Anybodies Father in Italy during WWII?

Status
Not open for further replies.
My dad was born after WW2... My dad's aunt and uncle were in the WW2 but on the Soviet side. His uncle was a fighter pilot and was shot down and killed near Leningrad in 1942. His aunt was a front line nurse that survived the war. The farthest she reached was Berlin.

[irrelevant to this post but I need to keep my memory preserved]
 
My Grandfather was shot in Sicily during WW2. He received a Purple Heart. He passed away 12 years ago.
 
My father served in Dominican Republic (82nd Airborne) and Vietnam (101st Airborne and 174th Assault Helicopter)...he would have been a little young to have served in WWII.
lol.gif


My maternal grandfather was a combat engineer in Italy in WWII. He never really talked about it though. I'm sure it was unpleasant for combat engineers in general, clearing mines and obstacles left by the Nazis and Italian Fascists but minority (ie:Choctaw) combat engineers probably had it really bad.
 
My Dad went through Italy but passed away a few years ago. Don't remember him ever talking about Rome though. Maybe he never went through there.
 
Wife's grandpa was and we have a picture somewhere of him in uniform smiling in front of the Colosseum. Unfortunately he passed 20 years back and can't answer your questions.
 
My father served in Noth Africa befor being transported to Italy, it seems the British and Americans kind of Leap-Froged each other liberating the country.

Father was decorated after a huge battle at Monti Cassino were the German Army made a sort of last stand.

He then moved on to Rome (along side the Americans) and later into the hills and mountains, pushing North to the border of Ugoslavia.

It was here, his war ended when he was discharged after a re-lapse of Malaria**
(He contracted in North Africa)

Sadly my father died 18 years ago, but some letters have turned up, from a widow of a departed uncle (uncle was a Major in the Australian SAS)
My fater, is seem did not have a Malaria re lapse, it was possibly, what today would be called Post Trumatic Stress.

Father (in the letters) refers to an 'incident' but not what!
Perhaps the letter was a follow up of a conversation?

My fathers Regiment can or will not offer any new information .
 
Last edited:
My Uncle my Grandpa's brother was a part of the 82nd and was in Italy and many other battles. What do you want to know? I can not tell you a lot because I only have second hand knowledge and can only tell you what was written up on his awards for his actions during the battles. Sorry no first hand knowledge, unfortunately this is becoming harder harder to record everyday.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
My Uncle my Grandpa's brother was a part of the 82nd and was in Italy and many other battles. What do you want to know? I can not tell you a lot because I only have second hand knowledge and can only tell you what was written up on his awards for his actions during the battles. Sorry no first hand knowledge, unfortunately this is becoming harder harder to record everyday.


Yes almost impossible.
Id like some idea of what was happening, and the solders feelings at that time. The closing weeks of the war.
My father never really talked about what happened after Rome.
Other than they spent some time on 'Mount Purgatory'
There is no mount Purgatory (other than Dante's writing) so I assume this was a British Nickname for some local mountain in Northern Italy.
When I was 15 I went to Italy with my father. We visited several sights near Naples and Casino, and looked up names in the cemeteries.
My father did not want to go into the Northern part.

I've almost drawn a blank in the U.K. but I hope to meet with a Gentleman that served in the Indian army who served in the area.
 
What was your Father's regiement? If you can provide that I maybe able to find some more information, I do not know if it is something you do not already know. But I might be able to lead you down a path for more information. I can not promise anything new though. Among have love for Automobiles, I also absorb any thing that relates to Military History related and WWII era is something I have a lot of knowledge of and enjoy reading and listing to Vets of the Era.
 
Because a lot of history is being lost, I've been trying to get people to try to record memories of their older relatives. My son in law has a 93 year old grandfather that came up from Mexico as a kid. I keep telling him to write up a list of things to ask and give to him and then later record. The guy is still pretty active and lives fine by himself. Wish I would have done it with my parents before they passed or lost their memory.
 
Different place, but my grandfather was in the dutch army as the nazis invaded, yet there is no way of hearing what really happened to him, he never spoke of it. Then proceeded to live 5 years under the nazis.
 
Originally Posted By: 65cuda
Wish I would have done it with my parents before they passed or lost their memory.


Oh yes. My maternal grandmother had plenty of interesting stories from his service in the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army in WWI.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
What was your Father's regiement? If you can provide that I maybe able to find some more information, I do not know if it is something you do not already know. But I might be able to lead you down a path for more information. I can not promise anything new though. Among have love for Automobiles, I also absorb any thing that relates to Military History related and WWII era is something I have a lot of knowledge of and enjoy reading and listing to Vets of the Era.


Thanks Dave, PM sent.
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
grandmother


Oops, I guess I can't type. Last time I checked, there weren't a lot of women in combat in WWI. My grandmother wasn't one of them, to my knowledge, but my grandfather was.
 
My great aunt Nina was a Tufts Medical school graduate about 1910. She was an AEF field nurse in France, her life long companion, Miss Sherwood, was an ambulance driver. But, yah, there weren't very many women over there in WWI .
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top