Re: We Were Soldiers

----- Original Message -----
> >Mr Great Grandfather spent the 1st world war as ground
> >crew for the origins of the RAF.

As everybody has been telling about past generation's war stories, I
also
might add mine. My father and grandfather were lucky.

My grandfather was in the Kaiser's Navy. He was posted on the "Kaiser
Wilhelm der Große", a luxury passenger liner coverted to auxiliary
cruiser.
Right in August 1914 the "Kaiser" met a real warship, the cruiser HMS
Highflyer off the coast of Spanish Morrocco. The liner was sunk, but
almost
the whole crew was saved, went ashore onto neutral Spanish territory,
and
was then interned for the rest of the war on the Canary Islands, now a
popular tourist resort. Most of them stayed there after the war.

My father was born on the Canary Islands, but he was called up in 1941.
He
joined the 11th Luftwaffe Field Division. The other 20 divisions were
sent
to Russia, the 11tth was sent to Greece. He spent most of the war
guarding
the Island of Milos. He saw some combat on the retreat from Greece
through
Jugoslavia and was a prisoner of war there for a few years. Hard times,
but
he doesn't really bear a grudge. Any time he meets a Jugoslavian, he
chats
him up with the few phrases he still remembers.

Greetings