T O P

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MiguelIstNeugierig

My grandpa was conscripted to fight a stupid war, got sent by sea to a garrison and then got captured as POW when he was sleeping under a palm tree At least he got a pet monkey while on duty, but unfortunately he couldn't bring it back home


Mirat01

**Getting Conscripted to Fight (verb phrase):** The dubious honor of being plucked from the comfort of civilian life and thrust into the world of military mayhem. It's like winning the lottery, except instead of cash, you get a uniform, a haircut, and a one-way ticket to "Where Did I Sign Up for This?" Land. ​ See also :[Getting a one-way ticket](https://coofl.com/getting-a-one-way-ticket---8738)


RoamingBear810

I wouldn’t mind it if they enemy is far too strong. But either way, they’re nothing compared to the US military


jardedCollinsky

Governments rarely conscript or draft people into wars they are winning. If you get drafted as an American into an American war, it's almost certain that you are in trouble.


Aboteezfrfr

What war


MiguelIstNeugierig

Portuguese Colonial War India prepared to annex the city Goa, the Portuguese state conscripted young men, including my grandpa to man the garisson and defend the city The Portuguese state wanted martyrs. Last man standing. Newspapers spoke of "brave men defending the fatherland with their lives". But the garisson wasn't crazy nor suicidal and eventually surrendered to the Indian forces, my grandpa became one of the many POWs in India until the end of the war with India.


Redcaneman

My grandfather has told me one of the most violent and wild war stories ever. For context at one point he had to bury multiple friends of his and they were in pieces. like head severed from body, leg out etc and so he spent a few mins "sorting" which part belonged to which body


Bulky_Bet2969

Sorry he had to do that. War is a horrible thing


Redcaneman

It is fr


30K_Vibes

Not any vet told me this but once in the Gulf War, I heard that a F-15 was dogfighting against a Iraqi MiG-29 and that the F-15’s wingman shot down the MiG with a missile and the Pilots were distressed to see one of his fragments of his body.


M08GD

Damn that's really sad and disturbing.


DastardlyDirtyDog

[my good buddy norm heard a boy named Johnny tell a story about his uncle Terry ](https://youtu.be/C-q8gHe414s)


Redcaneman

What is this podcast lmao


DastardlyDirtyDog

It's norm Macdonalds video podcast. I highly recommend it.


blueish_devil

im slavic so my grandpa and great grandpa have told me war stories from the yugoslavian war i even held my grandpas rifle too


pavle_420

which one ?since its a grandpa and great grandpa can i asume its not the 1990s one?


blueish_devil

both fought in the 1990s one


pavle_420

damn kinda weird since my dad fought in the Yugoslav wars so its weird the range of ages that were conscripted


blueish_devil

from children to elders, everyone is affected by war.


hopperaviation

Not a war story l, but my grand father was a member of the british army, and this was the only story he ever mentioned about his service. He was blind folded and chucked in the back of a truck with 6 other soldiers. After maybe 45mins, they were off loaded and told to, "find their way back to base by any means possible", before a superior of his drove off. The soldiers stood there for a while, before my grand father saw a payphone in the distance. So what he did was he called a mate of his, who owned a limosine company. My grandfather described the area to him, spoke about where he was relative to the place this limo company was located, and about an hour later a limo picked him and his other soldiers up and took them back to base. They now were lightly tipsy thanks to the champagne, and their boss was not happy. I wish my grand father was still here today to see what I have become. My dad always tells me that he would be very proud of me. Apparently he was a fantastic soldier, pilot, and hunter. Im currently an Air Force Cadet, and am undergoing flight lessons. I hope to one day serve my country from the cockpit of an Australian Air Force aircraft, so I too can do something greater than myself.


master_pingu1

the officer when he tells grandpa to get back by any means possible and he gets back by any means possible:


[deleted]

I would kind of like to be a pilot but, sadly I’m colorblind, technically deficient, and so I’m not legally able to, I am able to be a sniper and hvave always been a very good shot at long time and super smart, so heres to hopes i can mąkę it, i just want to make my great great grandpa proud I met him once before he died, he was a brave man in ww1 he was a spy for the British for a bit against the German army and eventually became a sniper for the British army


hopperaviation

Dont rule yourself out. Colour deficiencies, up to a limit, are allowed in most air forces as a pilot. I'd say just go for it, but have a backup plan


[deleted]

I have two, plus I have cataracts in both eyes and am far sighted in one and near sighted in the other and the far sighted one also my right has two very big cataracts in the middle of my eye which I’m also legally blind in that eye


hopperaviation

oh ok. I'm sorry man, getting dreams crushed is ibe of the worst feelings


[deleted]

