. He went in, and I don't know what he saw, he never told us. However, when he came back out, he told his commanding officer "Look, I'm willing to go into battle, I'm willing to go through D-Day again, and I'm willing to get shot at. However, do NOT make me go back into one of those horrible places." I mean this was a man who went from the N. Africa, got shrapnel in his leg, fought in Battle of the Bulge, and D-Day. He saw his friends die around him. And yet, one visit in a concetration camp and he doesn't want to go back into one. I really wished I'd asked him what he saw, but I'd probably wouldn't gotten an answear anyways.

Vietnam stories from my dad friend.

1. One day, my dad's friend troops was marching through town, and they came across this girl that was sittiong on the street corner crying. It couldn't be older than 5 years old. The friend started towards the girl, but his commanding officer stopped him. The officer went over to the girl and sweep the area beneath the girl's feet. Apparently Charlie has stuck a bamboon stick through the girl's feet and into the land mind. One movement and the troop would've gotten blown up. The commanding officer had to shoot the girl.

2. One of the tradition that came out of Vietnam was that the people who just started their tours were in front of the line. And people who were just about done with thier tour were in the back. One time one of the new guys tried to go to the back. However, my dad's friend who was about done with his tour didn't like it. He forced the new guy back up to the front of the line. It's just one of those things that developed in Vietnam.

My Dad's story. My dad did 4 years in the Army, and he was stationed in Korea for a year, it was border patrol.

1. One day, my dad and his unit was bored. So they found some lightweight wood (forgot the name) and they actually carved airplanes out of them. Now these were about medium size planes. They put motors in them and a propeller. Now these planes were spun around on a string, they could do level flight, and decscend but they couldn't climb. One time my dad and his friend were playing with these airplanes, and one of them broke from the string. It went all the way through the park, my dad and his friend was chasing the plane yelling for everyone to duck. lol.

2. My dad friend's and my dad was stationed together in Korea. Basically by this time my dad's friend started loosing his marbles. They had a rodent problem, so my dad built these little traps that was made of wires and battries. Basically the rodents would get a shock big enough to kill them. Well one night my dad woke up to hear his friend going "DIE COMMIE FROGS DIE!" The friend was shocking frogs with the traps. That was the last time he saw that guy. He thinks that what his friend experienced in Vietnam caused him to go crazy.

Well that's all the War Stories I can think of. So go ahead and tell yours!

Well that's all the War Stories I can think of. So go ahead and tell yours!
I don't have my own, but my dad's. No details, however, just bits and pieces scraped together.

My father was around Vietnam theatre of war, however, he was fighting in those countries to the West of Vietnam, and was thus "technically not there." A load of crap. He set up radio stations and such. One time he fell off of a cliff somehow, gut his stomach cut open (this could be a bar story though, but that could have happened in Vietnam also), and was a POW, and later got out somehow. He doesn't like speaking about it.

However, I remember he said this while training with the Canadian Air Borne:

"If there's snow, their'll kick your ass!"

My grandmother grew up in Austria in the 1920s/1930s. The village where she lived was occupied by Russian troops in early 1945...
My grandmother, together with all the women and children in her family, spent 4 months hidden in the one windowless room on her family's farm, with a huge wardrobe pushed in front of the door from the outside, to avoid being raped by Russian soldiers. Her two cousins were found and raped.
They took the children into hiding with them, as on another farm, one of the Russians had grabbed one of the children running around, put a gun to its head and demanded to be given the mother, otherwise he'd shoot the kid.

My father lived in downtown Hamburg/Germany in the great bombardement juli 1943 and witnessed the first, at that time incidentally caused firestorm through incendiary bombing. Luckily he survived, has Monday his 71 birthday and was able to father to sons...one of them humble me

@Cabra...happy new year, Miss Sophie

War stories? Lordy. More then a few

Great X7 Granddad was supposedly at the Battle of Culloden and ran for the colonies. He also led the militia in Lord Dunmores war and was the neighbor and one time comare in arms of George Washington.

A cousin started the 7th Virginia Cavalry.

Granddad fought the German invasion in Poland. His unit was one of the few if the only one to repel the Germans. Ran to England after the fall and joined the 1st Polish Airbrigade.

