relatives that went to war.

who's got them?

my pa (dad's dad) says he went to darwin for ww2 but some records say he went to indonesia. i used to know a website where you could look up that site but i forgot the address. does anyone know a site where i could go?

edit: i found a site for ww2 service people http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/

they say my pa was a leading aircraftman. where does this sit?

[Edited on 2-5-2005 by theverybigtallman]

go to the war mamorial site
www.awm.gov.au i think.

My great grand dad was in the light horse in WW1,
And my grand dads cousin is a vic cross recipient (Sir Roden Cutler) and I got to March in his funeral since i was the only relative still in the defence force (Army).
It is a shame that i never got to meet him though, People say that he was a great man.

Lee.

[Edited on 2/5/2005 by buzzbug]

my grandad was in the boar war....

he would have been ...now i have to think...120 if he were alive today...

My grandad on my mum's side was at the kokoda trail fighting for this great land, and my opa on my dad's side was on the Russian front fighting for Germany (he was in intelligence)

My Opa was put in a POW/ Concentration camp for helping 'The Resistance'

my nanna had some full on stories of her war experiences.was tortured as a p.o.w, but released to work as a translator. if she couldnt speak 3 languages i probably wouldnt be here

My Grandfather on my Dad's side was in the Army in WW2. He was a Corporal fighting the Japanese in Borneo.

My Grandfather on my Mum's side couldn't enlist because he had flat feet.

My grandfather was a Leading Aircraftman in PNG in WW2 also - this means he was a non commissioned officer, and the third rank from the bottom (after Aircraftman class 1 and class 2). Kind of like a works supervisor or a Leading hand or something like that.

My grandpa was a radio technician.

my pop was a gunner in the RAF in the old country during WWII which meant he sat in the underbelly of fighter planes and manned the guns.

He was shot down over France and thank god for the frogs otherwise I wouldn't be here today - he was hidden by the French Resistance for over 6 months

He marched every Anzac Day until about 6 years ago when he got too old, now he just goes up the RSL and has a couple of beers.

The biggest regret of my life is that I never got a chance to see him march. (We live in different states) I have seen photos but of course it would have nothing on the real thing,

Now he's too old and I'll never see it. So kiddies if you have the chance to go honour your grandfathers and grandmothers who fought in the Korean War or Vietnam by marching with them, do it. You don't want to regret it like I do.

My dads two brothers both went to Vietnam as doctors, my uncle was a fighter pilot (but fortunately was in between all the wars, so never went away). My gradpas on both sides weren't allowed to go away in WWII, but a few uncles did, a few of my grandpas cousins went away mainly army but a cpl of flyers. And I have found evidence of insanity in my family!! My great grandfathers cousin was in WWI as infantry, then he went to tunneling, then he went to armour!!! Scary thing is that he survived the war as well.......

My grandad was an infantryman during WWII in New Guinea. He got medals for bravery, but would never tell his family what he got them for. He always said he shot the cook so they gave him a medal and left it at that. Anyway, I was in the army for some time and tried to find out what he got them for. Could never get any answers from any Govt. department, always too hard for them to look it up. One day me and mum were walking up the street and she says "That old bloke there was in the army with your Grandad" so over I go, introduce myself and explain who I am and did he remember what my Grandad did on those few occasions to get his medals. He started laughing and said


"HE SHOT THE COOK!!!!!!"

and kept laughing as he walked off down the street...........

My uncle did several tours of Viet Nam.

His picture was on the cover of Australan Post and used in the RedGum clip of "I was Only 19". He is pictured removing schrapnel from the head of one of his mates.


A good older friend of mine has not long ago had his autobiography published. He was an SS Officer and Iron Cross recipient - one of the ones taught to speak with an American accent and fight behind the lines. He ended up desserting as a member of RITA (Resistance within the Army) was harboured in Switzerland and later in England. he returned to West Germany became an Anarchist and he eventually made his way to Australia. He is now married to a Jewish lady (whose parents were interred in concentration camps) who wakes every morning to see his SS and regimental tattoos. There was also a story about them in the SMH just before his book was published.

The book is available from Otford Press
Hans Post / One Man and His Time






[Edited on 2-5-2005 by HotRodMatt]

My grandpa (and canni.'s) was a pilot in WWII and towed gliders for D Day. He has lots of stories, he's writing his memoires at the moment so it doesn't all get forgotten.
Fortunately he came home and married his sweetheart so we are here today... He's also the family VW link 🙂 If anyone wants to have their ear chewed off, about VWs or flying Sterlings... catch him at DOVW in November!

