Cool WW2 story

[mikeakanice]

Thought this was a pretty awsome story. Especially with all the horrible things that go on in war, it's nice to see some light in mostly horrible situations.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/09/living...html?hpt=hp_c1

[Evil Inside]

That is pretty cool to read, good to see that people can overcome their differences even in the time of war and stick together.

[Manakin]

Oh wow, that's amazing.

Best story i have is that my grandad was just being discharged in Germany and was winding down when the wall fell - he ended up selling parts of it back home for a little fortune.

I admire his business plan!

[mvallas]

The best WW2 story I remember is the Christmas soccer match.

Long and short, it was Christmas even on the front lines. One particular American platoon was curious what the Germans were doing for Christmas eve... so they snuck across the field - only to find a German platoon sneaking from their front lines. They discovered that they were curious what the Americans were doing.

So, after the translations went - they decided to have a soccer-match in mid-field on Christmas Day and had a blast.

Day after Christmas, both were given orders to do - and they refused to do them, because they didn't want to hurt the other people they played with the previous night. THey just couldn't do it - and both platoons had to be replaced.

[Starscr3am]

It's easy to forget that wars are often good men doing battle against good men. They are both just manipulated by others to fight their disputes.

[a77]

The best WW2 story I remember is the Christmas soccer match.

Are you sure you do not confuse it with the WW1 Christmas soccer match http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_truce but I am sure that the soldier in ww2 would also like to play soccer then to make war....

[Kalis]

The best WW2 story I remember is the Christmas soccer match.

Long and short, it was Christmas even on the front lines. One particular American platoon was curious what the Germans were doing for Christmas eve... so they snuck across the field - only to find a German platoon sneaking from their front lines. They discovered that they were curious what the Americans were doing.

So, after the translations went - they decided to have a soccer-match in mid-field on Christmas Day and had a blast.

Day after Christmas, both were given orders to do - and they refused to do them, because they didn't want to hurt the other people they played with the previous night. THey just couldn't do it - and both platoons had to be replaced.

Do you have any references for that?

As a77 said, a famous event occurred in the First World War between British and Germans, but that was in 1914, well before the US had entered the war.

[RICH1471]

Do you have any references for that?

As a77 said, a famous event occurred in the First World War between British and Germans, but that was in 1914, well before the US had entered the war.

Yeah, I know for certain the Brits and Germans did, but never heard about any Americans involved. The Officers on both sides were furious apparently

[Ciddy]

Makos opened the book and saw an inscription Stigler had written to Brown:
In 1940, I lost my only brother as a night fighter. On the 20th of December, 4 days before Christmas, I had the chance to save a B-17 from her destruction, a plane so badly damaged it was a wonder that she was still flying.
The pilot, Charlie Brown, is for me, as precious as my brother was.
Thanks Charlie.
Your Brother,
Franz

It's getting kind of dusty in here. Damn allergies....I musta got something in my eye.

[Archangel Tyrael]

Well... I know one from my grandfather.

They had a group of british soldiers as prisioners, he was talking about how they were to be transported to another area so he mentioned die Fahrt (the journey/trip) to said area was going to be hellish because of the weather... then the British started to laugh because of how many times he said Fahrt (it sounds a bit like FART)...

Stupid, but it's the only thing I got...

edit - had to edit because I wrote american at first, got things messed up, corrected already.

[Numeanor]

I also have one strange story from my grandfathers. One of my grandfathers was fighting on partisan side in liberation of Yugoslavia, and other grandfather was Austrian (recruited originally in German army). Well that Austrian grandfather was recruited into army just some weeks before Germany went to Stalingrad and he had a rank of unteroffizier (or something like sub-officer). He was commander of a tank-like armoured vehicle as he was engineer and very handy with tools. After he was recruited he was sent to quick training with new weapons and then to eastern front (toward Stalingrad). He was on the way there when Germany already started to lose there and he never got to Stalingrad as his train was cancelled.
Their unit/battalion was to reorganized and some of them were sent to Yugoslavia territory to help infantry and other soldiers with armoured vehicles. During that transfer he had saved life of his superior officer (I think it was some lieutenant-general or something similar, pretty high ranked). He was awarded German cross 2nd grade (which I still have at home) directly from Hitler when he was visiting Maribor (city in Slovenia). He was on duty there for a few months and then he was transferred to help fighting of partisans around major city Ljubljana (after Italy capitulated and started to withdraw). When he came to Ljubljana, he fell in love with one Slovenian girl (mother of my father).
When Germany started losing the war he decided to desert and marry that girl and to stay in Slovenia/Yugoslavia.
Before war ended he defected to partisans and as he already know some of the language and had a lot of engineering knowledge he offered himself to drive trains for them. They took him in and kinda "forgot" he was on German side before (he actually never fired a bullet in whole war). He lost sight on one eye in some minor accident with train but he survived.
Funny things happened after war ended and when his son (my father) found a girl which father was pretty good ranking officer during war on partisan side. Before they met, grandfather from mother side, was totally against that her daughter is dating a son of someone who were his enemy during the war, but when they met, they became pretty good friends and they got drunk together on first day. Neither of them enjoyed the war and neither of them fired any bullet during whole war. They were both pretty much forced into army and into war. My (Austrian) grandfather was never a nazi and he never wanted to fight against humanity but he was forced to defend his homeland. My other grandfather had finished military school but he wasn't much into war as well. He always say that war isn't the solution to solve our differences but when you are forced to defend your home you have to take it or die.
After war my (austrian) grandfather got a job in yugoslavian railroad company and my other grandfather became photographer (he was also skilled artist). I have never met them in person as they both died before I was born, but as I told they were both bunch of nice guys. As I told I still have german medal at home and I had Luger 9 pistol and german officer cap but my father donated them to museum with some pictures years ago. From my other grandfather I have a lot of pictures (yes he was taking photographs even during war) and his partisan cap.