war storys from gramps

[JWkegger]

hello everybody, been reading this forum for a while finnaly decided to chime in

all this dogfighting talk makes me remember my grampa telling me a few of his old war stories being a pilot in ww2 and pearl harbor survivor. anyone got any good ones?

My favorite from my Gramps who was in the army air corps was when he was a bomber pilot on a mission over italy(i think) and the first time he got shot down and luckily lived, he told me he was RTB about 10 min after they dropped their bombes and got jumped by some fighters attacking out of the sun, he thought he must have been the first plane hit because suddenly he plane rocked and pitched violently to the right, after fightingt the controls to try and keep her level he finnaly noticed that almost half of his wing was missing and the engine was gone, he said he somehow managed to keep the plane level enough and slow enough for the entire crew to bail out, he said by the time he was about ready to jump out he was already too low to deploy his parachutte, despite that he knew he didnt stand a chance if he stayed with the plane so he hopped out at what he guessed was somewhere around 800ft i think he said. he pulled his chute as soon as he made his way out and before his chute opened all the way he hit the ground. he said he must have laid there for what seemed like forever believeing he was probably horably wounded. after finnaly taking stock of his situation and moving a little bit he founf out he was just a little banged and bruised as he called it. someone he had managed to land in a thick garden of some sorts which must have cushened his fall along with his half deployed parachutte. he was lucky to be alive and turned out to be even luckier later in the war being shot down 2 more times through the war, once more in a bomber and later as a p-51 pilot. ill share those stories as i can remember them.

id love to hear any of you have, my gramps really never did like to talk about ehm but i loved to hear them when he did. oh yeah and man did that man hate japanese, probably due to the fact that he was at pearl harbour when it was attacked. needless to say he ended up flying aginst the germans in europe and he actually held some respect for german pilots ( ie whenever he saw a german plane shot down he said he always hoped to see a parachute pop out) he had the oposite reaction to japanese, he never did fly against them but when talking about them he said it was a shame any jap pilot ever lived after being shot down, i guess pearl harbor affected him that bad.

for the record i do not hate japanese or any race

[Soviet Ace]

Well, both of my grandfathers were in WW2. But the only one who liked to talk about it was the one who always said at the beginning of a speech at family gatherings, "Mussolini had some good ideas, but his way of being Hitlers puppet in North Africa didn't help his situation. And that's probably why me and my friends flew, and got shot down." So from that, I guess you can tell he flew on the Italian side. He always talked about it, for him I think it was a relief to talk about it. My other grandfather thought differently, and clammed up when you tried to talk to him about it very much.

The only story I can think off the top of my head that my Italian Grandfather talked about, was when he was in Italy, fighting over Malta. He said that he and a flight of about five other Macchi's were heading to defend a group of Italian torpedo planes, that had attacked a British convoy, and were being attacked by Hurricanes and Spitfires. Well they flew the two hour or so flight there, and found that out of the ten or so torpedo planes they had known about, only six were still flying, he could see that one crew of the torpedo plane had ditched into the water, and were already sitting and waiting for a rescue. But while the others attacked the Hurricanes and Spitfires, he stayed up above, wait for a lone Hurricane or Spitfire to make a wrong move. Well I guess that wrong move was towards him, because next thing he knows, a Hurricane is climbing towards the clouds, going to try and surprise him. Well he took action, following the climbing Hurricane, and with his machine-guns and cannon, he opened up and hit all along the fuselage. The Hurricane stopped its climb, probably loosing speed he said as it tried leveling off, but the pilot couldn't keep his air speed up and he had to bail out. Then after taking out the Hurricane, my grandfather saw another Hurricane unhindered, and busy attacking one of the torpedo bombers. He quickly dived on the Hurricane, but before he could get any rounds into the plane, the Hurricane broke off its attack, and tried getting away. Luckily my Grandfather was quick enough, and made a move before the Hurricane pilot did, and was in gun range. That was my Grandfathers like 3rd kill or something like that. His fourth was a British Spitfire, but his 5th was undetermined as I guess three of his other squadron buddies, claimed to have shot the same plane, and so none of them got credit for the kill.

That's my Grandfathers story.

[xNikex]

Wow, what an interesting story!

Glad to know your grandfather survived three crashes!

Hope to hear the rest if you can recall them.

