Some stories I heard from WW2 vets...What stories do you have?

[Fud]

I was at Thunder over Michigan a while back and I was talking to Gerald Johnson (http://usfighter.tripod.com/gerald_w_johnson.htm) and he shared a story with me. He was 18k ft over France and was mixing it up with some 190's and a 190 pulled right on his nose and to Geralds surprise, the pilot bailed (maybe a rookie and got scared?). Gerald said he saw the pilot with boots on, jacket etc, no goggles (maybe blew off or was not wearing em). The 190 pilot chute deployed right in front of Gerald's P47 and snagged the guns on the starboard wing and swung the pilot under the wing banging the pilot on the fuselage. He didn't quite know what to do with the 190 pilot. He said of dropping altitude but ack woulda got him. He thought of flying him back to England but too much drag and low on gas. he decided to go in a shallow dive, pulled back and cut throttle and the german pilot swung out from under the wing and unsnagged from the guns to the ground below from 18K. 

[Fud]

A story from a friend of a WW2 vet.
He's a B25 pilot who flew a lot of NOE missions, survived WW2 and was home driving his car and saw something in the road. He pulled back on the steering wheel thinking he would go over and proceeded to hit the thing in the road lol. Maybe the elevator lock pin was still in?

[MK-84]

A story from a friend of a WW2 vet.
He's a B25 pilot who flew a lot of NOE missions, survived WW2 and was home driving his car and saw something in the road. He pulled back on the steering wheel thinking he would go over and proceeded to hit the thing in the road lol. Maybe the elevator lock pin was still in?

That's an urban legend.

[Fud]

That's an urban legend.

Well the guy who told it to me was a customer of mine (Army Airforce vet) and it was his friend that did that. I can see something like happen. When I used to fly AH for long periods and very often, I would try and barrel roll in and out of traffic lol...Something I would not recommend lol

[1Boner]

This guy told me a story of how in the Pacific him and a few guys "had to" use a Bofors on troops that were attacking them.

Next time I saw him he brought me a letter from his superiors describing the incident and the medals that were awarded and a local newspaper article he had saved about the incident. Apparently they saved alot of guys from being over run.

Pretty sure I posted a copy of the letter here a few years ago.

[Pigslilspaz]

A story from a friend of a WW2 vet.
He's a B25 pilot who flew a lot of NOE missions, survived WW2 and was home driving his car and saw something in the road. He pulled back on the steering wheel thinking he would go over and proceeded to hit the thing in the road lol. Maybe the elevator lock pin was still in?

 

[Greebo]

I once new a guy called John Crampton who told me of his war experiences.

He went into the recruiting office on September 4th 1939 and told them he wanted to fly Spitfires. The recruiting officer took note of his well over six foot frame and said "you won't fit in a Spitfire, you'll have to be ground crew". "Stuff that, I'll go and join the Guards instead!" retorted John. This brought about a change of heart from the recruiter who said "well I suppose you could fly Sunderlands" and signed him up for flying training.

John became a pilot in Bomber Command flying two tours on Halifaxes and one on Lancasters rising to the rank of Squadron Leader. He once gave me a list of over 40 aircraft he had flown in the RAF both during and after the war, as he wanted to build plastic kits of them. Some were obscure types for which there were no kits, but the list included Mosquitoes, Lincolns, Canberras and even Spitfires....but no Sunderlands!

He didn't tell me about the mission he was most famous for though, I only found about it from his obituary. This was "Operation Ju Jitsu". In 1952 the USAAF wanted intel on Soviet airbases and electronic installations and at the time the only way to get it was to fly recon aircraft deep into Soviet territory. The problem was that Congress had forbidden USAAF pilots to fly over the Soviet Union. To get round this the Americans requested RAF pilots to fly the missions for them. So three RAF crews led by John flew USAAF RB-45C aircraft painted in RAF colours deep into the Soviet Union. On this occasion they caught the Soviets on the hop and encountered no opposition. However on a second mission two years later John's aircraft encountered AA fire and was chased 1000 miles back to Germany by Soviet fighters.

There is a full obituary of John here.

[rpm]

My dad was a USCG vet in WWII. He landed troops on several hot Pacific beachheads in a Higgins Boat including Iwo Jima. He would never talk about the battles, but would tell stories about the times in between battles.

[Rash]

I've heard a couple stories from 3 people.  Great uncle, an uncle and a guy I worked with many years ago.

 My uncle was a machine gunner with the 45th infantry.  By the time he arrived in North Africa, most of the fighting stopped and he was doing guard duty at a nice palace type of place.  He made it through Sicily, then Anzio.  He was wounded in the back from cannon shrapnel shortly after the troop made it Rome.  He was sent home, but was sent back about 9 month later. 

He said a lot of what they did was harassment fire.  They would put a blanket in front of the gun to hide the flash during the night, and fire a few rounds every couple minutes at an enemy position  (usually a town).  One night, they were spotted and motar shells started dropping around them.  They ran to an old farm house basement.  Then one of the guys found a bottle of wine hidden in a bin of grain.  They looked some more and found a bunch more wine.  Guess what happened next?   His two biggest medals where the purple heart and bronze star.

