A good read

[Tom Adams]

Was down at the Music & Movies forum and saw a post about the upcoming HBO series The Pacific and thought I'd pass along a book my Dad gave me recently. It's called Forgotten Heroes of World War II: Personal Accounts Of Ordinary Soldiers. It's an easy read (which is good for me since I tend to lean towards publications that have pictures [] ) and is one of those books I had trouble putting down. While reading it, I couldn't help but wonder what stories of WWII my Dad had decided not to talk about. That's another thread. Anyhow.....from the book:

World War II was the defining event of the twentieth century. For everyone it was a time of confusion and fear, destruction and death on a scale never before seen. Much has been written of the generals, campaigns, and battles of the war, but it was young, ordinary American kids who held our freedom in their hands as they fought for liberty across the globe. Forgotten Heroes of World War II offers a personal understanding of what was demanded of these young heroes through the stories of rank-and-file individuals who served in the navy, marines, army, air corps, and merchant marine in all theaters of the war. Their tales are told without pretense or apology. At the time, each thought himself no different from those around him, for they were all young, scared, and miserable. They were the ordinary, the extraordinary, the forgotten. Multiply their stories by hundreds of thousands, and you begin to understand the words of war correspondent Martha Gellhorn: "There are! those who received brief, poor, or no recognition, all those history leaves unmentioned, not because they are lesser but because they are too many." Recorded more than fifty years after the war, the stories in Forgotten Heroes of World War II were shared quietly, shyly, honestly, and often painfully by these extraordinary ordinary Americans. All of them begin with similar statements—"There’s really not much to tell. I was just there like everyone else. All I wanted to do was get home…" Each was uncomfortable for being singled out to speak of experiences he felt were common to so many others. None of these heroes see themselves as heroes. Indeed, the word seems to embarrass them. Yet they and thousands like them stood their watch and did their duty in spite of fear and danger. One by one they are leaving us. It will soon be too late to thank them. It will never be too late to remember what they did.

Tom

[BigStewMan]

My Uncle's stories about WWII were always interesting. I remember being a young kid and saying "I sure hope there is a war when I'm 18." When I was 16-17, his stories changed a bit and I remember saying, "I hope I never have to go through something like that." Uncle Frank was 33 years old when he was drafted in 1941. He's passed away now, so i don't get to ask some of the questions that I have now as an adult. Growing up, I was asking the kid type questions, "how close were you to the germans when they were actually shooting at you?" [his answer: we were sitting in the front of his house, he said "about from here to the other side of the street."] Even as a kid, i hard a hard time imaging someone that close shooting a gun at me.

I wonder if he was part of the D-Day Invasion. His canteen has etched all the places that we was at and 'NORMANDY " is included. I remember one story where he spoke of his Sgt being this real tough guy that everyone said that they would stick by him as he could win the war single-handedly. Uncle Frank said when the landing craft's doors opened, immediately bullets started flying and that tough Sgt stood frozen crying like a baby. He said they had to physically pick him up and carry him back into the landing craft. After watching the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, I couldn't help picturing my Uncle there.

He did get injured rescuing one of his fellow soliders and earned the bronze star and a purple heart. Injury was serious enough that he didn't have to go back to "The Front" and spent the last six months of the war as a bartender.

[jbsl]

Here is the link to the HBO series "The Pacific" which should be on tv starting March 2010.

http://www.pacificfans.com/trailer-videos

[Wrinkles]

I think they are not so much forgotten as no one knows their individual stories. I had an Uncle in World War II who would not talk about the war. I learned from my father that he was a paratrooper in the Battle Of the Bulge. And over his 4 or 5 year hitch in Europe he received 6 Purple Hearts. It seems that the men and women who have had to actually pull the triggar and take away a life are very quiet about it. It must be a very soul searching experience. I am very awed by their heroism.

Wrinkles

[darylomer12]

None of these heroes see themselves as heroes. Indeed, the word seems to embarrass them. Yet they and thousands like them stood their watch and did their duty in spite of fear and danger. One by one they are leaving us. It will soon be too late to thank them. It will never be too late to remember what they did.

So very true[Y][Y][Y]

[Islander]

Earthlings had better stop having all these wars, or we'll never be invited to join the United Federation of Planets...

[Professor Thump]

I think they are not so much forgotten as no one knows their individual stories. I  had an Uncle in World War II who would not talk about the war. I learned from my father that he was a paratrooper in the Battle Of the Bulge. And over his 4 or 5 year hitch in Europe he received 6 Purple Hearts. It seems that the men and women who have had to actually pull the triggar and take away a life are very quiet about it. It must be a very soul searching experience. I am very awed by their heroism. 

Wrinkles

I think you are right. Some of the vets of WWII are just now talking to get their story out while they can. Your uncle was probably from the 101st or 82nd if he jumped into the Bulge.

[ClaudeJ1]

I think they are not so much forgotten as no one knows their individual stories. I had an Uncle in World War II who would not talk about the war. I learned from my father that he was a paratrooper in the Battle Of the Bulge. And over his 4 or 5 year hitch in Europe he received 6 Purple Hearts. It seems that the men and women who have had to actually pull the triggar and take away a life are very quiet about it. It must be a very soul searching experience. I am very awed by their heroism.

