Iama WW2 Veteran

Thanks for doing this! What do you think about America using the atomic bomb on Japan to end the war?

Bloody good. They deserved it, pulled them out of the war and saved alot of lives on both sides, however it is still upsetting that innocent civilians were caught by it.

How do you feel about a lot of countries owning nuclear weapons in today's world?

A bit on edge all it takes someone to make one wrong move and we could have a nuclear war, its not as big of a threat as it was during the cold war.

Bloody good. They deserved it, pulled them out of the war and saved alot of lives on both sides, however it is still upsetting that innocent civilians were caught by it.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON IN THIS THREAD

Its true i did play warZ :( got it right at Alpha. One of the worse mistakes of my life. Its horrible i know. I mainly play Walking Dead, Cod, Amnesia and watching PewDiePie scream and shit himself.

1. Do you still keep in touch with anyone you fought with?

2. How was your home different when you got back from fighting overseas?

3. How were you different after fighting overseas?

4. Were you ever given a command to which you were morally opposed? If so, how did you proceed?

5. Is there anyone you can thank for your survival or can thank you for theirs? (Follow-up: did you earn any medals?)

6. If there was one thing you could have done differently, what would it be?

Yes i did, not anymore because all of my friends who i fought with have since passed away. The most recent being Pete my best friend since i was 5.

I was suprised that war rations were still around after the war had ended 3 years earlier.

I had more respect for people most namely Jews, i even married a Jewish women. I also understood some of the hell my dad went through.

No we were given some silly orders such as drills that we had to do because we were in the army.

I guess i can thank my comrades and they can thank me. We were like a family and we kept eachother sane in a hostile enviroment far away from home. I earned to medals the WW2 medal and the palestine medal, i will upload the images later.

Not be in the army. However i enjoyed my time in the army, they did more bullshit training than actually training. What i did enjoy is doing the firearms training and we didnt do enough, probably because i was quite a shot.

Hmmm...

My granddad went by the name of Peter (although his real name is Evan), and he was a 92-year-old WW2 veteran, also lives NZ, and he passed away just the other week... was that him you were talking about by chance? If not, have you met him at WW2 veteran gatherings in NZ?

No sorry his name was Peter Eckels

Yes i did, not anymore because all of my friends who i fought with have since passed away. The most recent being Pete my best friend since i was 5.

I was suprised that war rations were still around after the war had ended 3 years earlier.

I had more respect for people most namely Jews, i even married a Jewish women. I also understood some of the hell my dad went through.

No we were given some silly orders such as drills that we had to do because we were in the army.

I guess i can thank my comrades and they can thank me. We were like a family and we kept eachother sane in a hostile enviroment far away from home. I earned to medals the WW2 medal and the palestine medal, i will upload the images later.

Not be in the army. However i enjoyed my time in the army, they did more bullshit training than actually training. What i did enjoy is doing the firearms training and we didnt do enough, probably because i was quite a shot.

Thank you.

No problem thank you for showing an interest.

No problem thank you for showing an interest.

I have several. Not expressly about WWII but in general.

-Was King George V as much a symbol for resistance for soldiers as history makes him out to be?

-Was Americas unwillingness to get involved until after pearl harbor a cause for anger for you?

-What change in the world most disturbs you from your childhood into today?

Thank you for doing this.

King George V not as much as an inspiration like history made him out to be. We were fighting for our country he was just a king.

No to my idea pearl harbour was a dirty sneak attack. I was happy just to get supplies from the USA. Had Pearl Harbour not happened America will of eventually joined the war but not until later like in WW1.

How quickly countries can obtain Weapons of mass destruction. And also in most countries how lack the prison sentencings are.

You are most welcome.

Most vivid memory?

We had a piss poor CO. He was shagging the bank managers wife. His driver Cpl Mac would bring his fishing rod while he was waiting

Greatest war story ever

I witnessed this. A bf110 was chased by two spitfires during the battle of britain. The bf110 came in about 20m above me with the spitfires coming in close behind. It crashed in my brother in laws farm and i found a scalp from one of the crew members. The dog ran off with a shin bone, i guess it stuck with me from 16 to now

I witnessed this. A bf110 was chased by two spitfires during the battle of britain. The bf110 came in about 20m above me with the spitfires coming in close behind. It crashed in my brother in laws farm and i found a scalp from one of the crew members. The dog ran off with a shin bone, i guess it stuck with me from 16 to now

I witnessed this. A bf110 was chased by two spitfires during the battle of britain. The bf110 came in about 20m above me with the spitfires coming in close behind. It crashed in my brother in laws farm and i found a scalp from one of the crew members. The dog ran off with a shin bone, i guess it stuck with me from 16 to now

Sorry, but this statement seems to be a very strange vivid memory. Care to elaborate on the context and significance in a time of war?

Sorry thats what my grandad said he will go into further detail and answer the relevance tomorrow :)

do you know how many people you've killed?

