Did you lose an ancester in direct line during a war?

[Roubignol]

I never knew my grandfather who was killed at the beginning of the Second World War by the German army.
He was a young father of 23 years old and never knew my mother, because she's born just after his death.

Do you have a similar story? (Injuries, death, ancester killed during the First World War or Secession War or War against the Bolchevists, etc...)

[cicciobuki]

I was lucky, all my grandparents survived both World Wars.

One grandpa was a soldier and after he ducked for some artillery fire, the Germans already had overrun his defence line (they put the blitz in the krieg). he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war / worker in a Polish farm (could've been much worse for him)
His wife (my grandmom) escaped a V2 bomb because she was out grocery shopping. When she came back their appartment was gone.

I don't know much about my other grandfather, but i know my (other) grandmom told me stories about how her parents had to house German soldiers during WWI. And that many of these young German soldiers were crying of pain because their feet were bleeding from all the marching.

[Roubignol]

Honestly, I personnaly never psychologically suffered about my grandfather's death.
Sometimes I'm a little bit sad for him and my grandmother. A young father of 23 years old has not to die.

One of the most surprising stories that my mother told me about my grandmother, it's that she even had some pity about young German soldiers who were based in her city and had to move to the Russian battlefield. Even at that time, they get some informations that the war was terrible there.
She finally had no ressentment against ALL the German soldiers. She knew that a lot of them would have prefered to stay at home with their girlfriends or families, instead to follow the orders of a crazy dictator.

After the war she married another man who I considered him as my grandfather.
A very nice man. Even my mother considered him as her father.

He told me that he was in a prisoner camp in Germany.
Hopefully the camp was not a concentration camp. He was treated better than the Jews in Eatern camps, but the life was very difficult in the camp.

The story that shocked me the most was the following: as prisoners, they had so few too eat, that one time he had to put his fingers in his own asshole to take out a very small piece of shit that didn't get out of his anus.
He also told me that the winters were terribly cold and they had not the clothes to support the frozen temperatures.

After hearing these sad stories and watching some documentaries about several wars, I do not understand people who glorify war.
I'm sure that these people were officers giving orders after a good meal or people who never knew the war.

[seany65]

I don't know whether I have lost an ancestor in a war, but it's possible.

I do know my maternal grandfather was an ambulance driver in the second war and at some pointwhen he was in Belgium somehow helped a Belgian jeweller, who made him a ring with a fairly big green stone in it as a thank you. My mother owned it, but the stone fell out and was lost sometime in the 80's and she had the stone replaced with a yellow one.

[ponky]

In last century grandfather (WWI) and two close-relatives (1990s Yugoslav wars).

[BondJmsBond]

My uncle was killed in Belgium in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge.
He is on this page



I try to imagine the Uncle I never knew...He was 18...just a kid, cold and scared outside in freezing winter in a strange country, dying. My tears come, writing this, and I am a grown man. My mother, his sister, cries whenever his name is mentioned. She was 14 when he died. Her dream was to visit Belgium to visit his grave, but she never did and is too old now for the trip.

I have in my home what his mother received of him, a strong box with a small gasoline stove and a fishing rod plus the folded flag which covered his casket.

I honor his memory and use his old fishing rod, it gives me a good feeling.

I wonder what life would be if he were still here.

Thank you for asking, it helps to talk about it sometimes.

[Roubignol]

@BondJamesBond
Do you know in which Belgian city he was burried?

There is Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial

And you can maybe see his grave searching here

or this cemetery

Neuville-en-Condroz American Cemetery and Memorial

If he's burried in this cimetery, you can maybe see his grave searching
here

But if he's not burried in Belgium then you can do a more general search here

If you'll find his grave, you maybe can show it to your mother.

Best regards.

[otokonomidori]

According to my father he died in BOTH world wars for the ungrateful likes of me.

[BondJmsBond]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

@BondJamesBond
Do you know in which Belgian city he was burried?

There is Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial

And you can maybe see his grave searching here

or this cemetery

Neuville-en-Condroz American Cemetery and Memorial

If he's burried in this cimetery, you can maybe see his grave searching
here

But if he's not burried in Belgium then you can do a more general search here

If you'll find his grave, you maybe can show it to your mother.

Best regards.

Yes, we know where he is, and have pictures of his grave etc. when some relatives went to Europe. Thank you for your help

[palo5]

Two great-uncles missing in the Civil War, but they were fighting for the Bolsheviks, not against them. My grandfather said they were around Irkutsk and he never heard from them again. He was only told they were missing. I never knew them