Wrinkles

My mom's older brother (French Canandian and passed on about 8 years ago) fought in the Canadian Army (that's why they called it a Wold War, it wasn't just the US military, you know).

He was a prisoner of the Japanese for 2 years. After being tortured all of this time, a handful of them managed to escape while the rest didnt' make it out alive during the escape. The horror stories of how they were treated, as told to me over the years by my mom and by him, the few times I saw him, gave me nightmares.

Basically, the experience ruined his life and made his attitude towards anyone looking Asian quite bitter. The government took good care of him but he died a drunken and broken man.

[BigStewMan]

It seems that the men and women who have had to actually pull the triggar and take away a life are very quiet about it. It must be a very soul searching experience. I am very awed by their heroism.

Wrinkles

I think you are right. I remember asking my uncle "how many germans did you kill?" that's the only question he didn't answer, and i think the only reason he didn't sock me in the mouth was that i was a stupid kid at the time. Looking back as an adult, i can see how one could never forget having to do that. Even though I was a kid when i asked, i get embarrassed looking back on it.

[Tom Adams]

My Dad is 88 now and will soon be 89. He was a flight engineer on B-29's during WWII in the pacific. To be sure, he wasn't in harms way any where near what the ground forces were and he readily admits it almost in an apologetic manner. It's as if he feels guilty that others suffered more than he did. To me that's an interesting thread that seems to have run through many soldiers. I mean, most of them after being wounded would do whatever they could to get back to the"front line" to be with their buds instead of the safety of some hospital.

I reminded my Dad during a recent conversation about his WWII days that his danger wasn't just from the enemy but that of gravity - you know.....what goes up must come down. Still, he felt his "job" wasn't as dangerous. However, he did have this uneasy look in his eyes when he told of the day that they took off for a mission and lost the #4 engine on take-off roll just past the point of no return. He said the pilot calmly said, "Sgt. Adams, it's all up to you to get her to fly. Make those engines sing and get us and all these bombs the he!! off the ground. We trust you." And with that, Dad said he tweaked the engine controls as much as he could and, along with the pilot holding the plane down on the runway as long as possible, they managed to take off. Out over the water (the airfield was in Guam) they picked up some airspeed and started gaining a little altitude. With one engine out, there was no way they could join the mission so they were ordered to fly outbound a distance that once turned around and flown back, would burn enough fuel to land safely. The B-29 had no provision for dumping fuel and it's design was such that it relied on a mission profile that brought the plane back with not much fuel and no bomb load in order to safely land the plane. And needless to say, their take-off weight was right at design limits. So as they began their outbound flight and slowly gaining some more altitude, Dad said he got the cowl flaps open a bit and dialed back power to cool the engines. 20 minutes later - BANG! They lost another engine. My Dad said he remembers everything becoming "quiet" at this point for the crew knew how precarious things were. Two engines out, two engines straining, and a plane that's not maintaining altitude. After dumping out of the aircraft everything they could, the plane stayed level but the two remaining engines were no gonna be able to keep up that pace. So the pilot headed back saying they were either gonna land the thing or ditch it. Either way it was gonna return to earth. As they got closer to the island they couldn't see the airstrip due to fog having rolled in. They shot 3 approaches before the pilot (as Dad said) found a hole in the fog. One mile out from the runway, another engine catches fire but holds together enough to land. My Dad said everyone "Yea'd" and cheered and they all got out as fast as they could. A few minutes later he said that once it sunk in he collapsed from shaking and then threw up.

He also tells a neat story about some training they sent him to back in the states. It was for some new kinda bomb that they were going to drop and it was hush-hush. Yes - an atomic bomb.

Tom

[Wrinkles]

Why would anyone read war stories?

Because unsung heroes are everywhere. And they did what they had to do to survive.

I requested this book as a gift and received it this year. Great stories. Easy Read.

Highly recommended.

My Thanks go to Tom Adams for recommending it.

[garyeanderson]

My folk’s neighbor died a few months ago at the age of 87

and I went to the church for the service. I was 11 when I met him in 1965, he was a

regular guy that just wanted to have fun and joke a bit with others. I didn't

know his background as far as WWII goes other than he had told me a couple years

back about his days in Burma

and India. I

was kind of floored when his grandson got up and gave the talk at the service.

He is a helicopter pilot and in the Iraq

war lost the copter, all men aboard died except for him. He was taken back by

the whole life changing moment. Well seems he's ok but he goes to see his

grandfather after the crash and brings some contraband (cigarettes) for grandpa

to enjoy and tells grandpa the story and his problems with being the sole

survivor of the crash. Grandpa says "get over it" and relates the

story of his. Seems Grandpa had done his 25 missions (what ever the number was)

as the navigator and was about to get on the Bomber (what ever it was) and is

grabbed by the shoulder and pulled back off, the commander says to him that

he's fulfilled his flight quota and "can't go" pickup his replacement

as navigator. As you may have figured by now, the plane crashed and ALL hands

lost on the way. Andrew (grandson) doesn't know what to think as grandpa had a

little bit of a memory issue. So Andrew goes to the reunion for the flight group

that he had heard about and talks to the Veterans and they all say

"happened just the way Gilbert (grandpa) said. I talked with Gilbert’s

son Jeff and the story was never told until Andrew heard it that day. I still

find life stranger than fiction.