Ok my dad is the good looking third guy back in this pic

GILAGIL RIVER, NEW GUINEA. 1944-05-26. FORWARD SCOUTS OF THE 35TH INFANTRY BATTALION CROSS THE RIVER DURING THE UNIT DRIVE UP THE COAST TOWARDS WEWAK

Dad was in the 7th Division Supply Column Australian Army Corps

Enlisted 29 May 1940 - Discharged 6 October 1945..service number VX18497

Was in PALESTINE EGYPT SYRIA NEW GUINEA BORNEO

Dad's division became part of the 2/6th Australian Transport Company which support the 18th Brigade during the Siege of Tobruk, the Battle of Milne Bay and the Invasion of Borneo

Apart from driving truck across the deserts of the Middle East....he was put on small fishing boats in the Pacific to scout for Japanese radio stations...he had one story of how he was dropped on an island to go look around and the boat that was to come pick him up didn't show for a while....he was hiding and could hear the Japanese talking close by....Hate to think what that was like??!!

...has anyone done a family pilgrimage back to some of the scenes of war??

My eldest son did Egypt and Syria and visited a few sights that dad had pics of...and took his own pics...He didn't go into Libya as too difficult if you're not on a tour...He also did Anzac Cove a couple of years ago

My second son and his girlfriend were just at ANZAC Cove...not that dad was there but it is a time for us all to remember....apparently just being there is a very powerful experience for anyone visiting

A friend of mine has visited the French fields that her grandfather served on in WWI

Things you are told stick in your head...when I go to the Atherton Tablelands I think of dad...it's were the troops were sent to acclimatize and train before going to the Middle East...When I first went to India I landed in Bombay...that was another stage of acclimatizing...Dad filled my head with many pictures of many lands...He never spoke of the bad things until nearer the time he died....this was saved for the circle of men at times like ANZAC reunions at our place

I love the Pacific region... dad would talk about his time on the pretend fishing boats he was on...the island lifestyle...the wonderful people...paradise if they were left untouched by what was going on

My dad had see and been through a lot but was the one who taught me to understand others ... think about how they are feeling ... what they are doing it for.... In the trenches of Tobruk during cease fires (bringing in the wounded or dead) they could hear the voices of the 'enemy' ....they would be thinking of home and the people they loved...my dad saw these others as the same...that they would be thinking of their home as well....I can so remember my dad telling me this story and it sunk in so deep

I learnt today that my dad's best mate from those years is dying of cancer...I took my 90 yr old mum to visit Dave today....such a nice man and so happy to see us...I can remember his visits to our house as I was growing up.....and dads stories about Dave and his brother who were both campian cyclists riding across the desert on their days off...on safe roads I'm guessing...so may pictures

[Edited on 3-5-2005 by jenz58]

My Dad's father was a truck driver on the Western Front in WWI (survived), and my Great Uncle was an ambulance man (killed nine weeks before the Armistice).

Through the War Memorial, I have been able to trace via the internet letters from people who witnessed my great uncle's death, who buried him, who were his mates and even who were with him when he died. The Australian Army seems to have gone to great trouble to collect information about every dead soldier wherever possible. Apparently he was an instructor who trained soldiers in England to become cannon fodder at the front, and felt so bad about it that he re-enlisted in the Medical Corps as a private.

My wife's Great Uncle was on the HMAS Yarra, a ship sunk early in WWII with the loss of all hands (I think).

Even as a truck driver, my grandfather had nightmare until the day he died.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

....no the truck drivers were in the thick of it.....my dad had German planes firing at him when they went to unload supplies from the ships in Alexandria....they were trying to stop our troops getting supplies....as in the pic of dad they also fought...he was in the trenches with the rest in Tobruk...and trecking the jungles of New Guinea

Yep...dad never went to the movies with us...took a job outdoor....he hated enclosed spaces...I can remember him jumping off the couch at the sound of gunfire watching the telly but he loved the war movies cos he like to pick the faults lol

I know there is at least one guy in the VW fraternity whose grandad was a Luftwafe fighter ace!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Edited on 3/5/2005 by supercab]

jenz58 wrote:Dad filled my head with many pictures of many lands...He never spoke of the bad things until nearer the time he died....

