WWII: who did your family fight alongside?

[Das_Ubersoldat13]

My great grandfather and his younger brother served Germany. Grandpa being a Wermacht grunt. and his brother flew.. a JU87 nonetheless. He was how ever KIA somewhere in the east. my great grandfather survived though. He fought in Paris no SS in my family how ever

one for Luftwaffe, the other in Regio Esercito.

[Swagger7]

My paternal grandfather and his three brothers all served in WWII. My grandpa was a sailor in the US Navy aboard the USS Sumter (an amphibious transport) in the Pacific. He started off driving the landing craft, but wound up as the assistant radio operator aboard the ship. He had some neat stories. At one landing he stopped the boat to lean over the side and pluck a pack of cigarettes out of the water while some bullets splashed nearby. At Okinawa, his ship shot down a kamikaze, but he slept through the whole thing! Another time a kamikaze flew toward his ship, but veered away at the last moment and struck the ship in front of them, knocking it out of the column.

His younger brother was also in the Pacific aboard a destroyer. I believe he was a loader. He eventually got transferred to a battleship as a loader in one of the 16" gun turrets. The only story of his I remember is when a shell came loose from the conveyor system and crushed some poor guy's legs.

My grandpa's eldest brother was in the infantry in Europe. I don't know much about what he did, apart from capturing a German arms factory that used forced labor. They made Mausers there. Him and his buddies took some of the pieces off the lines and assembled them themselves. He brought home two Mausers & two MP-40s (he took those off the battlefield.) He gave my grandpa one Mauser (I have it now) and kept the rest. His son has the other Mauser now, but no one knows what happened to the MP-40s. Someone in Oklahoma's got himself a nice set of illegal MGs, I guess! My grandpa gave the Mauser stock a really nice finish, much better than it would have gotten in the factory!

His youngest brother was only able to enlist at the very end of the war & didn't make it to Europe 'til it was over. He was an MP and got to do the neatest stuff of all. He was one of the men who took possession of the sail training ship Horst Wessel. (which is now the Coast Guard academy's sail training vessel Eagle) He was also one of the guards at the Nuremburg trials, where he was actually handcuffed to Rudolf Hess to escort him to court one day. I keep trying to find him in old Nuremburg footage. So far, no luck.

[XR62MIB]

My grandfather was a gunner on a B24 during the Burma campagne He told me that him and his best buddy flipped a coin one day to determine which plane/mission they would go on. Both planes were shot down that day. My grandpa survived, his buddy didnt.

My grandfather is still alive today. He loves to talk about his time in Burma and I love to listen.

[mattmanB182]

It sounds crazy, but I had a great uncle fighting against the Germans. I had extended family fighting FOR the Germans. My family were german immigrants who arrived just before WWI.

My grandfather was in the Corps of Engineers and fought in the pacific. He died in 1999, but brought home a Japanese flag and Arisaka that my grandma has hidden in the attic.

I own a Mauser K98k. It is dated with the code BYF 1940. I am very interested in German war history and I am proud of my German heritage. My grandma's dad was the first of the family to speak perfect english.

It just goes to show that, no matter what our differences, we are all tied together in one way or another. I am an American, and being one makes me hated in many parts of the world....but I cant let that bother me. Most Americans are simply a mixture like I am.

EDIT: My gf is Russian and her family fought against the Germans of course. Her mom was born in Germany during the Soviet occupation.

[FOZ_1983]

Grandad was a rear gunner on lancaster bombers and also halifax bombers, doing 2 tours with the RAF.

Other grandad (not seen seen i was born) was in the merchant navy, but i know vry little of him.

[36th Ulster Division]

MY girlfriends, Grandfather was a pilot in the RAF in the battle for France, lost a finger, not sure about what he did after although I presume he featured in the battle over Southern England.
My Great Grandfather faught at the Battle of the Somme as an 18 year old, sadly passed away when i was born in 1982..., one of the lucky ones to come home.

[xX-SiLeNcE-Xx]

my gramps was a navigator in the Lanocaster. He never did see the war, because his training finished just after, but he did get to do some recon missions over Germany after the war.

[JoNnY AnDrEwS]

My Grandad, who just passed away aged 90, fought with the British Royal Artillery as a spotter. He served in North Africa and Italy and was the first man to inform artillery where shells were landing, and where they weren't. He had many interesting stories to tell, including the shelling of an SS headquarters in Italy.

[Irishmandkg]

One Grandfather in the Pacific, and one who fought in the Korean War.