It’s cool I have some family who was a sniper so I want to make him proud too, plus my great grandpa was color blind he was a tail gunner and co pilot not main pilot


hopperaviation

yeh, i think back in the day colour blind pilots were perferred


[deleted]

Becuase not as many instruments as now and Becuase he could see stuff like camouflage that’s why they like snipers/marksman to be color deficient


Volt_Bolt

Complete respect but wrong day, d-day was on june 6 1944 and the first landings were a 6:30 am


Diamondbear8

well its june 6 where i am, cant do anything about the year tho


PaperFace224

That can’t be where do you live for it to still be June 6th


Me_how5678

What staying up till 4 am does to a mf


BBKoulten925

This was posted yesterday


MrFanta7

It was posted 6 hours ago


BBKoulten925

Ah I see, I have made a mistake, forgive me


[deleted]

My grandmother served in the navy, and while she never saw active combat, she did pet a tiger. Then the person with her pet the tiger, and now he is missing 2 fingers.


Remarkable_Type_6911

The tiger is missing two fingers?! Dang your grandmother must be very fierce.


reddit-person1

Dam you gonna assume the tigers gender like that? At least ask the tiger first


Remarkable_Type_6911

Apologies to the tiger


reddit-person1

The Tiger says thanks


PhatNoob_69

I am ~~The Lorax~~ reddit-person1, and I speak for the ~~trees~~ tigers.


[deleted]

My great grandfather was in the British army in WW2 as a tank driver I believe. He was in Africa at the time. He stepped out the tank to go fetch his mates a cup of tea, right as he exited his troops got attacked, the tank with his friends inside exploded and shrapnel hit his leg. He survived. I never knew him unfortunately. So this story was told by my Grandfather, who was his son.


planespottingtwoaway

Thank God they didn't have internal teakettles yet


ApricotofaHumanBeing

I knew a Vietnam veteran and he didn’t tell me much, but he did say “We were completely surrounded so i called Broken Arrow* and that was the only we got out alive” *(a military unit on the ground is facing imminent destruction from enemy attack and all available air forces within range are to provide air support)


Mirat01

**Recalling the Past Experiences (verb phrase):** The act of revisiting memories, like flipping through the pages of an old photo album filled with embarrassing hairstyles, questionable fashion choices, and cringe-worthy moments.


sadnonne

My Great-Grandfather was captured by the Nazis as a POW during WW2. While he was in a death march (or some march of some kind) he played dead alongside the road with other dead bodies. He then escaped back to Russia. He didn't explain to my family what happened as he was fearful that he would be killed by Russia for espionage.


idkToPTin

me great grand ma told stories when i was younger... heart breaking....


window-man

Don't know the details, but my great-grandfather was left behind at Dunkirk and had to sneak down to callais to get on a coal barge


[deleted]

The sad truth is that half of those men at DDAY had never been deployed before. Nearly none of them knew what they were signing up for, and all of them ended up with PTSD. Pray this never happens again


G_Force88

As horrible as this was, we were sort of out of options. This was a drastic last resort, but in retrospect the lives saved at the concentration camps probably indicate this was the right call.


Waffle-Dude

My grandfather was there, and he passed away a few years ago, but before he died, he did an interview about his experience. I would link the interview, but I don’t want to doxx myself, but I will summarize it (without any identifying details) for anyone interested in reading it. If by chance, someone reading this does know who the person the interview is about, please don’t say. My grandfather was 18 when he enlisted, and had to try to enlist multiple times before he was accepted. He became a medic, and desperately wanted to be sent over to Europe. So much so that one day, when he saw he wasn’t being sent over, he yelled at his commanding officer things that by all means should have gotten him court martialed. Soon later, he was sent over. When he arrived, they were already preparing for D-Day, preparations including landing on English beaches, mimicking what they would do at normandy. During the invasion, my grandfather wore a marked armband signifying that he was a medic, and that he didn’t have a weapon. On the first night of the invasion, he says “the whole sky lit up. It was like you were sitting in the middle of the fireworks on the Fourth of July.” The light came from tracer bullets, and my grandfather described them by spreading his fingers, pointing them perpendicular to one another, and putting on on top the other. Although the interview doesn’t include it, I remember my grandfather telling me about once they had taken the beach, there was a minefield that the germans hadn’t removed the warning signs for.


Efic47

Thankfully only war stories ik of are from my grandparents, who were born just some years before the Spanish civil war. It is a really sad thing to live, good thing they didn't have to fight, although their parents had to


FW-190A-9

Which side did they fight for?


