A date which will live in infamy

   / A date which will live in infamy #51  
For about 30 years I worked with a woman that was born in Dresden, Germany. When she was 4 or 5 her family fled the city and somehow made it to America after the war. When she told me she was born in Dresden right before the war I just stood there and blinked for a bit while processing that information. I said "You're lucky to be alive." She said she knew.
 
   / A date which will live in infamy #52  
My grandmother came over from Germany to live with an aunt in 1914, when she was 11. It wasn't until long after she passed away that we found out that she did it to escape an arranged marriage; some caring relative put her on a boat instead.
 
   / A date which will live in infamy #54  
MossRoad said:
For about 30 years I worked with a woman that was born in Dresden, Germany. When she was 4 or 5 her family fled the city and somehow made it to America after the war. When she told me she was born in Dresden right before the war I just stood there and blinked for a bit while processing that information. I said "You're lucky to be alive." She said she knew.
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This reminds me of going to a Cub Scout picnic when my son was young. Another parent had brought her mother who had grown up in Germany during WWII, married a U.S. soldier after the war and moved back to my small hometown.
In her German accent, imagine this sweet elderly grandmother telling the Cub Scouts about the war, how difficult it was, trying to get food, being scared when bombs are dropping, mentioning how the Russians came and “we had to hide, because they would try to…uhm…how do you say…uhh...yes…RAPE you.” said just as matter of factually as if she told you they were handing out chocolate bars.
Her daughter, realizing the audience, immediately shouted “Mom!!” ..but gramma was unfazed and kept talking about her experiences.
Inappropriate story for kids? Probably, but I’m glad that I and those kids got to hear some first hand accounts.
 
   / A date which will live in infamy #56  
My dad didn't speak much about the war, until he was very old, even then, not much. After he passed away, i found some of his flight training record books. I think they were partially filled out by my father and some parts of the entries by the instructor. To me, very interesting. Recorded location, date and time, weather, temperature, wind direction and speed. What they were working on for that day, like level flight, turns, etc. Then the instructor would "grade" them. He had a few humorous, after war, stories. One story he told me about, during conflict really bothered him. I'm paraphrasing because i don't recall exactly, he said when you are way up high dropping bombs, you are too worried about survival of yourself and your men, to think of anything else, but one bombing mission was very low and he recalled being horrified with seeing people and horses flying thru the air like rag dolls as the bombs exploded among them.
 
   / A date which will live in infamy #57  
cqaigy2 said:
My dad didn't speak much about the war, until he was very old, even then, not much. After he passed away, i found some of his flight training record books. I think they were partially filled out by my father and some parts of the entries by the instructor. To me, very interesting. Recorded location, date and time, weather, temperature, wind direction and speed. What they were working on for that day, like level flight, turns, etc. Then the instructor would "grade" them. He had a few humorous, after war, stories. One story he told me about, during conflict really bothered him. I'm paraphrasing because i don't recall exactly, he said when you are way up high dropping bombs, you are too worried about survival of yourself and your men, to think of anything else, but one bombing mission was very low and he recalled being horrified with seeing people and horses flying thru the air like rag dolls as the bombs exploded among them.
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What was flying in?
 
   / A date which will live in infamy #58  
ArlyA said:
What was flying in?
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B-17
Army Air Corp.


When he had been rotated back to the states, one of his jobs to move planes from one place to another. On one such flight, one of the crew's brother had been released from German POW camp and was in a house close along their flight path. So they came up with a plan to welcome him home. Since they had so much experience dropping bombs, they figured that experience would translate well with their plan to put a message on a water canteen, and pitch it out of the plane, so it would land in the yard. Apparently all the experience didn't help with their 12lb canteen, as it missed the yard, the brothers house, but did hit the house behind his. Luckily, nobody was hurt. There was an investigation into the incident, and luckily for them all, the circumstances were taken into consideration and nothing was put on record, except a reprimand for my father, as he was an officer and piloting the plain.
 
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