Normandy Stories

With Normandy release fast approaching,

I thought a thread about Normandy Stories would be appropriate.

These are real life tales told to us kids by my dad while he was alive.

Many stories we never heard until he developed Alzheimer's disease

because they were to painful for him to relate.

He would then live in the past and tell these tales.

Back then you "bucked up" and held your feeling in.

My dad arrived in Normandy about five days after the beach was secured.

He was a radio man, fixing all the equipment.

The first thing they had him do was to repair a radio in a aircraft that had been damaged.

He fixed the radio and the pilot told him he needed to test it.

Told him to hop in the back! Must have been a two seat aircraft. We never found out what kind.

He took my dad for a ride up and down the Normandy coast. Dad said the image that stuck with him after all the years was (his words) "How red the sand was"

Also how amazing the coast looked with all the craters and bomb damage.

He never forgot it!

The second task for him was to be escorted to the front lines to repair the main communication radio that had been damaged by shrapnel.

They got a small group of soldiers to escort him and his equipment truck to the the front.

After fixing the radio, he was sitting in his truck smoking and a buzz bomb landed 20 feet from the truck.

He could hear it coming as they made a very distinct sound.

The bomb went off and shrapnel went though the side of the truck, though the tool box he was sitting on, and out the other side of the truck.

He told us we came "that close" to never being born!

He said he shook for hours!

In another tale, He was moving though southern France and came upon a bombed out school house.

He only told us this tale after getting Alzheimer's disease.

There were dead kids everywhere!

The ones that were left were starving.

His troop gave them all of the food they had and treated the wounded.

He went without food for 5 days after that.

There are many more tales to tell but I will stop here and hope you guys will relate your own Normandy stories.

Please add your own!

Especially any pilot related tales.

They could be the basis of real life missions created for the new map!

Thank you

Hawkeye

Thanks, Hawkeye. Really appreciate these stories, as most of us have never had the chance to hear about such things. Looking forward to more!

Over 400 views and not one tale to tell?

Someone must have stories to tell!

Please Share!

Thank you!

I don't have any Normandy stories, because my Dad was in the Pacific with the Marines :(

I remember one story he told though, but it wasn't really combat, just training. His unit was on Hawaii getting ready to deploy into the South Pacific, and they were getting some jungle training. This day they were to learn how to eliminate a pillbox with a pole charge, which he described as a stick of TNT with along fuse on a long pole. Hearing all Dad's stories, I think he was his sections smart *ss, so when they needed a volunteer for demonstrating something, he was always picked.

This was a live-fire training, and the instructor needed 3 or 4 guys, 3 to give covering fire with Thompsons and 1 to carry the pole charge. Dad said he wanted to get a Thompson because he though that would be fun, but the instructor said, "not you Dangerous Dan, your my pole charge man".

The instructor told the sub-mg guys to fire around the pill box to suppress the enemy and told my Dad to light the fuse and charge forward on his signal and then drop the charge on top of the pillbox. Dad said he thought, that's not the way to do it, you have to push the pole through the slit of the pillbox.

So the instructor sent the 3 sub-mg gunners forward firing up a storm, all the while there's an mg inside the pillbox firing over the heads to the sub-mg guys. Then he signals Dad to go, so he lights the fuse and charges forward. When he's under the slit of the pillbox he slides the charge into the slit, but it slid back out. So he slid it back in again, and it slid back out again, so he slid it back in a third time, and this time it stayed. His section told him that just before the TNT went off, some guy went bolting out of the back of the pillbox running for cover :doh:

My Grandfather has been dead now for 10 Years sadly :(

Can hardley remember his Storys because i was to young not that intressted as i am now in WW2 Stuff, and refuse to ask him you feel his Pain about this Time.

He served from 1943 with the JG5 Ice Sea Fighters (Eismeerjäger) (My Avatar Picture) on the Eastern Front Murmansk.

His Unit operated in July 1944 From Aerodrom Evreux with Operations against Allied Airforce.(Normandy)

But never remember he Speak anything about this, so i am not quit sure he was definitley here.

He took part in the End Stage of WW2 in the Reichsdefence against allied Bomberraids so far i Remember.

Storys i remember two so far, his most memorable Storys:

1000 and one Ways to die, his Katschmarek (Wingman) was pretty ill with a cold.

After my Grandfather landed in Front of him he blacked out, he rolled with his 109 on that Tail of my Grandfathers 109 and the Engine dont cut out before the Propeller smashed his entire rear Airframe and hit the Amored Back Seat Plate.

He got chased by a P-51 trough a Valley, after Hits he lose his elevator bad thing they Valley found his End, he managed to make a crash landing but slide his 109 direct in to a Farm House on top of the hill.

He Break his Leg and Arm, deep cut from the Revi forehead, but the German Farmer belive that was a allied Aircraft that left only debirs from his House.

And the Farmers was on there way to give him a warm wellcome with the Pitchfork.

Lucky they found the a part of the Tail with swastika, they realize that was a German aircraft.

The last Months of the War he was grounded in the Hospital, where in meanwhile his Squadron was completly wipeout. This crash saved his life in the End.

There is more i remember but realy bloody from the Eastern Front doesnt want to tell here.

Thanks for sharing chaps

Sadly this thread did not receive the attention it deserved.

However, I will share yet another tale as told to us kids by my my Father as we sat on the couch, after our weekly bath on Saturday night.

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The troop he was assigned to had made their way to, I believe, Deauville where they were to get some much needed R & R.

While the rest of the men decided to go out drinking and chasing the French Ladies, He, being married, walked around and saw the sights instead.

The first night, walking back to the camp, he passed a small French bar and decided to go in and get a beer. Sitting at he bar, he noticed a piano over in the corner.

Now Dad was a gifted self taught piano player who could listen to a piece of music and then just play it. By "ear"

He motioned to the piano and asked if he could play it.

The bar keep indicated yes so he sat down and began to play all the big band music he knew.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by the other patrons, all French, who insisted they not only pay for his beer, but invite him back every night for dinner and drinks in exchange for a bit of piano playing!

This was a offer he could not refuse!

French food and Beer!

Needless to say, he walked back to the camp that night more than a bit tippsy!

So for the remainder of his time there, he ate, and drank like a king! For free!

He always held a special place in his heart for the French people since that time.

A feeling which I share!

So you see, not all the stories to come from that time were bad!

This was one of the neatest he related.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Gents,

I just would like to thank you all for sharing the stories.

All the best,

Sydy

An interesting story from a glider pilot who flew on d-day.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-articles/veterans-story-flying-fabric-piloting-plywood.html

An interesting story from a glider pilot who flew on d-day.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-...g-plywood.html

I am creating one of these...............

Need to do the animation.

Figure out how to load troops

Figure out how to get another aircraft to tow it up and release it! :music_whistling:

It is a WIP.

Nice work!

Thats really great, My dad was a commando, Sword beach, did some time with the Glider Pilot regiment, but I imagine that would have been Horsa's, be nice to have one of those too, but the Hadrian looks cool

On 6/26/2017 at 1:57 PM, Rangi said:

An interesting story from a glider pilot who flew on d-day.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/warbird-articles/veterans-story-flying-fabric-piloting-plywood.html

Not just D-Day but on 4 occaisions and volunteered for 5...

This is a grand thread to see resurrected, My Grandfathers were both Farmers who ended up drivers and did their best to stay as far south in the pacific as possible which still didnt manage to keep them out of Morseby when the fun started.  It would be wonderful to see that part of the world modelled one day.