[Edited on 3-5-2005 by jenz58]

yeah i reckon that was why you got so many kids (ie underage etc) going off to war. the parents told them about the scenery and how good it looked bla bla but either neglected to mention the main part of war (ie the actual fighting) or made it sound like a walk in the park. that probably why heaps of blokes arrived expecting a circus...

....no we talked about war....and saw so many film and doco's....just dad's personal stuff....it does seem to be a common thing not to talk openly about it...silly as it may seem but they were the times....I was far from ignorant....

I don't think it's an experience any one can understand unless you've been there....I also think once in the army or what ever service they go into...any dreams of sightseeing are out the door fast....

[Edited on 3-5-2005 by jenz58]

I had two Great Uncles at Gallipoli (one is still there) and my father went to Vietnam as a Construction Engineer.

My wifes Opa was a Prisoner during WW2.

I hope my Son never has to be involved in a War. :thumb

jenz58 wrote:it does seem to be a common thing not to talk openly about it...
[Edited on 3-5-2005 by jenz58]

I didn't even Know my Dad had been until I was 17 years Old in 1987, when he went to a reunion in Sydney.

I'm 34 now and he hasn't told me any thing.

Plenty of great tales.....I'd like to add my fathers. Sorry..a bloody Kiwi.:thumb
My father was captured in the Middle East and was being transported to Greece by ship when he was bombed by the allies. I reacon that's bad luck!
Spent a couple of years in a POW camp, was an expert at escaping but not an expert at staying escapted! The third escape from a POW train in Milan station, he and 2 others met up the the Italian partisans and were guided across the Alps to Switzerland.
As a foot note, some years ago after my father passed away my 2 sisters and I were invited to visit the son of the partisan leader in northern Italy, he took us around the various mountain villages that helped my father during his last escape. We arrived a one farm house way up in he mountains, Severo knocked on the door and an elderly woman opened the door, she looked us over and pointed to me and said "Mac" which was my fathers nick name! We nearly fell over!!!
She would have been about 21 when they hid the old man for a month.......Hmmmmm I wonder? :thumb
Any other POWs? Campo #107

My grandpa was in ww2 and went to the concentration camps 🙁

...those people that hid soldiers were amazing people ... very brave and caring...very cool that you went back to visit

My husband was Dutch and born near the end of WWII....his mother had lots of tales of German occupation....she had a baby shot in her arms...Jon would have had two older sisters....The men were hiding in the cellar of the farm....apparently the soldiers came to the door looking and Jon's sister who was a toddler at the time told them that daddy was downstairs
🙁 ... the men got taken to work camps...Jon was born in a tent after the women and children were relocated

Jon was in our Navy for 6 years and was on ships taking troops to Vietnam...he loved the navy but was not impressed with the war

Andrew from what I've read the guys who served in Nam had an even harder time talking about it to family or friends than previous generations...

Can anyone tell me why on the back of this letter from my father to his parents whilst he was in a Swiss hospital, would it have this stamp? And what does it say? "oberpommando der wehrmacht"?

[Edited on 3-5-2005 by speedster356]

Pete look here and see if it makes sense to you Oberpommando is spelt with a k in German...thinking it is the same thing???

http://www.answers.com/topic/oberkommando-der-wehrmacht

The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW (Wehrmacht High Command, Armed Forces High Command) was part of the command structure of the German armed forces during World War II. In theory, it served as the military general staff for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, coordinating the efforts of the German Army (Heer), Navy (Kriegsmarine), and Air Force (Luftwaffe). In practice, the OKW was only Hitler's military office, that had to translate Hitler's ideas into military orders, and had little real control over the Army, Navy and the Air Force High Commands. Instead, as the war progressed the OKW found itself exercising increasing amounts of direct command authority over military units particularly in the West. This created a situation such that by 1942, the OKW was the defacto command of Western forces while the OKH (the Army High Command) exercised defacto command of the Russian front.

My Dad was part of the peace corp that was based in Singapore / Changi. He was too young to serve in WW2.

On the other side of things, Mum grew up with bombs overhead and ruined buildings in the Midlands of the UK. I'm sure there's a few on here with parents that went through that.

my grandfather was one of the rats of tobruk and my other died on the kokoda trail.

my great grandfather was a wing commander for the RAF... dont know where when etc but i know he went to war sometime

My Grandfather flew for the RAF in WWII as a tailgunner in a Halifax bomber. From 1942 - 1945 he flew bombing raids over Germany, first at night and then during the day with the Americans. He was part of the D-Day air support group. He survived the war and passed away in his seventies.

