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If you were to fight in WWII...

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FlyingR

Member
Would you have fought as an infantry, armor, air force, navy, stay back in the safe zone and man the cannons or other? Also state in which army unit would you be in, and which theater as well!

If I was to fight in WWII, I would've chosen to be a fighter pilot for the 8th Air Force a.k.a The Mighty Eight! Would've been awesome to fly the skies over Europe with a P-51... although quite dangerous, especially against the Luftwaffe, it would've been quite exciting!

8thAF-Shoulder-Patch.jpg

Or in the 164 Squadron RAF, it was a group of Argentinean volunteer pilots who helped the Brits, they were equipped with Spitfires (a beauty), Hurricanes and then Typhoons! They mainly did ground attack and targeted ships and coastal targets. There were around 600 of volunteers!

I wanted to make a poll but apparently that doesn't work??
 
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volcol

Well-known member
I'd have looked to have follow in my granddads footsteps, and his parents before him. A large portion of my relatives that fought in the second and first world war were engineers.

That being said, my great granddad had a terrible terrible war. He barely made it out of Dunkirk, almost drowning - saw D-Day, and the horrors that brought. Then he was among the first British soldiers into Bergen Belsen, and tasked with bulldozing thousands of bodies into mass graves.

It's easy to look at it as a bit of fun and an adventure (as he did when he joined the army in 1937) but the horrors that come with it, I'd have no chance.
 

VonMudra

Well-known member
My grandfather was an engineer, 291st and 300th Combat Engineer Battalions. 2 purple hearts, saw Omaha beach on the second day of the battle (and yes, there was a second day), was bombed by the American air force during Operation Cobra, and fought through the Battle of the Bulge, blowing up bridges, including one with a German recon column on it, to delay the German advance. Continued on through Germany and made it home safe.

That said, if I had a choice, I would of course have chosen something that would have put me safely far behind the lines. Being that I'm an American, that, for the most part, would have guaranteed survival, and not coming home wracked with PTSD. Sorry not sorry, but I'm a realist. Stick me in some staff of some general or doing map intelligence or economic studies on some american base in England, please.
 

Aniallator

Member
My great grandad was CO on a troopship in the Pacific, and I know he was present at Leyte. My great uncle, for whom I'm named, was a medic at Omaha.

Me, I'd have joined the army, maybe as a medic. In the end, just another footman in another war.
 

FlyingR

Member
Massive respect and honor towards your family members. I know that the war was/is no fun and games, and the horrors that every soldier had to endure are far beyond from anyone's imagination. I meant no disrespect whatsoever to the veterans that fought in the wars.

I was expecting this type of answers, but I just wanted to hear something that you would've loved to do, I mean realism aside. I would've also have opted for being somewhere quite far from the battlefield and help differently to the cause though. However, this being a gaming forum for a WWII game, I'm sure many have preferences into where or with what they would choose to fight.
 

mmiedzianyy

Member
If i could choose what role i had to play in WWII and put all the important things to one side it has to be infantry.
Carrying M1 thompson and storming the beaches, climbing on Monte Cassino or advancing on Carentan. That would be dangerous..
 

Mars

Pathfinder Games
I can't imagine it was that common you'd pick and choose exactly what you would like to do? If it was me in 1940 it would probably be whoever were recruiting in the village I was living in. I'd doubt people were looking for an adventure when there was a country that wanted to destroy your way of life just 50 miles across the channel. Must have been terrifying.

Like others I had relatives who fought in WWII. Most noticeably one member who was part of the engineers embedded into 1st Airlanding Brigade - fought at Dunkirk, took Ponte Grande bridge in Sicily and then killed during Market Garden. Reading about British Airborne operations gives the impression that they were viewed as quite disposable. Horrendous casualties.
 

Hurcules

Member
My gramps was a german ss foot soldier, he was recruiting in Ukraine, they were lined up agaisnt a barn as had a decision to either join or not to join and who ever said no was shot point blank, he was branded with the SS emblem and after the war was over he begged a doctor to cut it out because he didnt want to found as an SS. TOO CLEAR IT UP he never wanted to become an SS. He is still alive today, 93 years old and is slowly telling me the stories he went through, but morale of the topic i think i would be in the german army, clearly of course i wouldnt have known the germans were going to lose. I just love there uniforms better. lol
 

Sydd

Member
I have only 2 role models in life.. Robert Downey Jr for his recovery after all the ***** etc. The other is Erwin Rommel, no war crimes.. prisoners were well treated. So I'd like to be a tank commander of the Afrika Korps. Later on, if I were to choose any, I'd say any Wehrmacht infantry divisions, the final stages of the war, almost all, if not all of them were fighting for their country and their tenacity grew the closer they retreated to Germany, losing side or not, that's where I'd be.
 

Simon

Senior Member
I would be infantry in one of Yugoslavian units (don't know which one because google doesn't tell anything)
 

Timberwolf

New Member
I like the idea of an American Paratrooper.

Although when looking at my nationality, the most probable military career would be in either our armed forces in the few weeks that we managed before surrendering (airforce pls. Fokker G.I ftw), or in the RAF if you manage to cross the canal.


No. 322 (Dutch) RAF Squadron




Note the inversed triangle below the cockpit.
 

Alex

Member
Panzergrenadier-Division Großdeutschland

200px-Cuffti2.gif
“Großdeutschland” cuff title

German Army Gross Deutschland Infantry Shoulder boards.jpg
The "GD" monogram which authorized for wear on the shoulder boards of all ranks of the unit.


38020.jpg
 

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