WW2

[NYlakesider]

A few years ago I met a WWII Merchant Marine. I thanked him for his service, and he burst into tears. He said I was the first person to thank him.

My grandmother worked in aircraft gauges for the war effort. I consider her to be a "Rosie Riveter"

Thanks for reminding me, my mother contributed a little to the wars end.

She worked as a assistant in a experimental lab at GE in Schenectady NY during the war. They did all sorts of things and most were very Hush Hush and most times they had no idea of what they were working on

A few months after Japan was bombed into submission a person high in the military came to their office. He then told them one of the things they worked on and perfected had a lot to do with making the Atomic Bomb go BANG.

 

[lrb1200]

Father was on a Destroyer in the Pacific, Task Group 38,
was part of the Naval occupation,
and in Hiroshima two weeks after the bomb.

He never talked about it.

 

[mckenney99]

My dad trained in the Army Air Corps as a forward Radar Technician during WWII but never left stateside. I found out after he passed that he had blown out a knee during Paratrooper training and never could get the military or the VA afterwards to get it fixed. After WWII dad stayed in the new Air Force reserves until around 1960 but never got recalled for Korea for some reason. My dad NEVER talked about his military service in my presence but he never hesitated to show his dislike for the military as an organization (not the soldiers serving). After High School we had a discussion about me going into the Navy instead of going to college and it was a VERY short conversation. As I got older I wished I had asked him about his military service but he had already passed and I only have fragments of his records that don't start until post WWII. I do believe that his WWII records are some of those destroyed in the NPRC records depot fire in 1973.

 

[BigBoy99]

I remember WWII. I was only 2 when VE day happened but recall people running in street and banging pots and pans!

 

[pmanton]

I was borne in 38 so yes I can remember the war. My father was too old to be called up. He served as an air raid warden and was a paymaster for North American Aviation.

 

[SMSgt]

My dad trained in the Army Air Corps as a forward Radar Technician during WWII but never left stateside. I found out after he passed that he had blown out a knee during Paratrooper training and never could get the military or the VA afterwards to get it fixed. After WWII dad stayed in the new Air Force reserves until around 1960 but never got recalled for Korea for some reason. My dad NEVER talked about his military service in my presence but he never hesitated to show his dislike for the military as an organization (not the soldiers serving). After High School we had a discussion about me going into the Navy instead of going to college and it was a VERY short conversation. As I got older I wished I had asked him about his military service but he had already passed and I only have fragments of his records that don't start until post WWII. I do believe that his WWII records are some of those destroyed in the NPRC records depot fire in 1973.

FYI: Unless he was in the army prior to May or June 1941, he was in the US Army Air Force, not the Air Corps. The Air Corps never partook in WWII.

 

[Chubbo]

I participated in Boy Scout paper, and scrap metal drives. Toothpaste, was unavailable, so we brushed our teeth with baking soda, and salt. Wool, was used to cloth the members of our armed forces, and rationed for civilian use. One had to save worn out, wool rugs, carpet, and clothing. There was a company named Olson Rug Co., that would make you a rug or a piece of carpeting if you sent them 100# of salvaged woolen items. That carpet/rug, was shipped back, rolled on wood poles,2"thick x 7' long, and served to make stilts from. Most throw rugs of the era, were hand crocheted, and made from worn out cotton clothing. I still have a couple rugs that my mom made.

Chubbo

 

[Yaworski]

FYI: Unless he was in the army prior to May or June 1941, he was in the US Army Air Force, not the Air Corps. The Air Corps never partook in WWII.

From army.mil

Although the Army Air Forces took the lead from the Army Air Corps in 1941, the Army Air Corps played a combat role in the Army and was not dissolved until 1947 - with the creation of the Air Force.

From Wikipedia

The Air Corps ceased to have an administrative structure after 9 March 1942, but as "the permanent statutory organization of the air arm, and the principal component of the Army Air Forces," the overwhelming majority of personnel assigned to the AAF were members of the Air Corps.[3]

 

[AJ]

I participated in Boy Scout paper, and scrap metal drives. Toothpaste, was unavailable, so we brushed our teeth with baking soda, and salt. Wool, was used to cloth the members of our armed forces, and rationed for civilian use. One had to save worn out, wool rugs, carpet, and clothing. There was a company named Olson Rug Co., that would make you a rug or a piece of carpeting if you sent them 100# of salvaged woolen items. That carpet/rug, was shipped back, rolled on wood poles,2"thick x 7' long, and served to make stilts from. Most throw rugs of the era, were hand crocheted, and made from worn out cotton clothing. I still have a couple of moms.

Chubbo

The Olsen's had a winter home here in Vero Beach. Their house was on the end of the block from mine. They had three grandchildren that were my age.

 

[Chubbo]

During WW2, many commodities were rationed, and required rationing books, and tokens, those tokens were red fiber, about the size of a dime. I still have 3 of 'em. Some of those commodities were; sugar, butter, coffee, meat, gasoline, tires, and shoes. Women's hosiery, of the WW2 era, were silk, and unobtainable. It was common practice, for women to stain her lower legs a light tan to simulate silk hosiery, and stand on a straight back chair, holding its back, while another woman painted a fine dark brown simulated seam down the back of her leg, with a small artist's brush. We had War Bond books, that held 75, 25cent saving stamps, worth $25. I stayed busy earning quarters to by those Stamps.