I will answer that for him as it is quite an emotional topic from what i have been told 1 confirmed, in comments if you have time to scroll down and 3 possible.

Hello Sir, I was wondering, what were conditions like in Burma? I know you ended up in Palestine, but my Grandfather fought in Burma; I sadly never really got the chance to talk to him about it and I was wondering if you knew much about it. Also, what kind of training did you recieve before being sent abroad?

Thank you for doing this AMA, and thank you for your service, words fail to express my gratitude and admiration.

Im sorry to hear that im sure your grandfather saw hell and was a brave man. Im sorry to tell you i never saw action in Burma my regiment had to do a uturn in the mediterranean sea and went straight to Palestine with our Jungle kit and carbines on. We recieved firearms training and drills and how to make ourselves look smaller and bullshit training.

What was the most intense moment of the war for you?

When we came under attack on our Battilion Day off we came under attack from the arabs lobbing grenades at us. Someone yelled out motars we got down and opened up fire i saw one run out of cover lined him up and fired my rifle at his chest he clutched his chest. After the skirmish i went to where he was shot and saw a blood trailer going to a tree 10 metres away and i saw his dead body.

Did you feel sympathetic for him, or did you block it out? Sorry, just curious.

I did both. Even now it is a bit hard to recall.

Thank you for responding. I'm commissioning in a few years so I was curious.

Again, thank you for your time. It is greatly appreciated by a generation that has much to learn from yours.

It is okay thank you for the question. Glad to hear that you have enlisted i have respect for you and all other current and former service men and women.

Thank you sir! I'm sure you have lots of stories to tell. Not just about the war, but of life in general.

In your opinion, how do we fix this crazy broken world?

Just make everyone shake hands and become friendly and band together to get us out of the reccession. And we need to cut down salaries and even them out for example not give CEOs 17,000 dollar payrises and give the lower workers 1,000. Even it out so the bosses dont get payed more than for being the bosses and use that surplus money to get more people in the workforce.

Did you bring home and really awesome souvenirs from the war? What was the funniest thing you saw while in the war?

An american 30. Cal machine gun ammo box. Probably as Eastbourne was bombed seeing the Milk man race down the road on his bike and come into our house and dive under our table with me.

He wasn't hauling ass on the bike from the bombs. He was hauling ass from a husband that came home early. You know Lance Armstrong didn't have shit on this man.

He was the prequel to the UPS man. South Park gotta love it.

He was the prequel to the UPS man. South Park gotta love it.

Hello sir,

Looking back at your life, would you go back into the army or would you have rather taken another route in your life? Thank you!

No i would have joined the RAF. The army was my last choice.

How do you think Americans today treat soldiers compared to WWII era? Are there any differences?

Edit: My bad, I misread the description for this AMA.

How America needed its allies in WW2 to take some of the grunt off of them. Today people see the USA as being a force in its own right which is true but America still needs to maintain strong relations with other countries thats why NATO is a very effective force.

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Im sorry to hear about the daughter. Your friend is a very brave man. It is horrible what is happening over there.

Probably killing someone, it didnt turn me into a monster it just made me feel like if it was that easy to kill him im sure it would be equally as easy for someone to kill me.

What prompted the move to New Zealand?

My cousins had a car sales company and we were gonna move there before the war, however the war opened up and going there by ship was out of the question.

thanks for your service. why did you choose the username you have?

Haha its not my grandfathers its mine his grandsons. I got Screamingrhino as a reccomended name for some game ages ago and it kinda stuck with me

Haha its not my grandfathers its mine his grandsons. I got Screamingrhino as a reccomended name for some game ages ago and it kinda stuck with me

It won't be long before we have no more WW2 veterans with us. If you could pass on one message to future generations, what would it be?

I and many others consider you a hero. Thanks for your service.

Enjoy that there are no more world wars and hope there is never another one again. And enjoy the time you spent with your family.

What was your reaction when you heard the Soviet union joined the war?

What was your reaction to the soviets in the cold war, as in did your opinion of them change?

Did you make any soldier friends from foreign countries while in the war? If so from which countries and what were their militaries like?

Finally, who should we worry about in terms of country in the coming future?

Lets hope that they dont have another revolution. And leave us to the mercy of Germany.

They had replaced the enemy, from one enemy to another.

Yes i did he was a jewish person in our regiement i cant pronounce or remember his name sorry. Aside from that i may of met other people that o cant remember.

Iran, the fact that the Government as such a hatered towards Israel and wants to wipe it off the map. And also Syria why is NATO not intervening they did with Lybia and Russia has began to distant themselves with Syria.

What image of war has stuck with you the most throughout your life? What is the most traumatic thing you have seen?

Getting bombs dropped. My bunkmate in basic training stuck his head to high while crawling under barbed wire with machine guns above he was shot in the head right in front of me.