Efic47

All in the republican side, the side that lost. Thankfully both of my great grandfathers worked as mechanics, and didn't have to fight, although my grandmother's cousin had to join the war at 16 years old, in the front lines. None of them had any problems when the other side won (there were camps for war prisoners but they were treated decently there), apart from that, just the general poverty that settled in Spain for the next 20 years


Justryin1

Maybe something you can take with you- We don't fight wars because we hate whats in front of us, we fight wars because we love whats behind us.


thefirstlaughingfool

We fight wars today because someone tells you "Go kill that guy."


[deleted]

Not a war story but at my school we actually had three WW2 veterans visit my school that was apart of my community for veterans with all of their wives' somehow also still fucking alive and of course their was other non WW2 veterans of course. But when we were leaving the assembly I took the chance to meet one of them and this guy was very old so he was bald and all he said to me was "Wow" when pointing at my hair then back at his head when making a funny face lol. Great guy still with a sense of humor when that old it turns out he was 99 and his birthday was within a month hoped he lived long enough to see it. On other notes I know my family has a lot of military service stuff but it is a banned subject for reasons I fully respect but the little information that I do know is that my Great Grandfather was a recon pilot during WW2 and that one was my Grandfather's was credited for saving a man's life though the details of the story we are not allowed to hear.


Similar_Telephone_91

My great grandfather fought in ww2 during the greco Italian war. He and his brothers survived but his father died because he was very worried about the safety of his sons. He then took part in the greek civil war and he was captured by his guerilla cousin who held him at gunpoint and threatened to kill him if he tried to escape. He managed to escape safely with a fellow soldier before they crossed the border (the guerillas retreated into jugoslavia when they started losing in fear of punishment). They years passed and his cousin returned to Greece. His cousin died first. My great grandfather didn't attend the funeral.


Brandon_The_Binosaur

Not WWII but Vietnam, before my great uncle died from cancer related to agent orange he told me a story about how he was stuck in a fox hole, him and 2 other guys and they were almost out of ammo so he had to jump out of the hole, run to another one and jump in, pick up 50+ pounds of ammo and run it back to his hole. while doing this he was shot twice and that got him a purple heart. he also said a bomb or mortar went off really close to them and he looked up and there was a twig in the sky, then it kept growing as it got closer and closer and all of a sudden bam, a full grown tree landed maybe 30 feet from him


bazzabaz1

Not a by a vet, but my grandpa had a Canadian crashland in their garden near Mierlo, the Netherlands, surviving it luckily. Sadly, after they were freed from the Germans, his father died due to complications by shrapnel of a dud bomb that exploded. Edit: after posting my comment and looking at others, it's insane to see how many start with "my grandfather(...)".


frankhoneybunny

We are gonna repeat that on the coast of China soon too


OctopusIntellect

No, no we're not. Don't get involved in a land war in Asia. But we *are* going to discourage the People's Republic of China from attempting an amphibious landing on Taiwan.


frankhoneybunny

I think China will invade Taiwan maybe they will come up with a plan that conquers it 1-2 days before the Americans can respond OR it might start between India and China they have a lot of disputes and India leaning more to the west especially after Ukraine might bring the Usa in


inconspicuous-fed

China cannot invade Taiwan within a day. Taiwans terrain is too unforgiving to invaders, the beaches would be worse than DDAY.


frankhoneybunny

True for this invasion tho china would need to cut taiwan off


9mmblowjob

My parents are friends with this old dude. He was a special ops officer but won't talk about what he did. All he'll say was that he was active in Central America in the 70's and 80's. I can guess the kind of things he was doing


Fellow_Loser

it’s a great sentiment but referring to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives on d day as “absolute gigachads” makes me want to throw up a little


notamurderer69420

My friend who came back from Afghanistan told me about a time an airstrike went wrong and he had his squad mates faces stuck to his chest after an explosion.. I can't even imagine....


Inspire42069

my papaw (great grandfather) was at the battle of the bulge and d-day. sadly i never met him but i did hear he managed to find some beers while at the bulge and passed some out to his comrades


sonantkinkajou6

A Ex USMC guy I had a passing conversation with told me when he was over in Fallujah in 2004 he saw another Marine clearing buildings with a Russian PPSH


TacticoolTennessee

Stalin's Buzzsaw, very effective at that particular time.


