Thread by @SandyofCthulhu

It's Memorial Day, and so I want to remember some of my family that fought for their country.

My grandfather, Jack Ousey, emigrated to Canada from Wales, and joined the Canadian Army around 1915. His one and only battle in WW1 was the Somme! He got shot in his arm and leg and lay in a mud puddle for three days. The German Red Cross found him and saved his life. He spent the rest of the war in a prison camp, working on a farm during the summer, and at a lumber camp in the winter.

When he got home, his wife was living with another man. Yes, she knew he was alive - the Red Cross sent letters. So remember, military members. Josey is always waiting, in every time, every age. Eventually they split and he went to Chicago where he found my grandmother. He was an incredible man with many more parts to his story, but today I wanted to focus on just his military career. Also may Douglas Haig rot in the lowest circle of Hell for his arrogance, incompetence, and condemning so many good men to death and crippling. My grandpa did manage to survive his ineptitude, but so many did not.
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My wife's father served in Germany in the 103rd Infantry during World War 2. He was actually part of a so-called tank destroyer battery. I say "so-called" because his unit only ever had towed guns. When they first landed in France they had 37mm and they knew these were worthless. They got upgraded to 57mm pretty quick. Not a lot better. Granddad wasn't on a gun crew though. He carried a rifle and stayed in foxholes.

His unit fought through the Vosges, stormed both the Maginot and the Siegfried Lines, and eventually liberated one of the Dachau camps. As far as I know his unit never encountered a German tank, though they saw StuGs and trucks.

One of his stories was about going through the famous Dragon's Teeth of the Siegfried Line. He said as he was walking, he heard a voice cry out, "Duck!" and he jumped behind a "tooth" just as machine-gun fire spattered the place he stood. No one else was around so he attributed it to heaven warning him.

In another story, they were taking mortar fire so he and a friend jumped under a truck for cover. When the bombardment ended, they crawled out from under the truck, and looked at it. It was an ammunition truck! Worst cover ever.

He said as they advanced, sometimes instead of digging their own, they got to occupy a German foxhole. He said German holes were the best - neatly dug, with shelves for storage cut into the walls. Much better than American foxholes.
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My wife's uncle was a Marine in WW2 and his one and only battle was Iwo Jima! He said that every Marine on the island was able to see the famous flag raising - the island was only 5 miles across and the flag was on the highest point. He said it was exceedingly heartening. He was not on Mount Suribachi - he was down in the ash plains in a hole getting shot at and mortared by the Japanese.

During a banzai charge at night, he shot a sword-waving Japanese officer only a few yards from his hole. When things were still again, he crawled out to the dead officer, and retrieved some of his papers. The officer's paybook had a picture of his wife in a kimono and his child. He couldn't read Japanese of course, but always felt kind of bad about shooting the guy. On the other hand, what could he do? He didn't want to get killed by the sword! He determined he wanted to give the paybook back to the officer's family post-war.

Sadly later he was carrying some coffee up to the front line for his buddies, and a machinegun shot him in both legs, so that was the end of the war for him. In the hospital ship, he lost the Japanese officer's paybook or it was taken away, so he was never able to return it or find the family. So not a Hollywood ending. Just a tragedy, like tens of thousands on Iwo Jima. At least he survived. Thousands didn't.

Curse the Japanese High Command for throwing away their men to preserve their diseased honor.
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I have other tales, as probably do most everyone if they do some research down their family trees. The husband of a German couple who lived next to my house in Utah fought on the Russian Front. A Russian family that lived across from my wife's family home survived both Stalin and Hitler. My dad's brother was in the occupation army of Japan.

I had an ancestor who fought at Lexington. I've not yet uncovered if he participated in any other part of the Revolutionary War. I had another ancestor who was a Union Captain in the Civil War. I had ancestors who survived the Irish Potato Famine and came to the USA.

There is so much amazing history - your people survived it all to create YOU. Remember their fight, and strive to be worthy of them.

And, if you like, share your tale here.
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#MemorialDay

I was boasting to my wife that I had two ancestors who came over on the Mayflower, and she told me she had one that was at Jamestown. The Jamestown ancestor eventually returned to England, which is how she survived. So she won THAT contest.