Came across these pics today. There were 5 brothers and all served during the war and the one I was named after was killed by a sniper in a little town in France.
If someone can straighten up the 2nd pic, I would appreciate it.

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I have no pic.

Samuel Burgess was my mom's favorite uncle.

He was a rifleman for the 5th Battalion/East Lancashire Fusileers. They landed at Sword Beach on D-Day. As part of Operation Charnwood, they were, with the Canadiens, ordered to take Caen.

Three weeks after landing, he took a snipers bullet to the back. He died in the arms of one of his school chums who made it home to tell the tale to my grandmother (Sam's sister)

He is buried in Épron, France outside of Caen.

He was 22.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Thank you for your uncles' service.

Thank you for your uncle's service.

They were indeed the greatest generation. RIP to all of them.

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No baby we aint

This was dad in England before shipping out to Germany as a combat mechanic in '44.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Thanks for sharing. Great stories about uncommon people.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

I had three uncles in the Army, one who was a Sargent in the Polish Army and one in the Navy as was my father. All made it home in one piece.
My father was a Radioman in the PBY Catalina's based out of Guantanamo Cuba and was at Pearl Harbor for the cleanup operation and would not talk about it. Dad was PTSD and a drunk. He left when I was 12 as he was out of control and the abuse to mom and I was a nightmare.
The next time I saw him I was a rookie cop walking a beat on Chene Street in Detroit near I-94 when I see this drunk sweeping the sidewalk on the side of this bar. I recognized my father, he only saw the uniform and quickly headed into the bar as he hated cops, too many run ins and arrests.
Next time I saw him he was in a hospital on his last gasp after going through some bad DT's. About a week later I found out he died and no one claimed the body as he had burned all bridges with family over the years. I tracked him down to Wayne State University where he was going to be used for medical students to practice on. Since he was a vet, I got him a funeral and burial thru the government. No one came to the funeral home, pathetic but I can't blame them.
He is buried at Custer Memorial Military Cemetery in Augusta Michigan. I have no idea what he saw and did but I totally forgave him and keep him in my prayers.

If I may, shouldazagged's father landed on D-Day as a war correspondent. He stayed in France and Germany for the duration. That took guts.

That's where Mike got his passion for the written word.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I had six uncles; all are gone now.

Albert: USN; Pacific Ocean

Butch: USAAF; flew C-46/47 in Alaska (11th AF). Their survival gear for when they had to ditch in the Bering Sea - a Colt .45.

Jim: too young to serve

Junie: USA combat medic; arrived on Omaha beach D+1 driving a weapons carrier with 3 doctors. Served all the way to Germany in the 3rd Army

Bob: USA paratrooper in WWII, USMC combat engineer in Korea. He always loved telling the story about how he laid explosives around Pusan to keep the North Koreans out and then had to disable those same explosives for the breakout.

Evan: USA MP: rode trains escorting German POWs to POW camps in America.

One of my aunts, Ruth, was a Marine stationed in San Deigo. She was a cook. We just lost her.

Wonderful people and I miss them tremendously.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Double Amen to that! They would be shocked beyond belief if they saw where our country is now. God Bless all servicemen & women, and of course that includes first responders in the "servicemen" category. (non gender specific)

Love those old photos. Thanks for sharing them.

My father rode around in Higgins boats on an APA in the Pacific and took part in the occupation of Japan. Hated to talk about it. Lost too many good people he said, but had to do it. Lost him in "01. I miss the old fa*t.

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Foster Positivity.

My dad arrived way late in the family (born 1932), but his older brother was in USAAF and training to be a pilot. Had a bad motorcycle accident, off duty, and was out of the pilot program! When he recovered was still in the USAAF, made it to Corporal in the AIR MP's (dark blue arm band instead of black). His first wife wanted a dashing fight pilot for a husband, so she dumped him for a guy that was one and looked like Clark Gable! Wife number two was madly in love with him until he died at age 88. (My oldest son was the spitting image of him in their teens! My youngest son's baby pictures look identical to his, except they are in color)

Ivan

As Vice Commander of our local Sons of the American Legion squadron, I want to thank all of your family members for their service.

My father is the 19 yr old sailor in the bottom right. After I scanned and named the photo, I found out the correct Navy title was a PB4Y2 not B-24. He was a radioman and waist machine gunner.

He was a great shot with a shotgun on game birds. I later learned that shooting skeet was how they learned to lead moving targets before firing on towed aerials with the machine gun in training. He never flew on ANY plane after the war. I asked him why and his response was "I've already used up all the luck with planes I'll ever have !!!!.

After a trip I made, I commented to him how loud prop planes were. He snorted and said "Just hope you're never up in one and all you can hear is the wind !!!!"

Tom Brokaw was right. Between the Great Depression and WWII, my dad's generation was the greatest generation.

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SWCA 3417 HF 642 NRA-TC

I told you about my Aunt and Uncles. Now my Dad. He passed in 1965. I never got to talk to him about his experiences in WWII as an adult. A few years ago I spent a summer researching his duty. Initially he enlisted in the Army in the fall of 1942. Somehow he got honorably discharged in early 1943 and then joined the Navy. He ended up on a ship type called Landing Craft Infantry - LCIs. The Navy used them to land troops on the beaches in both theaters of war. He was on two that were converted to ships that launched rockets on the beach just before the Marines landed. His job was to launch and load those rockets. His legs were badly scarred from that. I never knew how that happened until I did my research. During the Guam invasion in 1944 he turned 30; very old for an enlisted sailor at that time. His ship was struck by 75mm Jap shells killing and/or wounding half the crew. They transferred to another LCI until the invasion was secured and then went to Hawaii to recover.

