Jerry Story Time!

[Stench]

I don't know about you, but I think I need a Jerry story to tide me over this weekend!

Whadda say Jerry?

[Sigarz]

yep I agree, wucha got for us Jerr?

[commonsenseman]

Oooooooo a story???

[veteranvmb]

Originally Posted by commonsenseman

Oooooooo a story???

Okay, heres a war story from my wifes side of the family, that I thought about writing into a novel or a book. I started it several times, but never could get it going to where it would be interesting.

EVERY BIT OF THIS STORY IS TRUE

It starts out with a young man from St. Louis, who wants to be a musician/opera singer. He is attending college right at the wars beginning.
He is a trumpet player in various school orchestras bands, and is one of the prime male singers doing opera at school.
This man is my future father in law.
Anyway money is very scarce and everyone is afraid of being drafted.
There is an announcement on the board in the music department, that there are tryouts for some sort of gig, for trumpet players and some other valved instrument players. Winners of the tryout, would get a paying long term gig.
Well this young man , goes to the university theatre where there are about six men seated in the first few rows. Lights were on the stage, so the performers couldnt see these people.
My future father in law, takes out his trumpet, and plays the star spangled banner on command. They then ask him to repeat some patterns done by one of these members who had a trumpet in the seating area.

They thanked him very much. A few days later he is in his dorm room, and these same men come to his room, and hand him his draft notice, into the tank corp.
It seems like they were getting prepared for the north africa tank campaign, and at that time the tanks had no radio communication, only morse code type communication, and they wanted soldiers, who had great ears, and could understand dots and dashes, while inside a powerful motored tank, and munitions and small arms fire going on at once.
Plus this communication person, would also be a machine gunner in the tank. AS well as photographer.
So, a week later, hes in basic training and yada yada yada , he gets sent to north africa with the army tank divisions.
NOW THIS IS ONLY PART OF THIS UNBELIEVABLE TALE.

The nazis were not taking any american prisoners in north africa at this point.
They were going into a certain battle, where they were not going to be supported with much infantry and were indirectly told, no prisoners, no quarter, kill anything you can.
So this huge battle ensues, and the americans are devastating the german tanks and infantry.
His tank takes out a nearby tank, and the german crew bail out of its tank before it explodes.
They start approaching his tank to surrender but they start getting shot at. His tank was running low on ammo too, and they were dismounting from the tank to use their rifles.
The german officer who was running away, happened to come right into the flank where my father in law was. He dropped to his knees, expecting to be killed, but instead said in German to the officer, run away, run away. (He knew some basic german from operas).

Now the war is over. This young man still wanted a career in the arts, but also was taught photographic reconnaissnce, and had become an expert with 35mm cameras and all sorts of cameras.

So this young man, decided to move to new york where everything was happening. He had married this girl he met, who was an army aircorp pilot, who shuttled planes from the u.s. into the war zones.
He couldnt find a job, and one day he sees an advertisement for leica camera, looking for a technical support person on their high end cameras.
He went for this interview, and these two men were chatting, and the chat turned into about the war.
It turned out that this man was the vice president of this company, was the german tank officer he showed mercy on.
Needless to say he got the job.
He passed on about two years ago. ,

Hows that for an absolutely true story.

Good night, Jerry

[piperdown]

But, but I don't waanntt to go to bed!

[Cigary]

Holy Crap Jerry! I have always believed there are no coincidences in life and this is another story that just confirms it. Was your FIL under Patton? There has got to be a ton more stories about stuff like this,,,,I am a sucker for history and stories.

[GrEg NiCe]

Great story. The first Jerry story I have read. Unbelievable!!!

[fuente~fuente]

Pretty neat story Jerry!

[Stench]

That is fantastic! That would make an awesome movie!

Thanks Jerry!

[Plop007]

Great story.

Small world.

[commonsenseman]

Wow amazing story Jerry, thanks for sharing.

[veteranvmb]

Originally Posted by Cigary

Holy Crap Jerry! I have always believed there are no coincidences in life and this is another story that just confirms it. Was your FIL under Patton? There has got to be a ton more stories about stuff like this,,,,I am a sucker for history and stories.

u

No, I dont believe he was under patton. As you know Gary, most of these world war 2 veterans, didnt think they were or doing anything special, and never talked about the war. That is about the only thing I knew about him from the war, except for one other small humorous tale, that if requested, I will relate.

My dad never hardly ever talked about the war, and he was a marine in the philipines before the war began, and his unit took a beating, by sacrificing lives, so the us. could recoup after pearl harbor.
It was these marines that kept australia and new zealand from falling into japanes hands. Australia still honor america for this, but new zealand has turned their back on us badly. Our naval ships are no longer allowed to dock there to refuel or rearm, if they are nuclear. Screw their behinds.
To the time he dies my Dad would never eat any farm of lamb. When the unit was moved to the coast of australia to protect from japanes naval invasion(you never hear about this in the history shows on t.v.) they were not getting regular supplies and they were forced to live basically off whatever australia had. And they had sheep, and plenty of it.

The people of Australia who were going without a lot of food, supplied those marines with Mutton, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 20 meals a week. (only 2 on Sunday, which is military tradition in some places).
It was tough grizzly mutton meat in stews. Its the only thing my dad woudnt eat. He would eat elephant dung, before lamp, or sheep.

I have learned more about my dad, from going over the years to his reunions, in his place. He had been deceased for close to twenty years now. I miss him.

Jerry

[samywilson]

First time I read such kind of awesome story,it was too good.Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Stench]

Both of my grandfathers served in WWII, one as an MP in France and the other was a gunner on a destroyer in the pacific. As you said Jerry, neither thought they were doing anything as important as they actually were. I can remember sitting in the floor listening to the stories when I was very young. A lot of it I couldn't totally understand until I was much older. It seems my Dad's Dad (the MP) routinely had to patrol the red light district in Paris and I didn't get to hear much of those stories!

I have a ring that he had engraved with "1945" in Paris on VE day. Of course it is worthless, but it is one of the most precious things I have from my childhood.

Thank God I grew up in a time when we could still play Cowboys and Indians and such. I can vividly remember pretending to shoot down Zeros up in a tree after "Papaw" had regaled me with a story his adventures on the high seas!

[veteranvmb]

[QUOTE=S

Thank God I grew up in a time when we could still play Cowboys and Indians and such. I can vividly remember pretending to shoot down Zeros up in a tree after "Papaw" had regaled me with a story his adventures on the high seas![/QUOTE]

Just remember when you go to buy a car, and maybee look at one thats made by mitsubish or has a motor from one. This is the same factory that made the zeros during ww2.

And if you want to dig deeper, same reason germany owns or owned until recently such a big piece of misubishi. Last I heard they were trying to sell.

Those axis allies still have deep roots. Do not think the war has ever ended....It still goes on.

Japan has elected a new government that is anti us involvement on any level. They want to go away from us dollars for international investment.
They are our friends only when they needed us. Read the lyrics of the old Kinks song, called Captain America is calling. It says it all.

Jerry