Dad’s side:

Father was in the Merchant Marines and their “Liberty ship” was stopped and boarded by a U-boat on the way back from England

Mom’s side:

Father was Navy Lt. on destroyer stationed in the Guinea theatre. Made liberty a lot in Sydney.

Uncle (1) was in D-Day and was killed a month in— while in the “Hedgerow battles” — they liberated a small French town, but he was killed taking fire in front of his squad, saving 4 lives. The town erected a statue to that Army group —- and if I knew how to add pics on these threads - I would

Uncle (2) was Navy pilot in a SDB Dauntless - Pacific theatre. Was in the squad that was the 1st to successfully attempt NIGHT TIME landing on carriers.

Uncle (3) was too young to enlist in the US, so he went to Canada, and they let him in. Went to England to join the RAF. Flew a Mosquito and was shot down near Greenland.

Uncle (4) was on the USS Missouri and is actually in the picture of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

This post was edited on 12/8/23 at 2:39 pm

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Posted by MSUDawg98

Ravens Flock

Member since Jan 2018

10081 posts

Posted on 12/7/23 at 10:10 pm to Juan Betanzos

My grandfather trained with the 101st in early '44. When they started jumping out of planes he came down for the 1st time and had an issue upon landing. He had a botched hernia surgery when he was young that he had kept hidden. Upon discovery he immediately was reclassified 4F and sent home.

95% of his unit parachuted into Bastogne and didn't survive the war. He didn't really talk about it until I was in high school. The first story I heard was about he and his buddies walking on the sidewalks in the south. They'd move over for women and then purposely spread out to take up the sidewalk whenever there was a "jig" walking towards them (forcing them to walk into the street). The story about his training incident didn't come up until I was already in college.

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Posted by CrawDude

Baton Rouge

Member since Apr 2019

5302 posts

Posted on 12/8/23 at 8:32 pm to Juan Betanzos

quote:
Uncle (4) was on the USS Missouri and is actually in the picture of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

My uncle took a photo of your uncle, and others, on the USS Missouri (not the pic you are referencing) during the Japanese surrender signing in Toyko Bay. LOL

I mentioned in my earlier post on the same page (8) my uncle was the radar operator on the B-29 “Dangerous Lady, he was also amateur photographer. He took this aerial photo from the “Lady” during a planned flyover as the surrender treaty was signed.

MacAuthur was all about pomp and circumstance and wanted a flight of B-29s from Tinian as a flyover, among other aircraft, during the signing ceremony. His ship was the #2 aircraft in a flight formation of 15 B-29s. My uncle’s hand written notation on the photo is written in his WII photo album. Missouri is the ship in the middle. I took this photo from his WWII photo album displayed at a family reunion in 2019, hence the poor quality.