Chubbo

 

[sheepdawg]

My parents were from Hanover, Germany. My mother's first husband was killed at Kursk on the eastern front. My dad was drafted into the Wehrmacht in June 1944 when Herr Hitler figured out things weren't going so good. He spent a month on the front lines and was captured by the Americans near Metz, France in October. Said he'd never been so frightened in his life as he thought the Americans killed all their prisoners, they did the SS. My dad said the Americans treated him very well especially after finding out he was an accomplished artist. They put him to work painting murals of pretty girls in the various military clubs nearby his POW camp. Both met after the war and came over to America in 1952. My dad had an advertising agency in Memphis, did ton's of stuff for Holiday Inn. Did stuff for the Government too as he was a master at retouching pictures.

I like to read up on the war and naturally anything about Metz attracts my attention. About 10 years ago I came across an article on the Internet, "The Battle of Metz" that contained pictures from the Life Magazine archives taken by Ralph Morse a well known war photographer. The second to last photo floored me. My dad in a long line of German POWs marching off to the camp. Second from the right, holding his lapels. Just for backup I emailed the pictue to my 86 year old cousin Ilse who lived with the family in Hanover during the war. 15 minutes later she emailed me back, "that's Helmut, your father." What are the chances?

 

[mckenney99]

During WW2, many commodities were rationed, and required rationing books, and tokens, those tokens were red fiber, about the size of a dime. I still have 3 of 'em. Some of those commodities were; sugar, butter, coffee, meat, gasoline, tires, and shoes. Women's hosiery, of the WW2 era, were silk, and unobtainable. It was common practice, for women to stain her lower legs a light tan to simulate silk hosiery, and stand on a straight back chair, holding its back, while another woman painted a fine dark brown simulated seam down the back of her leg, with a small artist's brush. We had War Bond books, that held 75, 25cent saving stamps, worth $25. I stayed busy earning quarters to by those Stamps.



Chubbo

I also have in the safe several of those tokens as well as my maternal grandfathers ration books for gasoline and I think alcohol. I need to get them out and look at them again.

 

[Chubbo]

Civilians couldn't buy new bicycles, their components, parts, or, accouterments, during WW2. We had to repair, and refurbish, old sorely used, bikes, etc.; bike tires of the 30s and 40s, were the skinny, tubeless type or more modern, balloon type tires, with inner tubes. The tires, available to us kids, were Old, worn-out, and contained holes and punctures. To repair the tubeless tires, we'd fill the tire with wheat, pour water into it, to swell the wheat, wrap a few wraps of friction tape around the rim, and that patch would get us a few rides around the block before it failed. The balloon style inner tubes, were of natural rubber, rotten, and could not be patched. Our solution for that problem; we'd search the city dump for discarded, rubber garden hose, wrap some around the rim of our bike rim, cut it for an exact fit, poke bailing wire through the hose, twist the end together, to the precise tightness cut and leave about 3/4 of an inch splice. Then carefully, fold that splice, into the hose joint. You'd hopefully get a few trips around the block.

The Kids of the WW2 era stayed busy, mostly out of mischief, and accomplished it, less the help of a cellphone.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I just had a chin wag with mum. She told me of the heavy rationing and collection drives and making do with very little.

I sent her this pic and she said: "good Heavens! Can you imagine what he could have done with WiFi?"

 

[Greyman50]

When back home I'll post some more pics of thing mentioned here. Here's some interesting pics.

 

[lawandorder]

Kevin, If you see this post I was wondering if that page you posted came from a book dedicated to men who served in WW2 from your home state.

There was one in my family that had my Father, Uncle, other relatives and neighbors in it.

The story that went with the book was that it was sold by subscription by traveling sales men and was probably too expensive for the time.
Preying on the families left behind.

I gave our copy to a young Cousin recently when I gave him my Uncle's 1911A1. He is career Army so it belonged with him.

 

[Golddollar]

I also have in the safe several of those tokens as well as my maternal grandfathers ration books for gasoline and I think alcohol. I need to get them out and look at them again.

There is a story in my family about how my great grandmother wouldn't let my great granddad use her whiskey rations stamps even though she didn't drink alcohol.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Dad was the youngest of five boys. All served. Three in the Army (ETO) and two in the Navy (PTO). All came home.

Dad 1944.

 

[dsf]

Grandfather on my Mother's side was a US FSO posted in England, he was killed during a February 1940 blitz. My Mother lived in England until about 1939 which was, unfortunately, sufficient time for her to learn how to cook. A tragedy that was visited upon me often as a child.

Grandfather on my Father's side was a US Naval Officer who started WWII on Yorktown from the Marshall Island raids, at Coral Sea and Midway, then Guadalcanal landing and Battle of the Eastern Solomons. I got to know him a bit and noted that his home had a fair amount of Japanese (a word I didn't know had three syllables in it until I hit high school) art & furniture in it. I thought that was unusual.

 

[chief38]

T

My dad was in the Navy during WWll. He spent 7-8 Months aboard a Submarine and the rest of the war on what he described as a sea going Tug - both in the Atlantic.

My FIL ( whom I never met) was in the 82nd Airborn and in the European Theater of Operation. According to my wife, he met Patton several times. Unfortunately he died before I met my wife.

We still look through both of their photos often. My FIL was one of the soldiers who discovered a few of the concentration camps and we have hundreds of those grueling photos as well. We did donate many of the pictures to the 82nd AB for their archives and received a nice letter of thanks from them.

Don't think I know anyone who served in WW2 who is still alive now, but I will say there will NEVER be another generation like them!!