[butterfield]

Interesting stories!...it's always awesome to talk to a vet. I have so much respect for anyone who risks their life for their country. I had a new respect for my father when we sat down and he told me some of his Vietnam stories...anyway those really wouldn't apply here but some of my favorites I've found online about WW2 airmen are the ones below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRWrAP_b3vY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKBNw4kfwNM

[xNikex]

Originally Posted by butterfield

Interesting stories!...it's always awesome to talk to a vet. I have so much respect for anyone who risks their life for their country. I had a new respect for my father when we sat down and he told me some of his Vietnam stories...anyway those really wouldn't apply here but some of my favorites I've found online about WW2 airmen are the ones below:

I remember seeing those on the History Channel. Very interesting stories and experiences.

I also have a Vietnam vet in my family as well and I'm apperently the only person who my uncle shared his experience with after 30 years.

[PF_Lizard]

Although the wrong era, I'd certainly still be interested in the Vietnam stories. I don't think anyone's going to complain - we're all here because we love planes!

EDIT: Forgot to thank the other posters too. Great stories. I never get bored of hearing personal accounts. Extraordinary experiences.

[xNikex]

Originally Posted by PF_Lizard

Although the wrong era, I'd certainly still be interested in the Vietnam stories. I don't think anyone's going to complain - we're all here because we love planes!

EDIT: Forgot to thank the other posters too. Great stories. I never get bored of hearing personal accounts. Extraordinary experiences.

I guess it wouldn't hurt. Like I said, I was the only one he had ever shared his experience with. I even had to tell my dad(his own brother) about it.

Forgive me for I do not have any aviators in my family. I am the first and currently only one.

He was a sniper back in Vietnam. I do not know what platoon or group he was in.

He told me how him and other group of snipers where counter sniping over a villiage one time. He saw a Vietnamese sniper light a ciggarette and took him out very quickly. Then a few seconds later, a sniper got him in the hand. He said he didn't flinch and used the angle of the bullet wound to locate the other sniper and got a head shot before the other sniper could fire a second time.

Another story he told me was when he and his platoon across were returning to camp and had to cross a creek on the way there and were quickly being surrounded by enemy troops. He had to stay behind for the night and quickly dug a hole in the mud with his helmet and covered it with bamboo and leaves. He told me about how he could hear troops walking over his hole and their shadows dragging across the moonlight shining over him. He could hear them talking and laughing to each other and that at one point, the troops stopped and rested over him. One of the troops walked directly over him and stopped and it seemed to my uncle that the soldier looked down directly into his eyes. He waited all night and they eventually left and he returned to his base unharmmed.

Another thing I need to mention is that on his mission that got him a ticket home, he and his whole platoon were ambushed and were all lined up and shot and he and another soldier barely survived. He was shot in the hand(again), one in the chest, one in the leg, and another scraped his head.

These are the only stories I can recall right now.

[Soviet Ace]

I remembered another, this was when my Italian Grandfather got shot down for the first time.

He told me that it was North Africa, and he was just starting out. It was only his fifth or so sortie on the continent, and he hadn't got any kills yet, so he was always talking to those who had, getting ideas. Well I guess on this sortie, he and six others including his flight leader took off and were going just for a little training/hunting sortie. Well as they flew over the desert, they kept their canopies open since it gave them better visibility and kept them cooler.

Suddenly he said that as he scanned the skies above, he spotted a flight of Hurricanes, and they seemed to be heading back to their base. Well he called the flight leader, and they waited to see what the Hurricanes were all about. But I guess one of the green horns got a bit jumpy, and started towards the Hurricanes, not wanting to avoid them. Well I guess what my Grandfather didn't see, or anyone else, was that above the Hurricanes, was another smaller flight of Hurricanes. And as the green horned pilot went in to attack, the Hurricanes above swooped down and they shot him down. Luckily the guy bailed out, but was captured by British troops, and I guess became a POW. Well as the already attacking Hurricanes came down, the flight leader told my Grandfather to stick with him, and make sure everything stayed o.k. And so my Grandfather, not having that much experience did so, but quickly saw another one of his friends who died in the crash, get shot down and just plummet to the ground in a smoking wrecked plane.

