Posted by bc on February 22, 2021 at 06:16:12 from (24.255.129.137):
In Reply to: WWII oral history posted by Ultradog MN on February 22, 2021 at 03:07:12:
Thanks. Will see about listening while driving. My dad made the landings at Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. Didn't say much about it. Ended up in the hospital in the Philippines with trench foot cause of all the mud and rain they were dealing with. Only quote I heard from him was when they just captured the airfield on Okinawa. Always under attack by Jap planes, the AntiAircraft Artillery (AAA) batteries were shooting at anything which included shooting down our own fighters having to come in to land because of the kamikaze attacks on the carriers.
Had one uncle who was wounded and captured in Italy and spent the last nine months of the war in a POW camp. He never said anything. Heard a story later on from a guy in the POW camp with him who said Gene saved his life after the guy broke a rule that would have got him shot but Gene stepped up and claimed to have done it and since Gene was a sergeant they didn't kill him.
One uncle went from Normandy all the way to Czechoslovakia with Patton's third army. Delmar was a gunner on a jeep with a quad mount 50 caliber anti-aircraft battery. Only thing I heard him mention was the bombing at St. Lo where waves of bombers came in and because of all the dirt and visibility issues from the first wave, each wave began dropping their bombs earlier until finally bombing our own troops. He just said that they killed 800 of our own guys including a general.
Most of my uncles were in the war. One was training in the states and his unit was called into formation to go load on the train cause they were shipping out for one of the islands in the Pacific. They called him and said he wasn't going with them because he had 4 brothers who were missing in action in Europe. I kinda thought the Saving Private Ryan was a fake story but they did have that policy after the Sullivans were lost on a Navy ship. As it turned out, none of them were really missing in action as they were always with their units fighting except Gene who was captured in Sep of 44. Seven of eight uncles on my mom's side joined for WWII and the other was too young. My Dad and his three brothers all joined. My aunt on his side was a army nurse and her husband was a Navy radioman on a SBD Dauntless in the Pacific. My wife had a number of uncles in the war, one of which just died recently who was 95 and in on the landing at a number of the islands during the Philippines. On one he was driving a truck load of ammo that was just off loaded from the ship. His unit left without him as he was still getting loaded. He left and ended up taking the wrong turn and ended up behind the Jap lines. Since he knew he wasn't supposed to have driven that far, he turned around and headed back without incident except for being scared. After that he ended up on occupation duty in northern Japan at Otaru by Sapporo. Went through a bad winter with snow as deep as the trucks. We have all his pics and letters he sent home.
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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