What Are You Doing Right Now? (294 Viewers)
- Thread starter ßöмßäяðîëя
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Not sure if I've posted this here before but what the hell, a little story about my granddad during WW2. He never really said much about it, like so many of the people who served and saw the horrors, so some of it is anecdotal and other bits from my dad and vets I have spoken to.
He was a Welshman from the valleys, so he was a very outdoors person and had a particular skill set before he even joined the armed forces. He was in another RM unit (I think it was the 7th) before the D-Day landings. By the time D-Day came around he was in RM 48 Commando which had been formed shortly before. They were to land at Juno after the main Canadian force. His recollection of it is that the Canadians took a lot of losses to begin with but by a mixture of luck (the battery in that sector took a direct artillery or bomb hit and was destroyed, otherwise many more would have been killed) and their numbers and aggressiveness, the Canadians destroyed a large proportion of the Germany artillery and infantry division. More Canadian units followed and 48 Commando went in with them. He said the beach defences were incredible - mines, barbed wire, machine gun fire, artillery. Even getting onto the beach was a big problem, many drowned as they had to put the ramps down too far out, and there were mines and beams blocking. He did mention a couple of times about friends of his being blown to bits right next to him, it's pretty horrific stuff. The Allied forces were still losing a lot of men even at this point.
Behind the coastal defences were hundreds of Panzers and their units, but fortunately some had been drawn off behind to engage British airborne divisions so eventually they took the coastal defences. The fighting continued all the way through, their job was to take all the local French coastal towns and make them safe as the press inwards continued. Just before Caen the Germans made a counter-offensive against the Canadians and after some bitter close-quarter fighting they managed to stop them reaching Caen. By this time a British cruiser and some tanks had gained a foothold in the area and they bombarded the Germans from a distance. This fighting between the Germans and Canadians carried on for some time, with the Germans trying to take back towns, the Canadians lost a lot of men. The Germans were defensive position specialists but eventually it was Allied artillery that won out, as artillery was all-important in WW2. 46 and 47 Commando turned up to reinforce and from that point the Allies pushed inward to take French towns back.
After Normandy 48 Commando were sent to Walcheren, which is one of the Dutch islands in the south, to help liberate them from occupation. Another beach landing, taking gun emplacements and an artillery battery. They lost 1.5 out of the 3 troops of men who went in to take the battery, it ended up with a combination of ship cannons, artillery and Typhoon bombs before they could take the battery and the Germans surrendered. He lost a lot of friends that day, I think it was even worse for him than the D-Day landings. They moved on to another island and I think this one ended up with the defensive unit surrendering after a few hours so it wasn't as bad. The unit ended up in Germany by the end of the war as part of the occupying force.
Tough for me to imagine in the modern world we live in but my granddad did very well to survive through the war. 48 Commando were quickly disbanded after the war but became quite famous as a battalion who saw tough action every step of the way, as was their design. And so I am here to tell you this extremely interesting story
He made it to his 70s even though he had all sort of health problems by the end - he had that many bits of shrapnel in him he wouldn't have got onto a plane.
Obviously the war stories all sound exciting and dangerous, but as a person he taught me (and my cousin the same age) a lot of practical and survival things, but had time for everyone. Much respect to those men and women and that generation of people
He was a Welshman from the valleys, so he was a very outdoors person and had a particular skill set before he even joined the armed forces. He was in another RM unit (I think it was the 7th) before the D-Day landings. By the time D-Day came around he was in RM 48 Commando which had been formed shortly before. They were to land at Juno after the main Canadian force. His recollection of it is that the Canadians took a lot of losses to begin with but by a mixture of luck (the battery in that sector took a direct artillery or bomb hit and was destroyed, otherwise many more would have been killed) and their numbers and aggressiveness, the Canadians destroyed a large proportion of the Germany artillery and infantry division. More Canadian units followed and 48 Commando went in with them. He said the beach defences were incredible - mines, barbed wire, machine gun fire, artillery. Even getting onto the beach was a big problem, many drowned as they had to put the ramps down too far out, and there were mines and beams blocking. He did mention a couple of times about friends of his being blown to bits right next to him, it's pretty horrific stuff. The Allied forces were still losing a lot of men even at this point.
Behind the coastal defences were hundreds of Panzers and their units, but fortunately some had been drawn off behind to engage British airborne divisions so eventually they took the coastal defences. The fighting continued all the way through, their job was to take all the local French coastal towns and make them safe as the press inwards continued. Just before Caen the Germans made a counter-offensive against the Canadians and after some bitter close-quarter fighting they managed to stop them reaching Caen. By this time a British cruiser and some tanks had gained a foothold in the area and they bombarded the Germans from a distance. This fighting between the Germans and Canadians carried on for some time, with the Germans trying to take back towns, the Canadians lost a lot of men. The Germans were defensive position specialists but eventually it was Allied artillery that won out, as artillery was all-important in WW2. 46 and 47 Commando turned up to reinforce and from that point the Allies pushed inward to take French towns back.
After Normandy 48 Commando were sent to Walcheren, which is one of the Dutch islands in the south, to help liberate them from occupation. Another beach landing, taking gun emplacements and an artillery battery. They lost 1.5 out of the 3 troops of men who went in to take the battery, it ended up with a combination of ship cannons, artillery and Typhoon bombs before they could take the battery and the Germans surrendered. He lost a lot of friends that day, I think it was even worse for him than the D-Day landings. They moved on to another island and I think this one ended up with the defensive unit surrendering after a few hours so it wasn't as bad. The unit ended up in Germany by the end of the war as part of the occupying force.
Tough for me to imagine in the modern world we live in but my granddad did very well to survive through the war. 48 Commando were quickly disbanded after the war but became quite famous as a battalion who saw tough action every step of the way, as was their design. And so I am here to tell you this extremely interesting story
He made it to his 70s even though he had all sort of health problems by the end - he had that many bits of shrapnel in him he wouldn't have got onto a plane.
Obviously the war stories all sound exciting and dangerous, but as a person he taught me (and my cousin the same age) a lot of practical and survival things, but had time for everyone. Much respect to those men and women and that generation of people
Speaking of it, i could narrow down my great-granddad to the 3rd Panzer Group (later 3rd Panzer Army)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Panzer_Army
He apparently got killed in action during the battle of Memel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Memel
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Panzer_Army
He apparently got killed in action during the battle of Memel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Memel
dunno about net speeds and monthly fees around the world, but i guess it's not bad for ~18€, cable tv and landline phone included:
Thing is tho, no matter how expensive and shitty our third world internet may be, i literally never download a big enough file to notice the shortcomings
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