Telegrams

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject: Telegrams

This is a series of telegrams that my Grandmother got when my Dad was shot down over Germany in 1944. Thought the history buffs might find this interesting:

The first came out of the blue on June 10, 1944. Can't image what it would be like to get one of these about a child.

Then this came about 5 months later. Alive, but a prisoner of the Germans.

In December of 1944 they got their first word from Dad. (Elinor is my mom, his high school sweetheart.)

Here is his identity card from the camp.

And then the GREAT news, received on May 17, 1945 after Patton had liberated the camp he was in at Nuremberg.

Eagle
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks for sharing those. I can't imagine what she went thru.
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Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject:

Wow! Great post, Eagle! Glad he survived the nazi's!

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 2:54 pm Post subject:

Thanks Eagle ...I could not imagine what the waiting must have been like , and also all that your Dad went thrugh. He and your family are true heroes.
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~~Be happy this moment, for this moment is your life~~

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject:

Thank you. It means a lot. fate
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The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:36 pm Post subject:

It is so neat that you still have those. What a fascinating look back into the history of your family. I have no doubt that you cherish those telegrams, as well you should.
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Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage!

Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 3:59 pm Post subject:

Wow, that is really interesting.

Thanks for sharing Eagle.
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:46 am Post subject:

Thanks Eagle - great stuff and thanks for sharing a bit of family history. Smile

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Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:04 am Post subject:

wow ty . nice to hear some1 who survive the war..
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Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:11 am Post subject:

Don't know who taught me this BUt. Cool beans Smile

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http://tinyurl.com/yobjfs

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject: Another WW II story

Subject: Interesting Story from WWII

Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British airmen found themselves
as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the authorities were
casting-about for ways and means to facilitate their escape. Now
obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and
accurate map, one
showing not only where-stuff-was, but also showing the locations of 'safe
houses', where a POW on-the-loose could go for food and shelter. Paper
maps had some
real drawbacks: They make a lot of noise when you open and fold them, they
wear-out rapidly, And if they get wet, they turn into mush.

Someone in MI-5 got the idea of printing escape maps on silk. It's
durable, can be scrunched-up into tiny wads, and unfolded as many times as
needed, and
makes no noise what-so-ever. At that time, there was only one manufacturer
in Great Britain that had perfected the technology of printing on silk, and
that
was John Waddington, Ltd. When approached by the government, the firm was
only too happy to do its bit for the war effort. By pure coincidence,
Waddington was also the U.K.
Licensee for the popular American board game, Monopoly. As it happened,
'games and pastimes' was a category of item qualified for insertion into
'CARE packages',
dispatched by the International Red Cross, to prisoners of war. Under the
strictest of secrecy, in a securely guarded and inaccessible old workshop
on the grounds of
Waddington's, a group of sworn-to- secrecy employees began mass-producing
escape maps, keyed to each region of Germany or Italy where Allied POW
camps were located
(Red Cross packages were delivered to prisoners in accordance with that
same regional system). When processed, these maps could be folded into such
tiny dots that they would
actually fit inside a Monopoly playing piece.

As long as they were at it, the clever workmen at Waddington's also
managed to add: 1. A playing token, containing a small magnetic compass,
2. A two-part metal file that could easily be screwed together. 3. Useful
amounts of genuine high-denomination German, Italian, and French currency,
hidden within the piles of Monopoly money!

British and American air-crews were advised, before taking off on their
first mission, how to identify a 'rigged' Monopoly set ----- by means of a
tiny red
dot, one cleverly rigged to look like an ordinary printing glitch,
located in the corner of the Free Parking square! Of the estimated 35,000
Allied POWS who successfully
escaped, an estimated one-third were aided in their flight by the rigged
Monopoly sets. Everyone who did so was sworn to secrecy Indefinitely,
since the British Government
might want to use this highly successful ruse in still another, future
war. The story wasn't de-classified until 2007, when the surviving
craftsmen from Waddington's, as well as the
firm itself, were finally honoured in a public ceremony. Anyway, it's
always nice when you can play that 'Get Out of Jail Free' card.
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The lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 7:14 pm Post subject:

Tell your Dad thanks for serving our country.My Dad also served in Germany in ww2 what A great generation.
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