re: WWII: Would You Choose the Pacific or Europe?

Yet the top American ace of ww2 flew a P38, vs Zeros.

My Grandfather, who passed away in 2007, fought with the 2nd Battalion, 309th Infantry Regiment, 78th IN Division (Lightning) through Belgium, Germany and was part of the occupation in both Berlin and Vienna. He never spoke of the war and it wasn't until he passed away, that my father and I were able to look in his foot locker that he kept stashed away in his closet. He was an infantryman with the Battalion and I was able to piece bits of information (called Morning Reports) to his whereabouts in theater each week. Unfortunately, his OMPF (official military personnel file) was destroyed in the St. Louis records branch fire of 1971.

I can understand after all these years why he never spoke of the war. He was an E-6 SSG by the time he was 19. 3/4 of his squadmates were killed or wounded during his tour. A room he was in was hit by a panzerfaust and killed many of his buddies. German artillery caused him many issues in later life as he couldn't deal with loud noises. His hair would eventually turn stark white at the age of 36.

My father and I opened the footlocker and discovered many, MANY photos of German and Austrian girlfriends that he had. And boy, were they some nice lookin' fraus. I have a photo of him framed on my fireplace mantle with his Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) positioned below it. In the picture, he's leaning against the door of his girlfriend's apartment in Berlin in the summer of 1945. He's wearing his "Ike" jacket and bloused boots. Whenever friends come over, they constantly ask if that's a photo of me as we are the spitting image of each other at 20 years old.
I have his dogtags, CIB, Regimental Crest and ribbons from his footlocker along with his SSG stripes and a German Knight's Cross that he looted off a dead German Officer. I just recently have his 78th Infantry Division Yearbook that was published after the surrender and during the occupation.

I'm military myself and have a ton of stuff in my man-room, from 1/18 aircraft models, to tanks, to 1/6 figures and my 1/350 Nimitz that took three years to complete. I'm also a civilian/WWII flight sim nerd

Yeah, I'd take Europe in a heartbeat given the quality of life. Your your time comes, it comes, but damned if I'm not going to do a little bourbon drinking and messin' with the fraulines

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You have a good point. Suppose it goes back to tactics. He always avoided turning dogfights and instead used the superior ceiling, speed, and ability to absorb damage when facing Zeros.

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That can't be said of McGuire who decided to pancake himself in. Damned if he shouldn't have known better.

Top left, the 309th.

Thanks Vader

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You have a good point. Suppose it goes back to tactics. He always avoided turning dogfights and instead used the superior ceiling, speed, and ability to absorb damage when facing Zeros.

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That tactic was perfected by Chennault's AVG in the P-40s.

The good ole "Boom and Zoom" baby

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I'll try and post some pics tonight but can't get to photobucket at work.

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I'd love to see them.

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Nice find, Darth (my son would be nuts at that name because he is a Star Wars fan). Technical question - can it be blown up and printed from the picture?

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I imagine it would be just a matter of saving it to your computer and then scaling it accordingly. Past that it's a matter of printer quality.

BTW, that map I posted was a pretty common thing for divisions that fought in WWII. Here are some more examples...

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Now that's pretty cool. Where are you finding those?

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Just Google them. For example type in "2nd Division war map". Like i said, they were pretty common at the end of the war. Some divisions had elaborate ones while others were not quite as fancy. I have to say the one I found for the 78th Infantry Division looks to be about the coolest one I've run across.

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Just Google them. For example type in "2nd Division war map". Like i said, they were pretty common at the end of the war. Some divisions had elaborate ones while others were not quite as fancy. I have to say the one I found for the 78th Infantry Division looks to be about the coolest one I've run across.

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Added to my to-do list. I have done a lot of searching for info on my Grandfather's B-29 squadron...finally came across a site (40th BG) that had tons of stories, pictures, etc., from their time in the CBI to the Mariannas. Interesting the stuff one can find - but also have to wade through a bunch of crap!