My grandfather was in the RFC, serving as a mechanic but also flew as an observer/gunner on occasion. He was stationed a few miles away from where Richthofen was brought down and went to see what was left of the wreck a few days after (not a lot as I recall him telling me).
I wish I'd had the interest while he was still alive.
my maternal grandfather was a wireless operator with the US Navy on the USS St. Louis (former liner Louisville) he met my grandmother (who witnessed the Titanic departure and several LZ raids during the Great War. Both died when I was 6-10 years old. Oh the stories they could tell.
Capn Rick
Both my grandfathers served in WW1, but only just got overseas to the AEF when the war ended.
They were, however, the youngest brothers in their respective families. All their older brothers (several in each family) fought. Most were with the AEF in the Meuse-Argonne, but one of them got shipped up to Murmansk to fight the Reds (which most Americans these days don't know ever happened).
The oldest of the lot was actually living in France in 1914 and joined the Foreign Legion. He got put in charge of some Senegalese troops and was at 2nd Ypres when the chlorine hit them. He remained in the French army until 1917, then moved to the AEF and was put on MacArthur's staff. However, he ended up back in the field in time for the Meuse-Argonne with the 69th Rainbow division, where he had some more harrowing times. After WW1, he went back into the Foreign Legion and fought more in Morocco.
All of them came through both the war and the 1918 flu without harm, even the guy who fought all through 1914-1918 and beyond.
Perhaps my grandparents on my father's side did not serve as gloriously as mentioned above, but they remembered when the Germans took over their village in the Ukraine during WWI. It wasn't pretty. I imagine it doesn't matter what side is the occupier, it ain't pretty.
Even today hasn't changed much. Sadly, it seems, we are doomed to repeat our history...
I had two uncles who served in WWI. My dad's eldest brother, my uncle John, served in the 42nd Rainbow Division. My mother's olderst brother, my uncle Easom, was in the Marines. I was just telling Duck in another thread that I envied him having his grandfather's letters home written during WWI. My uncle who was in the Marines died when I was 11 or so. Uncle John lived to a ripe old age. I only wish I had had the gumption to question him more extensively about his service. I do know he made it through without injury, but was accidentally shot in the rear-end as they were preparing to return to the States after the armistice and a buddy knocked over a rifle. Cest la guerre!
Awesome story Bullethead, and thanks for starting this thread up Siggi.
Not too long ago, I was just searching around the web with no real aim at achieving anything and I stumbled across my great grandfathers WW1 draft card! I had asked my dad if his grandpa was in WW1 and he didn't know. I still dont know if he saw any combat or what unit he might have been in, so I need to do more research. Anyway if he did make it overseas in time he was one of the lucky ones that made it through. Its dated 6/5/17. He was 22 at the time.
PS. If anybody has done the research on thier WW1 relatives, I'd appreciate it if you could help me out and point me in the right direction to find out what unit my great grandfather served in.
-Rooster
My father's father was a soldier with the ground troops, but he never talked about war. So, the only thing I know, is, that during a storm attack, he got hit by a machine gunner, who panned all over the field. He got shot through both arms.
He never had much strength in his arms, ever after, but could still hold a cup, or write a letter. He was lucky with two bullets in the arms, rather than one in between them, he said.
Many survivors do/did not wish to talk about it. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it (if you are). I "pressured" my grandfather perhaps a bit too far to recount some memories, and he started to cry. This from a man who survived the Great Depression supporting 5 of his friends while driving a cab, lost 2 of his fingers in mining accidents, and helped to bring the union into the mines to raise safety and working mens' standards.Originally Posted by aust3298
It isn't perhaps as "interesting" to them as it is to us from a historical perspective, those who didn't live through it... A "historical" perspective is a luxury. Sorry, don't mean to sound like I'm on a soapbox.
Had a great grandfather who served in France for the better part of year in 1918-- first in the trenches as general infantry then later as an MP officer. During his time there he observed actual dogfights taking place over the trenches and recounted in letters (during 1918) and stories later in life that it was customary for men in the trenches to watch the dogfights at length like a bloodsport.
From his time in France he received an allied victory medal. He also acquired through luck and finding a German Iron Cross First Class. We believe he found it on the ground in an abandoned trench when the Germans retreated during an attack. Today both medals are in a glass case in parents' house.
Another great grandfather was drafted and went through training here in the US and was shipped to France, arriving in mid November, 1918. He was shipped back to the US soon after and never saw any combat.