Here is his ship enroute to Guam in Jul 1944

[url=https://postimages.org/]

You can see the rockets forward amidship.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

My wife's father was a Navy radio operator, service included several Pacific islands including Tarawa. One of her uncles was Army Air Corps (later worked for NASA as an engineer), another was an Army musician (very talented guy). Her aunt's husband served as an Army Air Corps mess sergeant.

My father was US Army, served at Guadalcanal and the island of Tonga where he was shot in the head, spent over a year recuperating in New Zealand before coming back in 1946. Paternal uncle was US Army, served in North Africa and Italy, where both legs were crippled by machinegun fire.

My mother was a civilian defense worker in Washington, DC. Her brothers included a B17 bomber crew chief who was shot down, escaped through Switzerland, and (because he passed through a neutral country) could not be returned to combat and had to serve until 1947 in occupied Germany (which he greatly resented). Another was a combat engineer, explosives specialist. Mom's first husband was a Navy pilot, killed in 1944, father of my oldest brother before Mom married my Dad and had two more children. A third maternal uncle of mine reportedly skipped out to avoid the draft and was never heard from again.

My oldest brother served in Korea 1952-53. My other brother and I both served in Vietnam. My younger son did Gulf War I in the US Coast Guard in the Persian Gulf, search and rescue duty, then later deployed twice as an Army reserve officer (electronic counter-intelligence) in the second gulf war.

I have a grandson now serving on active duty, a grandson and granddaughter both in the Army nursing program now completing college on the Army's dime before their service commitments.

I could go back to WW1, the Civil War, War of 1812, and the Revolutionary War with others who came before us and served. The house I was born in is on land that has been in my father's family since 1792, when land grants were made (in the Northwest Territory, now known as Ohio) in lieu of salaries due for service in the Continental Army.

My family has been here (what is now the United States) since 1640. Lots of history, lots of wars.

I had two uncles on my mother’s side that served in WWII. Both were Conscientious Objectors! One was a medic through the Battle of The Bulge, wounded in the back by shrapnel, and eventually camped for several weeks outside of Berlin.....waiting on the Russians to get there. The other, was an ambulance driver in London, during the bombings. Both saw their share of death!

My wife’s uncle, his job was to remove mines......landed at Normandy, and a week or so later was killed. He’s buried in France.

My 1st cousin’s uncle.....”my father” did 2 years in the North Atlantic on a Destroyer Escort (much smaller than a Destroyer) on convoy duty. He then went to the South Pacific. He was on many landing parties checking out dozens of small islands looking for Japanese radio transmitter stations. memtb

Back in WWII a Conscientious Objector still went in the service! They objected to killing, but not to service.

In WWI only members of specific church denominations or religions were given a deferment. Your personal beliefs were not a consideration! Alvin York had a personal conviction but was a member of The Church of Christ, that wasn't a recognized denom. While a large number of enemy died in his sights, he usually took out officers and NCO's to give the ratings a chance to surrender. The action that got him the MOH, I believe he killed in the teens but accepted the surrender of over a 100! (Relatives by marriage, used to shoot with Alvin in the 1950's, He usually won, but not always!)

In both World Wars a good percentage of MOH's were awarded to Contentious Objectors both official and non recognized.

Ivan

A friend of mine's dad was an American volunteer in the British 8th Cannon. He was assigned to be an ambulance driver, but WAS a combatant and manned his share of the big guns!

My Dad was in the 8th Air Force and was at the Battle of the Bulge. He didn't talk about the War very much.
I did have a P-38 that he said he took off of a dead German, but with his permission, I foolishly sold it.

My uncle CPO David Bundte was stationed on the U.S.S. West Virginia,
but was on his way home for a Christmas furlough when Pearl Harbor
was bombed. He had to make a 180 degree turn at San Francisco and
go right back. He spent part of the war skippering a tanker, delivering
aviation fuel to our forward island bases. As puckering a job as I can
imagine.

Uncle Wade Chriswell was a Seabee, and spent most of WWII building
air bases on islands across the Pacific. Some of the islands were not
totally mopped up, so the Seabees saw some action.

Captain Elmer Hahn, commander of B29 "Werewolf" was shot down by
a swarm of Zeroes over Tokyo in January 1945. He and 5 of his crew
parachuted to the ground, but were killed later by our B29s bombing
the prison camp he was in.

Captain Clyde Hahn, Elmer's little brother, meanwhile was flying C46
and C47s "over the hump" in the CBI (China, Burma, India theatre).

Billy Bundte was my double cousin. (His Mom was my Dad's sister,
and his Dad was my Mom's brother.) I Hope cousins are allowed in
this thread because Billy and the two Hahn brothers were my cousins.
Billy was a Marine and island hopped all the way across the Pacific.

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In Omnia Paratus

Five Uncles and an Aunt served (all on my Mother's side) three uncles Navy and two Army and Aunt Army. My Dad served in the Merchant marines.

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I Cor. 10:13 "1611KJV"

My uncle also served in a Navy PB4Y, as a radioman and top ball turret machine gunner.(curious that he had a different position than your father.)
Worked his way across the Pacific, finishing the war in Shanghai.
He attributed his hearing loss to long hours in those loud planes.
I was thinking that touching off a twin .50 cal, wasn't too good for one's hearing either.
My father was a Seabee CPO,serving in Brisbane and Samar.PI. Mom was a Navy RN here in NY. They met when he was briefly her patient upon his return.