drogon Posted March 17, 2008 Report Share Posted March 17, 2008 Seems that both our families ancestors ended up fighting one war or another.... Czech side of my family seems to have been fighting for many sides too (worst story told in my family is the one where family members ended up figthing in the Asutria-Hungary imperial army and the other one for the Russian imperial army....in the same engagement) Having found myself stationed in Afghanistan only a few months I started to understand what it was like to be fired at...... 3 questions: - Both sides during WW2?? Mind to explain? (guess your family moved to the US a long time ago and one of your family members was in Adolf's paradise at that time and got recognized as being a pure German?) - The Fokker Dr.I (if I am right) which is your avatar, do you fly it yourself? - How long was your tour of duty in Vietnam? (which in my eyes represents the unknown war by excellence as so many soldiers died in many small skirmishes and operations that nobody remembers of) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Maybe there was no time to man the life boats ..we will never know .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 The Indianapolis disaster was described in "Jaws" where the shark hunter Quint tells his companions that he was one of the few survivors. I'm sure there was a "made for TV" movie on it as well. An excerpt from todays "The Australian"... While emotional families of the dead flooded talkback radio yesterday, Mr Burnett defended claims by a survivor of the Kormoran who described his father's actions as "incompetent" and "criminal". "I don't think he's in any position to make that judgment, but he's entitled to his opinion," Mr Burnett said. "My father was a very professional and highly regarded officer." Burnett's action in taking Sydney within a thousand meters of the raider was always questionable. The Komoran was actually a considerably larger ship and heavily armed with six/six inch guns and torpedoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Flash - if you like unknown wars, I've been fascinated by the actions of the British and Australian armies fighting for the White Russian's against the communists in the 1919/20 period. I didn't know this war even existed till I noticed in the Aussie War Museum, great museum by the way, had a list of Victoria Crosses, and one had been given out at this war to a Aussie. Very few Australians or British I think would know they fought against the Russians in 19/20 period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 The Kormoran was a converted merchant ship. No fire control, no armour ... wouldn't have stood a chance in a proper naval engagement. Captain Burnett obviously got careless and sailed in easy range. No other way to explain it. I've seen an interview with the German crewmen on line but can't find it now. The Kormoran's crew realised they were on a virtual suicide mission - no way they could return to Germany from it. The captain hoped to avoid HMAS Sydney, but did not have the identification codes friendly merchant ships in those waters should have had. Since they couldn't reply, Captain Burnett decided to take a closer look. Bad move ... but understandable. Who expected to find a German auxiliary cruiser off the coast of Australia? Still, it is unfair to blame Burnett all these years later. Hindsight is always 20-20. <> Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 CTO, the Americans were in that too. Ever read any of the American historical novelist Kenneth Roberts' books? He'd been a young lieutenant in that campaign. That's how I first heard about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 3 questions: - Both sides during WW2?? Mind to explain? (guess your family moved to the US a long time ago and one of your family members was in Adolf's paradise at that time and got recognized as being a pure German?) - The Fokker Dr.I (if I am right) which is your avatar, do you fly it yourself? - How long was your tour of duty in Vietnam? (which in my eyes represents the unknown war by excellence as so many soldiers died in many small skirmishes and operations that nobody remembers of) 1) My father's family is old stock American, my ancestors on that side all came to North Ameica between 1635 and 1745. My mother's family "came on the first boat and the last", as she says. German and Swiss emigrants in the 18th century, Irish around 1840, English in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and ethnic German from Hungary in 1907. I had close relatives in the UK, US and Austo-Hungarian armies in WWI. My great grandmother's brother stayed in Europe and got called up for WWI at the age of 40. Captured by the Russians, but managed to escape. His younger son got caught up in WWII; captured at Stalingrad but was one of the few to eventually return home. 2) Yep, Fokker Dr I (Dreidekker). No, I don't fly. My eyesight wasn't good enough, though now it has improved to 20-20. But my grandfather's cousins was one of the first US airmen to die in WWI. I used to have a nice collection of WWI pilots' memoirs. Left them with a friend when I went back to the US for some years - and he got rid of them! (Had Willy Coppens' book, but Ernst Udet's is the most enjoyable read. Clearly a very likeable fellow.) 3) Republic of Vietnam 3 Feb 69 to 10 Mar 70, combat engineer in the Central Highlands. More or less, we were supporting the 42 ARVN Regiment for 7 months of that. Only other Americans in the area were the 155 mm gunners at a few fire bases. I hadn't been there long, when the NVA attacked with tanks! Some guerrilla war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted March 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 An amazing and complex war, it seemed like all you had to do was raise an army and carve out your own private fiefdom. Even the Anarchists got into the act. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 Much went on in the far east too, parts of the Russian Empire that were up for grabs. The winners often executed the losers and atrocities were common. It was the beginning of the brutal behaviour so common on the Eastern Front in WWII. << The results of the civil war were momentous. Russia had been at war for seven years, during which time some 20,000,000 of its people had lost their lives. The civil war had taken an estimated 15,000,000 of them, including at least 1,000,000 soldiers of the Russian Red Army and more than 500,000 White soldiers who died in battle. 50,000 Russian Communists were killed by the counter-revolutionary Whites, and 250,000 civilians were killed by the Cheka. An estimated 100,000 Jews were murdered by the White Army in Ukraine. Punitive organs of the "All Great Don Host" sentenced 25,000 people to death between May 1918 to January 1919. Kolchak's Government shot 25,000 people in Ekaterinburg province alone. At the end of the Civil War, the Russian SFSR was exhausted and near ruin. The droughts of 1920 and 1921, as well as the 1921 famine, worsened the disaster still further. Disease had reached pandemic proportions, with 3,000,000 dying of typhus alone in 1920. Millions more were also killed by widespread starvation, wholesale massacres by both sides, and even pogroms against Jews in Ukraine and southern Russia. >> Wikipedia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torneyboy Posted March 18, 2008 Report Share Posted March 18, 2008 The Indianapolis disaster was described in "Jaws" where the shark hunter Quint tells his companions that he was one of the few survivors. I'm sure there was a "made for TV" movie on it as well.An excerpt from todays "The Australian"... While emotional families of the dead flooded talkback radio yesterday, Mr Burnett defended claims by a survivor of the Kormoran who described his father's actions as "incompetent" and "criminal". "I don't think he's in any position to make that judgment, but he's entitled to his opinion," Mr Burnett said. "My father was a very professional and highly regarded officer." Burnett's action in taking Sydney within a thousand meters of the raider was always questionable. The Komoran was actually a considerably larger ship and heavily armed with six/six inch guns and torpedoes. A shame we can't know what happened ...still a mystery.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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