My great uncle flew a P-51 during the second World War and shot down a German 109 in a dogfight over Romania. He also scored a number of ground victories attacking targets in Italy. Unlike my great grandfather, he never talked about his experiences during the war until just before he died. He never relished or considered glorious any of his victories with the P-51, but rather looked on them as a grim necessity of the time and not something to be glorified or promoted.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Défenseur de la République
Defender of the Republic
Venator, Very good point. I don't know how my uncle may have reacted, but you are correct. We are looking at this as an interesting hobby/vocation....to those guys, it was life at its most pungent. As much as I have read about war, military history, etc, I can't imagine what it must have been like for those men. No, you are correct about the luxury of a historical perspective. It does not make it less interesting for me, but for them it was/is something else altogether.
Not any more.......
my granfather was part of the AIF in Gallipoli and France. He was severely wounded in June 1916 (which I think was the first battle of the Somme), lost an arm and was lucky to survive and eventually return to Australia.
It has to be said....WWI is over, so nobody is serving. Just busting your chops.
Actually WWI fell between generations for my family. My great grandfather was in Spanish American War and my grandfather was only 9 for WWI.
Hi Guys,
My great grandfather (on my mothers side), Victor Lepp joined the Australian Imperial Forces -21st Battalion in early 1915 and arrived in Egypt in july 1915 to take part in the Gallipoli campaign. he served there for 2 months, was wounded by shell fragments and evactuated to lemnos for treatment, A month later he was back on Gallipoli.
after the planned evactuation/withdrawal from Gallipoli hes was sent to France in march 1916. He was again wounded in may 1916, after treatment in England, he was posted back to France and was eventually Killed on August 26th 1916 by shell fire.
He had one son and one duaghter (my grandmother) who never knew their father, as they were both only infants when he joined the army for the regular pay. sadly his wife died in 1919 and the children were adopted out, it has taken my mother and one of her brothers a long time to research this and finally bring it all together.
His Brother Clarence lepp won the Military Medal, and survived the war
Service Number 2199
Service Army
Rank Private
Unit 24th Bn
Date of London Gazette
16 November 1916, page 11145, position 9
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette
19 April 1917, page 924, position 116
regards Rob.
No other success can compensate for failure in the home..
My fathers uncle was in the war (was he my uncle once removed?). I believe he was in the American infantry. He's long gone now but I remember him standing behind a chair, leaning on the back of it while bending down to lean on it. I never saw him sitting down -- ever.
I asked my father why Uncle Weldon always leaned on the back of a chair and I was told me that Uncle Weldon was "gassed" in the war and suffered lung damage. He couldn't breathe well when he sat down -- so he didn't sit -- he stood or laid down -- but didn't sit.
He lived in western Pennsylvania (NW of Pittsburgh) but liked to spend most of his time in the Pennsylvania mountains (near the the town of Tionesta, in Forrest County) because he could "breathe better".
I don't know anything else or what kind of gas did the lung damage. As far as I know he had no other damage except for his lungs.
Hi Rob,
my grandfather was in Lemnos in Sept 1915 duffering influenza and synovitis. his war records indicate he didn't return to Anzac until Dec 1915. I'm sure there were plenty of soldiers on Lemnos, but who knows they may have crossed paths. My grandfather was in the 8th battalion though.
Sadly there is a bit of a veil over my family history in that period. Certainly, two of my great grandfathers were in the British army, but the only one of those that I know much about never talked about his war- being rather more pleased about his achievements before the war. He was a famous music hall singer.
My paternal grandfather was a pilot between the wars though.
My Grandfather (on Mothers side) flew SE5a's during the last year of the war..But I can find no further info than that sadly
My Grandfather (born in Burton-upon-Trent in 1898) fought in the latter part of the war on the Western front. He apparently stood in something nasty that gassed himself and a few others. He suffered with his lungs for the rest of his life, dying in 1961- 6 years before I was born. Lest we forget.
My great uncle died in the battle for Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme, 1916. He was the company commander of D Company, the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers. This is the note of his death, in the regimental history:
"At 12:15 am on July 5th the artillery opened a bombardment of Quadrangle Trench, under cover of which the 9th Northumberland Fusiliers and the 10th Lancashire Fusiliers crept to within a hundred yards of the enemy position. At 12:45 am the two battalions charged. In the 10th Battalion C Company (Capt. D.W, Thacker) and D Company (Capt. H.M. Adcock) captured Shelter Alley and Quadrangle Trench without much fighting except on the left, where they met with rifle and machine gun fire...Unfortunatley, the company commander, Capt. H.M. Adcock, was killed as he leapt into the German trench". His body was never recovered - he is one of those listed on the Somme Memorial at Thiepval.
We still have his photographs and the sketches he made of life in the trenches, and I used to have his sword - but gave the sword away to a friend when the children were small (we were concerned they might kill each other with it).
My wife's grandfather flew as an Observer in the RFC (in RE8s I believe, although I do not know which squadron), and was then trained as a pilot just in time to return to the front flying the SE5a (only a week or so before the war ended, I think, doing no more harm than wiping the undercarriage off his a/c in a bad landing). I know a cousin of my wife has his log book, and I would like to see it one day.