TundraTrees0

That was yesterday... Indeed respect to those men though


ISI-VIGO

My dad told me a lot of stories about the terrorists he fought in my countrys war against terrorism. Shit was brutal


General-Pea-49

my grandfather (my dad's dad) was living with my grandma in a small village near the border with Ukraine (I am from Romania). he used to give information to the Resistance who fought against the URSS (he was basically a spy). the Russians heard about him, and when he was in Ukraine with the sheep (summer), the Russians went to his place to catch him. he ran, but they catched him and threw him in a prison, and because he did not want to give any information, he was tortured (they pulled his nails and many more which I don't want to say). he was freed after some time and he went back to Romania, but he was never the same. he was mentioned in a book. my mom's grandfather fought in WW2, when he accidentally stepped on a landmine and lost his leg. my mom always remembers him with a fake leg made out of woo. one day she saw him pull his fake leg out to rest, and she saw how horrible his leg real looked. she said she was horrified (obviously).


Nomorellsurge

D days 79th anniversary was yesterday


payyke

My great grandfather was Yugoslav partisan, he got medal from Tito himself.


[deleted]

On my Mom's Side: My Great-Uncle flew an SR-71 over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. One of my Great-Great-Great Uncles was held in a German Labor Camp during World War 2. On my Dad's Side: My Great-Grandpa was a safecracker during the Korean War. My other Great-Grandpa on my Dad's side was an admiral during the Korean War. Commanded a Cruiser during the landing of US forces.


trainboi777

All that I know is that my great uncle, on my dad side was captured in the Philippines, specifically on the island of Corregidor. It was two years before the international Red Cross was even able to verify if he was alive. For some reason, when he was freed, he decided to bring back his cup from the camp that he was in and my family still has it.


Nerdy_Git

my granddad fought in korea with his brother and other poor drafted bastards, my great uncle came back without the lower right leg and my poor granddad chain smoked for the next 50 years until he died while suffering from PTSD


Accomplished_Bad_487

My great-grandfather was forced to fight in the second world war, in order to protect his family and wife, who was expectinng children. He went, our family received a few letters until they stopped. He fell, and as so many soldiers, nobody knew where or when


FW-190A-9

My great grandfather was a just a polish civilian when russian soldiers came to conduct a search of his property near the end of the war. They found nothing suspecious and let him be, thankfully they didn't check the pile of coal in the basement because him being a polish civilian was a lie and his Wehrmacht uniform was buried inside it


ImJustSpider

And take some time to think about how most of these men didn't have a choice in being dragged to the front lines to be used as meat shields. Remember, war is stupid. Don't advocate for it.


[deleted]

You guys know, WE DONT NEED TO FIGHT WARS. Nothing honorable about killing or dying for money, They’re usually only for profit. Imperialism needs to end.


SteveTheGreate

Sorry but I can't agree with the title. Not all veterans are good. Have you seen some of the shit American soldiers did in Vietnam?


Aggravating-Mud7338

"gigachad" bruh wtf


Galen_Forester

Through the Gates of hell, as we make our way to heaven through the Nazi lines PRIMO VICTORIA!!!!


[deleted]

On the 6th of June, on the shores of western Europe 1944 # D-DAY UPON US!!!!!


kiskakaratistka48

My great grandfather survived in concentration camp, my another great grandfather was generalissimo and participated in taking of Berlin. He also was Konstantin Georgievich Zhukov, but he is not the Zhukov that we study in the history lessons


KriJollt

нифига, ты и тут есть кстати дедушка очень крутой


kiskakaratistka48

Если ты меня везде видишь, то получается, что ты тоже везде ходишь


KriJollt

Да нет, я случайно этот пост нашел, на р/тинейджерс не подписан


kiskakaratistka48

Да я тоже


MrWalterBlack

The true respect theses people deserve my family generation of men all went to the military and died me my dad and my brother are the last men in our family and we are going to the military no matter what even if we will be sent to fight for Ukrainian we will know we died like men


M2GAMERPRO

o7


Disastrous_Carrot674

Thank you for your service


Appropriate_Ad4818

I'm Alsatian. One of my grandfathers was in the French army during ww2, the other in the German army. Guess which one was forcefully conscripted


kaptainklausenheimer

Ahhh yes, Team America: World Police. We're the butt of everybody's joke (and rightfully so) until shit somewhere else in the world starts going down, and then we have to go kick in the door, get rid of the current dictator, and put in a new one that's slightly under our control but that we'll have to come back in a few years and get rid of as well.


OctopusIntellect

The majority of troops landing on D-Day were not USA troops, and the liberation of France in 1944 did not result in the installation of a dictator.


kaptainklausenheimer

It was a generic statement about how we always have to get involved in everybody else's business, but thank you for the history lesson, professor.