Some of the action he saw included being only one of three bombers from a contingent of twelve to return from a night raid over Berlin. Pretty hairy stuff. Also during one winter run he had the perspex around his turret shot away from a German fighter. When they got home he was frozen stiff. Took the base hospital two weeks to thaw him out.

squizy wrote:My Dad was part of the peace corp that was based in Singapore / Changi. He was too young to serve in WW2.

Same here Sqiz - but dad put his age up a couple of years

Has his birthday as 12/1923 but it was 3/1925

He signed in 1941 and served in New Guinea as 32nd Heavy Anti Aircragt He left the army in 1949. He was occupational forces in Hiroshima(sp?)
Was first troops to march in there. Has some REAL strange pictures :jesus

Craig, any idea what squadron?

Yeah, Hiroshima would have provided some weird photos.....

All of my rellies were in 'essential services', ie like bakers and farmers and primary produce and that sort of thing in WW1, so no one served then.

My grandma on mums side worked in munitions factories making bombs in the UK in WW2 and grandpa on that side was in the UK home guard too.

A bunch of my wifes rellies were either volunteer defence corps, a few in training brigades and a couple that served in New Guinea too.

Also, my uncle did three tours of vietnam as a driver, in general transport, then APC's and tanks.

Dad was in Korean War his Dad in WWI and my Mum's Dad a Cossack and fought in Russia 😀

My parents will have that info, so I'll track it down. I also have a picture of the squadron taken in front of a Lancaster in England. I'll dig it out and scan a copy.

"Oberpommando is spelt with a k in German..."

Its not actually a "P" on the stamp, the letters are in old German letering, so it is a "K". the words on either side of the stamp also have "S", even though they look like a lower case "f"

What the hell does "Fahrvergnugen" mean?

That's what I would like to know.

It's OK I found out it's German for "Driving Pleasure"

You can look up records at the national archives of australia website. http://www.naa.gov.au/ You can search for all sorts there. They are slowly scanning everything in so you can actually read everything from service records, letters advising NOK of a killed in action etc. I've spent hours looking at random stuff there. My grandfathers record hasnt been scanned yet so I had to order it, cost $25 but is very interesting and worth more than that to me.

He was in the 33rd Australian Works Company in Port Moresby. Not the best disciplined, he went AWOL 3 times, the longest was 7 days, the shortest a few hours, and got fined what would have been a fair amount of money for his trouble.

found this when going through my grandmothers things. She died 2 years ago this friday. Pretty strange but on e of my prized posessions. Cant image why you would have to ration meat 3 years after the end of the war, obviously they did.

My dad was 16 when WW2 got under way and he lived at the Borough in London right in the centre along the Thames. He reckons after a few weeks of the bombing he and his mates used to sit on the roof of their tenement buildings watching the bombs fall! Stupid buggers, so you see crazy teenagers are nothing new. He eventually got called up and became a dispatch rider and was in the British Control Commision at the end under the Foreign Office and it was while in this job that his department had access to the first VWs after the war.

Hi

My dad joined the Navy when he was old enough just as WW2 ended, so he stayed in for 18 years after that, im a Navy brat. His brother Perc Carter was killed on the Sandakan death march.

If it wasnt for WW2 I would have been born in the UK, my dads family were going back home when the war broke out. My dads dad served in the British army in WW1 & Australian army in WW2.

My mums brother Tom Allen was killed in a overloaded bomber while taking off from a secret base in NT.

I only missed out on getting called up and going to Vietnam when Goff Whitlam got in. I was a bit of hippy at the time and took part in all the Moratorium marches in Sydney, looking back I dont think national service would have done me any harm.

Steve

Hmmm, AWOL. Yes my father also had some unauthorised leave a few times. His service record states that they withheld his pay cheques and on one occasion he was demoted.
Like father like son 😉

My mum told me about her father... He was a merchant sailor. Several times sailed on ships transporting troops during WW2. Was on 3 ships that were sunk!

I think he was bad luck.

oops
forgot, my Mums Uncle (he was Australian) won an Oscar during WWII, does that count as something?

my father was a deserter & im proud of him







humm nobody inquisitive he was in the ukrainian army
when they became allies with germany during ww2 so
he pissed off with many others that were against fascism

[Edited on 5-5-2005 by winerot]