Bletchley
Crockett, that gas was probably Chlorine, the Germans first used gas on 22 April 1915 at Langemark-Poelkapelle, All the toxic agents used in that war hurt the lungs, some more than others. It was discovered that those who remained standing suffered the least, those who fell or lay in the trenches suffered more because the gas collected on the bottom of the trench. It was water soulible and therefore a wet handkerchief on the mouth and nose served many until masks were developed.
A cousin (female) drove Ambulances and was decorated by the King of Belgium for her valor under fire bringing Tommies and Yanks from the front lines. Another family member flew Camels for the RFC, after training in Canada, and cracking up 3, after he walked away from the third one, that was nose down in a pine forest, his CO said he was single handedly doing more for their procurement requests than the entire Canadian Parliment. He was yank but wanted to get in the action so he talked his way into the cockpit. He was in the Layfayette Esquadrille and I have his papers and memoires that have never been published, hence my interest in this amazing era. He talks a lot about the mud, the feel of the planes in flight (like riding a canvas stretcher wtih four guys trying to throw you off), the beauty of the things he saw, and much else. I never thought there might be a sim to give a feel of what he and others did. He talks about how the more missions they had to fly the more a feeling of dread came to rule them ...and then there was a point that you broke thru that, and just did not thiink about it anymore. You did your job and thought about food and leave. And thanked god for your mechanic and good canvas.
Other cousins in England flew, but where and with who i dont know yet. Most of my family were naval, my grandfather was on a DD at the time scouring Baja California for suspected German radio stations, he and another cousin Frlanklin Van Valkenberg Class of 09 Annapolis were our main naval ppl. Franklin rose thru the ranks to be skipper of the BB 39 (USS Arizona) and was at his post on the bridge on December 7, and remains there. Other cousins were airmen in the II but for now, and for here, i am so grateful for the service my ancestors and all of yours gave in the Great War....it was a long and very very hard one. Thanks and blessings to them all.
Herbert Roberts, maternal great-grandfather of my better half, Christy, kept a diary detailing daily life, both in the line and in the billets. He served with 3rd Canadian Mounted Rifles at Ypres and the Somme, but the diary stops in September 1916, when he was severely wounded in the fighting for Regina Trench near Flers-Courcellette.
My brother-in-law had a Grandfather and a Great Uncle who served together with the 10th Bn, CEF. They fought side by side at Vimy Ridge. John Patterson was posted missing a few weeks later in the Battle for Hill 70 on the outskirts of Lens; his brother fought right through to the Pursuit to Mons, and miraculously survived the War. The name of John Patterson is inscribed, along with all the other Canadians MiA, on the Memorial at Vimy Ridge.
shredward
There's not many families from the UK who didn't have anyone serve during WW1 in some form or another, but whether they know about it or not is another matter.
My Paternal lot:
Grt Grandfather: Northamptonshire Regt 1914 (Age 51) Discharged as no longer fit enough to serve in 1915 (he'd originally been a soldier in the KRRC in the 1880's & 90's in India)
Grandfather (son of the above): Army 1915 but discharged as discovered to be underage (age 15) then joined Navy 1917
Grt Uncle: Bedfordshire Regt. Captured in belgium POW till end of war
Grt Uncle: Northamptonshire regt. Survived
Grt Uncle:Essex Regt. Survived
Grandfathers Cousins: 4 in Lincs Regt. 2 survived tho gassed, 2 killed.
1 in Royal Naval Div. Hawke Battalion; Served in the East and eventually KIA in France and Flanders.
I know that there were 6 sons in my Grandfathers family and all served, just don't have the details for all of them yet
My Maternal Lot:
Grt Grandfather: Machine Gun Corps. Survived
Grt Grandfathers cousin: Royal Navy .Killed
My grandfather's older brother served with the AEF, I'm assuming it was on the ground. No real idea of what he did. Unfortunately, there's really nobody left to ask about it anymore. All we have is a picture of him as a dashing young man in his uniform when he returned. He has on the leg wraps (were they leather or canvas?) and his coat has an indian head patch on the shoulder and an overseas stripe on the sleeve and a WWI Victory Medal with two or three bars on it (kind of hard to make out on a 90 year old, sepia-toned photo.
I had two in the AEF, from the Blue Ridge Mountain Division. I have one of thier Helmets with the unit insignia, and the others Victory Medal that they awarded the surviviors of WWI with. And a few photos.
ZZ.
PS. Forgot, I have a small map of the Front given to soldiers so they wouldn't get lost, stumble into enemy lines etc., that one of these relatives carried with him while over there. It is now framed and hanging on my wall at home, and is very poignant. It is creased and tattered a bit from use, and from where he obviously carried it in his jacket pocket.
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