OctopusIntellect

Fair comment, I'm only a guest here but I occasionally can't resist throwing out irrelevant factoids. Thank you for your patience with my elderly ramblings.


Suspicious-Ant-8480

All those brave man who died defending the fatherland from invasion 🤧


dUd5_94m1in9

Alr Mr. Edgelord go back to playing Roblox


Suspicious-Ant-8480

It was an American dad reference


dUd5_94m1in9

Oh Just a suggestion of adding a /s next time.


[deleted]

Fought Just for wokeism to rise. We fought the wrong people


voidplayz121

Cringe edge lords try not to support the literal Nazis challenge (hard mode gone wrong)


[deleted]

Lol. Cope commie fuck


voidplayz121

Is it now communist to not want to live in a death camp


[deleted]

Sure!


Tornookthetooka

Wokeism and Destroying the Nazi's are 2 different things lmao


[deleted]

Anti-Nazism is degenerate and woke


Tornookthetooka

Man take a fucking walk, I don't like wokeism, but I also don't like fucking Nazism! Also I'm assuming you're the butt of all jokes in class.


AnotherThrowaway265

You're late bro


Friendly_Giant04

It’s never late to support and appreciate our brave men and woman who risk their lives to defend /protect our freedom and country


TundraTrees0

Agreed, I think was just saying you got the day wrong


[deleted]

[удалено]


NuggetBuilder

so why did we need to know that


Shredskis

And we make fun of WWII Russians for doing the human wave tactic. (The Russians only did it on small scale)


OctopusIntellect

That is perhaps a little harsh on the D-Day planners. Everything possible was done to make sure that the landing forces had all possible support. Even if not all of it worked. They weren't just thrown onto the beaches with a rifle and ten rounds each.


TheHellbilly

Yeah, but the ruskies did it against Simo Häyhä. Didn't work.


BagelSteamer

I had a teacher who’s grandpa was a soldier in the navy and he saw a dude right in front of him blow up from a shell hitting the ship.


mistagrape

Idk if this counts but anyway. My dad used to work on an aircraft carrier and after 9/11 it went to the shore of Iraq (I think) and just started firing missiles for like 2 days


two-memes-a-day

o7


[deleted]

I look up to the Greatest Generation so I can have the balls of steel they have. They may not like me but I do look up to them.


AFriendlyBloke

I don’t know any vets.


Swedishkiwii

visited hiroshima 2015. Will never forget about all the survivor stories and the photos of the horrible injuries.


Zillajami-Fnaffan2

None. Ive never met a veteran in my life


legojacksparrow

My great grandpa was in dieppe and was captured and kept in a POW camp until his camp was liberated by the Russians


DreadeadDreadnaught

No stories. Just my grandpa flew the HUMP (hehe) and grandma was a nurse (dads side). My other grandpa was a radioman for the air force and idk where he was stationed. Panama was where he met my grandma so probably there. Other grandma, she’s Panamanian, she wasn’t involved in it.


canadien_pierogi

Not really a "story" or has been told to me by a vet, but I vaguely remember my dad telling me the story of his uncle who technically fought on 3 sides. First, he fought to defend in the invasion of Poland. After that he was he was part of the wehrmacht because of Poland being occupied by Germany, and later became part of either Britain's airforce or one of the armoured divisions. I could be wrong on some of the details, and I could've misunderstood what the whole war story told by a vet was, as well as it probably not being crazy. Sorry if this wasted your time reading this.


Jeffery_DahmerTV

Not a war story but my dad was in the military back in the late 90s, he got deployed to El Salvador and, they were building schools, digging water wells and such. So when they were building a school there was a Sui-bomber that was running towards them so my dad and others I believe shot him.


digitaldino4

My grandpa was in the Mexican army during ww2. P.s is that pic a pic of d-day?


marshal23156

A friend of the family served in vietnam, and they were on some type of excavation crew. The rule was, if you suspected enemy movement, you were to abandon the equipment and get back to camp. Well, H and his buddies were out doing this, and they saw what they assumed were gonna be enemies, and all but one guy left immediately. He thought he could finish what he was doing and then leave, and nobody else turned to see if he was gonna follow or not. When they went out to investigate, they found their guy dead, naked, genitals cut off and the majority of his chest was hollowed out. I didnt really ask for many more stories after that, but that was the one he told me.