Then he usually went on about how he missed his friend, and was glad that when he was shot down, his plane didn't completely lock up on him, allowing him some ability to keep the plane going. Anyway, I guess as my Grandfather followed the flight leader, a Hurricane got on his tail, and hit him with some .303 rounds. I guess he broke off, and tried to evade the Hurricane, that as he used to say, "KEPT PUMPING HOLES INTO MY GODDAMNED GOOD PLANE!" I guess as the chase continued, my Grandfather looked back and saw that a huge hole had been torn in to his fuselage, and that there were hundreds it seemed of little holes from the Hurricanes machine-guns. But since he wasn't fully taught in how to evade or something, he made the wrong move of trying to climb, giving the Hurricane a perfect shot at him. Lucky for him, the bullets landed around him, and not in him like he thought would surely happen since the Hurricane had peppered his fuselage. I guess the Hurricane pilot was really trying to kill my Grandfather, but his guns jammed or something and he had to break off, leaving the fight. And as my Grandfather looked around, seeing his peppered plane full of holes and tears, he started for home. He never said he was afraid that he would be killed, but that he never had time to be frightened, but I think he really was, and that was just his Italian macho getting in the way. But anyway, as he flew away, he got out of the combat zone fairly quickly, but it seemed that the Hurricane had damaged his control panel and none of the numbers seemed right etc. and once again as my Grandfather used to say. "I must have looked like I was flying some swiss cheese, but I in reality I was flying a brick." And while he flew back towards base, he started getting the idea to bail out as the engine started to make a terrible noise, and he knew he was loosing oil pressure. But when he looked down towards the ground, he realized that it was to close, so he decided that it was best to lower the landing gear, and just try to get back with what he had. Unlucky for him, his gear wasn't working, and only one wheel came down. So he was forced to bring it back up, and belly land.

He used to always tell me that when he belly landed, it was like driving down a seriously bumpy road, with no ability to stop with the breaks or steer in any direction. Well after he belly landed, he hurried from his plane, realizing that he was leaking oil, and that the plane could explode at any minute. 24hrs later or so, he was back at his airfield, sun burned like nothing before, and with him nothing but his torn aviator hat that he wore just around all the time. He was told that he couldn't fly for a few days, that his sunburn was fairly bad, but back then Italian guys didn't care. So my Grandfather wrote a letter to his future wife/my Grandmother, asking for a light thin shirt. I guess it helped, because his sunburn was still bad, but it wasn't irritated by his other shirt.

[FOZ_1983]

Love hearing stories involving the hurricane!!


always over looked and not respected as much as it should be. It was much much better than people think

[FOZ_1983]

My gramps joined RAF bomber command at 17, lying about his age to join up....


he joined 50 squadron based at skellingthorpe, lincolshire flying lancaster bombers. He was a rear gunner, or as we come to know it - tail end charlie.



He was assigned to his crew and flew a couple of missons (nothing to eventful) before his pilot lost his night vision, the whole crew got split up and posted to different crews. It turns out by wars end that my grandad was the only survivor of this original crew, all others becoming KIA (this upsets him deeply).


With his second crew, at skellingthorpe he completed an entire tour over enemy territory seeing, before getting posted to another squadron as a gunnery instructor, he did this for a while before asking to go back on active duty, thus joining another squadron as a rear gunner this time on halifax bombers, his second tour with an australian squadron, flying as rear gunner to the "boss" as it were.

in all he did two tours,


on with 50 squadron flying lancs, and another with a diff squadron (australian) flying halifax bombers. Though to this day he protests his love for the lanc calling her the most graceful, dependable, joyeful and gorgeous aircraft he'd ever seen.

He recalls his most terryfying experience of the whole war while flying with bomber command.....

he was flying a misson from skellingthorpe to a target over italy, en route he encountered little resistance, and they bombed the target with ease. On the way back they also had little resistance...

but halfway home they ran into an eletrical storm..... he said this was the most scared he'd ever been on any mission. He could see the storm all around and felt in no way able to defend himself from the elements, he felt that if getting attacked from a 109 he could at least shoot back and try his best, but this eletrical storm scared the hell out of him. Unable to defend himself while watching it all around him from gis rear turret scared the life out of him, like god himself was toying with them all up their.

Its amazing when you think about it how different things must affect different men.


In between squadrons, while an air gunnery instructor he was unfortunate to be ina crash twice!! both times flying wellington bombers.


As it is today, of his second crew with 50 squadron only my grandad (rear gunner) and the mid upper gunner (a man named "tom! who lives in canada) are the only two survivors of that crew. stil lin regular contact with each other.


He may be old myt grandad, but my god he has more guts and more nerves than i will ever have!! a legend if ever their was one!!!