A great-uncle was at the Bulge. His unit suffered one of the highest casulties. He and a couple other guys spent a few days chasing the Germans as they were chasing the americans trying to get back to his lines. He refused to talk about it till the day he died. He once scoffed at a world record announcement at one of the olympic games saying "Hell at the Bulge I saw more records in running, jumping, swimming and climbing. You would be amazed at what you can do when a tank is chasing your ass." Not exact but the gist is there. ;)

A boyfriend of my grandmother was a Norweignian Merchant Marine. He had 3 ships sunk from underhim. He said on two of the cases the sub appeared and practiced with their gun for about 1/2 hour to an hour before shooting torpedos.

Another great-uncle(he died before I could really get to know him) was a P-51 pilot. He said one of the games they liked to do was buzz the field full throttle inverted and trying to get as close to the ground as possible. My aunt tossed his flight jacket figuring nobody would want it! :(

My buddy did two tours in Nam with the Rangers. He has this hat. It was his buddies. They were checking something out and the buddy stepped on a landmind. He said he was pretty much blown to nothing and yet the hat was clean! I have considered stealing and tossing it because he gets pretty freaky when he wears the damn thing.

A one time girlfriends Granddad was on the eastern front. Missed Stalingrad because he got shot in the hand when there were just planning to attack the city. Everybody he knew died. Interesting guy actually.

In the Boy Scouts, I once met a guy from Japan that told stories about running for ditches when B-29 strikes went on.

Ahhh well.....

You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, "Is it true?" and if the answer matters, you've got your answer.

For example, we've all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast and saves his three buddies.

Is it true?

The answer matters.

You'd feel cheated if it never happened. Without the grounding reality, it's just a trite bit of puffery, pure Hollywood, untrue in the way all such stories are untrue. Yet even if it did happen - and maybe it did, anything's possible even then you know it can't be true, because a true war story does not depend upon that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. For example: Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast, but it's a killer grenade and everybody dies anyway. Before they die, though, one of the dead guys says, "The fuck you do that for?" and the jumper says, "Story of my life, man," and the other guy starts to smile but he's dead.

That's a true story that never happened.


Good book. Tim O'Brien has a knack for saying what needs to be said about war perfectly. A little off topic maybe but I think it is appropriate.

We've all heard them, from friends, family members etc. So let's share them.


My father served did a tour or two in the Lebanon and one in Namibia in the 1980's. Just because its not a 'big' war doesn't mean the instances change much.

He had one or two nasty scrapes in Lebanon which he is hesitant to tell me about- also in Namibia. In fact he never told my mother what happened either., but now and again when ever I bring up the topic he gets that 'look'....

I'm hoping that I can document them later in life for the sake of posterity.

My grandfather fought against the Commonweath in the Boer War...

My grandfather, who's still alive, served in the Korean War as a Royal Navy seaman on the HMS Belfast, of all vessels. He didn't see much action, but the Belfast was the ship[ that picked up and delivered the British agent 'The White Rabbit' (Possibly the wrong name), into South Korea with a few native agents alongside him. My grandfather was one of the last to see the agent, as he never came out of Korea after leaving the Belfast...

Actually just remebered something else; my grandad (dad's dad) served in that now legendary UN mission in the Congo but not the Jadotville (sp) debacle. I think it was after.

And also my great grandad (dad's grandad) fought in the War of Independence and in the 1916 Easter Rising.

Ive been fighting against sanity my whole life.
I finally think im winning!

We've been war-free for two centuries. No stories for me.

We've been war-free for two centuries. No stories for me.
It's what you do best ;)

Seriously though, it's an amazing sign of civility to remain strong and free without the use of force.

It's what you do best ;)

Seriously though, it's an amazing sign of civility to remain strong and free without the use of force.

Eh.. kinda helps to have something worth taking if you want someone to try and invade you.. I'm not sure Hitler sat there during WWII and thought "Hmm.. Romania's got those oil fields.. but attacking a neutral country with few war-relevant natural resources? That's the way to go!" :p

3. After the march through France. His troop was taken on a mission to liberate a concetration camp in Poland. He went in, and I don't know what he saw, he never told us. However, when he came back out, he told his commanding officer "Look, I'm willing to go into battle, I'm willing to go through D-Day again, and I'm willing to get shot at. However, do NOT make me go back into one of those horrible places." I mean this was a man who went from the N. Africa, got shrapnel in his leg, fought in Battle of the Bulge, and D-Day. He saw his friends die around him. And yet, one visit in a concetration camp and he doesn't want to go back into one. I really wished I'd asked him what he saw, but I'd probably wouldn't gotten an answear anyways.