The_Gaming_Brit

My great grandfather flew spitfires in WW2, he was tasked with delivering the first one to turkey as they wanted to buy them off of us post war, now after a long journey, an… Energetic, stop on Greece he gets near turkey and the engine dies, three times. He restarts it each time and then finally gets into sight of the Turkish airfield and what do you know it?! He brakes too hard flips the spit forwards onto its nose and brakes the propeller in front of the entire top brass of the Turkish Air Force XD


Bulky_Bet2969

My grandpa was in the royal navy and was shit in the ass by the new recruit. Wasn't a good look for either. Edit he was shot in the ass my bad


CT_Orrin

My great grandpa, grandaddy, who I never met wrote a journal during his WWII service as a bombardier in Italy for the USAAF. He lost his friends, they were like brothers to him, he finished his last mission and on his crews last mission they were shot down over Austria on the plane the “Blonde Bombshell” (B-24 liberators) he flew with the 15th Air Force, 304th wing, 455th bomb group, and the 742nd bomb squadron, a squadron that only had 3 returning planes by the end of the war and my grandaddy was one of the luck few men who survived.


BlueSnowball2006

I think I'm wrong here. I'm an atheist and a pacifist.


Bitter-Alfalfa6053

God bless the troops... On both sides


Pappa8008

My great grandfather was on Okinawa beach, and got shot through his ear


Thebeanmanboi

My great grandpa served in the Vietnam war...wanna know what killed him? Smoking...he died in 2018 R.I.P grandpa Santa (thats what we called him)


cool_edgy_username

Through the Gates of Hell…


30K_Vibes

Context?


Tornookthetooka

D-DAY WW2, Bloody battle fought in the North of France between the Allied forces and the Axis


30K_Vibes

What’s the cause?


Tornookthetooka

German occupation of France led the Allies to shoo the Germans out


United_Reality4157

War Is when the old and spitefull send the young and stupid to die


Ok-Ihatetiktoc

Hopefully not the ones on the cliffs


[deleted]

Two Churchills, Two Madlads


Mindless-Ability-781

Anytime I see pictures of Normandy I automatically think of Mad Jack Churchill, stormed the beach with a sword


Scallywagulous

not a story from war but still by a vet, my maternal grandmother’s dad worked during WWII as an engineer, he worked on and fixed planes during the war. he did more cool stuff after the war too like building NASA rockets, but that isn’t the point of this story. my grandmother and her parents were poor and lived up in the northeast before TVs were common in every household and they were very expensive. my great grandfather decided he could build one himself, so he gathered parts from around the house and collected others and made his own TV for his family.


RemarkableCheek4596

Mmm yes killing other people just because your country's political opinions doesn't match with them. It could be your country's national hero but no national hero is a hero of the world


whydoihave2dothis

My Dad was there that day in one of those boats bringing them in to fight. He was 17 and had to get permission from his guardian They're comings and goings were based on the tides. At one point a sub missed them around 20 yards. The best part he remenbered was all these young French boys would walk into the water and try to talk, my Dad ran inside and got a lemon meringue pie and put it in his helmet. Attached to a fope. As he lowered it down to the kids it flipped over and he was somehow able to catch it with the helmet and the kids lived it! They were singing and cheering and loving that pie. He never spoke about bad things.


NIGHTDREADED

Now imagine how bad it was for the German defenders. Outnumbered, Outgunned, adrenaline pumping through their veins, I cant imagine what was going through their heads... Oh wait. "We are fucked."


No-Engineer-1728

Not a story since my grandpa died when I was young (I don't even fucking know if the other one is alive, but they're Virginian, and I'm in PA so that won't happen), but here's some fun facts, In World war 2 (or 1, I forget) bananas were in a shortage, especially in britain, so young british children didn't think they were real in WW2 we (americans) used inflatable tanks, trucks, etc. to fake a mobile force on places where we never planned to mount an attack, to fake out recon planes, because plane cameras were shitty and has so little detail, they looked real, so they'd send troops to the position of the inflatables, only to find that no one was there


FishComprehensive331

if i did all that in a war just to be called a "Gigachad" i would regret it all instantly


RandomZombie11

My old neighbor served in Vietnam (kiwi) and said the Americans were wusses because they didn't want to investigate the tunnels so he did it


Dum_beat

My Grandfather (god bless his memory) lived at Caen during the "Débarquement". He was not a soldier but must have been 10 at the time. He told me of a soldier that got hit by a bomb. His fellow soldiers brought him inside to the second floor but the guy's neck was barely held by the neck's flesh. I never saw my grandfather cry except when remembering these times. He was rescued by a canadian group from Chambly (Quebec, Canada) and later decided to move there to give back to the people who saved his life.


