Life Thread v2.0

Me and the bird did a sprog a couple of weeks ago.

Congratulations, Scotchy! I hope you, the wee bairn, and mum are all doing well!

I was just thinking about you the other day Andy! Glad to hear things are working out for you in the end!

When you get to the last episode and they are in the "Eagle's Nest" (Kehlsteinhaus is it's name now). I was there last year.





It's a restaurant now. That's the Italian red marble fireplace that Mussolini donated to the project behind us. I had some good Goulash, a Hoffbrauhaus Munchen Helles, and a delicious chocolate torte when we were there. Rained like cats and dogs the entire time we were on the mountain.

We spent two weeks retracing my grandfather's footsteps through the war. My mom had always wanted to take the trip, so she and my dad footed the bill for the entire family. Flew into CDG Airport in Paris (Never do this, their customs is atrocious and will go on strike at the peak of passengers unloading from planes) from there we hit:

• Commonwealth Beaches and Battery Longues


• Bayeux France (Stayed at the hotel where Ike, Omar, and Monty stayed


• Omaha & Utah Beaches


• Back to Paris


• Brussels


• Westwall and Hurtgen Forest


• Aachen


• Duren


• Cologne


• Remagen


• Koblenz


• Mainz


• Colmar (France)


• Strausburg (France)


• Tamer (Where my grandfather crossed the Rhine yet again)


• Worms


• Lots of little towns south of Innenstadt where he bivouacked for a period of time.


• Wurzburg (If you're ever here, there are some really good restaurants in town and one hell of an outdoor bar, Hennes Kiosk, in front of the Hotel Walfisch that sees the sun set behind the Marienberg Fortress


• Jossa (another Bivvy for a period of time)


• Bamburg (worth a stop in the city center, good restaurants, beautiful river, very relaxed


• Nuremberg, including the Zeppelin Field, Courthouse, and old city


• Dachau (Grandfather was with the Rainbow Division when they liberated it)


• Munich (one hell of a town!)


• Berchtesgaden


• Eagle's Next (Kehlsteinhaus)


• Back ton Munich where we flew out the next day

I'd love to go back. My son LOVED the whole trip.

Been working remote since 2020 and decided to move to New York recently. Things have been going really well here so far, going to be a hot summer.

impulse418 wrote: He liberated a camp....I can't imagine doing all that fighting just to top it off with that, that's brutal.

He was part of an artillery battalion. HQ battery. He was the mechanic in charge of keeping the aerial observation planes flying, so he never had to fire a weapon on the field of battle. he got shelled a few times by counter-battery fire, early on, especially around the west wall and Hurtgen, but once they crushed the Colmar pocket, it was pretty safe since the Wehrmacht couldn't muster much in the way of arty and ammo for the tubes they did have. He earned a bronze star, but we recently found out it wasn't for anything related to battle, but rather for the fact that he was able to keep those planes flying regardless. He was a master machinist who literally turned shafts and other parts on lathes in the field. He even found a way to squeeze another 70hp out of the engines for the recon planes in the field. Gave his spotters an edge and kept them alive.

When the rainbow division hit Dachau, his battalion HQ was right on the heels of the infantry (he heard the infantry boys shooting the SS guards who didn't flee). Being in charge of the aerial reconnaissance planes, he and "Smith," one of his S2 buddies, had cameras and were told to record everything they could. Smith had two sets of photos developed from the negatives and took one batch, split them up between his friends (my grandfather included), and had the men secret them in their possessions to make sure the truth got out if the US Govt. didn't reveal the pure evil that the Nazis had perpetrated. We still have the photos with the descriptions that Smith typed up on the back in our possession. Bodies stacked like cordwood, the dead from the Buchenwald "death train" the crematorium, etc.

Edited by tallen702 - 04 June 2023 at 2:07am

My grandfather died pretty young. Before my mom even got married.

The historian (who teaches at the war college) that was our guide said that it was likely due to the innate mistrust of the military and government that most soldiers develop during their time in service, especially during wartime.

Lots of rumors were swirling around by then. That we'd strike a deal with someone who replaced Hitler should they surrender, that we'd scoop up the remaining German army and turn on the Russians (this one was common on both sides of the lines) etc. etc.

One thing we learned is that the French really didn't care too much that they were ruled by Germany until the men had to do forced labor for the Germans. They'd leave for their labor duty for a year or two, and when they'd come back, their girlfriends, daughters, or wives would have taken up with the German soldiers who were stationed there more often than not. The French, and most of the other countries that Germany invaded, were more than happy to turn over their Jewish citizens, so soldiers were also worried that it'd get covered up to save face for our newly liberated allies.

Congratulations Dr. AgentWhale007! Making tenure is damned near impossible in this day and age and is one heck of an amazing achievement! Outstanding job sir!