How come he was in Poland, if he wasn't in the Red Army:confused:

How come he was in Poland, if he wasn't in the Red Army:confused:

I am glad that someone else raised this question.

Like I said, he never talked about the incident much. All I know was that he was sent to Poland to liberate concetration camps.

Nothing especially fascinating; no one I knew ever served. My grandfather was a farmer during WWII so didn't have to serve in it, but I remember him telling me how frightening it was when you could hear the drones of aircraft after aircraft flying overhead*, and how strange it felt to have to have the 'black out' curtains on all the time.

I also remember hearing about the panic across Northern Ireland during the Belfast blitz. Although a small city in relative terms, it was the most undefended in the UK and at the time the shipyard made it economically prosperous. My family lived about 30 miles away, but knew people that had been injured or lost loved ones. Hearing the war was over was one of the most ecstatic moments of his life, but even post-war living can be difficult of course.

* A damn sight less frightening than actually being in the trenches, though, I'm quite sure.

Like I said, he never talked about the incident much. All I know was that he was sent to Poland to liberate concetration camps.
I'm guessing that he was to liberate some concetration camp. And that Poland got mixed up. Other then that or there was some Red Army-U.S Army Exchange program;)

Eh.. kinda helps to have something worth taking if you want someone to try and invade you.. I'm not sure Hitler sat there during WWII and thought "Hmm.. Romania's got those oil fields.. but attacking a neutral country with few war-relevant natural resources? That's the way to go!" :p
Trains. Sweden had a rail-line connecting Norway and Finland.

But that ended bad anyhow...better just to not let people know about it.

Point is: Sweden wasn't invaded by Hitler and Nazi Incorporated.

Isn't 2016 like the bicentenial of Sweden's last war or something? I could look it up, and I doubt it's even worthy of celebration, but I can always hope.

Isn't 2016 like the bicentenial of Sweden's last war or something? I could look it up, and I doubt it's even worthy of celebration, but I can always hope.

1814, the Second War Against Napoleon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_War_against_Napoleon), when we defeated Denmark and gained Norway through the campaign against Norway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_against_Norway), is regarded as our last war.

1814, the Second War Against Napoleon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_War_against_Napoleon), when we defeated Denmark and gained Norway through the campaign against Norway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_against_Norway), is regarded as our last war.
Thanks, mate! Man, I hate Napoleonistic politics...ugh!

Party? 2014? July 18?

I know that my paternal great-grandfather was the first guy to get vein grafts in order to survive a leg wound in the Spanish-American war.

As for WWII, my maternal grandfather spoke very little about it. I know that he served on Pelilieu and Angaur in the Palaus campaign, and again with VIII Corp in the Leyte campaign. But other than that, he had a few stories about how the Army didn't know how to package its rations, so they had to bulldoze all the ruined sugar into a big pile. He never really talked about combat, and although he came home with a Japanese samurai sword and a sniper rifle, he never once in his life spoke about how he got them.

My Gran was an intelligence officer in the Navy in WW2, she transported codebooks and translated stuff and suchlike.

She once told me how she and another person were once flying codebooks from somewhere in Scotland over to Londonderry (to the airport there, which was crucial for the Atlantic war), and the plane went down over the Sperrin mountains. They bailed out and were grand, but they had no way of calling for help because their flight officially never happened, and they officialy weren't employed by the government. So they had to hideout in some wee cottage for a week drinking poteen before a search team found them.

And when one day she was walking down to work when a bomb fell and blew the roof off a building beside her. The RUC Chief Constable was driving past, shouted at her to move so she didn't have a roof landing on her. He stopped, saw her uniform, and gave her a lift into the port.

She was the only woman allowed on the ships in the port of Belfast.

Party? 2014? July 18?

I don't know - we're not Norwegian, we're not known for celebrating stuff like that. Just look at the centennial of the dissolution of the union - they threw big shindigs, and we went "meh."

I don't know - we're not Norwegian, we're not known for celebrating stuff like that. Just look at the centennial of the dissolution of the union - they threw big shindigs, and we went "meh."
Well, it is a little early. Its not the Olympics or anything.

Assuming I'm not married, dead, or a vegetable by then, I'll immigrate or get a visa to plan the fiesta. That way Sweden can show how much more mature it is compared to the rest of the world.

Or something like that. I got a lot of time to think of a buzz phrase.