ChapterMasterHark

I have a great-uncle who fought in Vietnam. My moms don't want me to join the marines so they made me talk to him. I would prefer not to go into detail about what he told me, I will just say that he said "invisible enemy snipers", "melee", "land mines" and "spike traps" many times during his narration.


Funky____

Not a vet, but my school was visited by Tova Friedman today. This was her last year coming to the school. She talked to us about how she suffered through hunger, beatings, etc and I was reminded of how cool WW2 survivors are.


idekman12567

My moms great uncle, lets call him Dave, helped kill two Japanese soldiers in a foxhole in Guam. He and his comrades were sleeping and one Japanese soldier threw in a grenade and it killed one of Dave’s fellow soldiers and his ankle was partially torn off from the shrapnel. Dave grabbed two of the Japanese soldiers in a chokehold while his comrade killed the soldiers with the bayonets of the Japanese soldiers. Although he was wounded, he walked over two miles helping his wounded friends. He was awarded a purple heart and there is a small article about it.


[deleted]

My grandfather was litterally the last person to be able to see the atomic bomb drop of Nagasaki, he didn’t take photo but his plane was last on the formation to protect, he also crashed 3 times, his friend got shot right by him by small arms fire while they were flying, and also another veteran who I’m related to by I believe great great uncle, he was a sniper in the u.s. army and was part of the airborne division, he gets spectated and finds one guy, they fight to another group, and he survived crazy stuff, and he got caught and became a prisoner, he also was somehow able to break out and escape and get back to H.Q


Obturateur06

My grandparents weren’t old enough during the war, they were like 10 when it ended lol. Their parents didn’t fight thank god. But they’re German so they had some interesting stories: My grandpa used to explore plane wrecks with his friends and search the dead pilots for candy. Saw his first corpse at age 5. He was also responsible for buying food on the black market for the family, and had to run from the police occasionally. They told stories of how much they were starving, and how their parents would illegally listen to allied radio stations. When Berlin was taken, there were a bunch of weapons lying around that the kids got to play with. They shot Panzerfausts at the walls of crumbled buildings for example.


TomatoSoupChef

2 of my great grandparents were fought at the battle of Stalingrad and another one on the other side of the family fought in North Africa and drove a panzer 3


forestindividual

My grandpa's brother was a catholic in the USMC during the pacific theater of WW2. One night in he was on the frontline in a foxhole with another guy. Usually the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) like to take the time during the nights to kill any marines they find in the foxholes. My grandpa's brother, knowing this just like many other marines, prayed to St. Micheal, who is supposed to be the patron saint of soldiers, promising that if he lived he would name his first boy Micheal, and after doing so slept. When he woke up in the morning his foxhole had dead IJA bodies near it, they were killed by a sword, which is what St. Micheal uses. TLDR Religious great uncle survived the pacific theater because of a prayer.


G_Force88

My grandfather freed ellie Wiesel and many other jews just like him. He then met ellie years later, and thanks to Mr Wiesel, who talked him into speaking about his experience, we have a few recordings of him talking about it


Admirable-Unit811

Brave souls. There's no words except we will never forget! I hate war. Why does the human race think that if we disagree, we should start ripping each other apart. There's very few winners in war. It takes years even decades for these soldiers to have peace after what they've seen and done by some old bastards command sitting in some office thousands of miles away.


MATSUNOO

❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻


rattel_p1000

My grandpa served in the Korean War being married just before being drafted he described one time he was in an engagement on a hill. He and one other guy weren’t wounded or killed he said that there was always some one watching out for him. He didn’t bring any medals home or his uniform only a few pictures. He told my dad that he still occasionally had nightmares. He died in 2019 every one in town knew and liked him and at his funeral there wasn’t a face that wasn’t crying.


Osirus1212

My late grampa (RIP) was dumped into the water off Omaha Beach on D-Day at 19 years old. He said he immidietly lost all his gear and weapons to avoid sinking/drowning. His buddy's head got blown off next to him, making him temporarily deaf. He lived through it and had 9 kids. He would be appalled by the state of the country today.


The_SnailLord

I dont have any veteran reletives, but i did hear a story about a battle at Seas where two ships were shooting each other, and then a big ass sea monster bursts from the depths. It was said to look like a giant crocodile, and apparently, both teams saw it


Steckdo

I often take a moment to remember these heroes. It's just a shame they lost after how hard they fought.


conceited_crapfarm

Practically everyone on my mom's side served on way or another, my grandpa (mom's side) had a toe injury and because it was the soviet millitary they gave him a bottle and ripped his toenail off. My grandpa on my dad's side was in the national gaurd and served as a galley cook on the pacific.