He's the one on the right

[Rash]

He made it home with ruger.  My cousin still has it.

[SmokinLoon]

I've spoken with a few dozen WWII and recorded many of our conversations either with audio or written on paper.  I was an informal minor in college in WWII, so I did a lot of formal research on things far deeper than the typical public or fan will ever go.

Both my grandfathers: Bennett and Gray
Gray (read sig line)
Bennett: he was a jeep jockey in an arty unit, his job was to ferry things to and from the front lines (mail, wounded, officers, supplies, etc). He was a courier.  He was fired at by 88's more times than he could remember and once he even disobeyed a Major and refused to take a "short cut" because g'pa had taken fire just a few hours before.  The Major threatened a court marshal but g'pa didn't care, once to the front line a captain informed the Major that "Tech Sgt Bennett knows his stuff, Sir, that route is not secured yet and he probably saved you life. Please reconsider your position."  There are lots of other small stories like that, I'll post more when I have time.

My 8th grade history teacher piloted landing craft at Normandy, June 6th 1944. 

My grandmothers brother flew B24's over Italy, we had 35+ missions and was rotated home.  He volunteered to fly bombers with experiential engines in FL and in March of 1944 he crashed and dies.  His was USAAF Captain Ralph O. Brown from Hinton, IA.  I honored to have his bomber jacket, his duty holster, and many of his medals, wings, and other uniform pieces.  On a different not, Ralph was a minor league catcher prior to WWII and was able to catch for Babe Ruth a few inning during a promotional game. My family has a mint condition signed in blue ink ball sitting in a safety deposit box that Ralph was given by Babe.    

I will add more when I an able.  I have so many interviews and notes to reference.   

[Fud]

Great stories everyone! Great stories!

[ozrocker]

My Grandfather(really Step Grandfather, but only one I ever knew), Lyle E Gorman.
He was a Machinist Mate 2nd Class on Destroyers & Escorts.
When I was growing up, he used to take a Ball-Pean Hammer and
hit himself in the left Shin. He would give me the hammer and say
"Go ahead, hit as hard as you can". He had a Steel Plate that ran from his Knee to top of Foot.
He wouldn't tell me the story behind it, nor talk much until I was in the Army.
I found out from him and my Grandma that he was in the N. Atlantic,
and had 4 different ships sunk that he was on in 42. He said they would always get Survivors Liberty (leave) afterwards.
After leave, they would go to Philly, or NY and get on another ship.
The story where he was hurt goes; On the day of his injury, he and his best friend were topside, running to Battle Station.
They were being bombed and strafed by German planes. He was behind his friend when, on strafing run, his best
friend was cut in half right in front of him, and my Grandfather got hit in leg. (He was told he would never walk right again)
He was discharged from Navy after recovering, right away he joined the Merchant Marines.
He had a picture he used to show me from Paris in 44 or 45, outside of a Brothel. He was standing in front of a sign
that read "Off Limits to US Personnel",lol.  He was from North Dakota
                                                                                                                               Oz

[bortas1]

  i would like for all vets to tell there story for future reading. never know that the vets adventure would help a future vet understanding of an event forecoming on how to deal with it. but i know its up to the vet. 

[Soulyss]

My grandfather had a few stories, but he was the youngest son in the family and because of timing and the various little quirks of army life he never shipped over seas.  At one point he was set to ship out and was accidentally given a double inoculation that landed him in the hospital while the rest of the unit shipped out and he was held behind then transferred.   He told me he was "mad as hell" at the time but is feeling pretty darned lucky now that he's a little older.  

His older brother however flew B-25's with the 321st BG/447th BS in the MTO.  I haven't spoken to him since I was very, very young but my dad has been doing some family genealogy lately and recorded some of his war experiences, he would fly combat in WW2 and Korea.  This is his recounting of his last combat mission in WW2.

In November, I was leading the squadron on a mission to take out a bridge across the Po River near Bimini (sp?) and I got shot all to hell.  A burst hit my nose, My navigator was blown out of the plane. My co-pilot for killed when a burst hit above my right engine and a piece of the prop came through the cabin.  The first hit shattered the windshield cutting me with flying glass, we hadn't started out bomb run yet so I fell out of formation and someone else took the lead.  I spent about three hours on one engine with no nose on the plane, the right gear had dropped off along the way.  I got back to Corsica and crash landed.  When it was over, they just pushed the plane off the runway with a bulldozer.  That was the last mission that I flew, I did a little time in the hospital and was sent back to the states on a 30 day leave.

I was very fortunate that the 57th Bomb Wing has a very extensive website complete with squadron and group mission logs as well as photo's.   I was actually able to find some pictures of a couple different airplanes that he flew, I don't know if the one in the crash below is the same one he flew on that last mission, if it is 60 years of memory may have changed some of the details.







If you look closely you can see the name under the cockpit "Lt. Leroy Alger"

This is the link to the 57th Bomb Wing website if anyone is interested.
http://57thbombwing.com/index2.php