by expat » Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:26 am
That was a good read Mark...
I was very lucky in that my wife's grandfather was very open about his wartime experiences (except for one point) and would sit and tell me of his memories. He was in the Luftwaffe stationed in Russia, Crete and France and was a Waffenmeister (weapons chief) on the JU52. It was always interesting even when I had heard the stories for the 10th or 100th time. I just wish we had written them down as he is 10 years gone now. His fondest memories were being stationed in France. He was billeted with a family on a farm. He was forbidden from having anything to do with the family. Well, if you ever met Opa, then you would understand why within a week he was eating at the family dinner table and repairing farm equipment when no doing war stuff. After the war, he and his wife travelled many times to see said family to stay a while. Once age got the better of his ability to travel (along with two artificial knees) it was birthday and Christmas cards. Even today the children of the family are still in contact with my in-laws. And the one experience he would not talk about. In Russia he heard gunfire close to his airfield. He and another went to investigate. From a distance they witnessed the execution of what can only be Jews or resistance. When he came home from the war, he and Oma had to sleep in separate rooms as the nightmares he had involved a lot of violent movement. Today it it PTSD and can be treated. Back then you just had to man up to it....
Matt
"A bit of a pickle" - British translation: A catastrophically bad situation with potentially fatal consequences.
PETA
People Eating Tasty Animals.
B1 (Cat C) licenced engineer, Boeing 737NG 600/700/800/900 Airbus A318/19/20/21 and Dash8 Q-400
1. Captain, if the problem is not entered into the technical logbook.........then the aircraft does not have a problem.
2. And, if you have time to write the fault on a napkin and attach to it to the yoke.........you have time to write it in the tech log....see point 1.