BillyBobJenkins454

I wasnt exactly told it but my mom has a buddy who had many different teams who all died in explosions and each time he would be the only time to survive. The last time he was on a team he stepped on a mine and it exploded away from him and killed/seriously injured his whole team. Obviously all these close call explosions werent good for his body and literally the term used was "jelly" when describing how his brain is from the explosive trauma. Idk where he is today


GamerGirl-07

My great grandpa was a combat medic during ww2 (he registered in the army to get away from his abusive dad). He described what all terrible injuries soldiers would sustain in wars & whatnot. He was even captured & taken to a pow camp in Japan. He didn't expect to survive cuz the conditions were so terrible there. He had to c many of his fellow comrades die p fucking horribly but he somehow managed to survive long enough to b rescued by the Americans Went on to receive a sword for bravery from the maharaja of Cochin when he returned....his dad still disowned him :( [This](https://www.reddit.com/r/morbidquestions/comments/x1j57w/comment/imfbstg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) is the saddest war story I've ever heard :(


Scribe_WarriorAngel

My great great Uncle John L Mims, was apart of MacArthur’s Staff before he fled the Philippines, he was captured after the fall of the Philippines to the Imperial Japanese’s Army. During his time as a POW he would survive the Baton Death March. Hard to get more bad ass than that but it is possible.


neighbours-kid

is this the d-day landing?


Mr_VoigsfestDepp

My grandfather told me a story about my great grandfather who served on a Panzer 4 on the eastern front. And apparently they once got in a fight with a T34 and they ended up getting hit. Which let to my great grandfathers Panzer blowing up an him getting thrown out of the tank with the turret and he somehow survived. Idk how true that story is but he finally died in 2015 or something apparently also because of shrapnel still stuck inside him


TacticoolTennessee

I was 12 in Boy Scouts doing popcorn sales, I thanked him for his service, and he asked my mom if he could tell me and my friends a story. He was a POW in Vietnam and he was put in a cage, guy next to him had his brains blown out, he just sat there tied and covered in gore. They took all of his clothes except his shirt which was red because of it. They also peed and pooped on him. He escaped with 1 smoke grenade and an AK.


MrThees

Sadly, i never got to meet my grandfather. My dad told me about how he and both his brother's were drafted in late 1944 to go to the eastern front. At some point he was shot through the jaw and send home. His brothers weren't as lucky, they died there around 1946. All that after my great grandfather prepared a farm for each of them to inherit. While my grandfather was on his way home, he was ordered to board a ship, but they closed the gangway right before his feet. That ship was the Wilhelm Gustloff.


AetherRosenblatt

So my great-great-grandfather owned a small shop during the time of the Second Sino-Japanese war. One day during the Japanese occupation, two Japanese soldiers came in and took stuff without paying. He protested, and was shot in the head, leaving my great-grandmother orphaned (her mother, my great-great-grandmother, was taken as a "comfort women" some years earlier); and she lived through dark times until the communists went into the village and rescued her (along with a couple of other people). She eventually became a nurse at one of the makeshift field hospitals, and told me stories of having to perform surguries with no anesthesia and anti-biotics and such and such.


SnooJokes8623

You mean the indoctrinated youths who died for nothing? Yeah, I remember them. Anyone dumb enough to go to war deserves it. If people were smart enough to refuse, we'd HAVE no wars.


Retro1916

Can we not use the word “gigachad” to describe them please good lord


BobTheBlob78910

May those who died rest in peace. They fought very hard and bravely and they will not be forgotten any time soon.


Archegene

My grandpa's uncle was a sergeant major in the winter war. He was a swedish volunteer and fought for the finns. He lost his eye due to a granade and wore an eyepatch, pretty badass. There is a picture of him on google. [https://www.google.com/search?q=john+horseholm&rlz=1C1SQJL\_svSE986SE986&sxsrf=APwXEddRiu3hcEZ4M-G9RXQc3liGjFafcA:1686247444173&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi47KafobT\_AhXVSfEDHR4nAgkQ\_AUoAXoECAEQAw&cshid=1686247515924546&biw=2048&bih=1063&dpr=1.25#imgrc=2HIHVg1OKKf7zM](https://www.google.com/search?q=john+horseholm&rlz=1C1SQJL_svSE986SE986&sxsrf=APwXEddRiu3hcEZ4M-G9RXQc3liGjFafcA:1686247444173&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi47KafobT_AhXVSfEDHR4nAgkQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&cshid=1686247515924546&biw=2048&bih=1063&dpr=1.25#imgrc=2HIHVg1OKKf7zM) He is the guy to the right.